Description:

In times of economic uncertainty, the best seem to get better. A tough economy is often behind breakthrough innovation and market share gains. In fact half of the ITSMA members surveyed recognize that a slowing economy offers an opportunity to unseat competitors and win new business.

New account penetration requires a different marketing approach from penetrating existing accounts. To be successful, service providers must employ different marketing vehicles, value propositions, and dedicate teams to acquire new business. Challenges abound:

• Building the supporting infrastructure to capture information, track progress, and analyze data
• Implementing lead nurturing programs
• Aligning sales and marketing strategies and tactics, including channel partners
• Applying new marketing tools and technologies to attract prospects

This study explores how marketers today are approaching new account penetration, including marketing tactics, sales and marketing alignment, and success metrics.

Key Takeaways

• Acquiring new accounts is important, but not a priority over relationship development in existing accounts
• However, with the current economic conditions, there may be more opportunities to identify and sell to new clients
• Most marketers, particularly those at smaller companies, lack the infrastructure and discipline to capture information, track progress, and analyze data essential for new business development
• Surprisingly few marketers are responsible for lead nurturing
• New account penetration requires a different marketing approach

Study Methodology

In February 2008, ITSMA used a Web-based survey to gather data from its member companies. ITSMA received 27 responses from 26 companies that participated and analyzed the collected data in two ways:

• Type of company. Product and services company vs. primarily a services company
• Size of company. Annual revenue: < $1B, $1–4.9B, > = $5B

Respondent Demographics

Industry

• Primarily sell services – 41%
• Sell both products and services – 59%

Size

• Less than $1 billion – 30%
• Greater than or equal to $1 billion – 70%

This report is available free to companies that provided detailed data in the study.
Alcatel-Lucent Avanade Avaya BT Global Services Capgemini CGI Cisco CSC Diebold Inc. Dimension Data Ericssson HCL Technologies Ltd Hewlett Packard Hexaware Technologies Infosys Intel Corporation Morse Northrop Grumman Oracle Orange Business Services Polycom Raya Integration Siemens Communications Unisys VeriSign UK Limited Xerox Corporation
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