Navigating the Age of Agility in APAC: Decision-Making Gets Democratic

Editor's Note: This post, co-written by LinkedIn's Sarah Sullivan, is the first of a five-part series that discusses key trends in tech marketing. It is based on the APAC edition of the Age of Agility, a research report that LinkedIn produced after conducting one of the world’s largest research surveys of B2B technology buying and decision-making. Country reports for Australia & New Zealand, India and Singapore are also available now. 

As tech marketers, we used to market primarily to IT professionals. It made sense since IT departments had the greatest say in the technology buying decision. Note our use of the past tense here because today, the decision-making process has been democratised. 

LinkedIn research has found that, in APAC, 70% of technology buying decisions are now influenced by functions outside the IT department. 

You may have seen this coming even before the pandemic. The buying committee has been growing steadily, becoming larger and more diverse as technology use permeates every inch of an organisation. While non-IT functions like sales, marketing and business development may not have the technical expertise of their IT colleagues, their voice, as end-users, clearly carries weight. 

In this decentralised buying process, even buying responsibility is almost equally shared. In APAC, IT shoulders 52% of the responsibility while their non-IT colleagues take on 48%. 

This is a dramatic shift but make no mistake, our traditional audience of IT decision-makers still matters. As “industry insiders”, they are likely to be involved in shortlisting brands and solutions and called upon to provide technical assessments. However, as their role within the buying committee has changed, so must our marketing strategy. 

In the Age of Agility, tech marketers would do well supporting IT decision-makers as they transition from gatekeeper to guide. 

In our analysis of this internal shift, we now see IT decision-makers having to meet the needs of a growing number of diverse internal stakeholders. Instead of the gatekeeping role that they’re used to, they now have to act more as a guide to their non-IT counterparts. 

As tech marketers, we can support them by reducing friction in the decision-making process. We can work towards increasing brand familiarity and favourability among relevant, influential audiences by: 

1. Broadening our targeting to reach the full buying committee
2. Investing in building brand awareness and credibility 
3. Pitching our messages in a way that non-IT audiences can appreciate the value that solutions bring 

For more research insights into the B2B technology buying and decision-making process in APAC, get your copy of the full report: 

• The Age of Agility: APAC Edition
• The Age of Agility: Australia & New Zealand Edition
• The Age of Agility: India Edition
• The Age of Agility: Singapore Edition

For more APAC marketing insights, subscribe to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog.