Every software company wants to break into the "mid-market" – the fastest growing segment of the IT industry. That’s why it’s surprising to learn that buyers in medium-sized firms aren’t happy with their IT suppliers. In fact, they feel that they’re being "poorly served" by the companies that sell to them, according to a recent survey of 4,500 software buyers, conducted by the market research firm IDC.

That’s bad news for the software business as a whole, but it’s good news for you, providing you can figure out how to sell in such a way that better addresses the needs of these customers. Here’s an eight-step program to help you get on the inside track to this "holy grail" of software sales:

Step 1: Understand the challenge. The IDC study quantified the level of satisfaction of mid-market customers with the sales engagement practices employed by their IT products and services vendors. The findings strongly suggest that software vendors (and indeed the entire high tech sector) have a long way to go before they can service this market adequately. In other words, it’s bad out there. Really bad.

Step 2: Don’t underestimate the prospect. A recurring problem, according to the survey, was that vendors tend to underestimate the intelligence of their customer base, assuming that they know less than their enterprise counterparts, according to Lee Levitt, director of IDC’s Sales Advisory Service. "These buyers are more savvy, more technical, and more impatient than most sales organizations realize," he explains.

Step 3: Beef up your sales support. To profitably serve this segment, vendors must balance investments between outbound sales reps and phone-based and online resources, without giving up the relationship management that both reps and marketing automation systems can provide. "Not only do [customers] want a shorter sales cycle, they want more contact with technical resources," says Levitt.

Step 4: Adapt your sales process. Every buying organization has different expectations, and too often field sales reps fail to ask customers what they want or make an effort to truly understand their needs. "In looking for strengths, buyers are very clear about what they want," says Levitt. "Many of those desires are based on simply having sales take responsibility for providing not just any answer, but the answer that meets the buyer’s needs."

Step 5: Increase your technical know-how. Mid-market buyers give sales representatives poor marks on follow up and follow through, according to Levitt. "Mid-market buyers see sales reps too frequently with incomplete information and a general lack of technical skills," he says. This lack can and should be corrected with additional training and coaching.

Step 6: Enhance your sales skills. The IDC survey also showed that many of the shortcomings mid-market buyers see revolve around poor communication. This implies that sales management must do more to increase the skills their people possess and apply every day in the field. "Building sales representatives’ skills is paramount in achieving better performance in the mid-market," says Levitt.

Step 7: Optimize your sales process. To succeed in the mid-market, optimizing processes to reach buyers and engage them is critical. Taking stock of what already exists within an organization and what processes are well defined, and making that known to customers, will result in buyers knowing what to expect.

Step 8: Get ready for more competition. With a growth rate significantly higher than the enterprise market, mid-market competition will only become fiercer. Software sales reps (and teams) that wish to thrive will need to work smarter and focus on turning every point of contact into a meaningful point of value. Those that don’t will see opportunities stall, or vanish, won by those who listen and match their communication, sales skills, and processes to the needs of the mid-market buyer.