• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 4, 2022

Email creatives selling IT tech products have their work cut out for them: Most brands are focused on growing revenue from the customers they already have, not from new ones, judging by State of the Modern Customer Journey, a study by Alloy Technology Marketing. 

Of the tech businesses polled, 73% have accelerated their revenue goals for existing customers. That rises to 94% for HealthIT and 86% for FinTechs.

At the same time, 41% have decreased their emphasis on net new sales due to the increased focus on up- and cross-selling.  

This shows “many of today’s tech companies are prioritizing the customer lifecycle over the sales funnel,” the study notes.

These trends are being driven by both internal and external factors: 

• New product/solution offerings to provide upsell opportunities
• A need to elevate the customer experience 
• Increased competition in the marketplace
• Recently acquired companies which are increasing cross-sell potential
• Fears of a recession driving a need for customer retention

These data also signal that global tech brands in today’s market conditions are shifting their focus to a customer’s lifetime value (LTV) -- not the initial sale and ACV. 

“Average customer value (ACV) has been lower than expected due to recession concerns. Given that, what’s interesting is that we’ve seen new customers come in at a smaller ACV, but we’ve been able to increase that ACV 4x in the first 12 months.”  

In theory, this should be no problem for email units concentrating on retention, not on acquisition. Unfortunately, silo walls keep getting in the way of collaboration. 

Sales plays the dominant role in growing customer revenue, followed by customer success, marketing and customer experience. But no one department hits 50%. 

But 70% agree that their firm would be more successfully if aligned. And that hits 95% for those selling enterprise IT solutions.  

Then there are the pain points, ranked as follows: 

1. Customer Satisfaction
2. Customer Retention 
3. Customer Engagement
4. Cross-Selling 
5. Customer Education 

Alloy surveyed 115 B2B tech professionals in marketing and sales functions across multiple continents.