Lone-Wolf mindset leaves NZ tech companies lagging behind

Selling model needs to change to grow technology sector to its full potential...

Kiwi tech exporters are a long way behind their US counterparts in some key areas of marketing and selling their products, particularly using ‘cloud’ or internet-based technology, finds the latest Market Measures survey.

Conducted by marketing advisory firms Concentrate and Swaytech, the annual Market Measures survey drew data from over 300 New Zealand based technology companies on their approach to marketing and selling their products.

“At an average annual turnover growth rate of 38% our tech firms continue to do well,” says Owen Scott, Managing Director, Concentrate.

“But we remain a nation with a few large tech stars like Orion Health or Tait Communications, and thousands of very clever, but small exporters.”

According to findings, 30% of firms in the survey were over 10 years old, but over 70% of them record annual turnover under $5 million.

The study found a ‘lone-wolf’ mind set dominates their approach to selling technology products.

“They rely on a talented sales person or sales team to do everything from finding prospects through to securing a sale, which restricts their ability to efficiently grow a company of scale,” Scott adds.

The alternative is a more efficient, ‘pack’ approach – where a suite of indirect tactics are used to find, nurture and qualify sales leads for the sales team to convert to customers.

“Benchmarks we have sourced from the world’s most successful technology industry, the USA, show indirect tactics (e.g. direct marketing, advertising, email marketing, social media) deliver 80% of their sales leads, compared to 23% for the average Kiwi technology company in this study,” Scott adds.

“It is a stunning contrast and at the root of why we have such a long tail of very small companies, and not enough hitting that magical $100 million annual revenue figure.”

“Faster and more sustainable growth comes from focussing on a market, undertaking indirect activities to warm that market and qualify and generate sales leads for a sales force then to convert.”

Bob Pinchin, Director of Swaytech says the exciting aspect of the study is that much of this indirect activity can be driven remotely over the internet.

“In almost any business part of the buying process is conducted online, giving our tech companies the opportunity to reach them cost effectively,” he says.

The study also found firms need to better embrace the internet as a channel to support their sales, produce the right kind of marketing content for online channels, and use social media much more aggressively.

Summary…

Survey participants

· 305 New Zealand technology companies completed the 2014 survey

· 53% were established firms, 33% characterised themselves as early growth and 14% as start-ups, with the majority either software, IT services or electronics companies.

Growth trends

· The majority (77%) continue to be focused on exporting their products, mostly to other businesses (90%). Exporting is focused on traditional markets like Australia, US and UK.

· Average annual turnover growth was 38%.

· Firms continued to invest in sales and marketing, on average spending 27% of turnover. Early growth companies (31%) spent more than mature tech companies (23%).

What opportunities are there to improve sales and marketing performance?

To improve their selling model the Market Measures study found tech companies need to:

1. Value digital marketing more: have a broader realisation that much of the buying process in virtually any market is occurring online (50% thought this situation hadn’t changed in the last 12 months, contrary to industry data).

2. Reduce the marketing ‘fluff’: produce the right kind of tools to generate and nurture sales leads. Generate useful content, not marketing 'brochureware' (less than 30% produce ‘thought leadership’ type content, as opposed to 75% of US firms).

3. Get more social: our US counterparts are embracing social media aggressively and applying it differently. We are a long way off the pace (98% of USA tech companies use social media, compared to 68% of local firms).

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