Mexico. Comstor reports that a lack of strategy can disrupt IT channel results. Large companies around the world have been suffering significant falls in turnover and in the value of their shares thanks to changes in the market, brought by new technologies.
In a time of high search for effective IT solutions that accompany the needs of each market, the product and service channels must be prepared to respond, clearing doubts of their customers and offering the right product for their need, avoiding that their sales suffer an exponential fall.
Strategy, is the key word for channels. Now the customer has many more options than they ever had, this means that the environment for any market is one of intense competition. For an IT channel to stand out, you need to innovate.
End customers in IT channels do a lot of research before closing a deal. They want to know where they are investing every penny and how each technology will deliver results in their business. Added to that, the huge competition, created new needs for the sales department.
How about being more proactive?, Consult the database of customers and list companies that have obsolete equipment? A call, offering a service or technical visit can guarantee a good sale.
Now more than ever, marketers need to be fully aligned with marketing, technicians and engineers to deliver the ideal solution, bluntly. Detailed and well-structured sales planning is necessary to serve the customer in the best way.
Companies without planning fail in their strategies
We will cite the case of those companies that when they observe a great opportunity that the market is eager to buy, enter the segment sharply, meeting a great demand during a specific period. They grow a lot and fast during the first years, without strategies drawn up and without great commercial efforts or team structuring and planning.
Result: In the medium term they are predestined to have a huge stumble, as other companies perceive the need to innovate and invest in the segment, completely transforming the relationship between supply and demand, which reduces prices and finally, allow customers to be even more selective when closing a business, looking for the companies that add value to their products and services. Another very important point to consider in the IT market, is that technologies are transformed and evolve rapidly, that is, the market approach, one day it may be exactly what your company dominates in technical terms, but in a matter of months it is possible to find a change that causes an impact on the demand of your company.
In the case of specific entrepreneurs such as those mentioned above, it is necessary to understand that the demand in an hour ends and the market evolves. Thus, there is a need for these companies to evolve together with the market, preferably anticipating new demands so as not to have doubts.
Generally, the lack of strategies of the IT channels, involves some important points of the definition of marketing and sales strategies, such as the definition of the target objective.
The target audience must be well defined
Regardless of IT channels, working more with virtual attention than physical, prospecting for customers of all sizes or acting in divergent and digitized areas of IT such as Cloud Computing and Digital Education, no company is able to serve all customers in the market.
Defining a target audience is essential to any business strategy. It is necessary to identify the size of the company, the market segment, the geographical region, the person responsible for the negotiation, in addition to other essential characteristics to close good deals and develop a sales model.
These actions will help develop another essential factor for the success of the channels: strategic planning. With this, it is possible to define the size of the team, which professionals will be needed, the format of the service, what channels will be used, how the after-sales service will be carried out and plan the sales pipeline, among other points of utmost importance. Without strategic planning, SALES from IT channels will not be done as efficiently as possible.
Thus, we perceive that the lack of an efficient strategy, based on good knowledge about customers, market and technology, can cause poor focus of actions and fall in the conversion of sales of IT channels, harming their results, competitiveness and survival in the market.
