Small Business Computer Consulting

Part of being involved in computer consulting is selling your personality and your business knowledge.  But you are also selling your time, and you can’t afford to deal with people or tasks that will waste it.  You have to be able to use every hour to its fullest.  How do you tell if a service call is a good use of your time?

Is it an Emergency?

To work more efficiently, you have to be able to find out whether computer consulting clients are actually having an emergency or if they just want your time.  You should be able to determine this as soon as you hear from them – on the phone, over e-mail or in person.  A server down issue has a much greater sense of urgency than an unlinking PDA.  

What is the Budget?

You simply can’t waste time with prospects that don’t have any money to pay you for your services.  If you come across a broke computer consulting prospect, you need to put the person on a follow-up list for three to six months to figure out if there is going to be more IT money to be spent.  Otherwise, don’t waste your time.

Be Tactful

You can’t ask directly if a prospect is broke or even, “Do you have any money?”  To determine whether a prospect can afford your support, as if he/she gets computer consulting support currently, how he/she has received it in the past and whether he/she has only used moonlighters or volunteers.  You can find out how big the budget is for IT by asking these questions.

If you find out the prospect is already working with someone else that you think of as a competitor, you can assume the funds are there to hire you.

What is Their Pain?

You need to know how much pain a prospect is in and what the nature of the pain is in order to pitch a sophisticated solution to solve customers’ and prospects’ problems. 

 
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting

You need to think of time as part of your valuable inventory; don’t give it away in computer consulting unless you are sure it will be worth it.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Based in Vancouver, IT consulting firm Outsource Technologies has started stressing people skills in its business strategies.  The IT consulting company has been in business for ten years, offering services that go from basic tune-ups to long-term network maintenance.  But its main emphasis is on assessment and business planning along with design and integration and education of customers and clients on the management of their unique IT systems.  

The company employs 10, and hand-selects its staff based on experience not only with technology, but also with people.  Staff members of the IT consulting firm state they are more compassionate and sympathetic than most professionals in their field because they have years of experience working with customer pain first-hand.  

Outsource Technologies:  Customer Service is a Mantra

According to employees at the IT consulting firm, Outsource Technologies’ success has been based on the premise by which it began.  The IT consulting firm started based on the idea of a vested interest in client success.  The IT consulting team at the company strives to create an outsourced virtual IT department for small businesses that provides complete support for systems.

The IT consulting company has evolved in how it delivers service, but has kept its mantra the same.  From the beginning, the company has pushed service contracts as preventative maintenance programs.   The fact that overtime spent on emergencies and other service to customers not on service contracts meant expensive overtime pay encouraged support contract sign-up.

IT Consulting and Service Contracts

The firm introduced its Managed Services Program, providing flat-fee preventative maintenance under a contract to clients two years ago.  The IT consulting firm has learned the value of support contracts in keeping business and satisfying customers.  Service contracts have helped the company grow and help get better, more loyal clients.  

For more information on this IT consulting firm, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

One of the most challenging times for any IT consultant is getting an emergency call from a client with a totally shut-down office because of a systems outage.  If you have been working as an IT consultant for a while, you know that small business technology is tricky; your clients expect everything to be perfect, but don’t necessarily have a huge technology budget to handle unexpected problems and even general fault tolerance.

The IT Consultant Needs to Make Clients Aware of Downtime Costs

As an IT consultant, you need clients to know how important the protection from downtime is for their businesses.  Use the following two-stepped approach:

1.    Help clients determine the real cost of downtime;

2.    Strongly suggest investment by clients in spare PC hardware.

The IT Consultant:  What is the Cost of Downtime?

If your clients have more than a few PCs, they will eventually get a service history of which types of hardware go into disrepair most often.  They will also be able to learn from you as their IT consultant how to ask their PC vendor to give them replacement parts under warranty and how to figure out the time it will take to estimate the time to get replacement parts to their office and installed.

IT Consultant:  The Value of System Downtime

A quick calculation for figuring out the cost of system downtime is related to the hourly cost of system downtime.  The hourly cost of system downtime for clients equals projected annual revenue/(business days per year multiplied by the hours in a business day).

The IT Consultant:  A Tool for Your Website

If you know something about JavaScript, the calculator for determining system downtime can be a great marketing piece to put on the home page of your website.  If you use this tool, be sure to give credit back to the SmallBizTechTalk website.

Downtime is a major point for any IT consultant to discuss when building relationships with clients.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101

Part of IT sales is clear expression of benefits to prospects, along with persistently building a relationship with your clients.

There are no such things as instant IT sales; you need to put in significant time and effort.  Showing your clients how beneficial your services can be to them will help develop relationships and help IT sales efforts.

What Benefits Can You Deliver?

If you encounter a problem you can’t solve during an IT sales call, focus on the problems you can solve and the things you can do for a client to help his/her business.  The client should be able to see real benefits and agree they sound really good.

IT Sales:  What is Your Pitch?

You should talk about work you have done with other past clients and the benefits they saw as a result of what you recommended, designed, set up, supported and otherwise.  Your pitch as part of IT sales will better sit with clients if you bring up benefits.

IT Sales:  Relationship Evolution

You may have to wait a couple weeks or months for your prospect to sign.  Be patient, yet persistent with e-mails, faxes, postcards and phone calls.  

That being said, avoid obnoxiousness.  Don’t get to the point that you are calling every day.  Still, if prospects seem to really want to do it in the next few months, you can call once or twice a month to gauge their progress.

Extra Questions

If prospects have questions or issues that come up, you need to know about them.  You should also ask them if they need anything revised from the initial quote or bid.  Even if they say they will get back to you, but are saying that they are really interested, don’t let the discussion be over.  They don’t need to agree to IT sales right away.  The following basic questions can help you understand their interest:

How important is this?

When do you want to get started?

Is this urgent?

Where are you in the process of deciding about this project?

Where are you in the research process?

Is this a good time of year for the project?

Have you budgeted for this project?

Ask these questions in many ways, and don’t let “later” become “no” when you’re pushing IT sales.  

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Computer gurus are a necessary fixture for a successful client relationship. Your initial reaction may be that having an on-site computer guru will take money out of your pocket.  In fact, the computer guru’s presence will help to increase your profits in the long run.  

When the computers and servers work well and do what they are supposed to, everyone is happy.  Whether the computer guru fixed the problem or it was large enough that you needed to be called in, the perception is the same:  having your services benefits the company.  

So why do these sweet spot businesses need a computer guru in the first place?  They face a unique IT dilemma. These offices are often too small to justify on-site IT headcount, but yet are large enough to have major computer support headaches.

Even without an on-site IT group, in addition to a “real” job someone takes on the role of internal computer guru.  This is the person everybody instinctively yells for when the laser printer jams, the database locks up, or toolbars and files disappear.

The internal computer guru, often an office manager or administrator, gets stuck with the company’s PC problems.  They often have had no formal training and this is where your services come in.  By offering a few hours of highly focused training, you can often do wonders to transform the internal computer guru into a highly effective, on-site systems administrator.

The client enjoys a more immediate response to IT problems at the site and, when executed properly, this training will turn the internal computer guru into a fabulous ally that becomes an extension of your overall computer support solution.

Bottom Line on Computer Gurus
Computer gurus are your friends.  They are not competition and they will not cause you to lose revenue.  What the computer guru will do is make you look good.  The more support and training you can give the clients’ computer gurus, the better.

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

IT problems are often what throws your project off track.  This in turn has the potential to negatively impact your client relationships.  Here are some ideas for mitigating the impact on your client when you encounter IT problems.

Common IT Problems and Client Management
Communication is the key to lessening the impact of your IT problems.  Typically the IT problems you will encounter come in four categories:

• Skills
• Deadline
• Compatibility
• Data Loss

• Offer to locate an expert for the client.  
• Obtain approval for an hour or two of exploratory work to better define the IT problem.  
• Stall for a day or two, if you have to, and tell the client that you have an IT problem that you’d like to consult with other people on.

• When clients have a rush job, or they are pushing to get a project done faster than your comfort level, you need to be upfront about the issues you face because of it.
• Give them options to solve a deadline related IT problem:  tell them additional help will cost $X or we can do it in-house by such and such a date.  
• Allow the client be in control of the solution decision.  

• Get approval for a couple of hours of lab piloting or testing.  This gives you time to figure out what the root of the IT problem is.  
• Include a clause in your service agreements whereby clients agree to a reasonable amount of testing for any IT problems related to non-standard applications you are required to support.

• A proactive way to address this type of IT problem is to simply have a policy where you do not do in-place upgrades.  Tell your clients up front that this is your policy.
• Try not to install things on top of each other.  
• Insist on parallel installation and perform some kind of staging whenever you can.
• Always do tests.
• Don’t assume the backups are working.

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

Excellent customer service is a goal you should strive for every day.  The companies that survive the longest are the ones with a reputation for delivering excellent customer service.  It is not that hard to do.  In fact most of the tips here are common sense approaches.

Delivering Excellent Customer Service

• Think of your long-term clients as your extended business family.  The relationship you have with clients is much like those you have with family members or friends.  The ways you stay on good terms with these people are the same things you need to keep in mind for delivering excellent customer service.

• Under promise, over deliver, and anticipate client needs even when they don’t expressly tell you them.  

• Document your work and put together little checklists and cheat sheets for your clients.  These items are small, easy and low cost methods for providing excellent customer service.

• If you’re working on the systems, and the decision-maker or the guru happens to be out of the office, leave him or her a summary note of what you did.  Invite them to call you if they have any problems or questions.  The two or three minutes you spend jotting something down on a post-it and leaving it stuck to their phone, can make all the difference in the world in terms of delivering ordinary versus excellent customer service.  

• After any major upgrade, make a follow up phone call, or even better, make a courtesy visit.  This shows you care about your client - delivering excellent customer requires much more than just getting in, and getting out.  

• Excellent customer service is not always demonstrated in your actual service.  Every once in a while, show up with a box of cookies, donuts, bagels or something like that.  If you do it for no special reason, the impact is even greater.

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

Customer expectations are fickle.  There are a few key issues you need to be aware of in order to maintain good control of your customer’s expectations.

Avoid cost overruns at all costs.
The surest way to deplete customer expectation is to surprise them with increased costs.  The only surprises related to money should be if costs come in under budget.  

Avoid underestimating.
Your client’s expectations are built based on their experiences with you.  If you come in underestimating your costs for every budget, soon your clients will expect to pay less than your original quote.  This is not the kind of customer expectation you want to foster.  

Try to be on time as often as humanly possible.  
Lateness is a common deal breaker when it comes to customer expectation.  If there’s even a chance you’re going to be late or need to reschedule, call ahead of time.  In a client’s mind, when you’re talking about exceeding customer expectations, there is no such thing as over communicating.  The worst thing you can do is get yourself in a situation where your client feels they have to manage you.  You don’t need a boss, you need a client.  

Stay on top of deadlines.
Just like being physically late, missing deadlines is a strict no-no when it comes to exceeding customer expectations.  To score high points in customer expectation, you need to be professional at all times.  This means completing your obligations as you said you would.

Bottom Line on Customer Expectations
Managing customer expectations is an important function as a computer consultant. The most important thing you need to remember, is that your clients expect you to deliver superior service at all times and in all ways. Issues related to cost and time are high on the list of things that will determine how well you manage your customer’s expectations.    

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

When working in small business consulting, your clients may ask, "Why do I need something as big and powerful as the network you’re recommending? We’re just a seven person company and our network works great, at least most of the time."

"Sell" Fear

In this situation, to overcome denial, you often have to "sell" fear.  Be ready to talk about a small business consulting client that trusted their PC-savvy bookkeeper so much, that the bookkeeper was covering her trails daily and able to embezzle $50K before getting caught during an annual audit by their CPA.

Only naïve clients believe in trusting every employee and for that matter every non-employee who has physical access to the building.

Get Clients Thinking about Security

In reality though, small business owners rarely think about IT security until it’s too late. Make sure you get your small business consulting prospects and clients thinking about how much access should be granted.

Get your prospects and clients thinking about sensitive files such as credit card numbers, social security numbers (in the U.S.), trade secrets, payroll data or annual employee reviews.

Determine Client Needs

When small business clients say they think your proposed client/server network is overkill, they might not be thinking of the big picture. That’s all the more reason to take the small business consulting client through a comprehensive initial consultation, needs analysis, IT audit and site survey. 

Many times a small business owner might ask just for file sharing or e-mail. If you press further, however, you’ll discover they also really need a contact management system, group scheduling, network faxing, a company Intranet and secure, high-speed Web browsing from each desktop.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Consulting

If small business consulting clients insist they have no need for data security, you probably haven’t probed deeply enough.  Find out where the client stores its client lists, proprietary pricing models, payroll forecasts, bonus calculations, credit card data and social security numbers.

In this article, you’ve learned about small business consulting. To learn more about small business consulting click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

It is very important to educate your small business prospects and clients on key small business networking terms and buzzwords.  After all, in order to "win them over", you need to be speaking the same language. In fact, you may even want to prepare a "cheat sheet", based on the below definitions, to help you in your prospect and client pre-sales activities.

If you’d like to order a license to reproduce these networking terms for client sales literature, please contact questions@ComputerConsulting101.com and put "Licensing Your LAN Buzzwords" in the subject line.

• NIC (Network Interface Card) - a printed circuit board, adapter card or the underlying supporting chipset that snaps into the motherboard of a desktop PC, notebook or server and transmits and receives packets on a network; used to connect to networks including a local area network (LAN), wide area network
• (WAN), or a broadband network for high-speed cable modem or DSL-based Internet access or other dedicated Internet access service; most common NIC used by small businesses is the 10/100Mbps Ethernet adapter.
• NOS (Network Operating System) - an OS designed for communications between networked computer systems; popular NOS’s include Apple Mac OS, Linux, Microsoft Windows NT/2000 and Novell NetWare.
• Peer-to-Peer Network - an inexpensive alternative to a client/server network in which a PC doubles as both a workstation (used by an end user) and a server (from which resources are shared); although virtually any OS can be configured for peer-to-peer networking, peer-to-peer networks are often assembled from Microsoft’s least expensive consumer OS’s, such as Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Me and Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
• RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is technology generally used to increase a server’s reliability — by simultaneously writing data to multiple hard drives. While many people also use RAID to improve server performance, RAID eliminates a single point of hard drive failure. Years ago, you could only get the benefits of RAID through SCSI-based hard drives. Today, IDE hard drives can also enjoy entry-level RAID fault tolerance benefits.
•  SCSI (small computer systems interface) is a high-end interface for connecting both internal and external computer peripheral devices. Years ago, only SCSI-based storage devices were used in most servers.
• Server - any computing device or peripheral on a network designed to provide shared services and resources to network users; primarily characterized by multi-user usage, as compared to a desktop or notebook PC; common servers include the file, printer, e-mail messaging and collaboration, Web, proxy and database server.
• Wireless Ethernet - set of standards and in-progress standards that allow Ethernet networks to run without physical cabling and utilize radio waves for transmission.

The Bottom Line about Networking Terms

In this article, you’ve been introduced to networking terms. To learn more about networking terms click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.