SALES PITCH: The Truth Hurts: CIOs Don’t Like You

David Ramos

In planning for an event where I was speaking to a group of owners, I had been talking with several CIOs, IT decision makers (Professional IT Buyers) and doing a lot of research on their likes and dislikes about sales and marketing approaches. I was overwhelmed with some rants and stories, but also with some practical solutions and things for sales professionals to think about. We have some work to do, as the “what doesn’t work” list was 20 times larger than the “what works” list.

To paraphrase my neighbor who is a CIO for a large insurance company “IT decision makers don’t hate sales people, they hate bad sales people.”

As a sales guy, I take this personally because I have a true appreciation for the art and science of my profession.  So here is some direct feedback – (some of which is written in a first person narrative of the CIO or IT Buyers for effect from my research) on how to engage these Professional IT Buyers when you are not currently doing business with them:

1) “First, you send in the sales guy or a stuffed suit to build a ‘relationship’, when what I really need is a solution to my problems and somebody who really understands what you are offering within the context of what I am challenged by in my company. Offer experts and expertise to help me and my team. I have real issues and have limited amounts of time. Don’t waste it!  Secondly, I only take ‘advice’ from people in my professional network, another CIO, VP of IT, former colleagues, etc.  So, don’t think calling me incessantly will work, especially if you don’t have references to back you up. Your sales people need to do a better job leveraging the CIO peer network. The number one decision criterion for the IT buyer is peer feedback. More than anything, we want to talk to a customer of that IT services provider. But we want the whole story. That’s hard to get to right now. If we’re lucky, we get three or four references selected by the service provider as we approach our final decision. And even then we don’t get the full story.”

Tip:  Make your best and brightest available for prospect and customer sessions, live or via conference technology. Go where they go, focus on events they are attending so it is not another meeting to be scheduled. And think creatively, like arranging a meeting or conversation with another CIO who is a customer of yours with a prospective customer.  Referrals and references count for CIOs and IT Buyers because they are highly skeptical of sales due to the billions of dollars spent every year marketing to IT and the CIO.

2) Marketing stuff is not aimed at the right person. For example, “I get hundreds of e-mails and additionally sales people believe that teleprospecting me with unsolicited phone calls and hammering me about product-specific details with robotic, generic e-mails and prepared scripts. This is an automatic DELETE or DNC (Do not call list) for me. I know of a tier-one software and service provider whose lead generation starts in a call center – 3,000 full-time employees with its own physical and management infrastructure. Those employees come in at night and start calling U.S. and European companies to verify contact information [for corporate IT leaders]. Once they validate the lead, it’s sent to the inside sales organization where someone else makes a follow-up call to determine interest. Then it goes to the channel manager who conducts an interview with the lead. Then it goes to the channel partner for that region. The ratio they’re looking at is 1,000 to 1: 1,000 phone calls for one opportunity. And the IT buyer community is doing a better and better job of disguising themselves to avoid the whole process. Some of my peers developed solutions that are very tricky. If a call from an IT vendor comes in, they tell them they’re transferring them to Dan Krueger in the procurement office. The salesperson gets a voice mail greeting, ‘Hi, this is Dan Krueger, leave a message.’ Only there is no Dan Krueger.”

Tip: Deliver the right content– both the delivery vehicle and to the person you are targeting. CIOs tell us to aim product issues to his/her team where there is real expertise and technology chops to evaluate and do something with it. Generally, CIO/Senior IT areas of interest are new services that address real business challenges and learning what other CIOs and competitive companies are doing.

3) Sales are enamored with beautiful graphics, professional IT people are not. They appreciate great design, clear and simple (read straightforward, not dumb) communications delivered in an easy to digest format. They are also very mobile and on their smart phone when they receive email and communications. It is automatic “delete”, if they can’t read it. This includes white papers, Websites and slide decks – all of which can be useful for them and their team had it been communicated clearly what it was and what they would benefit from reading the material.

Tip: Simplify your design elements, templates and the organization and delivery of your content. Offer Text e-mail vs. HTML options, simple PDFs and PowerPoint decks with simple graphics vs. big fat files. Be sure to use a decent size font and white space appropriate to the platform. Make sure you’re providing well-organized content that is clearly labeled and searchable wherever possible. It sounds basic, but we are missing the fundamentals.

4) STOP SPAMMING ME. “Don’t send things to me as part of a ‘bulk’ mailing or telemarketing effort, if I have not given you permission. If I do ‘opt-in’, think carefully about what and how often you send stuff. Target your message to true CIO-level issues about my industry and my company. I am very aware of your bonus being paid on click through performance and registration measurements. I help my marketing team with the same sorts of things every day. Plus, all your messages are based on consumer advertising models originally conceived in the 19th century. It’s the demand generation model. You put juicy hamburger on the TV screen and you load it up with cheese and bacon. You make it look really good, and put a lot of sex behind it, and people will say, ‘Wow, I want that!’ and go to Burger King and buy it. But that doesn’t work in corporate IT. You don’t have a CIO in the enterprise saying, ‘I didn’t think I needed storage. But, wow; now I do!’”

Tip: Think before you hit ‘Send’ and place yourself in the shoes of a CIO. Have clear privacy and opt-in practices and policies that you adhere to all the time. Most importantly, play an active role in your company of guarding and championing this discipline. Focus on nurturing the relationship through very targeted email follow-up and elements you believe will provide value based on previous interest and behaviors. And, where it makes sense, partner with media/analyst organizations who have opt-in programs that IT decision makers have asked to receive, providing information that have been filtered by the trusted 3rd party organization.

5) PLEASE SHOW UP PREPARED. “I don’t have time to educate your people on my company, my industry, or how many employees I have…AND DO NOT ASK ME WHAT KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT! There are plenty of avenues to conduct research on all them and on me for that matter. Sales people that show up and don’t know the basics I just outlined, immediately lose credibility with me.”

Tip: Here is a basic checklist that I use to test sales on their accounts.  Seems like an easy list to come up with, that being said, CIOs tell us that our sales people show up unprepared for meetings.  So don’t underestimate the power of basic information.

1. Who is the account’s CEO, president or owner? Who are the key contacts by department (IT, Finance, Facilities, Operations)?
2. What is the company’s highest priority goal or objective?
3. What is the client’s mission/ vision/core values?
4. What is their key product or service?
5. Who is their toughest competitor?
6. What is the biggest problem they face in their industry?
7. Is there pending legislation that will affect their industry?
8. What is their greatest strength?
9. What is their strategy: a) Low Cost  b) Differentiation c) Niche Player?
10. Who is their largest customer?

You will make you, your brand and your company stand out by executing these fundamentals. Take some time to do some research (like I get my information typically from CIO magazine or Information Week when it comes to IT related business acumen, I also subscibe to reports from IDC, InfoTrends and IDG) and start to come up with some original content vs. listening to all those pretenders out there with their 1980’s talk tracks because IT and the CIOs are tiring of old-school chatter.

About the author: David Ramos is sales operations consultant for Strategy Development, an industry management consulting and advance sales training firm providing sales, service & MPS information, including workshops for the BTA as well as a MPS Sales eLearning program with InfoTrends. He also instructs a selling skills workshop called “Sell With Success”. You can reach him at www.strategydevelopment.com or ramos@strategydevelopment.com.