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1IT Buyers Seek Relevancy, Specs From Sales Pitches, Spiceworks Finds
When asked what they seek from sales pitches, IT buyers are most likely to cite product and services information that is relevant to their specific organization’s needs, according to a recent survey from Spiceworks. Survey respondents said they receive a high volume of these pitches—more than a dozen a week via email and the phone. Relatively few tech purchasers, however, respond to pitches frequently. When they do, it’s usually because the pitch addresses “a timely solution to a challenge,” along with needed pricing information and product specs. More than 500 IT professionals who are involved with technology purchase decisions took part in the research. This eWEEK slide show presents findings from the survey, with charts provided courtesy of Spiceworks.
2Online Forums Serve as Prime Product Information Source
3IT Buyers Prefer Email Sales Pitches
4Sales Pitches Flood Email Inboxes
5Sales Pitch Response Rates Remain Low
6Relevant IT Product Information Merits Attention
Spiceworks reports that 77 percent of IT buyers said they’ll respond to a pitch if it involves a relevant product or service. Other response drivers include detailed pricing information (as cited by 61 percent of survey participants), detailed product specs (55 percent) and “a timely solution to a challenge” (44 percent).
7Servers and Virtualization Solutions Command Greatest Brand Loyalty
In ranking the tech categories that inspire the most brand loyalty, servers and virtualization solutions came out on top, with both categories cited by 75 percent of survey respondents. Other category leaders include networking products (72 percent), computing devices (66 percent) and security (64 percent).
8Customer Support Reigns Supreme
9Poor Support and ‘Pitch Glut’ Can Hurt Sales
Conversely, 94 percent of survey respondents said a poor customer support experience will deter brand loyalty. And 85 percent said the same about getting too many sales/marketing calls and emails.