Know exactly whom the decision maker is that you're trying to target before you start your IT marketing and prospecting. In this article, you'll learn why it's extremely important that you define as tightly as you can who the decision maker is, and how to do that.

If there's a particular industry you're trying to reach with your IT marketing, getting to know the decision maker will be a lot easier. Once you know your niche it's going to be a lot easier to find the trade groups, to find the lists you need to run to, to find the conferences you need to go to, to figure out what hot buttons you want to hit, and who the decision maker is.

How do you find the correct decision maker or contact person within the company that you're targeting for your IT marketing? How would this differ in a 10-person v. 50-person, v. a 100-person office?

So the basic question here is with your sales and marketing efforts, what's the role, what's the job title, what kind of person are you looking to reach?

IT Marketing: The Two Most Likely Contact People

In most small businesses, you're going to find two types of main contact people. You'll find the person you want to reach, signs the checks or the purchase orders, or the contracts or the purchase authorizations. I sometimes call that the P&L person because they're responsible for the profit and loss statement of the company. This may actually be the owner or a partner, especially in smaller businesses.

Person number two is the internal guru. That's the one everyone tends to yell for when there's computer problems, but taking care of computer problems isn't their full-time job. They generally have another job within the company. Sometimes it's an office manager. Sometimes they're the executive or administrative assistant, but they're the one that everyone yells for when something goes wrong with IT.

When in doubt, simply ask who's wearing each hat. Who's the person that makes the financial decisions on major IT purchases? Who's the person that when the laser printer jams up or the Internet connection goes down? Who's the one on the phone with the technology vendor? The answers to these are a good starting point to find the person you need to for IT marketing

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