Small Business Computer Consulting

IT marketing takes perseverance to work effectively.  Chances are you will see results from IT marketing efforts about three to six months into the life of your business.  But when will you really see some good profits?

IT Marketing Involves a System

You’ve joined the chamber, are ready to attend an event this week and have been involved with venture capital groups related to the IT industry.  You have been handing out business cards at regional trade shows and throughout the community, but nothing is happening.  You may wonder if there is a problem.

There is not necessarily a problem; you just need to give your work time.  You can’t get instant results from doing your IT marketing activities.  Don’t start to worry until you have been working steadily and actively participating in groups for six months.  At this point, you should try another organization.

IT Marketing:  Personal Relationships are Necessities

You can’t just go to a few meetings and get yourself a $25,000 account.  Maybe sometimes you’ll get lucky, but most of the time you need trust from people in order to really make progress.

In order to succeed, you have to be likeable and enjoy working with people, because the IT industry is people-centric.  You can’t be reclusive!

First impressions are very important.  You have to dress well and create a good feeling with people you meet.  Chemistry is critical to long-term relationships.  Send business to you contacts if you meet someone else that needs what they offer, and don’t hide out!  Circulate in the community, and you will find that your IT marketing pays off faster.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Narrowing down leads to uncover prospects can be a difficult task in the computer consulting industry.  Finding your industry focus is an important first step that can help you identify the right market.  In order to target clients you have to stand out from the rest of the computer consulting professionals trying to use the exact advertising to sell the same services.

You can also narrow down your leads and turn more into prospects by focusing on size.  

Computer Consulting:  Three Different Sizes

Micro small businesses with just a handful of PCs are a good place to start in computer consulting.  The mindset of the business owner is more important than the number of PCs he has, but micro-small businesses are not typically looking for very high-level, expensive IT computer consulting services.

The sweet spot small businesses are the next step up, and where most computer consulting professionals do very well. Small business computer consulting involves ten to fifty PC’s.  Many studies have proven that the two-to-one ratio works across industries, so if you are maxing out at a 50-seat LAN, this often means a 90-100-employee company.  Downtime for the sweet spot is very expensive.  To determine downtime expenses, divide by 250 business days a year and eight hours a day and give them the example of how a company doing $4 million a year in annual revenue with 2,000 business hours a year loses about $2,000 per hour when there is downtime.  As a computer consulting professional, you can save them money and time over the long-term.

More than 50 PCs gives you the top of the small business world and the bottom of the medium-sized business world.  At this size, the IT services bills from your company would be similar to a full-time salary for an in-house real IT manager.  This type of business will probably not outsource generalist roles and will most likely hire an on-site person and therefore is not as strong a lead as some of the smaller businesses.  

Added By:   Joshua Feinberg

Major company AT&T, Inc. announced on Wednesday it would be releasing a new IT consulting package to add to its company professional services portfolio.  The new IT consulting offering will help SMBs and other similar organizations enhance their network, communications, security and planning techniques.   

The new IT consulting branch of AT&T will offer a suite of services that are usually enjoyed by global enterprise and federal government clients along with educational institutions.  This IT consulting package will be called AT&T Consulting Essentials and will help all SMBs plan, install and release new communications and IT networks and upgrade their current systems.  Besides the aforementioned services, the IT consulting package will emphasize assessment, gap analysis and practical solutions to enable SMBs to follow the best practices of their specific industry for information security.  As part of the consulting services, AT&T will recommend solutions to help customers comply with all necessary regulations.  

This extension of AT&T’s services to small and mid-size organizations will include the following categories of enhanced features:

Network and Information Security

Business Continuity

Network Optimization

Telecommunications Strategy

IPT Readiness

Client Tutorials

For more details about this new offering from AT&T, please visit this IT consulting article.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Current events, such as outbreaks of viruses and worms can help your marketing efforts when mentioned in the news.  Small businesses that are your targets will probably be feeling the pain of major outbreaks and be hyper-aware of what you can do for them. particularly with IT audits.

When small businesses see important technology current events in the news, they might notice they need power protection and orderly shutdowns or backup generators to protect themselves.  Worms and virus clean-up will have serious security risks attached and will be a perfect opportunity for you to conduct IT audits.  

IT Audits and a Marketing Plan

You can compile a fixed price IT audits package and deliver it to prospects.  Go in with an inventory checklist and discuss physical system security, virus protection, licenses, firewalls and if they are regularly checking tape drive and storage systems.

Almost all small businesses will offer you a very big cleanup opportunity as new accounts.  Businesses believe they are more well-protected against malicious forces such as viruses than they actually are in reality.  IT audits will allow you to inform them of necessary updates to antivirus software and other systems.  

IT Audits and Data Backups

When you question prospects about data backup, they may look confused or tell you what they think is right rather than what is real.  Typically systems are not kept current without a good tech provider or in-house IT department.  

IT audits present great opportunities to uncover weaknesses in small businesses and try to hook long-term clients.  IT audits allow you to present prospects with an organized attack plan that includes items such as upgrades, training, replacement and other important business elements.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

During a direct mail campaign, you need to know your target audience so you can come up with the right message.  You might feel frustrated when you think about all the IT marketing tasks you have to do; instead of trying to do everything at once, list the four or five most interesting and work on those each quarter.  You should have several IT marketing tasks going on simultaneously.

Innovative IT Marketing Concepts

You can conduct outbound telemarketing, postcard mailings with a certain number sent to a certain group and plenty of follow-up.  You can also go to trade shows in your area, expos or even hold your own seminar.

Diversity of IT Marketing Techniques is Key

You should touch on different areas in IT marketing and find out a way to measure and track them.  You need to know how much time and money you can put into each task and figure out leads you will get from time and money you are investing.  Once you discover what works, you can focus on that instead of what is not as successful.

IT Marketing Evaluation

Once you choose an IT marketing technique, make sure to stay with it for two or three months to see how it succeeds or fails.  Once the quarter ends, stay with the IT marketing strategies that worked, get rid of those that were unsuccessful and add some new ones to the pot.  IT marketing is about constantly refining techniques to grow with your business.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Project proposals are a common method for generating business.  Project proposals are typically prepared for two scenarios – getting a completely new client or doing more involved work for an existing customer.

Preferably you are doing a project proposal after you have done a small project for the company already.  This way you have gone through your proving ground.   Whether you did an IT audit or fixed a PC, you have a foundation there.  The customer knows you, likes you, and trusts you.  

Selling a project proposal from this position is much easier.  This doesn’t mean you can’t sell a project proposal without having done any previous work, it’s just a bit harder. You’ll end up spending much more time in the follow-up stage.

Either way, follow-up is an important aspect of securing work from a project proposal.  At the absolute minimum you should use a four to six week follow up cycle.  In between your follow up calls is when you look to see if anything has changed or if they need some help on something small right now before they move ahead with the project.  

You want to keep staying in front of them.  Even if it’s something that’s just a couple hundred dollars, your name needs to remain in their minds.  What you don’t want is for some other company to come in and take care of a small issue.  

When you have a project proposal under review, you need to be the company of choice for anything IT related.  There’s always a little bit of "being in the right place at the right time" going on.  

Bottom Line on Project Proposals
Urgency is the driver behind any project proposal moving to the sales phase.  If there’s no urgency, then it’s a waiting game and they may not do the project for a long time.  You need to stay in touch with the customer on a regular basis and be prepared to do a couple of small things in the interim to get things going.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Project Proposals. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Project Proposals, 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. 

Competitive pricing is often the best way to figure out what to charge clients.  With a competitive pricing strategy you base your rates on what other companies are charging.  The key to competitive pricing is to choose those competitors wisely.

Your local market will largely determine the range of competitive pricing.  How you position yourself in the mix is what we’re interested in.  Two main things to consider when using a competitive pricing model are:

• Skill level of your competitors and their staff
• Size of the client that you’re targeting

The companies you base your competitive pricing on go from the independent PC repair technicians all the way to small consulting firms.  Most of you are going to be somewhere  between moonlighters and solo practice full-time consultants.  By using competitive pricing you can determine the class of business that best matches yours, and then research their prices.

You should always try to stay in the upper range that the competitive pricing allows.  Pricing too low means you attract less desirable and less committed clients.  Low pricing, even though it is competitive pricing, tends to attract the bargain seekers. That’s not what you want.

Bottom Line on Competitive Pricing
Before you use a competitive pricing model you need to carefully consider who you are competing with in terms of skill and client type. Once you know that, then you can use competitive pricing to put your rates at the high end of the corresponding price range.  You’ll be able to attract the clients you want and still charge at the higher end by using competitive pricing.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to Competitive Pricing. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about Competitive Pricing, 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. 

Follow up, as we said last time, is a critical component of your marketing system.  You need to stay in touch with your contacts.  The tricky part is making sure your follow up doesn’t cross over into pestering.  This is where creative follow up comes in.  

Last time we gave you some follow up tips, here are some more to help you kick start your follow up strategy:

• Ask your contacts to get together with you over breakfast, lunch, dinner, golf etc… to catch up or explore potential business energies.

• When you are running a special promotion, send your prospects a follow up letter extending the offer to them personally.

• Pass along a newspaper or magazine clipping or URL that you think could be of interest to your prospects.

• Periodically send along some educational tips or FAQ’s as a creative follow up.

• Send along a case study.  This type of follow up showcases how you are helping other businesses like theirs.  

• When something new and interesting happens, use the opportunity to send a follow up letter.  Examples include when you win a major account, win an award, move to a new location, launch a new product, or provide a new service guarantee.   

• An excellent type of follow up, and one that will help hold you in high regard, is to send a warning letter about a virus outbreak, a hoax, or some other IT security issues.

Bottom Line on Follow-Up
Follow up is used as a reason to stay in touch.  You want your name to remain in your leads’ minds.  To do this effectively you need to come up with innovative excuses to follow up.  Don’t use your follow up to make a hard sell – that’s not the point.  You want to be perceived as a friendly, neighborhood computer business whose follow up is helpful, interesting, and engaging.  We have given you a number of creative follow up ideas, now it’s your turn to get out and try some of them.  

In this article, you’ve been introduced to follow up. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about follow up, 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. 

Follow up is an incredibly important aspect of your marketing and contact management systems.  You need to be diligent but not aggressive with your follow-up, though.  Your follow up should be creative and customized for each lead or prospect but never so overwhelming that you are perceived as a pest.  You want your follow up to appeal to people; not drive them away.

Here are some tips for delivering excellent propsect follow up:

• Send a follow up letter announcing that you’re speaking at an event and invite them to attend.  

• Advise that you are exhibiting at a trade show.  Use your follow up to give them a free pass for the show.

• Send a follow up survey asking if anything has changed since the last time you spoke or met.

• Ask for a referral in the form of a follow call, email, letter, etc…

• After a natural disaster, send a follow up letter offering your assistance.  

• If you hear about a promotion they’ve had, some kind of award that they’ve won, some kind of new business that they obtained, or some positive media coverage, follow up with a congratulatory call.  

• If appropriate, discuss a joint venture opportunity like a joint trade show, seminar, etc…

• Use major holidays as a natural follow up point by sending a card and best wishes.

Bottom Line on Follow Up
Follow up provides a legitimate reason to stay in touch with your prospects.  You want to vary the type of follow up you provide.  This keeps your name in your prospects’ minds but does not become so overwhelming that you turn them off.  Use the tips above to start creating some interesting follow up calls and letters.  Stay tuned for more follow up tips next time…

In this article, you’ve been introduced to follow up. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about follow up, 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.

Referral programs are a great way to boost your Network Consulting Business.  Typically a referral program provides service credits to those clients who send you new business.  If you offer a referral program you provide your clients with an incentive to pass your name onto other businesses.

These types of programs generally lift your response rate significantly. When putting together a referral program there are a few things you should keep in mind:

• Give every satisfied customer, particularly your steppingstone clients, a flyer that describes your referral program. Here are two sample referral program ideas for you to use and adapt:

“A friend of a friend is someone we would like to know.  If a friend of yours has computer problems earn valuable service credits simply by referring your friends, family members or business associates to ABC Network Consulting.” 

“Enter each referral of yours and we will send them a special certificate for 10% off their first service visit.  Once the certificate is redeemed we will issue a $100 service credit to your account.  It’s that simple.  Refer them before somebody else does.  Thank you for your business and your vote of confidence.  ABC Network Consulting.”

• Mail out a description of your referral program to your inactive clients and other business contacts.

• Send a referral program mail-out every 90 days or so.  This is a steady reminder but it doesn’t seem overwhelming.

• Add a line to your email signature promoting your referral program. 

• Some of your clients may feel awkward about accepting the reward offered with your referral program.  They look at referrals as simply a way to thank you for the excellent work you do.  Consider making a donation in their name to a local charity, bring in chocolates, send flowers; anything to show your appreciation.

Bottom Line on Referral Programs
Referral programs are a great way to motivate your clients and contacts to send business your way.  The best type of marketing comes direct from other people so anything you can do to get your clients talking about you the better.  Set up a referral program now and starting showing your clients how much you truly appreciate their confidence in your work.

In this article, you’ve been introduced to referral programs. To learn more about how you can improve your knowledge about referral programs, 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.