IT audits are a must-do in your network consulting business.  If you don’t make IT audits part of your paid services, clients will have you spend your precious time analyzing their system for free.  

Typically a client will want you to tell them up front, specifically what you plan to do for them before you get their business.  In other words, before any money has changed hands, you’ll have had to learn about their unique IT environment.  

This is what an IT audit is meant to do.  Rather than give it away for free you need to learn how to get clients to pay for it.  The sorts of tasks included in an IT audit include:

  • writing proposals
  • site survey work
  • taking inventory
  • analyzing existing configurations
  • looking for inconsistencies
  • identifying major security gaps
  • looking for potential land mines and configuration mistakes
  • prioritizing what needs to be done first, second, third. etc…  

The easiest way to sell IT audits is to come to the relationship with a position of power. This means having prospects contact you rather than you soliciting them.  It’s hard to sell a client on an IT audit if you sent them a direct mail postcard asking for their business.  

You need to keep this in mind as you move your business forward.  If you want to get paid for the time you spend doing an IT audit, then you need to focus on referrals and networking.  Getting your name known and having clients recommend your services makes it much easier for you tell a client that they must pay you for the IT audit part of the process.

The Bottom Line on IT Audits
IT audits are time consuming.  You don’t want to have to give them away as part of your client solicitation process.  The best way to avoid having to give away free IT audits is to concentrate on getting great word-of-mouth referrals.  When potential clients come to you, it is much easier to tell them that a paid audit is the first step.  Once you know what they want and need then you can proceed.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to IT audits. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge of IT audits, just click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.