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Convergence Changes Everything! As technology converges, new market dynamics become evident and can create enormous challenges for sales organizations. One such dynamic that sales organizations must accept and overcome in the digital networked environment is the convergence in the customer’s buying process. Our research confirmed that decisions within the convergence domain are shared responsibilities of decision teams, which replace the single source decision-making of the past. In fact, in terms of decisions on networked copiers or workgroup printers, over 62% of survey respondents reported that three to four people were involved in the decision-making process.
What Does This Mean for You? To be successful, marketing and sales organizations need to have a clear understanding of their customers’ decision-making environment. First, determine exactly who and what titles influence the decision in each account. Our research determined that the disciplines that composed the decision team included Managers from at least four departments, such as purchasing, finance/operations, MIS/IT, and various Department Managers. Second, seek out each decision influencer and develop a relationship with them. Better understand your customers’ decision-making environment and motivations and utilize this information to increase your effectiveness. Third, become multi-lingual, speaking the language that each decision-maker speaks. And finally, customize sales presentations, demonstrations, proposals, and marketing collateral to each audience, using the language that each influencer will respond to most positively. By understanding your buyers’ motivations, marketing collateral, sales strategies, sales presentations, and aftermarket support programs can be better designed to increase the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts. As a result, such an understanding ultimately leads to increased sales, market share and profits. The preceding is an excerpt from CAP Ventures’ report entitled Decision Making Dynamics in the Convergence Domain. To find out more about the report, visit our Web site or contact Alison Hipp at ext. 126. |
