Partnering With the CIO: The Future of IT Sales Seen Through the Eyes of Key Decision Makers

Guess Again

In some industries, it’s possible to guess the size of a company’s IT budget by looking at its overall spending, but in other industries, your rule of thumb estimate would be way off the mark. For example, the cruise industry traditionally allocates large sums of money to build and maintain ships, but those spending levels don’t translate into boundless funds for IT. (See Figure 2.3.)

Figure 2.3. Here’s how a typical IT budget is divided. Where do your products and services fit in this chart?

Source: Adapted from Mark Lutchen.

Myles Cyr, vice president and CIO of Carnival Cruise Lines, recalls when a solutions vendor dropped a huge proposal on his desk. The vendor, which primarily sold products to clients in another industry, was surprised by Cyr’s lack of interest in pursuing a deal.

“In certain sectors of the economy, companies will drop millions on IT solutions without blinking, but you can’t knock on my door expecting the same thing,” says Cyr. “When sales reps call on us, it’s important for them to understand how our spending priorities differ from those of the last customer they called on. We’re different from other industries, and I expect sales reps to bring specific knowledge of our priorities to the table.”

This is especially relevant when calling on prospects in the public sector. Applying sales tactics that might work successfully in many parts of the ...