If you find your relationship with technology vendors to be an ongoing exercise in frustration and annoyance, consider yourself typical. The sales and marketing practices of vendors are rife with problems for everyone involved, reports Stephanie Overby at CIO magazine. To improve the relationship, former CIO Mark Hall set up an online platform where CIOs can anonymously take the lead in the buying process.

Vendors spend $25 billion annually to land customers, but the process is often disjointed and inefficient, says Hall, who is now CEO of xPeerient, an online community for CIOs. The root of the problem is the tension at play in the introduction between buyers and sellers. "It's built around the language of war, with sales teams talking about campaigns and ground fire. There's friction and distrust," Hall says.

CIOs have become increasingly adept at dodging vendors' marketing moves, which Hall says are based on 19^th century consumer advertising models. Some CIOs now require vendors to make their pitch via a "vendor relations portal," and others have developed more evasive tactics: "If a call from an IT vendor comes in, they tell them they're transferring them to Dan Heller in the procurement office. The salesperson gets a voice mail greeting, 'Hi, this is Dan Heller, leave a message.' Only there is no Dan Heller," he says.

The way to cut through this problem, in Hall's view, is to give the customer more control in the initial stages of the relationship. By approaching suppliers anonymously, CIOs can be in charge of learning about vendors and services, ask candid questions, and discuss options with their peers. 

"As soon as you reveal your name or your company, it's like throwing blood in the water. Once you express the slightest bit of interest, you're suddenly surrounded by sharks," Hall says. "Every potential vendor--even those not in IT services, those that want to sell you office products or real estate--is circling."

For more:
- see Stephanie Overby's article at CIO

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