buying process found that ITDMs are about twice as likely to be involved when it comes to determining need, evaluating solutions and recommending vendors. Perhaps not surprisingly, ITDMs become less involved than BDMs when funds and purchases are approved, and final decisions are made. And once a decision is made, ITDMs once again become the primary players to implement and then manage the solution on an ongoing basis, making them central to retention efforts. That’s especially important for cloud services, the Spiceworks report points out, in which recurring subscriptions are dependent on ongoing user satisfaction. “Because ITDMs will continue to evaluate the product over time, sales and marketing teams are advised to stay on ITDMs’ good sides if they wish to retain customers,” they advised. Even during the stages in which ITDMs are less involved in the decision making, their recommendations remain highly influential. “It’s a given that business decision makers trust IT professionals to make tech decisions and recommendations,” said the Spiceworks report, “but it may come as a surprise that BDMs also trust ITDMs’ business savvy as well. Indeed, nearly three-quarters of BDMs said ITDMs in their organizations understand business needs well enough to make informed tech decisions. Interestingly enough, “the inverse is not necessarily true,” Spiceworks researcher continued. While BDMs give themselves high marks for their tech know-how, ITDMs don’t necessarily concur. A full 58 percent of BDMs self-reported understanding tech well enough to make informed tech purchase decisions, but only 41 percent of ITDMs agreed. It should be noted, however, that IT decision makers in larger organizations had a higher opinion of their BDM peers, as 56 percent of ITDMs in large organizations (500+ employees) said BDMs understand tech well enough to make informed IT purchase decisions compared to only 34 percent of ITDMs in SMBs (1-499 employees). Looking specifically at the differences in marketing content consumption preferences, “ITDMs want to get a good feel for a product before making a recommendation to business decision makers,” suggested analysts at Spiceworks. Since cloud-based solutions lack tangible products, ITDMs say online demos/walkthroughs, tech spec sheets, how-to guides, handson labs and webinars are particularly important to gaining an understanding of what it’s really like to use the product before their organization makes a commitment. On the other hand, BDMs tend to gravitate toward word-of-mouth, valuing the opinions of existing users and analysts, showed the surveys. “For example, BDMs have a stronger preference than ITDMs for content that includes interviews, case studies, testimonials and third-party research.” Incidentally, BDMs are also more receptive to advertising or podcasts when evaluating a cloudbased solution. ITDM vs. BDM: Differences in Most Useful Content Types in Cloud Purchase Process Source: Spiceworks How-to demos/ walkthroughs Technical spec sheets How-to-Guides Hands-on-Labs Webinars or live online events Interviews with product experts Case studies Customer testimonials Articles/blogs Research reports Commercials/ promotional videos Podcasts 50% 31% 39% 28% 36% 24% 33% 20% 28% 19% 13% 20% 12% 18% 12% 16% 16% 9% 10% 18% 6% 10% 4% 8% ITDM BDM BUYERS SIDE 20 CHANNELV ISION | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2022
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