Selling strategies that worked last year will not work in 2009 and beyond. That’s the first of 10 predictions analysts with the sales advisory practice at IDC made for technology sales in the coming economically challenged year.
Analysts Lee Levitt, director, and Tom Barrieau, program manager for IDC’s sales advisory practice, outlined their predictions in a Webinar Thursday, “Selling in 2009: 10 Ways to Find, Win and Keep the Money.”
In order, here are IDC’s Top 10 Tech Sales Predictions for 2009:
1. Selling strategies that worked last year will not work in 2009 and beyond.
2. Companies that significantly reduce sales and marketing investments in 2009 will be gone by mid-2010. (Instead reallocate.)
3. Companies that blame their lack of sales on the economy will fail by mid-2010.
4. Sales organizations will be asked to do more with less. (Typically, budgets go up only 5 percent while quotas go up 15 percent, but this year also will see less market support to the tune of cuts of 15-25 percent.)
5. Companies have cut travel and entertainment budgets deeply. Most will lose valuable face time with customers and prospects. Those that shift headcount to inside sales will provide similar levels of customer touch at lower costs and drive higher customer sales. (Inside sales has a higher ratio of contacts than outside sales by seven to one.)
6. Sales organizations that bolster dedicated investments in lead quality and demand generation will be rewarded with significantly higher sales productivity.
7. Organizations that cut sales training in 2009 will suffer. Organizations that bolster sales training in 2009 will prosper. (Specifically, training should be focused on selling in a down economy.)
8. Savvy organizations will use the economic downturn as justification to replace direct sales “laggards” with well enabled inside sales. Customer (and employee) satisfaction and sales productivity will rise accordingly.
9. If you remain confident and customer-focused, understand the impact of the economy on your customers and strategize to serve them accordingly, you will be well positioned to thrive in 2010 and beyond.
10. Continued support of customers during the downturn will earn loyalty (build relationship capital) when the turnaround comes.
