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Thursday, December 30, 2004

Why you can't market to everybody...

Have you ever opened up one of those coupon packs that you get in the mail, and seen some local computer shop advertising a $49 service call?

How can they afford to do that? (Here's a hint... they really can't!)

Or have you ever seen some computer services business advertising $99 computer installations in the local throw-away newspaper?

Guess what you've just witnessed?

Donations....

Clueless local competitors literally flushing their advertising dollars down the drain.

These folks are making NON-deductible "donations" to overly aggressive, seemingly-friendly sales people promising the earth, moon, sun and stars.

So be very careful of WHO you copy!

The odds of finding a targeted, small business, B2B decision-maker, reading that piece, at EXACTLY that moment, who EXACTLY at the moment has a BURNING need for your computer services ...who's drawn in by a lame, institutional piece, with no compelling copy or call to action... This entire premise is SO ridiculously far-fetched that you may as well be buying lottery tickets.

What are these poor misguided business owners doing when they make these egregious, all-to-common promotional errors?

They're BROADCASTING their poorly-worded messages to 99.999% of the WRONG people.

When you need to be NARROWCASTING to the RIGHT people.

Remember, unless you have the marketing budget of a company like Office Depot, Microsoft, Dell, or Target, you can't afford to "invest" in "branding" activities.

You need to work smarter... MUCH smarter.

And avoid falling into the trap of trying to market to "everyone".

So, if you want to reach the best small business IT prospects (what I call the "sweet spot" of small business computer consulting), you need a highly-effective, field-tested plan for promoting your services DIRECTLY to highly-select decision makers.

And remember, marketing to "everyone" is like marketing to no one.... You need a BETTER plan of attack.

Best,

- Joshua


Joshua Feinberg, co-founder ComputerConsulting101.com
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

You can't be all things...

Do you call your company's business model "virtual IT"?

Do you try to position your firm essentially as your clients' outsourced IT department?

Or yourself, as your clients' virtual IT director?

Or virtual CIO?

That's all well and good and everything.

BUT, there's a hidden danger in all this.

Especially if you're a solo practice computer consultant.

And it can even be an issue if your firm has several talented systems engineers.

What's the problem you ask?

Trying to be ALL things.

For example, you or one of your senior technical staffers may have GREAT MCSE-level, or CIE-level, NOS or WAN technical skills.

But what happens when a valued client asks for help with getting some Macintosh systems to share some Microsoft Office files with PC's?

What happens when a client needs you to get AS/400 data out to an Intranet?

Do you have this diverse roster of skills in-house?

If so, great!

If not, remember, you can't be all things.

Don't put your client relationships in jeopardy by trying to learn new platforms or technologies on their nickel.

And you probably don't want to risk losing account control either by telling your client to go out and find a Mac or AS/400 consultant.

The best way?

Generally partnering and subcontracting.

So if your company needs to excel at being a great virtual IT department for your clients, remember, you may not be able to be all things to your clients.

But you should at least, take charge of managing ALL of the key pieces of your clients' IT infrastructures.


Best,

- Joshua


Joshua Feinberg, co-founder ComputerConsulting101.com
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Are you head-over-heels?

Question for you...

How do you decide what kinds of consulting services to provide and what kinds of products to support?

There are a number of wrong ways to go through this process, but only a few RIGHT ways to figure this out.

If you want to avoid YEARS of painful mistakes in this area, let me show you how you can get it right the first time around.

There are two basic ways to approach this

Approach A

You find a product or platform that you enjoy working with, that sounds really cool and nifty and sounds like every business wants it and needs it. Then you

>> Read every book you can get your hands on, on this topic

>> Study every cbt & resource kit out there

>> Attend every workshop and conference being held about this product

>> Spend several hours each week reading all the newsgroup posts

>> Spend a day or two every week studying for certification exams

Then after you’ve done all this, pay some REAL bucks and join a partner program, because the vendor promises that they're going to send you all their great leads.

So 80 hours & $7,500 later, guess what you have?

Bupkas... Nada... Nothing!

Now you're first ready to go out and look for clients who need this product or platform.

So after being effectively brainwashed at a channel program event, you're programmed to spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to EDUCATE prospects and CONVINCE them that

A) they have A problem

B) it's THIS particular problem

C) you have THE solution

D) the benefits of the solution by far outweigh the cost

E) there's some urgency to get off the fence & do something

If you're starting to wonder who in their right mind would succumb to such a disastrous business development plan,you're on the right track and ready to hear about what actually DOES work!

Meet APPROACH B

Start talking to VERY specific business owners and managers that are most likely to REGULARLY NEED IT services.

To learn about

a) what to ask prospects?

b) how to ask prospects?

c) how to respond to different scenarios?

d) how to structure and control your early meetings?

e) how to move prospects to action?

f) how to turn one-time-customers into long-term, steady high-paying clients?


Whatever you do, please please please

don't be seduced by a fast-talking salesperson....

don't get brainwashed into believing a particular platform or technology is the ONLY way to go, or the best thing since sliced bread

don't try to grow your business backwards

Remember, at the end of the day, it's all about delivering what your PAYING clients need... not what you want them to need.

Best,

- Joshua


Joshua Feinberg, co-founder ComputerConsulting101.com
http://www.computerconsultingkit.com/