Small Business Computer Consulting

Computer consultants that want to test prospects to see if they are really potential long-term clients can use proving ground projects before signing any long-term agreements.  

What Are Proving Ground Projects?

For computer consultants, proving ground projects are the first projects they will complete with new customers that are not yet clients or steady clients.  Computer consultants can use this time to prove they know what they are doing and are dependable, easy to work with and offer great value.

The customers also use these projects to prove to computer consultants that their expectations are appropriate, they are compatible personality-wise and that the customer will pay for professional IT services.

Proving Ground Projects:  Be Observant

If computer consultants have a positive proving ground project experience, they are on the way to having a steady client.  Many times, computer consultants are not observant enough while doing the proving ground project and end up starting a relationship with a client that is a real problem.  They can’t let themselves get too excited about getting a new client and must look for the following signs:

1.    Does the prospect change his/her mind all the time?

2.    Is the prospect late for meetings?

3.    Is the prospect verbally abusive towards employees?

4.    Does the prospect believe that regular rules are non-applicable?

Computer consultants can’t rush into relationships until they appropriately qualify every prospect with proving ground projects.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Many consultants decide to be computer resellers.  But is this a smart move?

What Does it Mean to Be Computer Resellers?

Some consulting firms prefer to be pure consulting firms because they don’t think they can make a cent off products and don’t want to deal with the conflicts that reselling demands.  These pure computer consulting firms help clients decide what to buy, specs and also show them where to buy products but to not peddle the products themselves.  

Purchasing Agents

Purchasing agents are a variation on pure computer consulting firms and computer resellers.  If you are a purchasing agent, you do the purchasing for clients and your firm bills clients for a couple hours to perform that task.  Your firm is responsible for getting and looking at quotes, placing and tracking orders and following the purchasing process through until the end.  

Hybrid Consulting Firms

Hybrid consulting firms are those in which consulting businesses become computer resellers for some products but not others.  A lot of computer resellers in this capacity do white box PC reselling, selling PC clones.   Computer resellers that offer this service are offering non-branded desktops, servers and sometimes notebooks (white books).

Should You Be Computer Resellers?

In order to decide whether or not you want to join the ranks of other computer resellers, you have to think about how you want to spend your time.  Do you want to get some additional profit off product sales or have your income mostly come from pure consulting services? No matter what, to put yourself in a strong position you can’t lead off with being computer resellers in your sales pitch.   

Will Being Computer Resellers Put You in a Good Position?

In most cases, can being computer resellers really put you ahead and get your foot in the door?  In most cases, honestly the answer is no.  This is because when you label yourself as a reseller you position yourself as a commodities broker.  Customers will most likely not hire a commodities broker to do consulting, because they have you labeled in their minds as a cheap source and not a high-end professional services firm.

If you want to be computer resellers, resell to people that already have consulting relationships with you and make sure you get a decent profit margin for your time, capital, space, staff and overhead.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Top positive ID technology firm CRYPTOCard, Inc. recently released information about a brand new program for VARs – the Certified Partner Program.  This new group focuses on Remote Access and SSL/VPN services and will help VARs bundle authentication software in their existing services.  CRYPTOCard’s mission with this VARs program is to help give better secure remote access to those working within any industry so they can better and more securely manage systems.  

The Certified Partner Program for VARs will be led by Chris Dodunski.  He has 15 years of industry expertise and has acted as a design engineer, technical sales person, product line direct and business development expert.  His most recent hat before taking on this VARs group was the director of Strategic Global Partners at Trigence, Corporation where he created their new channel program strategy.  

The new Certified Partner Program will offer support to VARs that are selling remote access products from major vendors:  Cisco; Juniper; SonicWALL or services from VPN providers.  The hope with the new program is that channels will reduce sales cycle time, improve percentage of sales and create better marketing initiatives through much better sales tools.

For more information on this innovative new partner program for VARs, visit the attached link.

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg

On September 7, several leading solution providers announced they would be offering their first products featuring Microsoft’s VC-1 Encoder SDK.  On the same day, Microsoft stated it would be providing industry support for this software officially, though the first statement regarding the new development was announced at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference in April. 

These products have improved products offered by leading companies that provide digital delivery services and compression tools.  The new SDK technology offered by solution providers will offer better video imagery and many other features.

Companies such as Red Bee Media have decided to go with solution providers Anystream, Inc. to adopt the new Encoder technology in order to revise its video content for the BBC’s new iPlayer service.  According to a Red Bee spokesperson, the new Encoder will help it deliver faster and better quality video to customers in various formats.  The technology allows for solution providers to provide HD optical discs  and content that can be optimized for almost any screen, perfect for on-demand and broadband service.s 

Other companies across Europe, such as Sonopress, Imagion AG and DS&DVD and U.S. companies including GDMX, Deluxe and Blink Digital will also be working with solution providers to utilize the new Microsoft products.  Microsoft and Amazon.com also intend to offer a program for independent filmmakers that will let them publish as many as 1,000 HD DVD titles without any set-up fee through CreateSpace.

Over 85 percent of all HD DVD titles in the U.S. have now been encoded using the new VC-1 technology, so solution providers are offering it at an opportune time. 

Microsoft will also include this new SDK technology in its Xbox system and most particularly on its xbox LIVE Marketplace. 

For more information on this story, including a list of solution providers providing the new SDK technology, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

When you encounter prospects for IT sales, you need to get to know their top 3 problems.  You might learn that their problems are not what you expected or can even help solve, in which case you can move onto the next prospect.  But you can’t succeed at IT sales if you don’t get prospects talking.

What Do They Prefer?

You need to get prospects talking about what they like and don’t like about their past IT support to get an idea of what type of support they are looking to get.  You also need to know in the first meeting if there is an emergency that needs to be handled immediately or if they are looking for an IT audit, site survey or tech assessment.

Sometimes prospects will want something totally different from what you are used to, but mostly they will ask for the above items.   

The Next Step of IT Sales

Moving prospects from free to fee as part of an IT sales meeting is about getting the answers to important questions about their technology problems.  You need to have something to offer them and proposals that address their needs.  You should bring blank forms with you so you are ready to close the deal as part of IT sales.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

When making IT sales calls, you have to get through to the right person.  But getting through the front gates of companies can be challenging, and getting in touch with the person you need to talk to in order to achieve success in IT sales.  

Cold Calls Aren’t Easy

Most likely when you make a cold IT sales call, you will be greeted with a call screener that takes your name and number, but tells you she/he is not interested.  You can’t use this strategy to build demand unless you can get past the front gates of companies.  

Strategies for Getting Through the Front Gates

1.    Call before the screener leaves.  Typically the person answering phones works 9-5, 8-6 or 8-4.  

2.    Send an email or fax.

3.    Send a letter or postcard.

4.    Send a Fed-Ex package marked “personal confidential.”

While these strategies can sometimes lead to IT sales, they have been around for a while, and most businesses probably see through them at this point.  

There’s a Better Way to Get Through the Front Gates with IT Sales

The best way to make sure you connect with the right people in local businesses is to become respected and known in your community.  Build relationships with local accountants and deeply-niched solution providers, speak at events, hold seminars, volunteer and invest time in networking.

The Big Idea

If you can get a reputation within your area for being good at the job you do, you have a better chance at achieving success with IT sales.  No one will hire you unless you are known, liked and trusted, and most people will not respond to tricky sales techniques.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

When you are selling your services to sweet spot small businesses, keep in mind most will not understand the difference between certain IT certifications because you will not be selling to a real IT manager.  

Who is Investing in Your Services?

In certain industries and with specific types of businesses, you might be selling to real IT managers.  However, typically you will be pitching to a non-technical small business owner and someone that understands his/her own business but will probably not understand IT certifications and other IT issues.  

Because you will be selling services to non-technical individuals, they will not understand the difference between a CNA or a CNE, or between an MCT and MCSE IT certification.  Your IT certifications will not be critical.  

Begin at the Bottom with IT Certifications

If you really want to get IT certifications because you feel that not having them is preventing progress, get one or two entry-level certifications and work towards those that are more advanced.  Just don’t get too wrapped up in IT certifications, or you might lose potential clients.  

The Main Idea About IT Certifications

If you have already started your business but are not networking, following up or going out on sales calls, chances are you are missing a lot of potential business.  Don’t spend money on classes if you have no billable hours and nothing to back it up business development-wise.  Set your priorities before going after IT certifications to get the most out of your business.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Your client relationships are critical to getting IT sales.  Your customer list and even your revenue are not as important as the quality of the long-term relationships you build with clients and customers.  Because your ideal clients will bring you perhaps in the six-figure range in terms of lifetime value, you would benefit from investing time in building the best relationships.  

Manage Customer Expectations

If you are in charge of IT sales at the beginning, you won’t have to worry about sending a different salesperson each time with customers and prospects and having to begin again each time.  Salespeople notoriously misrepresent the abilities of a company just to get to IT sales, a fact which becomes a problem later and makes the job of managing customer expectations very difficult.  Build a personal relationship with customers at the start of the IT sales process to prevent issues later on in your business.  

Train IT Sales Staff Yourself

While at the beginning of your business you will most likely be directly involved in the IT sales process, as this procedure becomes more routine – once you have five to ten solid clients that are generating a combined income of $5,000 - $15,000 monthly – you will probably consider bringing someone else with you to help with some sales calls.  Delegating responsibilities will become important as your business grows, and you should be involved directly in training your own IT sales staff to make sure you keep good relationships with clients and build a consistent reputation.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT sales calls are very simple if you are prepared.  You need to do enough background research and figure out how badly prospects need you.  If you are ready and know what prospects’ greatest needs are, IT sales will be easier to close and you will be able to be the solution to problems.  

Prospect Pain

Prospects have to have points of pain in order to be receptive to IT sales.  Get prospects to name their three top computer problems.  They will probably not be able to limit this list to three, but the key is to get them to talk.  If you can get a lot of information from them, you will be better able to decide how you will be the solution to their problems and get them to sign onto IT sales.  

Investigate

How can you become a solution to prospects’ problems?  First, you need to really know what the problems are.  Ask the right questions to get rational answers.  Then think about how you can be cost-effective and get to IT sales.  

Computer Problems are Irritating

Prospects will most likely get pretty emotional about computer problems and will get frustrated and angry.  Try not to be intimidated by the presentation of your prospects’ problems.  Instead, read between the lines to figure out what the problem really is so you can offer a solution and be able to close the deal on IT sales.

The Main Idea

If you can figure out the biggest problem with prospects, you will be more likely to construct a compelling solution and be successful at IT sales.

Created By:  Computer Consulting Kit

A huge part of IT sales is establishing a connection with clients.  How can relationships be beneficial to IT sales?  The size of your customer list is not the most important thing and neither is the revenue of each customer.  Establishing long-term relationships with customers is paramount, since most of your ideal clients will provide you a lifetime value well into the six-figure range.  

IT Sales:  The Management of Customer Expectations

If you are the primary salesperson at the start of your business, you don’t need to worry about the salesperson you’re sending changing multiple times throughout the year.  Salespeople often misrepresent an organization in order to get a signature.  This will come back later to haunt you and make the process of managing expectations nearly impossible.  

IT Sales:  Train Your Sales Staff Yourself

Don’t get so involved in generating leads and closing sales that you neglect to delegate responsibilities to new salespeople once you get comfortable and stable.  Once the IT sales process becomes routine and you have five or ten solid clients earning you between $5,000 to $15,000 per month in services, hiring someone else to join you on sales calls is a good idea.  Delegation might be time consuming initially, but it is essential to getting to new levels of IT sales.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit