Whatever the technology sector — software, services, hardware, or other solutions — tech executives and leaders must evaluate the impact of these trends across their business and decide the necessary actions.
The following four trends, out of the nine Gartner identified as potentially having an impact on tech vendors in 2023:
- More decision-makers outside of IT are involved in federated enterprise tech procurement.
- There has been an increase in product-led growth strategies, which give prospects a head start on using the product.
- The growth of online marketplaces makes it simpler for prospective customers to locate, acquire, apply, and integrate technological solutions.
- Technologies from the metaverse are incorporated into CX and marketing to increase customer engagement.
Gartner Tells Us – How Changes in the Tech Market Affect Product Strategy
The technology market is constantly changing to take into account:
- people and businesses’ increased reliance on technology
- the constant development of new technologies
- macro forces effects, such as rising sustainability demands
In Gartner, Kandaswamy contends that for tech executives and leaders to effectively capitalise on new opportunities and counter threats, they must work with executive leaders in finance, marketing, sales, operations, and other fields to develop their strategies.
First change: more federated enterprise technology procurement
According to Gartner, the emphasis of purchase decisions shifts away from technology and towards value scenarios and outcomes as more authorised decision makers and influencers from outside IT enter the picture.
In many businesses, the federated buying model is still in its infancy, but according to a 2022 Gartner survey, 67% of enterprise-tech decision-makers do not work in IT.
In order to create opportunities related to this new trend:
- Change the focus of your go-to-market plans from technology-based to customer-focused value scenarios. Showcase the customers’ desired business results in relation to each of the process’ influencers or buyers.
- Gartner tells us to utilize ideal customer profiles (ICPs) to increase the likelihood of success and high-quality deals and to enhance our situational awareness of the customer’s buying approach.
- Educate less experienced buyers on sound decision-making techniques and assist businesses in becoming more mature in the federated buying environment to strengthen the vendor-client relationship.
Increased use of product-led growth strategies is the second change.
Prior to engaging with sales, product-led growth (PLG) strategies give prospects some type of product experience to illustrate value, placing the product front and centre.
Gartner anticipates that 90% of go-to-market strategies will include PLG as standard practice by 2025.
Of SaaS businesses (up from 58% currently). Gartner Self-service product experiences will be the starting point, and sales-driven conversion or expansion plays will be triggered by signals from aggregated data.
Fast growth at a price lower than conventional top-down marketing and sales motions is the desired outcome. More than 50% of free trials or freemiums resulted in a purchase, according to the 2021 Gartner User Influence on Software Decisions Survey. Success is not guaranteed, though; it requires more thought and work than simply releasing a product’s free version on the market.
Gartner PLG at scale is a data-intensive process that involves user or buyer awareness and onboarding, product usage supplemented with advice and assistance as needed, conversion and expansion based on usage value, and associated advocacy and influence.
The first step that Gartner asks to do is to determine whether PLG is feasible or ideal by assessing the product’s suitability in relation to its target market. Things to think about
- Does the product have a very user-friendly interface?
- Is onboarding simple/quick?
- Can users quickly discern or grasp value (and compare it to cost)?
Third change: the growth of online marketplaces
With more consumers looking for easily assembled and consumable solutions, digital marketplaces are becoming commonplace for tech purchases.
Gartner anticipates that by 2026, every significant cloud platform and enterprise application provider will provide business component marketplaces to enable customers’ composable strategies, differentiating on the basis of quality, convenience, and security.
To profit from this trend:
- By measuring the market opportunity, considering solution fit, and gauging the preferences of your target customers, determine the importance of a marketplace channel for you.
- Adjusting your go-to-market strategy to sell through a marketplace that ensures customers are aware of your solution’s compatibility with existing infrastructure and its ease of integration will help you get ready for a shift in tech purchasing by non-tech buyers.
- By determining whether an existing Gartner marketplace is suitable or by establishing your own, get ready to join one in order to serve your target audience.
Change No. 4: Increased use of metaverse technology in CX and marketing
Metaverse technologies are quickly gaining ground in the marketing world for their ability to produce distinctive experiences, memorable interactions, and fresh forms of engagement. Gartner Tech product leaders must take advantage of the current opportunities to develop distinctive experiences and advance their marketing and customer experience initiatives.
Gartner discusses, most B2C enterprise CMOs will allocate money for digital people in metaverse experiences by 2027.
Because metaverse technologies are still in their infancy, product leaders must first decide when and how to act:
- Examine the viability of metaverse technologies in terms of audience engagement levels and user and customer reach, such as large-scale, multiplayer/multi-entity virtual spaces, virtual reality (VR), and avatars. Find areas where metaverse technologies might expand your opportunities.
- Create a plan for ongoing evaluation that takes into account potential collaborations and ecosystem expansion as these metaverse technologies develop and converge over the following five to ten years.
Conclusion
Gartner Business leaders are understandably concerned about how to best position their organisations to not only survive but also succeed in 2023 as a global recession seems imminent. Understanding the tech trends that will rule the upcoming year is the first step in achieving this, as it will enable you to take advantage of them early on.
