'Unsolicited and unhelpful': End users hounded by 40 IT supplier calls a day

VAR's research unveils industry's obsession with cold calling end users who are spending up to three hours a day fielding unwanted calls

The majority of end users claim they are receiving up to 40 "unsolicited and unhelpful" IT supplier calls a day.

Research from VAR Probrand, which surveyed IT suppliers and buyers, found that over 60 per cent of end-user respondents were being hounded by between nine and 40 calls from IT suppliers, which includes the reseller channel, a day.

On average, 90 per cent of those calls last between one and five minutes, so end users are burning up to three hours a day fielding unwanted calls.

The industry cold calling epidemic is compounded by its ineffective nature, with Probrand pointing to research by the Harvard Business Review which finds that 91 per cent of cold calls do not work.

"It was very surprising to find that end customers are receiving up to 40 sales calls a day from IT suppliers," Matt Royle, marketing director of Probrand told CRN.

"As these cold calls largely do not work, there needs to be an adjustment from firms in terms of their marketing. This says the customer has changed how they are buying.

"There is complexity and inefficiency out there that the industry at large needs to tackle. We are in an environment where there is an inflated cost of sale, potentially pressures around margins and the result of all this is that customers are not getting what they expect - they are seeing poor value and low satisfaction."

Royle said customers are changing the way they buy - they still want to purchase either on or offline, but it has to be "on their terms" and without disruptive sales calls throughout the day.

The research also found that half of IT suppliers - defined in this case as any supplier into a reseller, such as vendors and distributors - are frustrated by a lack of visibility of end users through the channel.

Vendors and distributors claimed that a lack of transparency in the market meant sector-specific discounts were often not being communicated to end users by resellers, and this is hampering sell-through and buyer satisfaction.

"Vendors and distributors have sector-specific discounts and a good proportion of those are not making their way through to the IT buying community," said Royle.

"There needs to be a reduction in complexity because we operate in a three-tier supply chain, perhaps more automation, plus an improvement in the efficiency and how deals are communicated through to end users."

The study also found that 26 per cent of distributors and vendors said poor third-party marketing was a big challenge, while 32 per cent were frustrated with poor ROI from reseller marketing activity. Poor reporting was also cited as a contributing issue.