Let’s face it: IT pros are a pretty big deal. Besides helping businesses get the most out of technology, collectively you wield great influence when it comes to making tech buying decisions in the multi-trillion-dollar IT industry. That means tech marketers are more than eager to inform you about and ultimately sell you their products. They also want to help you find relevant product info and answer your burning questions.
But how is this relationship between IT pros and tech marketers playing out? And in the current market, do IT pros feel bombarded by sales reps and marketers, or do they view relationships with marketers as essential to getting their jobs done?
To find out how IT pros prefer to interact with tech marketers and better understand why organizations go with certain tech brands over others, we ran a survey of 500+ IT pros in the Spiceworks Community from the United States and the United Kingdom who are involved in the technology purchase process at their work.
And because IT pros of all ages work in the industry, we also analyzed differences in opinions across different generations, including millennials/Gen Y (born 1981 to 1997), Gen Xers (born 1965 to 1980), and baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964).
Self Service: Where IT pros go to learn about new tech
When it comes to learning about new products, online is where IT’s at! According to our survey, 97 percent of IT pros use online forums and communities to learn about new offerings, 79 percent rely on tech news sites, and 77 percent conduct research using Google.
As to other avenues IT pros engage in to learn about new tech, traditional word of mouth, vendor websites, and conferences/tradeshows are also popular sources of information. But despite some hype, channels such as social media and sales emails fall lower on the list. In other words, IT pros value advice from peers and trusted third-party sites more than direct communications from vendors.
How IT pros want to connect with salespeople
It’s time for a reality check. Tech vendors need to sell their products to stay afloat, but as everyone knows, inboxes and voicemail can quickly fill up with messages from someone trying to sell you something. So how do IT pros want sales reps and marketers to pitch their wares?
According to our survey, 57 percent of IT pros prefer to be contacted via email, while 36 percent don’t want to be pitched to at all—they prefer to seek out information on their own. Additionally, 26 percent of IT pros prefer to be contacted through online forums/communities, while 19 percent prefer to talk face-to-face with sales reps/marketers at conferences and tradeshows. Sales pitches via channels such as physical mail, phone, and social media, are least preferred by IT pros.
IT pro popularity: Vendors try to contact them up to 25 times a week
If you work in IT, you’re far too busy working to talk to every vendor that reaches out, especially with so many people competing for your attention. In some cases, IT pros are contacted by tech sales reps and marketers up to 25 times a week via various channels – that’s 1,300 times a year!
Breaking down the data, on average every week, IT pros estimate they’re contacted 13 times via email, five times via phone, two times via online forums/communities, one time via social media, and one time in-person. That means despite only 8 percent of IT pros preferring to be contacted via phone, they’re still getting cold calls regularly, much to their dismay .
What makes IT pros want to respond to marketers
Despite the deluge of pitches from vendors, IT buyers do sometimes respond to communications from sales reps and marketers. As to reasons why they respond, our data shows 77 percent of IT pros reply because of a vendor’s relevant products, followed by availability of detailed pricing info (61 percent), detailed product specs (55 percent), a timely solution to a challenge (44 percent), or a free product trial (35 percent). Additionally, 26 percent of IT pros said communications from a recognizable brand drives them respond to a sales rep/marketer.
As a side note, it’s worth calling out that only 12 percent of IT pros said they’re likely to respond to sales/marketing outreach if they’ve never heard of the tech vendor, further highlighting how name recognition can be an important factor.
What makes IT pros loyal to a brand
So why are certain tech brands a hit with IT pros, while others aren’t? There are several factors that IT pros care about most: great customer support, consistently fair pricing, a history of reliable products/services, and access to technical experts at a company.
It’s also worth noting that only 21 percent of IT pros said that creative marketing efforts are important to driving brand loyalty. Instead, they focus more heavily on technical information, with 86 of IT pros believing it’s important to have access to informative content.
Additionally, innovative products or services (83 percent) and company transparency (80 percent) factor heavily into the equation. Sixty-six percent of IT pros also believe the quality and frequency of communication from tech brands helps drive loyalty.
Which brands are IT pros most loyalty to?
How loyal are IT pros to the IT vendors their organizations currently do business with, and how open are they to trying new brands? And to be clear, here “loyalty” means the tendency to consistently purchase products from a preferred brand.
As it turns out, IT departments are fairly loyal to their vendors, particularly when it comes to their server, virtualization, and networking products. But on the other end of the spectrum, our data indicates that organizations are the least loyal to their cloud-based service providers, perhaps because of the ease of setting up and switching to alternative cloud services.
How do brands damage relationships with IT pros?
We’ve talked about what makes brands more attractive to IT professionals, but what about the opposite case? We analyzed the data to find out why IT departments might drift away from brands they have existing relationships with.
Unsurprisingly, 94 percent of IT pros we surveyed said they’re less likely to purchase from a brand they’re loyal to if they receive poor customer support. Also, a pet peeve of many IT pros, 85 percent said the nuisance of too many sales/marketing calls and emails could damage brand loyalty.
The same number said experiencing a security issue with a vendor could sour the relationship with a brand. Additionally, 59 percent of IT pros we talked to said a lack of innovation might make them less likely to purchase from a brand they’re loyal to in the future.
Generational differences in marketing preferences of IT pros
When we compared IT pro responses by generations, key differences emerged. When learning about new tech products, all IT pros turn to online forums/communities and tech news sites. But compared to baby boomers, younger IT pros are more likely to learn about new products via Google (78 percent millennials and 78 percent Gen X vs. 63 percent baby boomers) and via social media (27 percent millennials vs. 22 percent Gen X and 8 percent baby boomers).
In terms of how often they’re being pitched, it’s evident that baby boomers receive even more emails, phones calls, and physical mailers than their peers, perhaps because they’re more experienced and are often more likely to influence purchase decisions. Additionally, baby boomers receive about eight phone calls a week compared to six among Gen Xers and four among millennials.
We also found that baby boomers are more likely to respond to sales reps/marketers than their younger counterparts, particularly when it comes to email. For example, 42 percent of baby boomers frequently respond to sales reps/marketers via electronic mail compared to 29 percent of millennials and Gen Xers.
However, this is not true across all mediums. Less than one percent of baby boomers said they respond to sales reps ad marketers via social media, compared to 2 percent of Gen Xers and 5 percent of millennials.
While we’ve already revealed that news about a relevant product/service is the top driver of responses among IT pros of all generations, millennials are much more likely to respond to marketers if they include detailed pricing info. Millennials are also more likely to respond to representatives of a recognizable brand and to personalized messages than Gen Xers and baby boomers. Conversely, older generations are more interested in a timely solution to a challenge.
Finally, the results show millennials are slightly more driven by creative marketing efforts than their older counterparts. While 23 percent of millennials believe creative marketing efforts are important in driving brand loyalty, only 18 percent of Gen Xers and 13 percent of baby boomers said the same.
Methodology
The Spiceworks survey was conducted in November 2017 and included 535 IT professionals across the United States and the United Kingdom who influence the technology purchase decisions at their organizations. Respondents are among the millions of IT professionals in Spiceworks and represent a variety of company sizes, including small- to-medium-sized businesses and enterprises. Respondents also come from a variety of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, nonprofits, education, retail, government, and finance. The generational data includes millennials born 1981 to 1997, Generation X born 1965 to 1980, and baby boomers born 1946 to 1964.
