Why IT and Sales Need to Become Best Friends
Sales Prospecting Perspectives is pleased to bring you a post from Tom Diamond, IT Support Assistant and Business Development Representative at AG Salesworks. This is his blogging debut.
Contrary to popular belief, the Information Technology (IT) Department is much more than the tech people you go to when something is broken. One of the first things I learned during my IT education is that IT’s purpose is to bridge the gap between the needs of a business and the available technology.
In today’s world, it seems like the amount of technology available is growing exponentially by the hour. Smartphones and CRM systems have replaced handwritten notes and Rolodexes. As faster Internet speeds develop, we are able to stay connected with prospects across the globe easier than ever before.
Let’s look at how Sales and IT can benefit from each other if they learned how to better communicate with one another.
Sales
As I said before, technology is growing at an incredible rate. Most salespeople are busy building relationships and generating revenue, as they should be. These people do not have the time to devote to learning a system on their own. All that does is reduce the revenue that is used to fill everyone’s paycheck at the end of the week. Instead, salespeople should learn to coordinate with IT professionals who have more training with new technologies and are equipped to help teach a company how best to utilize current and emerging technologies.
The likely result is that not only will salespeople stop wasting time trying to figure out new technologies, they will use them to their full advantage and uncover more time in their day to do what they do best: build relationships.
IT
The Wall Street Journal recently released an article regarding the stereotypes surrounding IT employees. We all know them: nerds with pocket protectors who likely still live in their parents basement and play computer games until all hours of the morning.
That is not a true nor fair assessment of IT professionals. In fact, as the article points out, more IT professionals are entering the workplace with degrees in something other than computer science or IT. However, these stereotypes portray that IT professionals have a hard time communicating with other departments. While it is a stereotype, to some extent I believe it is true. Dealings with computers, software, networks, etc. can be very technical and difficult to explain. This is where the sales department comes in. Salespeople are excellent communicators who may be able to help teach IT better communication skills.
As I mentioned before, IT’s goal is to bridge the gap between business needs and technology, so it is crucial that IT keeps an open dialogue going with different departments throughout the company, especially sales. The more communication there is between the two departments, the better understanding there will be on how to evaluate and maximize the efficiency of the sales process, which will hopefully generate more sales, leading to an increase in company revenue.
Sales and IT cannot continue to function as two independent departments, but must begin to work side by side as one unit. Remember Sales, IT isn’t there just to fix your computers when they crash. They can help build a system to improve your ability to successfully do your job. And remember IT, salespeople might talk a lot and might talk fast, but get to know them and their challenges, because solving their technology needs can help generate more revenue for your company, which is never a bad thing.