So what are IT buyers looking for? Someone-anyone!-who can solve their business problems.

"Executives overwhelmingly believe that the strongest differentiator is when vendors understand the buyer's business and prescribe tailored solutions," Santucci writes. "These same executives also believe that the vendor's ability to relevantly connect its portfolio to suit their needs is the top attribute that makes a supplier strategic."

Apparently, there's more work to do inside some of the bigger sales organizations: The survey showed that just 27 percent of executives find that salespeople are knowledgeable about the buyer's specific business.

One unidentified CIO told Forrester: "I just spent the in a well-known company who gave me a stack of brochures almost as big as a phone book to look through. It's as if he expected me to wade through all of that material to find the needles in the haystack for how they can help me."