Go-to-market sales models may be bigger competitive advantage

STAMFORD, USA: One of the biggest barriers to innovation in the traditional technology providers' sales model is lack of flexibility to reinvent themselves without placing quarterly revenues at risk, according to Gartner Inc.

"As technology has continued its unprecedented advance in recent years, the sales models used by providers to bring technology products to market have failed to keep up," said Tiffani Bova, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "The greatest innovation challenge for providers today may be in finding the means to reinvent the sales organization and go-to-market model to meet new market demands, while at the same time continuing to protect and defend existing customers and deliver net new revenue."

One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay on top of their industries when technologies or markets change. However, technology advancements are challenging the status quo in many ways. Because of this, the market will split into three types of provider that approach the market in very different ways - some clinging on to old models of selling to protect their installed bases, some evolving their products to compete better and some taking a revolutionary approach with radical new products and business models.

While there are numerous technology-related forces at work on sales models, the customer is also having a major impact on how providers take their products to market. Newly empowered and informed buyers are taking control of the sales cycle, which should be cause for concern for many sales leaders. Providers have long been accustomed to defining not only what customers will buy (the product), but also how they will buy it (the sales model). Where once their focus was pushing product to a large, loosely defined customer segment, now it needs to be redirected to connecting customers to their desired offering through their desired purchase experience.