Don’t call me, I’ll call you
June 12th, 2007 | Garrett MannFindings from a marketing study released yesterday by MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm say that IT buyers are twice as likely to give vendors a valid email address than a valid phone number. Working with client demand generation programs in the IT market, these findings came as no surprise to me. It is a trend we have been seeing for quite some time, but these numbers do validate what has become a reality for many marketers – you are no longer in control of the IT Purchasing relationship. IT Buyers have more sources of information at their fingertips than ever before to perform research and educate themselves regarding your product – without ever speaking to a representative from the company. Armed with the information they need, IT Pros can afford to pick and choose when and in what format they want to engage with you – and by all reports its not via phone. If you have ever asked a question on a registration form that asks if you want to be contacted by a sales representative, you already know this.
So what are the new rules of engagement within a changed dynamic? There are many, but here are a few thoughts to start:
- Understanding that the user is in control of the engagement dictates that content and marketing efforts be designed with utility in mind.
- During initial follow-up to online responses, it is best to “stay within the medium.” Downstream lead nurturing should also be conducted online until you are able to build trust with your prospect. Again, utility is key to building trust throughout the nurturing process.
- If at all possible, avoid blanket telequalification. There are certain “hot” leads that require immediate phone follow-up but as the study suggests, these are a smaller percentage of your leads. Putting all leads through telequalifying runs the risk of turning away many potential buyers downstream.
If you have any information or insight to share about marketing within this new buying framework, we would love to hear your thoughts.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
And they are twice as likely to use a generic email address like hotmail or gmail than their corporate address. You need a stronger “Call to Action” to get real information from a customer…whitepapers and webinars will not do it anymore.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:37 am
[…] In one of my recent posts, I spoke of a shift in control within the IT purchasing relationship from vendor to buyer and that successful marketing involves acknowledging this and aligning your marketing efforts to support this shift. New research released this week from MarketingSherpa suggests that if you have not yet acknowledged this, you better start soon or risk falling far behind. Findings showed that 80% of decision-makers who made a technology purchase believe that they found the vendor as opposed to the other way around. This is an absolutely imperative statistic to understand when evaluating current and future ROI on marketing efforts. To learn more about how the internet is driving the technology purchasing dynamic and key tactics that marketers need to consider in order to align marketing efforts to the buying process, check out this great post from Modern B2B Marketing Blog. […]