Editor’s note: John Ferguson is research associate at TrustRadius, an Austin, Texas-based information services firm. This is an edited version of a post that originally appeared under the title, “New data on how COVID-19 will impact B2B tech spending.”
Earlier this year, TrustRadius presented data indicating that many businesses were spending more on software in order to transition to remote operations. Now, after weeks of COVID-19 chaos, expectations have changed.
We resurveyed our audience of software buyers and vendors on April 9 to check how their perspectives and expectations have changed. The chart below shows the results:
In the March 13 survey, 40% of respondents said that they expected their organization to increase their software spend. Now over 30% of surveyed buyers say they plan to spend less as a result of COVID-19.
To better understand this change, we’ve broken down the survey data by company size, job title and industry.
Which types of software are being cut?
As of April 9, the number of software buyers planning to cut spending has doubled. Many of the buyers we surveyed are looking at cutting spending across multiple areas and departments.
Marketing departments are the most likely to see their software spend cut this quarter, with 44% of buyers reducing spending in marketing software. Cuts in project management tech (33%) show that organizations are clearly looking to trim any nonessential software spending.
Where are businesses still spending on software?
Based on this survey, Q2 growth in software spending will show predictable spending patterns in web conferencing, collaboration tools and remote desktop tools.
The good news is that nearly 90% of increased spenders expect to still be using – and paying for – these tools two years from now.
COVID-19 impact by company size
Compared to enterprises, fewer SMBs plan to increase software spend according to our April 9 survey. Fifty percent of midsized businesses planned to increase their software spending back in March, compared to 15% today.
COVID-19 impact by job title
Viewing the data by job title confirms that uncertainty about software spending is centralized around junior-level respondents. Senior-level respondents tend to be more confident.
C-suite executives, VPs and senior managers were particularly unified in their reduced spending, and nearly half of C-suite executives planned to reduce software spend this quarter.
COVID-19 impact by industry
When comparing the survey results by industry, we see that the heaviest reductions are in industries that were the first and hardest hit by the effect of COVID-19 on the global economy. 
The impact of COVID-19
When we re-surveyed our audience of software buyers and vendors on April 9, we found that COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the B2B tech community:
When asked how they’ve been impacted by COVID-19, people are balancing work and family while at home, while also feeling pressure to be more productive than before. Twenty-three percent of the respondents experienced pay/benefits cuts, and 8% (173 individuals) had been laid off or furloughed.
Expectations for the future
As of March 19, 69% of buyers expected to return to prior spending levels over the long term. According to our most recent survey on April 9, 60% expect their spending to return to prior levels by 2021. This is about 10% lower than what respondents said in March.
Moving forward after COVID-19
The fact that buyers still expect spending cuts to be short term suggests that this year’s losses are not final. Still, vendors will need to proceed with empathy, compassion and understanding when approaching buyers during this time.