Sales and marketing costs currently are outpacing IT spending, information technology is becoming increasingly commoditized, and savvy IT buyers are becoming more protective of their time in the ROI equation.

The truth is, today, the factors least considered by vendors in go-to-market programs are those most valued by technology buyers — that is, providing relevant and credible information to support specific buying activities, enabling sales to bring value to each customer conversation and, ultimately, demonstrating greater respect for the time investment buyers make in the buyer-vendor relationship. Vendors need to adapt current marketing and sales approaches to address rising costs while delivering higher-quality prepurchase relationships. The challenge is enormous, but improvement is necessary.

These misalignments take their roots within the vendor's marketing and sales organizations. For example, if the marketing function is focused on turning up the volume and expanding its channels for messaging without mapping messages and delivering value to specific audiences, audiences may entirely tune out. If marketing does succeed in building and nurturing a lead to the point of sales engagement, the vendor is too often eliminated during this last mile due to sales missteps such as delivering a canned presentation rather than engaging in a more consultative discussion with a prospective buyer. These misalignments are further amplified along a vendor's go-to-market chain, which includes media and channel partners. Improving alignment with what buyers value is a strategic imperative for IT vendors. To provide a deeper understanding of this inconvenient truth, we explore each area of disconnect in greater detail.

"Sales and marketing costs currently are outpacing IT spending, information technology is becoming increasingly commoditized, and savvy IT buyers are becoming more protective of their time in the ROI equation. IT vendors need to reconsider current go-to-market approaches and better enable both marketing and sales professionals to deliver more value to IT buyers during each point of interaction." — Clare Gillan, group VP and general manager, IDC's Executive Advisory Group and Go-to-Market Services.