Most IT sales professionals know what it takes to close a deal. Put one in front of a well-qualified prospect, and the rest takes care of itself. The problem, of course, is getting those meetings. Without effective marketing support, sales teams are stuck cold-calling, hovering at networking events filled mostly with job-hunters instead of decision-makers and otherwise trying to find very small needles in incredibly large haystacks. The odds against success are high.

The situation is made worse by a tendency – in both sales and marketing departments – to focus only on the present. Even if you can rack up enough appointments for this month, what happens next month? Next quarter? Next year?

To sell IT solutions, it seems, is to scramble constantly for leads, with the search taking most of the time and sales execution necessarily suffering. To get out of this rut, you need a disciplined marketing program that fills your pipeline for today… and for the future.

The most important step you can take is to develop a marketing plan and execute it with consistently and continually. Don’t just think about near-term leads: you’ll need to fill your pipeline down the road, too. Give us a shout to learn how you can build a robust, sustainable IT sales pipeline.