Episode 12 of Tech PR War Stories – the podcast for PR people that I co-produce with David Strom – is all about selling to CIOs. It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine. I’ve been spending a lot of time with CIOs recently and over the years. I’ve observed that they care a lot less about products and vendors that they do about issues like business alignment, governance and skills retention. I have some observations to share about how they look at vendors.

David actually spent some time working in large IT organizations. We both agree on a few things: CIOs look for trusted partnerships more than products; they rely on their peers and staff for advice on what to buy; and the best route to the CIO’s office is up from the lower levels in the organization. In other words: stop focusing your pitch solely on CIOs because that’s a lousy way to actually reach them!

Click here to read the blog entry and listen to the podcast.