Who
stole the silver lining?
"You could sell anything in the '90s," said the young,
impressionable, and high misinformed marketing graduate. "If
it was digital, someone would buy it. Now we can't move our software."
I avoided dashing the youngster's illusions by pointing out the
serious defects in his product, marketing plan, and his general
attitude. There was too much to repair for one afternoon of pro
bono consulting.
But this lad did have one valid point: The party is over. The gluttonous
technology buyers of the 90's are on strict diets and are not stopping
by our candy stores anymore. Selling technology will require nothing
less than completely refocusing your marketing efforts and adapting
to leaner customer appetites.
What has changed
There is an old Chinese curse that says, "may you live in
interesting times."
One cannot begin to list everything that has changed in enterprise
technology spending (and for now I won't elaborate on government
technology spending aside from saying that making things that go
'boom' seems to be a thriving market at present). Financial markets
- a primary source for internal funding - are down almost 75% from
their recent highs, unemployment is chocking consumer spending,
and corporations are not investing much beyond their manufacturing
needs.
Interesting times indeed.
All told, these influences are driving key changes in the technology
diets of enterprise buyers. The most severe changes to their consumption
habits are:
Spending cuts:
Most IT and R&D departments are under orders to trim costs along
with the rest of the organization. Only highly progressive R&D
groups and IT departments with clear competitive missions are immune.
Good luck finding either and expect to spoon feed them during the
sales process.
Organizations are refocusing on key advantages:
Every organization is undergoing painful self-evaluations of their
markets and their core competencies. If they have money to invest
in technology, they will do so only in those areas that reinforce
their primary business mission and internal disciplines. Your customers
now have highly specialized nutritional needs.
Spending only where there is a definable benefit toward a specific
goal:
The only exception to spending on core competencies is where organizations
have clearly identified technologies that will provide them significant
comparative advantages whether these be internal or external functions.
Oddly enough, this often is driven by the core competency issues
above. High protein, low fat and no room for dessert defines the
new technology diet.
Next Page >>
Guy Smith (guy@SiliconStrat.com)
is the principal of Silicon
Strategies Marketing. Guy specializes in strategic marketing
and market development for technology companies. Aside from his
marketing successes, Guy has a background as a technologist for
NASA, McDonnell Douglas, and Circuit City and remains active in
technology, primarily within the Open Source Community
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