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Selling to the techies

“You’ve got to look for a gap, where competitors in a market have grown lazy and lost contact…”

Rupert Murdoch.

An inevitable consequence of this recession has been a make-do attitude to renewing equipment and infrastructure.  The prevailing mentality is ‘if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it’.

And there’s perhaps no single area more affected by this newfound parsimony than IT. Where once upon a time hardware and software upgrades were simply a matter of routine, in the current climate there’s pressure on IT departments to make economies; to get more out of what they already have.   

This isn’t to say that opportunities don’t exist. As IT’s influence expands, opportunities for sales grow accordingly, but only if you know how to ‘sell’ to this notoriously cautious market.  Businesses selling products or services to IT professionals face a potentially lucrative—but very complex—sector.  Successful marketers are those who are able demonstrate a return on investment and overall business value of any purchase—no small feat in a difficult economic climate.

It used to be that information technology was viewed as yet another operational utility. But in today’s service-focused economies – where shared information is critical to competitiveness – digital performance has acquired a new level of importance. Accordingly, IT professionals play an increasingly important role. 

In the past, the marketplace often cast IT in a negative light. 20 years ago, a typical IT ad would portray the IT manager hiding beneath his desk while being pursued by a host of angry users whose systems had all crashed. It was all about damage limitation, about avoiding problems and how the IT manager lived in constant fear that things were going to go wrong (not without with some justification).

But fast forward to 2009 and IT executives are revered as forward-looking visionaries. Indeed, these days it’s not unusual for IT people to go on to head their companies as CEOs. Those marketers and advertisers who recognise IT’s increased responsibility and importance will have a serious edge on their competitors.

How best to communicate with IT executives?

Established forms of online media—such as white papers, case studies and webcasts—continue to be popular choices for IT professionals and the marketers targeting them. But newer online channels that enable interactivity and engagement—like videos, virtual trade shows and blogs—are becoming an equally important part of the marketing mix.

IT professionals have generally been faster to adopt new online media, such as blogs and web seminars, than managers within other departments. To this end, as a market sector they’re ripe to be sold to.  Online channels allow marketers to deliver the in-depth specifics that IT professionals seek in order to make informed decisions. By definition, techies are analytical. They demand more details. A web-based environment allows marketers to focus much more deeply and provide these details at a pace and in a format that suits the mindset of the typical techie. 

This isn’t to say that marketers should ignore traditional media. In our experience, the combined use of telemarketing and email has proved to be a potent mix which perfectly integrates the best elements of both marketing channels.

Integrated campaigns allow us to use different media depending on where prospects are in the sales cycle. For example, a prospect who is far along in the sales cycle may want to trial a download delivered by email prior to agreeing to a product demonstration as a result of a well-timed phone call. When marketing to the IT sector, integration is the future!   

 And finally…

If ever the nine-to-five grind gets you down, always remember that by working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss – and work twelve hours a day!  

Thanks for reading. As ever, your comments and ideas are very welcome. 

And always to a higher response!

Norman

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