The Changing Tech Market
Years ago, while still hocking CAD for a monthly quota, I found myself generating a significant amount of volume from companies far outside the conventional "urban" centers of commerce. Later, I developed a local user group program for Autodesk's community marketing organization, known as AUGI, and noticed a strikingly familiar trend. During my research, I overlaid a map of U.S. user groups with a map of U.S. manufacturing GDP, and discovered a large percentage of CAD use in rural areas where manufacturing output was non-existent.
The oddities that I had experienced mark a notable industry shift in design and engineering. Over the past decade, while small service bureaus have declined, outsource contracting for design, drafting, and engineering has increased significantly. With today's computer-based design and even digital prototyping, to become an engineering service provider requires nothing more than a computer, a CAD package, and an internet connection. By contrast, antiquated service providers whose businesses carried overheads such as tools, machines, and working space have either closed, re-invented their businesses, or are being absorbed into larger companies.
As a result, the marketing for technology products within the design and engineering industries must shift as well. Many companies are finding that they can no longer rely on a personal sales team to produce sustaining volumes of sales amidst the widely dispersed market of small buyers. Instead, just as the industrial revolution ushered in an era of efficiency with automated machines, so today a marketing revolution has ushered in an era of efficiency whereby tech writing, data-rich collateral, and online interaction performs the job that a salesperson once did: educating the buyer and handling objections.
With the industrial revolution, were humans extricated from the factory? No. Their efforts were multiplied through the economy of automation. The same is true for technology business today. The most successful companies today use marketing both for branding and selling. In today's marketplace it is important to empower your sales staff with all the tools they need to leverage their time and efforts most efficiently. Successful tech marketing educates clients in mass, handles objections before they even come up, and even prompts sales through e-commerce.
The oddities that I had experienced mark a notable industry shift in design and engineering. Over the past decade, while small service bureaus have declined, outsource contracting for design, drafting, and engineering has increased significantly. With today's computer-based design and even digital prototyping, to become an engineering service provider requires nothing more than a computer, a CAD package, and an internet connection. By contrast, antiquated service providers whose businesses carried overheads such as tools, machines, and working space have either closed, re-invented their businesses, or are being absorbed into larger companies.
As a result, the marketing for technology products within the design and engineering industries must shift as well. Many companies are finding that they can no longer rely on a personal sales team to produce sustaining volumes of sales amidst the widely dispersed market of small buyers. Instead, just as the industrial revolution ushered in an era of efficiency with automated machines, so today a marketing revolution has ushered in an era of efficiency whereby tech writing, data-rich collateral, and online interaction performs the job that a salesperson once did: educating the buyer and handling objections.
With the industrial revolution, were humans extricated from the factory? No. Their efforts were multiplied through the economy of automation. The same is true for technology business today. The most successful companies today use marketing both for branding and selling. In today's marketplace it is important to empower your sales staff with all the tools they need to leverage their time and efforts most efficiently. Successful tech marketing educates clients in mass, handles objections before they even come up, and even prompts sales through e-commerce.
Labels: CAD, Engineering, Industry Trends, Technology Marketing
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