Ever-changing technology, dynamic user needs and a confusing array of acronyms make selling IT products and services tough under any circumstances. But a large part of the problem is that vendors need to update their selling methods.
Recently I hosted a seminar for vendors of IT products and services dealing with how IT buyers want to be sold to. The information was based on a survey of major IT buyers in the Mid-South and how they wished to be treated during the selling process, from initial contact through service. The results were interesting.
Of the 50 survey respondents, about half stated that they desired initial contact by first-time vendors to be made via e-mail. According to the survey, more than half of the respondents found cold calls to be unacceptable. (After the session, one vendor told me about his sales meeting that morning, in which his group was reminded to make 10 cold calls a day.)
Other results include:
89% of the buyers want to get to know their vendors personally (60% want this to be done over lunch).
70% said they would like to spend less time with prospective vendors.
77% said that trashing other vendors was unacceptable and that competitors should not be discussed unless the buyer brings it up.
47% said pressure selling and going over buyers’ heads is a no-no.
93% of the buyers don’t expect gifts, but 68% will accept them.
The overwhelming majority thinks service is worse than it has ever been.
After the survey results were presented, attendees heard from and questioned a panel of five major IT buyers. The gist was that current IT sales and marketing techniques are, for the most part, not what buyers would like them to be.
Basically, IT buyers’ problem is time, or rather, lack of it. As such, they resent cold calls and pressure tactics. Instead, buyers prefer to determine what they need and then take a “we’ll call you” approach.
This makes for tough times for IT sellers. Taught for years by aggressive sales managers to make numerous cold sales calls, they now are hearing from their market that this is “annoying” and “a turnoff.” These buyers prefer intros from other IT professionals and easy-to-find Web information that they can gather themselves.
So what are IT sales folks to do? Try what any company should do to find out what their customers and prospects want: ask. Set meetings with your top prospects and customers and find out how they want to be contacted and sold to, and how they want their equipment serviced. From initial contact through contract, find out what they want.
But to you IT buyers who might be thinking “it’s about time,” don’t get too excited. IT sellers have been doing things “the same old way” for a long time, so don’t expect anything to change overnight.
Horrell is an independent telecommunications consultant, speaker and author in Memphis, Tenn. He can be reached at edwardhorrell@mindspring.com or via his Web site, www.edhorrell.com.
