http://blog.themarketingpractice.com 10 years, 10,000 campaigns: B2B marketing strategies that really drive sales Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:11:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://blog.themarketingpractice.com/how-to/how-to-get-me-to-listen-to-you-by-the-global-cio-of-one-of-the-worlds-largest-information-companies http://blog.themarketingpractice.com/how-to/how-to-get-me-to-listen-to-you-by-the-global-cio-of-one-of-the-worlds-largest-information-companies#comments Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:22:09 +0000 Lindsay Willott http://www.tmpsvr3.co.uk/blog/?p=17 Ed (name changed to protect the innocent) is responsible for all infrastructure globally for the entire organisation. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the IT sector, having worked in retail banking and for major retail organisations. He shared his thoughts with us recently on the best way for IT companies to market to him:

• I’m interested primarily in content and information that will help me do my job. If you can help solve the problem I’ve been grappling with in the car on the way in to work then I’ll listen to you.
• The strength of the proposition is not always the key determinant here; more important is the timing of the proposition and how relevant it is to me and my priorities.
• Be prompt and to the point. I want information, but I don’t want to spend too long getting it.
• Demonstrate a personal understanding of my business. Show you appreciate my company’s stated corporate direction and its market challenges.
• Make me feel obliged to respond, make the effort by investing time in helping me.
• If you can’t get me directly, the best way in is through a member of my team or my PA.
• I listen a lot to my ‘customers’ in the business, so you can always reach me through them – maybe they will be first people in the company to recognise the issue we have.
• Engage with me on a business level, don’t talk technical.
• Respect my team. If I ask you to deal with someone else there’s a good reason for it.
• Give me great content – sexy channels like podcasts are good, but I’ll only want the content if it’s useful to me
• I want to network with my peers, and hear their stories. Help facilitate that for me.
• My next step needs to be clear – if you’re asking me to do something (from taking a meeting to requesting a document), it needs to be easy for me to do and pitched to sound as valuable as possible.

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