In reference to the article, 'Tech-Spending Looks Poised to Decelerate', that appeared in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the authors, Pui-Wing Tam and Ben Worthen announced something that most of us tech salespeople have known for some time already. Except for the absolute necessities, enterprise technology spending has been softening since 9/11, and the outlook doesn't look any better for 2008.

For smaller tier II, and tier III software companies, the downturn has been especially hard on their bottom line. The lucky few that were bought by larger software companies made money. Take a look at all the acquisitions made by IBM, Oracle, and SAP over the past few years. Something's going on.

There is no doubt an overabundant supply and shrinking demand for technology purchasing within the financial services industry. We have the sub-prime lending crisis to thank for this. But that doesn't mean that there aren't any more opportunities to sell technology, just a requirement that technology companies need to work harder to find new business. More sales calls to prospects, and more sales meetings scheduled on the calendar will keep the sales pipeline full of active deals. The results will follow. That said, I'm reminded of an old proverb that says, "He who works the process awaits the results in peace". Just make sure that you're not standing still and waiting for too long.