How to Sell Technology Solutions to the Big Guns

For those of you brave souls selling IT products and solutions to Fortune 500 companies, I know what you are thinking: Developing an ROI is easier said than done. But during Cisco's annual Partner Summit, April 29 to May 2, Bostrom plans to present her findings and thoughts to partners. Based on a preview of her speech, it is not a bunch of mumbo jumbo. If, as Bostrom boasts, Cisco can show customers where they stand relative to rivals and peers and how to improve their competitiveness with additional IT investments, then the company should broadcast it to the entire solution-provider community. Failure to do so would be a disservice to the entire VAR population, because it goes beyond just Cisco and its offerings.

It's important to note not every solution provider is actually selling solutions. And that is not an opinion, but the assessment of Shanti Mutha, executive vice president for SSP Data, a Richmond, Calif.-based VAR that sells to such customers as snack-foods maker Diamond of California. Mutha describes his ascent to the solution summit much the way a mountain climber makes his way to the peak,by first scaling a series of staggered elevations. He started off selling software, then he moved into hardware, and he eventually embraced a services strategy. Yet, to become a solutions-oriented company, he had to change some business practices and even the company's philosophy. If you listen to Mutha carefully, you will hear something interesting about the evolution of solution-selling. He states he first sold software, then hardware, then services. As IBM software-channel executive Mark Hanny is fond of telling me, it's much easier to get software VARs to engage with hardware than vice versa. Either way, SSP is a better-positioned solutions company today as a result of its efforts and will likely benefit earlier than most when IT spending starts to pick up again.

So as you page through our IT Spending and Strategy Guide, please keep Mutha's story and Bostrom's thinking in mind. The stories wrapped around our exclusive research paint an accurate picture of what is going on inside large accounts today. It is clear from the recent financial results of many vendors that IT spending was tight in the first quarter: Of the 350 surveyed executives (all of whom had influence over or responsibility for IT spending), most told us only a small portion of their IT dollars would be spent in the first quarter. The bulk of IT dollars should be spent in the third and fourth quarters of this year,if we don't encounter another terrorist attack or some major shift in the economy. I am sure that news doesn't warm you like a fine cognac on a chilly night; it is sobering and will allow you to prepare your business strategy accordingly. What the solution-provider community has in its favor right now is an IT customer base that is overwhelmingly satisfied with their solution-provider relationships. Only 5 percent of those we surveyed said they were not satisfied with their integrators; 72 percent said their relationships were going well. In fact, nearly one in three said they were very satisfied. So the channel is clearly providing value to the customer.

When it comes to timing, this issue could not have arrived at a better moment. While government and small business remain resilient in terms of their IT expenditures, the intentions of large corporations remain the biggest mystery. The research here will help shed some light on the opportunities in today's market.

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