Gartner: IT Buying Process Evolves, IT Sales Strategies Must Adapt

By SEOService47

IT sales prospects used to be a captive audience with sales reps dictating the flow of information with corporate marketing literature, sales presentations and meetings. But like everything else, the internet’s Pandora’s Box has caused a shift in the IT sales process. That’s according to a new report from Gartner, written by Tiffani Bova, VP and distinguished analyst and Hank Barnes research director at the analyst firm.

"Now customers are deciding when and where the sales engagement will actually begin as well as how and where that interaction will take place in more of a pull model,” Barnes writes.

Gartner confirms these conclusions in a new primary research study across 503 organizations in North America, Europe and China, conducted to understand how the marketing activities of IT providers influence organizations' decisions to select certain technologies and services, as well as the providers that supply them. The survey found that 56 percent of respondents considered direct interaction with the provider of high importance, 42 percent of medium importance, while three percent considered it of low importance. 

"Personal interactions with providers are still the most influential activity in B2B buying decisions," said Bova, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "However, buyers do not value their interactions with salespeople as much as they did in the past. As a result, sales teams must adjust processes and skills to learn to guide buyers through their purchase cycle." 

This change in customer engagement means it’s time to re-evaluate go-to-market and sales models. Gartner advises marketing and sales leaders to continue to invest in improving sales enablement, sales training and sales processes as buyers look to the quality of their interactions as a primary influence during technology buying cycles. 

"Providers have been fairly consistent in how they train their sales force for decades," said Bova. "However, these practices are now at odds with the way customers actually explore, evaluate, engage and experience a provider along their buying journey.

“The sales force of the future will need to intimately understand the customers' environment with a greater sense of the decision levers across IT and the business units. It will also need to translate technology into industry solutions and value propositions, and guide the customers to use cases they may not have considered.”

With that in mind, Gartner is recommending the following four changes to sales organizations to improve customer purchase experiences.

"Sales matters as much now as it always has; however, it appears to have lost some of its customer influence," said Ms. Bova. "Creating a strong sales team that can orchestrate technical and industry resources is critical. These teams need to develop methods, both by questioning and through the use of technology, to understand the work buyers have done on their own and add value to that work to guide them toward a successful purchase. Sales teams that do this will help themselves and the providers they work for stand apart from their competition." 

More information on the survey and Gartner’s new report is available at Gartner’s web site here.