Forrester Research has released the US IT Market Outlook: Q4 2008. They remain optimistic–or at least not pessimistic–in foreseeing the near future. Forrester doesn’t see the 15% to 20% decline from the 2001 to 2002 tech downturn.

Forrester believes the recession will last into mid-2009 and anticipates declines in real GDP of up to 3.6% per quarter. So purchases of IT goods and services from US business and government will drop from 4.1% growth in 2008 to 1.6% in 2009.

Some other key findings related to industry growth:

• Data from Q3 2008 indicated US revenues of large vendors down by 2%.
• Continued declines are anticipated for computer equipment purchases in Q4 2008 and the first half of 2009.
• Little or no growth is anticipated in communications equipment and IT services.
• Software growth will slow to as little as 2% in coming quarters.

Table of contents:

The US Recession Is A Reality, With Tech Purchases Slowing Sharply

The Causes Of The Recession And Recovery, With Industry Winners And Losers

Q3 2008 IT Purchases Data Shows Tech Winners And Losers So Far

Recommendations:

Recession Is Here, Don’t Panic; Except Hardware, Growth Will Slow, Not End

If you’re reading this, you are probably a marketing pro. Good. You are just who this question is directed toward:

How well does your marketing department understand your organization’s sales process?

This is another one of those basic questions that can too easily be taken for granted.

It’s essential that marketing execute programs for each and every phase of the sales process. You must know which marketing program or tactic to deploy for prospects in each phase of your sales funnel. A blanket strategy based on “impressions” simply won’t yield the results of a more strategic, targeted approach. Simply put, the question must be asked:

How will this activity help us move prospects and/or existing customers through the sales funnel?

Consider carefully the question of how well marketing understands how sales are made in your organization. And visit www.q2marketing.com for more tech marketing insight.

[Tech Marketing Feature] It’s taking longer to close sales than it did this time last year, or even earlier this year. Many companies are making decisions more slowly. There’s a good chance your company is among the slower movers. When possible, companies are purchasing more incrementally, putting a toe in the water to purchase only what they believe they need. Buyers are decidedly risk averse. We know the economy is to blame, but it’s time to be proactive. What do we do about it?

The good news is that opportunities still exist. But while it’s taking longer to move prospects through the funnel, marketers need to put programs in place to impact these lengthening sales cycles—today. Here’s how:

1. Continue your direct marketing programs. Now more than ever, you need to communicate consistently with your buyers and prospective buyers. Resist the knee-jerk tendency to cut this aspect of your marketing budget. Your clients need to keep hearing from you. They need to know that you’re solving problems for companies like there’s. They need to be able to trust you with their money and time. And they need to know that you’re a source of stability, not risk. Well executed ongoing direct marketing programs can help you accomplish this. If you make the mistake of going silent, your buyers will go to a competitor that’s still making noise.  

2. Maintain and boost credibility. Help prospects and existing clients feel good about purchasing from your organization with a credibility, or public relations program. Credibility can appear in various manifestations from bylined articles and blogs to coverage in trade and news press. Awards for financial excellence or leadership can also be important. Make sure you leverage this credibility and your prospects and customers are aware of it. Ask yourself what mediums your organization and key players should be featured in to impact your buying base. Then map out a strategy to do it. Tie your credibility programs in with your direct marketing program for maximum synergy.

This is no small undertaking. If you are serious—and smart—about public relations, it can yield very big returns. PR takes time, strategy and talent. Expect PR budgets to be cut. This is a good thing for those of us who continue to diligently make an impact with credibility programs.

3. Lead with cost savings. There is no better time to lead with ROI and cost savings than when spending tightens among your buyers. If this benefit applies to your offerings, are you leading with it? If not, buyers will pick competing products or services with marketing messages that clearly offer a tangible return on investment. Of course, this won’t apply to all products and services, but to the extent you can save money and time, make that message clear.

4. Let your clients talk for you. Another way to overcome your audience’s potential fears of risk is to leverage your client base and let them do the talking for you. Peers can communicate your value proposition much more effectively and meaningfully than you can. Use testimonials from your biggest fans and make sure they are featured prominently in your marketing materials and mediums. Video testimonials are even better. There are many clever ways of making these testimonials work, from having them on your home page or blog, to linking from YouTube.  

5. Don’t be a loser. Everywhere I go I talk with executives who have had to lay off employees, talented professionals who’ve gotten the axe, and sales and marketing experts who are feeling the pinch. But generally, there are two responses. There’s pity and foreboding in one corner. Then there’s optimism, will and drive in the other. As a marketer for your business, keep those stark contrasts in mind and always remember that people want to surround themselves with winners, trust winners and give their business to winners. In all of your marketing activities, create programs worthy of a winning company, and harness the attitude of a winner.

6. Get with the strategy. What do you want to communicate about your company, products, etc? Is it your ubiquitous market penetration, dominance in an industry, product innovation, new line of business? If you’re going to be true to your goal of moving prospects through the pipeline, you need to be strategic in what you’re telling your audiences and why. Make all the programs you’re putting in place hit hard on that theme, and do it consistently, creatively and in a way they will remember.

Keep this strategy in mind and lead with messages that matter, consistently, and in meaningful ways. And watch those slow movers pick up the pace and decide to give you their business. Just remember to track the programs you put in place and the status of that pipeline so you’ll be able to demonstrate that those cycles shortened because of your marketing insight.

One more note from today’s Washington Technology newsletter. The same slowing trend is occurring with mergers and acquisitions. Read more here: http://www.washingtontechnology.com/print/23_16/33816-1.html.

[Tech Marketing Feature] Is your web site helping you or hurting you? At first glance, it’s ironic that so many tech firms have unappealing web sites. But upon closer examination, it’s not so unusual. In one sense, it’s often a case of the shoemaker’s children without shoes. No matter what our business, it’s easy to fall pray to that. But even more significant is the reality that technical prowess does not an effective strategic marketer make. Just because your tech people can develop a web site doesn’t mean they should. 

From this week’s Washington Business Journal:

Like all good marketers you know your audience. You know who buys from you and why. You have a finely honed message that will inspire and motivate your audience. Now, how do you get the message to those decision-makers?

This is a common dilemma. Small businesses are unsure of how to spend limited marketing dollars for maximum results. Midsize companies tend to notice a diminishing return in going to the same trade shows, advertising in the same media and communicating to the same lists. Large corporations are increasingly urged to cut programs that won’t generate an immediate return.

How do you make limited marketing dollars work for you? Read the rest of the article on making your marketing dollars work for you.

Read other Washington Business Journal articles by Becky Sheetz-Runkle.

As reported in the Potomac Tech Wire, high tech exports from Virginia rose $3.9 billion last year. This marks the fourth consecutive year the state has been on the rise. These figures come from the  DC-based high-tech trade association AeA (http://www.aeanet.org/PressRoom/prac_TCS_2008.asp).

Virginia IT exports rose $1.1 billion over 2006, the largest of any state. This was largely due to semiconductor exports. This jump has moved Virginia from 21st to 11th in the U.S. 

Tech exports in Maryland totaled $1.5 billion. This was a 10%, mostly due to communications equipment. Exports in DC declined $4 million to $88 million, a decrease of $4 million. 

I was at the Affordable Meetings National Event Technology Expo tradeshow (http://www.affordablemeetings.com/ete/) at the Washington Convention Center last week. It was about a 10,000 square foot expo area, so it was a fairly easy floor to navigate. These are good opportunities for me to observe and be reminded of what works well when working the booth–and what can be improved.

Among the exhibitors, there was a strong contingency of vendors representing various hotels, conference centers and regions. While Q2 plans events, I’m fairly far removed from that service offering. Many of the reps came out into the aisle and hit me with all of the reasons I would want to plan my next conference or team-building outing at their facility.

However, and this is important, no one asked this basic question: “Are you responsible for meetings and events for Q2?” Or : “How many events does your firm plan a year?”

Many insisted on promptly scanning my badge. Wouldn’t a better approach have been to see if I was qualified?

Toward the end of the day, a number of booth staff were insisting that I take home their freebies. I’m sure this is because they didn’t want to carry them home with them. Anybody want some keychains, pens, etc. that came home with me against their will? The lesson is, if you have to find unwilling (unqualified) strangers on which to unload your promotional items, don’t bring so many in the first place.

I don’t fault these people from trying to generate interest. But I take issue with the methodology that says, “everyone who comes by our booth is a customer.”

A group sales rep with Club Med did it right. I told her I was interested in going to Club Med with my husband. By most definitions, especially hers, he and I don’t constitute a “group.” She politely gave me a brochure with her card, chatted for a few moments and moved me on. She didn’t scan my badge or take my card, so I won’t appear in her database. She realized that’s not a good use of her time.

Global analyst firm IDC’s CMO Advisory Practice has released the third annual results of its Marketing Performance Matrix (SM). The report gives kudos to internal marketers who excel in marketplace execution. The report ranks Avaya, Citrix, HP, Nortel, and Sun Microsystems as the top tech marketing innovators and reveals success factors for CMOs.

In the category of preaching to the choir, there are three key takeaways. Marketing execs are urged to:

1. Gain the trust of their CEOs, CFOs and Sales Executives. (Any surprises here?)
2. Leverage a strong, senior team in key regions so you can stay close to customers and optimize the ability to react to market and trends.
3. My personal favorite: Stop doing more with less. Terminate the cycle of ever-expanding marketing activities with diminishing resources. Rather, they recommend focusing on quality, and fewer programs with higher success.

 Learn more about this report and IDC at http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=212922.

Those of us in sales and marketing are well aware of the conflicts that can arise between us. It isn’t a new development, nor is it an issue that will away unaddressed. Companies have tried strategies including have the two departments report to the same VP/CEO, or completely separating the two. But neither measure completely eliminates the conflict. The irony is that sales cannot exist without marketing and marketing cannot exist without sales. So instead of bemoaning the issue, it is time to take action.

1. Go on sales calls. Accompanying sales to prospect meetings can be incredibly beneficial to marketing. This is a great way to hear what the market is asking in regard to your product/solution. This is perfect time to evaluate your sales tools and see if you are providing sales with the appropriate tools or are revisions necessary.

2. Set qualification standards. Meet with your counterpart in sales and determine how the company will qualify leads. Determine the questions that must be answered before leads are passed to sales. Next step, set timeframe guidelines for sales follow up. After agreement is made on the above, write up the qualification standards and timeframes for company distribution. Hold a joint meeting of sales and marketing and review the document. Then put the process in place and hold employees accountable for compliance. Non-compliance needs to be immediately addressed and, if widespread, hold additional meetings with senior management in the room.

3. Qualify leads. Nothing creates more angst between marketing and sales than leads. Sales complains that marketing is passing on cold leads. Marketing complains that sales doesn’t follow up when they are supposed to. Both sides, typically, are right. Marketing needs to qualify the leads before throwing the leads over the fence and then should be passing only warm/hot leads. Cold leads, and sometimes warm, need to be held in marketing and worked through the appropriate programs. Sales needs to follow up on the passed leads based on the agreed upon timeframes.

4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. I can’t say it enough. Marketing has to communicate. Sales needs to know what programs are in place and what is coming in the near future. Hold quarterly meetings where you can address completed programs and the achieved results against the expected; ongoing programs and current results; and upcoming programs and expected results. This is the perfect forum to get sales engaged in marketing endeavors and understanding why these programs are important.

The above steps are just the beginning on bridging the gap. Once you successfully implement the above, you can’t stop the process. You will need to continually evolve your organization to work in sync. By taking the lead, you will quickly benefit from the improved relationship and might find yourself a champion within the sales department. Stranger things have happened.