Want to Sell Enterprise Technology? Here's What You Should Know

If you're in the concern of selling enterprise technology, a new survey from Spiceworks could help you better your pitch game.

Beginning of all, put downwards the phone: Merely 8 pct of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) selected phone calls as their preferred contact method. Rather, ITDMs prefer to be contacted via email (57 percent) or through online forums and communities (26 percentage). You can besides experience free to hitting upwardly your leads in-person at conferences and trade shows, co-ordinate to 19 percent of respondents. No matter what, don't drop in on them at the part; only four percentage chose in-person meetings equally their contact method of choice.

When it comes to discovering and researching enterprise technology, 97 percent of Information technology pros use online forums and communities to acquire about new products, and 79 per centum rely on tech news sites. Google was selected by 77 percent of respondents. Nevertheless, simply 24 percentage said they rely on introductory emails from sales reps to find new solutions.

Each calendar week, on boilerplate, IT buyers are contacted 13 times via electronic mail, five times via phone, two times via online forums/communities, one time via social media, and once via physical mail.

Why is it that ITDMs hate the telephone so much, peculiarly in contrast to the bombardment of emails they receive each week? Sanjay Castelino, VP of Marketing at Spiceworks, said it's not that reps are making telephone calls, it's that they're calling almost things buyers don't want to talk over.

"In that location are a number of reasons why Information technology pros don't want to be contacted via phone," he said. "Starting time of all, IT pros are trying to solve bug, but near of the calls they go are from reps trying to sell them something. Instead, sales reps should be offer a solution to a problem. Secondly, when calling Information technology pros, many sales reps immediately ostend if they're in the buying stage, and if non, sales reps aren't interested in talking to them. It pros aren't getting any value from these calls, so it discourages them from taking additional phone calls from vendors. And lastly, IT pros only have as well many things on their plate and too few resources, so they tin merely spend and then much fourth dimension talking to vendors on the telephone."

What Makes ITDMs Respond?

How yous arroyo potential buyers might take less to do with your success than what you lot're selling and how transparent you are nigh the product. Seventy-seven per centum of IT buyers said relevant products are what drive them to answer to vendor outreach. Detailed pricing info and detailed product specifications are also incredibly important to ITDMs, with 61 and 55 pct listing these equally priorities, respectively.

"Marketers and sales reps often put too much control over the data they share with Information technology buyers," said Castelino. "They regularly gate the content or require a sales telephone call before they share any pricing information or product specs. However, It buyers desire to become straight to the betoken and understand if a product is within their upkeep and if it can meet the needs of their business before they engage with a sales rep. Ultimately, IT pros have express fourth dimension to speak with vendors and they want to focus on the ones who can actually help them."

In terms of which specific technologies engender the virtually loyalty to vendors, It buyers say they are virtually loyal to their server and virtualization vendors (75 percentage each), and to the lowest degree loyal to mobile device vendors and cloud-based services (55 and 47 percent, respectively).

"IT infrastructure, such as servers and virtualization, must operate at a very high availability rate," Castelino explained. "If something goes wrong with your infrastructure, it can have a massive impact on the business, so IT buyers spend a lot of fourth dimension researching and evaluating vendors to determine which solution will encounter the needs of their business. In one case Information technology pros observe something that works, the bar to get them to switch is extremely loftier in terms of the price and business benefit."

Non then much for mobile device and deject services vendors.

"Compared to infrastructure, cloud services are adequately like shooting fish in a barrel to buy and spin up or spin downwards. Unless they're deeply engrained in a business concern, it's relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to switch providers. That's the double-edge sword of having a low barrier to entry," said Castelino. "Looking at mobile devices from a carrier perspective, many IT pros are only looking for the correct coverage at the right price. There'south a good take chances they'll switch providers if a much improve deal comes forth. In terms of mobile hardware, many IT pros will stick to the same operating system because information technology can crave end user training if they switch. However, it'south fairly easy for them to switch mobile devices that take the aforementioned operating system if at that place'southward a lower toll."

In order to win loyalty, It buyers need brands to provide great customer support (97 percent), consistent fair pricing (96 pct), and a history of reliable products and services (96 per centum). Less important to purchasers is creative marketing efforts (21 per centum), regular in-person meetings (34 pct), and a personal human relationship with a rep (59 percent).

"The challenge is that many marketers treat IT pros as entities of a business instead of people," said Castelino."Companies frequently care for IT pros similar their numbers. Still, many IT pros would welcome personal relationships with their vendors, especially if it helps them go their jobs washed. Unfortunately, that's not what they're getting in nearly cases."

The results of this survey were generated from responses from more than 500 IT purchase decision-makers across the United States and the U.k..

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/spiceworks-50/19077/want-to-sell-enterprise-technology-heres-what-you-should-know

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