Last Thursday I attended SVAMA’s event on MARKETING THOUGHT – Ideas That Drive Results. Overall there were some good points and learnings to take away. While Guy Kawasaki is always great to listen to and learn from, it was the Gartner Group presentation by Robert Goodwin that resonated with me. Of course that was because his topic speaks to what the Phelon Group lives and breathes every day, Customer Buying Trends and Influence - the TOP 10 Most Effective Marketing Activities in IT. Gartner is in the process of releasing one of their studies, and Robert shared some of the insights gained from the study. So in the spirit of “Pay it Forward” (and by the way if you haven’t seen the movie, you should rent it), I share with you some of the IT buying trends that emerged:

1) The Sales channel is becoming more important in technology as buyers look to this group to help them determine the value they will receive from their purchases.

2) High touch selling is still the most effective way and preferred way that executives buy. These decision makers put Digital Media at the bottom of their list as ways they make decisions or are influenced. So much for all this blogging and webcast stuff! Gartner recommends investing in all the classic high-touch methods: sales presentation and interaction, contact management, events, the website.

3) There is a growing trend that technology solutions are now being purchased from the line of business and not purely the IT departments.

4) And on the subject of delivering technology to the marketplace, leading edge technology buyers are acquiring technology “as a service” rather than as "owners" as they have in the past.

So for those of you in the technology sector who are reading this, it may be time to check in with your customers on “How they WANT to buy” and time to get in touch with your sales people on what they need to more effectively sell.

Debra Colombana, Vice President of Client and Market Development Debra.Colombana@phelongroup.com

Labels: blog, blogging, customers, marketing, results, sales, selling