Seventy percent of global technology buyers are exploring more ways to purchase technology this year. However vendor engagement strategies continue to underdeliver when it comes to meeting tech buyer expectations, according to a survey by Gartner.
“Technology providers often create go-to-market (GTM) strategies with limited insights into how an enterprise will make a buying decision,” said Christy Uher Ferguson, research vice president at Gartner. “As the size of buying teams continues to increase, ideal customer profiles (ICPs) increase in importance. While understanding individual buyer personas is important to align messaging and content to specific role-based needs, buying teams act as an enterprise, with enterprise goals first and individual goals second.”
Gartner identified four marketing clusters of technology buying enterprises based on key behaviors that influence GTM tactics – the Cooperatives, the Strict Planners, the Catalysts and the Business-Leds.
The Cooperatives make up the largest group of enterprises, representing 43% of buyers, but they are also the most challenging to predict. Their cooperative approach often means that they are less clear on what matters most to them — everything seems to matter equally.
Strict Planners are often coveted as targets due to the clarity with which they define their buying process. Strict Planners prefer proven technology that aligns to their strategic vision. Fifty-five percent of Strict Planners said they rely primarily on information about the product’s or service’s features when exploring a new purchase, so vendors should focus on supplying information that contains quantified results and rely heavily on expert interactions.
Catalysts accept the risk and costs of new technology and deploy as early as possible, but they want assurances and validation that technology will meet their needs. When buying replacement technology, they are more likely than other enterprises to seek information through direct vendor interaction.
Business-Led buyers, representing 21% of those surveyed, involve the business throughout the entire buying process and seek to ensure that technology drives business value. Business-Leds seek specific product and service information in the form of customer references and proof points.
“Technology providers often create go-to-market (GTM) strategies with limited insights into how an enterprise will make a buying decision,” said Christy Uher Ferguson, research vice president at Gartner. “As the size of buying teams continues to increase, ideal customer profiles (ICPs) increase in importance. While understanding individual buyer personas is important to align messaging and content to specific role-based needs, buying teams act as an enterprise, with enterprise goals first and individual goals second.”
“Strategies must be built that are relevant to buyers and will engage buying committees throughout their buying and owning journeys. To do so, tech marketers should determine which of the four tech buying organization clusters aligns to their ICP and apply these as a filter or segment strategy within account-based programs to identify accounts that fit into each buyer cluster,“ said Ferguson. “Using buying behavior analysis, technology teams should develop personalized engagement strategies (messaging, account-based marketing programs, content and channel mix strategies) that are relevant to each cluster and implement these into their GTM efforts.”