Small Business Computer Consulting

A good elevator speech is a necessity for any thorough IT marketing plan.  An elevator speech is a short description of your business that you can deliver on the fly when encountering prospective clients.

A chamber of commerce luncheon or any other IT marketing event provides an opportunity to deliver a 30-second elevator speech.  If you have more than one other IT service companies at a particular event, you need to make sure your elevator speech is as memorable as possible to improve your IT marketing campaign.

IT Marketing:  Stress Benefits with Elevator Speeches

Your elevator speech needs to concentrate on the benefits you can give to prospects.  It needs to quickly and specifically address the needs of the particular type of clients you serve.

For example, if your IT services business serves small businesses, you might say, “My company helps small businesses in the local area use technology more effectively.”  You can also replace “use technology more effectively” with “use technology to grow their businesses,” “use technology to drive down costs” or “use technology to increase productivity.”

IT Marketing:  Sincerity is Key with Your Elevator Speech

You need to make sure you present yourself sincerely when delivering an elevator speech at any function.  Part of the way to do this is to show how you can help people by expressing an interest in what they have to say.  When networking as part of IT marketing, let the person you’re talking to do the talking and actively listen to what they have to say.

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In order to separate yourself from the herd as an IT specialist, you need to focus on company branding.  Sell your company name with the spin of its new industry on it.  

You don’t need to blaze into meetings wielding your certifications and logos, because you will be seen as a product.  You should include this as part of your background information and a topic of conversation, but announcing your IT specialist status should not be your first statement.  Market and sell your brand and its unique value to the industry.

IT Specialist:  What Needs are Going Unfulfilled?

If you can find a local niche that is struggling to have its needs fulfilled and take control of it, you can do well as an IT specialist.  Ask around to find out what people in the community need.  

IT Specialist:  How Do You Find Your Industry Spin?

When you are at chamber meetings or other organizational meetings and talking to prospects, ask to see which big problems are not fulfilled.  One day you will find something you never thought of – a problem that you can solve for a lot of people in the area to differentiate yourself as an IT specialist.  

IT Specialist:  You Might Not Agree with Clients on Problems and Vice Versa

You won’t be very successful at selling solutions to problems of which people are unaware.  Prospects need to understand the many components of their business before they can embrace every solution.  You can educate, but you can’t force people to ask you to solve problems they do not understand.

If you are there for half an hour and can’t convince your prospect of the problem you are pushing, there may be someone else that does get it, and you should move on.  

IT Specialist:  What is the Competition?

Study your local competition as an IT specialist, most particularly the top five competitors.  Look at websites and brochures to see what others are doing and if their businesses look similar to yours.  This can give you ideas on how you can set yourself apart from the rest as an IT specialist.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

The Computer Consulting Kit has helped many IT professionals achieve their goals with a variety of helpful tools to get the most out of computer consulting businesses.  

The Computer Consulting Kit:  Marketing Techniques to Help Get Leads

Computer consultants have used the Computer Consulting Kit in order to get tips on marketing and sales techniques that can help attract the best clients for their specific firms.  One of the biggest marketing take-aways from the Computer Consulting Kit is the idea that you have to keep your name in front of prospects and really make yourself known as an expert within your community.  Once you are known as a community expert, you will have people coming to you to solve their small business IT problems.  

The Computer Consulting Kit and Alberto Rodriguez  

Alberto Rodriguez of Rodalt Soltions Corp works with clients in Sunrise, Florida.  He admits that before using the Computer Consulting Kit, he didn’t know exactly how to approach people and get new clients.  Like many other IT consultants just starting out, he was unfamiliar with his options when it came to marketing techniques.  He didn’t quite know how to get his name out there and keep it at the top of people’s lists when they need support for their IT needs.
 
“I began my computer consulting business four months ago. At first I didn’t know how to get new customers. Then I found The Computer Consulting Kit, and after 2 or 3 days of analyzing I decided to invest the money. I’ve been following your networking advice and I just got my first Agreement customer.

The skills I’ve learned from the Kit have helped me quickly earn $500 in revenue. The Computer Consulting Kit also led me to Toastmasters where I found other networks and began going to meetings regularly.  Now I’m getting known and being asked for consulting.”

The Bottom Line About the Computer Consulting Kit

To get the same competitive edge as Rodalt Solutions and Alberto Rodriguez with your IT consulting business, check out more information, including free tips and online resources provided by the Computer Consulting Kit.  

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As an IT specialist, you need to figure out your niche in order to brand your company.  Talk to you clients and find the least-served niches and take over as an IT specialist.

The best way to set yourself apart from the crowd as an IT specialist is to focus on selling your company name; put a twist on it that is specific to the industry you intend to serve.

You don’t need to show off your certifications and vendor logos.  This practice will make you into a good rather than a service.  These items should be part of your background info and part of conversations, but should not be leading points about your business as an IT specialist.  Market and sell your unique brnad and the value your firm brings to a specific industry.

Address Under-Served Needs

Find an underserved local niche and take it over as an IT specialist.  Ask around the community to find out where the areas of need are.

Where is Your Industry Twist?

When you go to chamber meetings or meetings at the Rotary, or really to any place you will be talking to prospects identify a big problem that is not being served.  If you can think of a solution to this big problem and there is enough of a demand, you can really make yourself known as an IT specialist.

IT Specialist:  You Don’t Have to Agree with Your Clients About Problems

Don’t sell solutions to problems prospects don’t understand.  If a prospect doesn’t understand why something is important, you don’t want to sell it.  You can educate clients about the problem, but don’t push something people don’t want.   This doesn’t mean there might not be someone down the street that does get it, but it does mean you should focus on other problems with the client that doesn’t.

As an IT Specialist, What is You Competition?

You need to know your local competition well.  Study the four or five major competitors by looking at websites and brochures to see what they are doing.  Do they look the same?  The answer to this question will help you figure out what you need to do to set yourself apart and brand your company as an IT specialist.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Speeches and seminars are great tools for an IT marketing plan.  In order to make this type of IT marketing successful, you have to find sweet spot prospects and keep talks short.

Speaking at business organizations is also great for IT marketing because it helps you connect meaningfully with prospective customers and clients.

IT Marketing:  Speak at Meetings for Other Groups

When you speak at other people’s meetings you get a captive audience of people already going to the event.  You can use a Rotary meeting, a Chamber of Commerce breakfast or any other type of function and make yourself a featured speaker.

IT Marketing:  How Do you Target Your Audience?

You need to make sure your speaking topics are general so they appeal to businesspeople.  Avoid technical speak about IT issues; keep your IT marketing speeches very low-tech.  

The business organizations you target should have similar characteristics to communities of sweet spot clients.  Figure out a good fit by speaking to an executive director or manager at your preferred organization.

IT Marketing and Free Seminars

A free seminar is another excellent way to get yourself seen as part of IT marketing.  Do one on virus protection, security issues and blackouts or something that affects everyone.  Seminars can be difficult to execute and deliver.  You want to enlist the help of someone at your store that feels comfortable with delivering them.  Seminars shouldn’t go longer than 45 minutes.

Attracting Participants to IT Marketing Seminars

In order to get a demand going for free seminars do a direct mail piece to a targeted list; you can use a Chamber of Commerce list or simply a list of targets.   If you really want to save money on IT marketing, collaborate with another organization doing an event or producing a newsletter and put a flyer in the newsletter.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

You need to have very well-written sales copy to be successful at IT marketing.  If you want to get prospects to the next step in the sales process, you have to present skilled copywriting product.  Long sales copy is alright if you are writing a letter and it is compelling.  You can even go for several pages and include endorsements and testimonials.  The key is to achieve maximum impact in IT marketing.

Don’t use jargon as part of your IT marketing efforts.  You need to avoid anything that looks like IT speak, even a little bit.  The sales copy you use has to be focused on business because you are mailing to business owners and business managers.

Prove That Your Business Has a Guarantee

You need to find a way to personalize your sales copy as part of IT marketing.  Stress common connections at the beginning to make sure prospects make the connection.

Keep IT Marketing Materials Out of the Circular File

A large portion of the population will read mail next to the garbage can and will be prepared to throw it away in seconds if it doesn’t immediately capture attention.  Give people a way to answer the letter by phone, fax or a website or even an email.  Give them more than one option so they can respond in a way that is most comfortable.

Stress Urgency With IT Marketing

You need to have a deadline for response and present a sense of urgency with IT marketing materials.  If you don’t give people a reason to respond immediately, your letter will get filed away and potentially be forgotten.

Push prospects with your IT marketing materials with a clear call to action or special offer.  “Call before X to book a free, no-obligation security checkup” is one such statement you might include.  Give a reason to act right away and increase your chances of success with IT marketing.

Completed By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT marketing means you have to do a lot of different marketing tasks at once.  Part of a successful IT marketing strategy is picking three or four strategies and doing them for several months, then getting rid of ones that do not work and finding new ones to try.  

Part of a direct mail campaign is knowing about your target and the message you need to send to reach him or her.  If you’re just starting out, you might feel overwhelmed when you realize there are 30 or more IT marketing tasks that you can do.  You should look through this list and find the five that appeal to you the most then work on them slowly.  Your main goal is to have a few different IT marketing tasks running at the same time.

IT Marketing Ideas

Your IT marketing technique of choice may be outbound telemarketing or postcard mailings.  You may send out a certain number of postcards to a group and do a follow-up mailing every week or two or create a series of direct mail letters.  Another IT marketing strategy that may work for you is going to trade shows in your area or hosting your own seminar.

Diversify with IT Marketing

Part of your IT marketing strategy will be touching on different areas of business and figuring out a way to measure and track your progress.  How much time and money are you investing in each type of IT marketing?  What kinds of leads are you generating?  If you can determine what is working and what is not, you will be better equipped to find the right IT marketing techniques for your business.

Revisit IT Marketing Strategies Every Quarter

No matter which type of IT marketing strategy you choose, you need to keep it going for two or three months to see how it progresses.  Once you end a quarter, stick with the techniques that worked, get rid of those that did not and add a few new IT marketing techniques to your repertoire.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

If you want to sell a solution you have to use IT marketing to highlight the problem.  Once you’ve made targets aware that there is a problem, you then have to show how your firm can solve it.  Then you have to use IT marketing techniques that show how your solution is without pain, affordable and will provide an excellent investment return.

The Effectiveness of Seminar Marketing

Seminar marketing is such a great type of IT marketing because it builds awareness efficiently with large groups of people all at once.  You don’t have to send salespeople out on sales calls that could last hours and are only directed at individuals.  You get a room full of captive prospects.   

Low Pressure IT Marketing

Seminar marketing is the least intimidating form of IT marketing.  If you use effective registration and good follow-up, qualifications and a great invitation policy you can get a lot of business through IT seminars on important technology issues that are within our niche.

IT Marketing and White Papers

Another excellent IT marketing technique is to publish a white paper or an e-zine.  This strategy gives you a perfect capture and follow-up device.  For example, if you’re running a direct mail campaign, you can offer a white paper to give out for free that has a high perceived value to attendees.

You can either develop the white paper yourself or outsource it to a freelance writer.  You can also use something from a reseller program to which you belong.  If you do seminars on a regular basis, just offer an edited transcript or white paper about the seminar to help stick it in their memories and improve your IT marketing.

IT Marketing:  Advertise

Display ads and direct mail pieces can get the word out about your white paper.  This gives people a reason to call or to go online and request an item from you.  Once they do this, you can get their information and use it as part of your IT marketing strategies.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

To provide virtual IT support, you often need to be a generalist, but to be successful in the IT industry you have to be an IT specialist.  As an IT specialist, you will have to provide the following very generalized services: network design; procurement services; management; phone company interaction; interaction with web hosts and ISPs; configuration, testing, integration, customization, training and troubleshooting problems.  

The truth is, as an IT specialist you will still be doing everything, which is technically being a generalist.  But, while you might have to be a generalist, you don’t necessarily have to be a generalist for everyone in the world.  If you are an IT specialist by carefully choosing the right clients, your marketing efforts will be much simpler.

Be Selective with Clients

You can be all things to some people by providing a complete solution.  You will offer virtual IT services and be a place for them to go for all their needs.  You take responsibility for all your clients’ needs, but still are selective about what kind of clients you pursue.

An Example for an IT Specialist:  Real Estate

If you’re specializing in the real estate industry, you have probably worked with commercial real estate firms in the niche, and might be a top IT consulting professional in that field.  You will have testimonials and references to show the work you’ve done in the field and will come across as an IT specialist in the real estate world.   

Specializing Does Not Mean You Have to Have Much Experience

Finding a niche can just involve having one or two clients you’ve had for a year or two.  You may have started migrating an older DOS industry application to a 43-bit or to another web-based application.  Work over an extended period of time will give you mastery of the line of business applications, which is often the difference between you and anyone else in the IT industry.

What is It to Be an IT Specialist?

You don’t have to have very much experience in the IT industry to become an IT specialist.  But the specialization is necessary to being a successful marketer of your business.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

IT marketing wastes money unless you know what efforts are turning into real business.  Tracking results and measuring profits are essential to IT marketing.

You need to track your responses and track how many of them actually turn into sales.  Your minimum goal should be to see what kind of responses you get from your different marketing strategies. If you have a marketing seminar, for example, how many registrants came from a chamber flyer, a small newspaper ad or through outbound telemarketing efforts?

The Importance of Measuring Response in IT Marketing

IT marketing is important, but how can you track it?

Send respondents to a URL so you can tell how many visited the website.  

Ask directly when you speak to respondents on the phone where they heard about you.

Set up a specific phone number to handle respondent calls.

Use different response vehicles with different marketing techniques.  In other words, postcards could offer a reduced price IT audit and the newspaper ads could present a free seminar.

Real Numbers and IT Marketing

Here’s an example:

You’re mailing 1,000 postcards to 1,000 law offices in your area and offering a seminar, a free report or a free needs analysis.  How many of those 1,000 postcards turned into inquiries?

You may get about a two percent response, which would be great.  So, if you had a 1.7 percent response rate, and of those 17 inquiries one turned into a one-shot deal, you got two business opportunities that added up to $19,500 in the first year.

These results of this IT marketing investment are actually very good, even with list rental, printing and professional copywriting and graphic design services.  For a $500 to $700 initial investment, you got a deal that covered the cost of your mailing and found a huge account.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit