Not that long ago, most technology buyers were prepared to splash out a fistful of CapEx dollars with little downstream commitment from the vendor. In this traditional transactional world every customer was a good customer.
However, every technology company around the world has now accepted that this world is changing. There are three major signposts signaling this change:
- Overall technology revenues at the 50 largest publicly traded tech firms are down significantly (15% lower than at the start of 2012, according to the TSIA T&S 50).
- Customer expectations are rapidly shifting to OpEx-based purchasing.
- According to Microsoft, 80% of new technology spend will sit with business buyers by 2020.
In this new paradigm, it is essential to start building a customer relationship on the basis of value and outcomes delivered. While product management can segment, define, and build solutions with strong offer-market-fit, it’s imperative that sales can effectively sell the value to land these ideal customers for a long-term relationship and high CLV. We refer to this as offer-market-sale fit.