New IT Priorities Demand Shift in Sales Conversation

New research shows some significant changes in organizational priorities for IT buyers. McKinsey Global’s eighth annual survey on business technologies indicates that executives are looking beyond merely cutting IT costs and plan to increase budgets for new investments. Executives ranked the following as their top three organizational priorities:

1. Improving effectiveness of business processes
2. Improving cost efficiency of business processes
3. Providing managers with information to support planning and decision making

Knowledge is Power 

This data is an asset to salespeople who sell to IT buyers. McKinsey’s research shows executives want their IT departments to be a key enabler of the overall business. If this is the current environment facing your IT customers, your job is to determine how your solution can help buyers deal with these key challenges. This shift from “cutting IT costs” to “enabling an entire business,” demands salespeople have the ability to reiterate the value they provide to this new business strategy.

Are your salespeople able to adapt their message based on the changing needs of their buyers? 

Best-in-class sales teams are audible-ready to have high-level business conversations that articulate the value their solution can have on their buyer’s largest business issues. An effective sales messaging process drives the consistency that helps reps communicate how your solution can impact key buyer challenges. If your IT buyers want solutions that help them enable their business, focusing your sales conversations solely on how you can help them cut costs is frankly, a missed opportunity.

Unhappiness with IT Leadership

McKinsey’s research also indicates executives are increasingly unhappy with IT leadership. Just 55% of all executives say their CIOs have a significant impact on their organization’s business issues. 

That’s a frightening data point.

Are your buyers feeling that executive frustration?

The more your sales teams connect buyers with making a difference in their company, the more advantage your salespeople are going to have within the account moving forward.

We call it making your key buying contact the “hero” in the organization. If the executive is focused on improving “effectiveness of business processes,” salespeople need to connect their buyer to solving that problem. As a result, the buyer will add value to the organization because he/she:

1. Understands how the organization’s overarching goals align with his/her department
2. Can effectively tie organizational directives to the required capabilities
3. Has the ability to create significant bottom-line impact for the organization

Where there is a challenge, there is also opportunity. Ensure your salespeople are the trusted advisors that help your customers succeed in their new reality.