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

Feeling Disconnected?

IT suppliers like to talk about product integration, but they also need to arrive at the table with an integrated team of players who are fully invested in the success of the project.

Many of our sources referred to the unpleasant sense of disconnection they experience when speaking with people from different parts of a vendor’s organization.

You might think, “Gee, that’s too bad, but it’s really not my problem if a client feels a sense of disconnection when dealing with other parts of my organization. Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”

In the delivery phase of a project, this kind of thinking can prove fatal to your career. Here’s why: All of your sales and marketing materials promote your organization as a seamlessly integrated technology provider. All of your sales presentations emphasize the end-to-end capabilities of your organization’s products and services. You’ve probably used the word “holistic” at least a hundred times in conversations with the client.

If your organization messes up the delivery phase and you fail to do anything to rectify the problem, it becomes apparent to the client that your organization is not end-toend, not integrated, and not holistic. It becomes apparent to the client that you’ve been exaggerating the seamless quality of your organization and overstating your ability to influence the various parts of your organization required to pull off an implementation.

Suddenly your organization is revealed for what it is—a loose collection ...