This document discusses insights into IT purchase initiatives from the perspective of an IT sales analyst. It outlines 9 questions for sales teams to consider to better understand customers' IT strategies and needs. The document emphasizes understanding customers' overall IT strategies, key strategic priorities, and upcoming projects to better position solutions and influence purchasing decisions. It also suggests services that can help sales teams profile key accounts to gain these insights.

1. Insights Into IT
Purchase Initiatives
(from an IT Sales Analyst perspective )
How is the CIO making his decision to
purchase?
QUESTIONS FOR THE SALES TEAM
1. Do we understand how our Key Target Accounts business creates value in the marketplace?
2. Do we know or understand what the business needs from IT are in order to accomplish this?
3. Can we show how every dollar they spend in IT creates value for the business?
4. Are we contributing to the capabilities that really matter for the company’s strategy?
5. Have we identified the biggest gaps between the current state of their IT and the value system that we’re
introducing?
6. Are we developing our account road map taking into consideration both lines of business demands and IT?
8. Do we understand the governance mechanisms in place at the account to help them with their IT strategy
and decrease our solutions purchase timeframe?
9. Do we understand how the introduction of our technology may enable improvements in their overall IT
strategy / architecture?
Hi {FIRST_NAME|Valued Customer}, Are you aware of your key target accounts overall
IT strategy?
Here is a situation that is all too familiar at
corporations around the world. The third quarter has For example, consumer products companies
just begun. The CIO and other senior information increasingly distinguish themselves through IT-
technology leaders are enmeshed in a flurry of enabled customer relationships / CRM, or value-chain
activity, writing up their proposed capital investment management.
budgets for the coming year. Knowing that unforeseen
demands are inevitable, they introduce placeholders Engineering-oriented companies carve out their
into the budget: unspecified project lines to be filled in identity through their unique approach to innovation,
later. which also needs in-depth IT support, virtualization,
content management, analytics etc…
Corporate IT investments - which added up to more
than US$1.3 trillion worldwide in 2009, according to The CIO plays a role that may seem unusual in some
Gartner-Inc. - are allocated in most companies companies: He or she doesn’t just recommend and

2. through a fragmented process. In many companies, build the best IT packages, but also counsels the
requests are submitted on a project-by-project basis, strategic team by informing and challenging it`s
each with an individual business case. In certain choices. By asking for a more explicit view of these
cases, local teams tend to execute their IT projects in key strategic levers and offering his or her own
isolation from one another. assessment of what it will take to develop them, the
CIO brings a crucial element to the decision — the
Question: Is your sales team currently digging into understanding of how technology can help create and
their Key Target accounts? Are they profiling the capture advantage.
accounts, identifying all the IT purchase stakeholders,
and identifying the hidden projects currently being So how are you staying in front of the decision
discussed internally at the company? Do they have making teams? Are you currently employing “drip
the time to do so while still trying to close deals that nurturing” campaigns? Are you maintaining up to
are further along in the sales cycle? date, real time records within your CRM system,
highlighting deadline decision dates? Are you
In this foundational first stage of purchase initiatives, documenting their fiscal year end timeframe and
the leaders of the enterprise IT functions come setting activities to follow up and become part of the
together with the business leaders of the company to solutions being reviewed?
reach a mutual understanding of business priorities.
This starts with the articulation of their overall IT InterConnecta provides access to experienced
strategy: the ways that the company generates value Enterprise IT Sales analyst with an average of 10
for its customers now, and how it expects to do so in years of business experience. The team is trained in
the future. IT becomes a priority for all the major your solutions, and tasked with profiling key target
functions, especially those related to talent (such as accounts selected by you; with the ultimate goal of
human resources and learning and development) and providing you insight as to the key target accounts,
processes (such as operations and IT). current and future IT project schedules, and potential
purchases.
InterConnecta - Sales & Marketing Group
New York - Madrid
888-845-1509
www.interconnecta.com
Toll Free: 888-845-1509
Email: info@interconnecta.com
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