Keep your sales pipeline full into the New Year

Why you should market to CIOs and IT managers in December and January

We all enjoy slowing down towards the end of the year.  And why not, we work hard the rest of the time and in Australia we’re blessed with a summer festive season and there’s nothing like kicking back in the sun.

The problem is that by February everyone is worrying about re-filling and re-invigorating their sales pipeline, and has to work twice as hard to get the wheels turning again.

During the year, many IT companies struggle to get the attention of CIOs and IT managers, but come December/January most IT companies send less marketing material then they do during the rest of the year. 

However, when we called 100 IT managers and CIOs this time last year (and we believe the results still hold), many told us they will work over the holiday season.  In addition, many expect a reduced workload and are more likely to research new products and services.

That means that December and January are probably the best time of year to provide information-led marketing campaigns such as whitepapers, webinars and events.

Four findings in particular highlighted to us that December and January is the best time of year to market to CIOs and IT managers. More than:

• 60 per cent of IT managers work through December and January (apart from Christmas to New Year)

• 70 per cent of IT managers will have the same or less workload in December

• 68 per cent of IT managers will have the same or less workload in January

• 50 per cent of IT managers will be researching new IT products and services in December and January.

But what do these findings mean for you?

More than two thirds of IT managers are going to be at their desk at a time when, for the majority of IT managers, there will be fewer users to support and a reduction in the daily barrage of user-driven support issues.

The IT manager’s time is freed up to focus on their own job and planning for the year ahead. 

Clearly, if more than 60 per cent of IT managers are available over this period, and more than 70 per cent will experience a decrease, or similar level of work compared to other times of the year and they are planning for the year ahead at this time, then this is an excellent time to be running lead generation programs aimed at IT managers.  In fact, compared to any other time of the year, it’s the best time.

In addition to this, receptionists are likely to be receiving a lot less calls at this time of year, which makes it a better time to ring them to get assistance as you update your prospecting databases and data cleaning.

If you’d like to know more about how we can assist build and execute your lead generation and marketing campaigns so you have a head start for the new year contact us.