Buyer Behaviour Regional Research:

IDG Connect Asks

Which Buyer Type is Most Common Amongst IT Professionals?
DACH

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

DACH

IDG Connect surveyed 645 IT professionals in DACH countries; Austria, Germany and Switzerland. 537 of the
respondents were from the non-tech industry while the further 108 respondents were from the tech industry.
Respondents were asked a multiple choice question to discover which buyer type they adopt when participating
in a buying team.

From this, the respondents answer was categorised into one of the three buyer behaviours:
Collaborator: A collaborator seeks comfortable team consensus when it comes to a purchase decision.
They consider member opinions, including the pros and cons, to be as valuable as facts and figures.
Challenger: A challenger consider themselves the experts in the group and will not hesitate to challenge
points to arrive at the best decision. Challengers respect competence, know-how and the views of
industry authorities.
Advocate: An advocate is vested in the potential impact the teams decision will have on employees,
company image and personal visibility. Advocates are action-oriented, working to promote their
favoured vendor(s) forward.
This research is part of a global survey that was conducted by telephone to 3420 IT and Business Professionals.

The survey was conducted across Benelux, DACH, EMEA, Latin America, MEFA, Middle East, Nordics,
Scandinavia regions.

DACH

69%

69% OF DACH
IT PROFESSIONALS ARE
COLLABORATORS
18%

COLLABORATOR

CHALLENGER

13%

ADVOCATE

BY COMPANY SIZE

DACH
500+ EMPLOYEES

ADVOCATE

1-499 EMPLOYEES

35%

65%
CHALLENGER

50%
50%
COLLABORATOR

50%
50%

BY JOB TITLE

DACH

16% OF CIO/CTO/CSOs
ARE ADVOCATES

40% OF IT MANAGERS
ARE CHALLENGERS

28% OF IT DIRECTORS
ARE COLLABORATORS
7% 4%

9%

16%
ADVOCATE 45%

CHALLENGER

40%
28%

41%

35%

IT Manager

IT Director

Technical Consultant

CIO, CTO, CSO

IT Executive VP, Senior VP

IT Supervisor

COLLABORATOR

55%

IDG Connect is the demand generation division of International Data Group (IDG), the worlds largest technology
media company. Established in 2005, it utilises access to 38 million business decision makers details to unite
technology marketers with relevant targets from any country in the world. Committed to engaging a disparate
global IT audience with truly localised messaging, IDG Connect also publishes market specific thought leadership
papers on behalf of its clients, and produces research for B2B marketers worldwide.
www.idgconnectmarketers.com
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