Here are some highlights from our research, including several steps that sales should take to help reduce the buying cycle length:
- IT Buyers' Time is Extremely Valuable: About 60% of IT buyers indicate that they will likely spend 46+ hours per week on work-related activities in the next 12 months. More specifically, 24% of buyers' time is spent on post-purchase IT product or solution-related activities. Thus, Technology sales organizations need to optimize the value that they bring to the average IT buyer during their infrequent interactions. Those companies that accomplish this goal will certainly have a competitive differentiator in this difficult economic environment.
- The Size and Complexity of Buying Teams are Increasing: On average, 4-5 people are involved in influencing the vendor short list and in making the purchase decision. Sales must have a good understanding of who these individuals are, and ensure that they cater to their specific needs (e.g., identify and target these individuals as part of account planning – clients should refer to IDC's Best Practices in Account Planning, leverage of internal company knowledge and experts to best meet client needs – think sales enablement and leverage IDC's Sales Advisory Service's database of best practices, frameworks and benchmarks in this area).
- Vendor Information is of High Importance to IT Buyers: 22% of IT buyers value product demos and proof of concepts the most. Both marketing and sales need to collaborate on developing the most relevant and valuable content for their prospects. Additionally, sales representatives play a key role in delivering the right information to the buyers' teams.
- Buyers Wish to Reduce Their Buying Cycle Length by 40%. Even though IDC found that 2/3 of the delay is a result of IT buyers' own buying processes, there are still actions that sales can take to help reduce the length it currently takes for their customers to buy from them. (click to enlarge the below chart) Technology buyers are expecting their vendors' sales teams to:
- "Be prepared with information for my needs and not stats about the company"
- "Follow up — it really helps to push the project along and to make sure that it's not getting bowled over by other initiatives and then just put on the back burn. Help keep the project in the forefront of the company's mind."
- "Come to the table fully prepared to answer all technical questions. That may require inclusion of technical personnel in the initial sales meetings."
- Are Your Sales Teams Leveraging Social Collaboration to Reach Prospects? 20% of buyers have been contacted by sales reps through Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media applications. Research shows that independent party blogs/communities are the most highly valued by IT buyers, with vendor blogs/communities not lagging far behind. These findings indicate that technology buyers do value social media channels, and IDC expects this trend to expand. Therefore, technology vendors should continue to increase their investment in social media from the marketing and sales perspective. IT buyers are also looking at sites like YouTube for product demos, LinkedIn to check references, and follow vendors on Twitter.
6 comments:
Michael: really valuable data with some intriguing implications. Buyers need help and aren't getting it in as timely a fashion as they'd like. Sellers are contributing to the buyer's journey in ways which aren't as well informed or well timed as buyers would like. Sellers' follow-ups aren't as effective as buyers need them to be. How can vendors shrink buying cycles? Offer better help, better timed, with those buyers where the sales effort's clearly warranted. Then look for proof of the success with which it's occured. Your numbers suggest we've a long way to go to meeting buyers' needs in this regard. Trust this adds some value. - John
Yes, good insight John.
Unfortunatley, not enough marketing and sales organizations are listening to what customers are telling them - and, the more difficult part, leveraging this feedback to drive change across their organization.
Michael,
if I remember correctly, the previous study showed that 30% of the respondents wanted a shorter sales cycle.
How does this reconcile with this years survey as you now indicate by how much buyers are expecting the sales cycle to shrink?
Anyhow the underlying message remains loud and clear. Sellers seem to waste buyer's times.
I cannot help to suspect that this could be cased b y outdated sales processes and ineffective support of sales by marketing.
Well, I have my own theories on this, backed up with fact . . . Buyers have their own dysfunctional, manipulative behaviors, and salespeople are loathe to call them on it for fear of losing the order. This ugly combination of "squeeze every dime out of the vendor's profit," and "gotta make my quarterly number, or I'm fired," results in some serious customer satisfaction problems.
But don't take my word for it--this outcome was revealed in a recent study of IT outsourcing that determined (drumroll please . . . ) that customers were most content when their vendors made their targeted profit margin. I wrote about this in a recent blog, "Does This Software Make Me Look Fat?"
The net: When salespeople have concerns about how purchasers and buyers behave, it's mega-important for salespeople to tell them about those concerns, and the reasons why . . .
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/does_this_software_make_me_look_fat
What captivated my attention in your article is that 4-5 people are involved in the buying process therefore you are right in saying that salespeople must have an understanding of who are these people and what are their needs. David Meerman Scott talks about developing a buyer persona content in your website to educate prospective clients about company products and services in his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR. So without a doubt companies and sales professionals could do a better job in facilitating the buying for customers. Michael thanks for sharing!
nelsonferotz.blogspot.com
Thanks for the comments Andy, Nelson and Christian.
Christian, in IDC's Buyer Experience study there wasn't much change year over year regarding what % want a shorter buying cycle. . . ~2/3rd.
No shortage of opportunties for sellers to better leverage time with buyers; including improved sales enablement, due diligence by sales reps in preparing for their interaactions with buyers, and better coaching by sales managers to name a few.
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