Whatever the size organisation, the reality is technology buyers plan strategic investments at least a year in advance of their budgets being allocated.
They start building their knowledge base on potential suppliers long before they're ready to buy.
MDF is often funded on a quarterly basis and is allocated on the basis of ROI. Given sales cycles generally extend way beyond a quarter, if relationship building engagement isn't a continual process, value in the investment is lost.
Considering MDF is usually a 50/50 split between vendor and reseller, no-one's a winner here. There's no end to end visibility for anyone beyond the activity and a whole bunch of potential buyers turned off by oppressive sales techniques.
But it is possible to remain engaged way beyond the "one and done" activities specified as part of the quarterly activity and come out on top with your investment.
The answer, Amigo? Multi-disciplined resource, automated systems and analytics as a managed service.
