Know-How Exchange : Customer Behavior

It seems to me that the more "technical" folks are, the more important it is to use a "softer" approach, as you describe. Two very good ways and unobtrusive ways to get contact information are 1) have folks fill out some sort of a form when they request info on your website, and 2) basic company research, prior to a call.

Most folk that you talk with will be willing to give out contact info if they feel you will send them information which will be helpful to them, and they will not be bombarded with a stream of phone calls and emails down the road. When I look at your web site, I see a lot of "evaluation versions" and so forth for downloading, but I do not see any white papers or other helpful materials. I believe that if you spend some time building up your library of helpful materials, you can draw more folks to your site, you can collect more folks signing up for an email or infomative newsletters, and you will have more to offer on that phone call (e.g. snail mailing info), all of which will make it easier to "softly" get that phone number.