Computer Consulting Means Turning Leads into Prospects

As someone starting your computer consulting business you may wonder what you are looking for in your sweet spot consulting clients. The general rule is to look for businesses that are reaching seven-figure annual sales numbers and have about 10 to 25 employees. But what more specific criteria are you looking for in your computer consulting business clients?

COMPUTER CONSULTING: GOOD AND BAD SIGNALS

Certain industries are more reliant on IT than others. You will figure out through exploration what industries most need your computer consulting services. There are some pretty standard good and bad signs that you will notice right away when meeting with prospects that will save you time and help you identify those wiling to spend $1,000 to $2000 on services.

One good sign is if a prospective client tells you he is working with another computer consulting firm or solution provider and is not satisfied with the results. This tells you the prospect is willing to pay for additional computer consulting services.

On the flip side, a bad sign is if the prospect is already working with a moonlighter or someone that is helping out, whether a friend or a family member, for free. If this is the case, you know the prospect probably isn’t keen on buying real computer consulting services and that any price you quote will be beaten by their current provider.

SWEET SPOT CLIENTS COME IN GROUPS

Sweet spot clients willing and able to spend $1,000 or $2,000 per month on services from your computer consulting firms will probably have established relationships with local accountants, attorneys and management consultants and may even be working with other niche technology providers. These relationships can help you when they start referring you to others in their network.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Finding the Users and Influencers/Users Amidst Business Contacts

Your network consists of many business contacts, and these people are vital to your business. It is your responsibility to nurture relationships with business contacts to expand your business and reach out to more customers.

Business contacts come in two types: users and influencers/users. You need to be able to tell the different between these two categories of business contacts and establish the appropriate relationships. Those that fall into the influencers/users categories are your best bet for business contacts because they can both use your services and convince others to use them. While every client is a potential source for referrals, influencers/users are entrenched in the business of referrals.

TWO CATEGORIES OF INFLUENCERS/USERS

The influencers/users among your business contacts fall into two distinct categories:

ADVISORS TO SMALL BUSINESSES

The following are business contacts are typically considered trusted specialists in the advice business:

1. Accountants

2. Bookkeepers

3. Attorneys

4. Business Managers

5. Consultants.

These business contacts are people businesses call when they need help with other types of services. If you maintain the network of a well-respected accountant, you will be most likely to be recommended by this person to his own clients.

NICHE TECH SMALL BUSINESS PROVIDERS

This category is marked by those in the IT industry that don’t compete directly with you and include the following people:

1. Accounting Software Experts

2. Industry Niche Software Professionals

3. Phone System Sellers

4. Software Developers

5. Those that build Systems

6. Website Designers

These professionals within your business contacts typically work for businesses that will fall into your sweet spot, and will most likely recommend your expertise if you provide IT services for them and stay in good contact.

Business contacts are critical to your success, and you should focus on influencers/users in order to help with your referrals.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

News for IT Consultants: Managed Services Firm Singlefin Presents Free E-Mail Security System for Clients

Singlefin, a San Diego-based security and business services company recently announced it would be offering free e-mail filtering for a variety of businesses. This filtering service presents enterprise-quality anti-spam, anti-virus and technical support that matches services offered by IT consultants without necessary additional hardware or software. Companies making use of this filtering service do not need to change ISPs or e-mails.

Singlefin has been providing e-mail and security to companies like that offered by professional IT consultants since 2001 and enjoys a reputation as the largest e-mail filtering service across the globe. Singlefin filters five billion e-mail messages daily by using unique filters to stop viruses, spam and malware of all types before it gets to internal networks.

CEO of Singlefin Troy Getty states that is has been working as a security engine in a capacity similar to systems implemented by the most expensive IT consultants for free e-mail companies that include Juno, NetZero and BlueLight. The company supports over 10.5 million users and even more messages daily. So far there is no competition for business-grade tech support with instant results that costs nothing to operate. According to Getty, Singlefin offers e-mail filtering, filtering of instant messages, web filtering, anti-virus and anti-spam services. This is accomplished free of charge because of the redirection of DNS or MS records through Singlefin data centers and filters that only allow clean data through to customer networks. While the service is primarily made for businesses that have their own domain names, it does not require a change in current ISP or e-mail address.

IT consultants noted that the service does not use banner ads or e-mail marketing in order to help support its free nature, rather uses large amounts of free e-mail traffic to find spam and virus outbreaks and detect malware so users can feel protected. A certain number of business customers using this free service can choose to upgrade to paid services from the company that offer enhanced IM filtering, web filtering and even more e-mail protection. Many IT consultants have endorsed this free filtering system, stating it is a sophisticated and affordable alternative to other more expensive security filtering systems.

Created By: Joshua Feinberg

Tips for Solution Providers: Closing the Sale

As a solution provider for small businesses and others, the best way to keep clients is to fully comprehend the business problem and be prepared with a solution. While the hardest part is figuring out the intricacies of what a CTO needs within a company, this process is important for you as solution providers and allows for easier problem-solving and tailor-made solutions.

You need to research the problem of each business and know the finer points so you can start a meaningful conversation that isn’t just a standard speech you give to all clients. Ask yourself how the business you are working with as a solution provider can improve its efficiency.

Time is critical for solution providers. If you are a solution provider, you need to remember that time is important to you and your business, but also to your clients and their businesses. You need to be able to quickly express interest in your clients’ problems and offer a good solution even faster to grab their attention. If you do your homework before the initial meeting with a prospect, you will be poised and ready to respond to whatever is thrown your way.

Experts and companies that work with solution providers agree that they need to work with a solution provider that truly understands their problems and pains. Typically business people are so busy that they respond best to someone that offers a lot of information succinctly.

Managed services are most interesting to end users if service providers can offer an impressive case about how efficient and what a great value they are. Many clients will buy into an entire system analysis and even software or hardware upgrades if presented with a good first assessment by solution providers. Many businesses just want an expert to tell them what they need and provide it. Solution providers act as virtual CEOs for companies of all sizes. Even larger businesses with a lot of IT staff members find themselves turning to solution providers for second opinions or to handle some of the more complex and sophisticated technology needs their company has.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

IT Support and Your Level of Expertise

In the realm of small business IT support, specific levels of expertise can be all over the map depending on the work you are doing. What level of expertise does your IT support business need, and what skills do you and your employees truly need?

EXPERTS AT EVERY IT SUPPORT LEVEL

You will find experts at every IT support level. In big enterprise IT, you will typically have a range that goes from help desk technicians to senior systems engineers. You will also find CIOs. There will be many different levels of expertise within these ranges as well, but in a perfect world, each employee will be an expert at his/her specialty.

Your IT support contractors and staff should follow the same guidelines as these experts. You probably will have some technicians with simple skills like hard drive installation or a LAN adapter installation as well as some other staff members that are good with P2P networks or basic servers. You might also have those in IT support that are really good at firewalls and servers and networking along with other very sophisticated items.

PEOPLE SKILLS AND IT SUPPORT

The most successful IT support people are good at either technical aspects or sales. But one of the most important elements of IT support is people skills. The ability to coordinate projects involving people is particularly helpful with big projects that have many components. For example, you may be installing a 10 or 25-node network and need to coordinate with many vendors and solution providers. A lot can go wrong, but having project management, administrative management and account management skills are all vital to IT support.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Utilization Rates and How They Work With Benchmarking and Best Practice

You can measure your success against others in the computer consulting business by using benchmarking and best practice. When you examine industry benchmarks and rate your own performance in comparison, you can determine what areas you need to improve to get the most successful results. Utilization rates are critical to benchmarking and best practice. The utilization rate is defined as the ration of how many hours you bill clients compared to the number of yours you actually work during a certain period.

UTILIZATION RATE IS EQUAL TO HOURS BILLED/HOURS WORKED

You should compare your skills with benchmarking and best practice based on a 40 hour work week. Thus, if you are working 40 hours per week but really only working with clients for 10 hours, the utilization rate would be 25%.

BENCHMARKS AND THE UTILIZATION RATE

Benchmarking and best practice within the computer consulting industry is typically approximately 50% minimum in regards to utilization rate. You need to gauge whether your utilization rate is going up to meet these standards for best practice and benchmarking.

You should be at 50% utilization rate by the sixth to ninth month of your computer consulting business. By the time your business is fully grown, you will probably be at a utilization rate of 75%, meaning you will be working 30 billable hours per week. If you get higher than this percentage, you are probably not going to be able to do your best work. You might get a huge paycheck, but you will probably burn out quickly.

Part of being in the computer consulting business s measuring your performance against your competitors. Benchmarking and best practice will help you figure out where you stand in the industry, and your utilization rate will be dependent upon where your business is in its life cycle.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Consulting News: Speakeasy Teams With World Telecom Group

Large provider of broadband to IT consulting firms recently announced a partnership with World Telecom Group, another service provider to offer business class broadband as well as voice services to 1,000 independent consultants. Speakeasy intends to provide T1, DSL, VoIP and different hosting options along with VoIP certification for those interested.

Based in Seattle, Speakeasy has experienced success in the IT consulting industry, offering small business-focused services to many for several years. The partnership with World Telecom Group will hopefully improve the company’s visibility within the channel, according to CEO Bruce Chatterley.

World Telecom Group works to distribute services from over 75 providers to its network members. The recent collaboration with Speakeasy will add new products like VoIP and others to its already rich service list. According to Vince Bradley, President and CEO of World Telecom Group, the company is renowned for its customer support and array of products, so Speakeasy will fit in perfectly with other companies in its fold.

Speakeasy is one of the largest independent broadband services company in the IT consulting industry of the U.S. and focuses on small businesses and professionals that rely heavily on the Internet as part of their business plans.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Business Lenovo Adds Yet Another Dell Executive to Its Ranks

Computer business Lenovo recently hired yet another Dell executive. In a mere eight days, the Chinese computer business and world’s biggest computer maker has hired four executives from Dell, increasing the competition between the two companies.

The latest Lenovo recruit is Christopher J. Askew, former vice president of Dell. He will be senior vice president in charge of the service department at computer business Lenovo. In his previous position with Dell he was in charge of service in the Asia-Pacific region and Japan.

On August 17, Lenovo stated that David Miller, previously president of Dell China would be president of the computer business’ Asia Pacific operations. Miller is also a senior vice president of Lenovo and will base his work in Singapore. Other recruits include Sotaro Amanoas, president of Lenovo Japan and formerly vice president of Dell’s home and business sales division in Japan and David Schmoock, vice president in charge of the all new centre of excellence on market evaluation and strategy.

The addition to computer business Lenovo of these four senior executives is a bold move by CEO of Lenovo William Amelio and is said to be a move to improve business in the Asia-Pacific Region. Amelio was hired by Lenovo as a replacement for Stephen Ward last December. Ward was an executive with the company for just eight months.

Lenovo’s latest sales figures were reported at $3.5 billion, 38 percent higher than the same period from last year.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

IT Marketing Strategies for Growing Your Computer Company

If you want to sell your services in the IT industry, you have to first show clients they have problems to solve and then move onto proving how your firm can solve the problems. IT marketing is an important means to build awareness that your solution will be effortless, affordable and a good investment.

EFFECTIVE SEMINAR MARKETING

Seminar marketing is an excellent option for IT marketing because it can efficiently build awareness among prospects and clients. Instead of using multiple salespeople to go on sales calls that take an hour or more just to explain very fundamental principles, you can reach multiple prospects at once in one conference room.

LOW PRESSURE FOR PROSPECTS

Seminar marketing as an IT marketing strategy is far less intimidating for prospects. With appropriate registration, good follow-up and proper qualifications along with good invitation plans, you can drum up a lot of business just through holding seminars on top technology issues for your niche.

IT MARKETING AND WHITE PAPERS

Publishing a white paper or an e-zine is also an excellent IT marketing strategy and can ease the process of follow-up. For example, if you run a direct mail campaign and offer a white paper with a certain value attached for prospects, they will be more likely to view you as a worthwhile time investment. If you do regular seminars, you can offer a transcript or white paper based on key topics as a part of your IT marketing strategy.

IT MARKETING IS ABOUT ADVERTISING YOUR SERVICES

You can advertise your white paper when you do display ads or direct mail items. The white paper will give people an excuse to call or go online and ask for something specific. Once they make the request, you can get their information and use it in further IT marketing endeavors.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

More Seminar Tips for Solution Providers

Training seminars can be an integral part of any marketing strategy for solution provider. But hosting a successful seminar requires hard work and careful planning. The following is a list of tricks you can use to help get the most out of you training seminars as solution providers:

1. The content of the training seminar should be fun for participants. Get the audience involved in the process by asking questions and encouraging attendees to share information with each other.

2. Offer handouts at the training seminar that has your company information on it. Leave blank spaces on the paper and encourage participants to take notes on the paper so they may be more likely to feel it is their own and they will save it.

3. Invite your favorite clients to the training seminars for solution providers. They will appreciate being asked and will most likely share positive experiences with you with other seminar attendees. There’s a chance you will be able to use some testimonials in your presentation.

4. Practice delivery of the materials. If you have speaking anxiety, join an organization like Toastmasters and practice speaking until you feel less frightened of the experience. Even if you don’t plan on hosting a training seminar, as a solution provider you should still practice speaking to improve your group presentations and better marketing activities.

5. Drum up demand for your solution providers training seminars by speaking at various events like Chamber of Commerce breakfasts or Rotary meetings.

6. Ask clients if they know people that want to attend your training seminar. The people they find will be more likely to trust you because of their involvement with someone that knows your services well.

7. Invite all members of your contact list as solution providers to your seminar through postcards, email and phone calls.

8. Put advertising inserts about your training seminar in your newsletters.

9. Rent target lists for a direct mail campaign to increase the success of your training seminar.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Consulting Businesses are Labor-Intensive Endeavors

Starting a computer consulting business takes a great deal of time and involves a lot of activities. You have to go to meetings, talk to people and make many follow-up calls. Ads and direct mail campaigns do not replace the personal touch communicated by connecting person-to-person. Having a realistic attitude about starting your computer consulting business will help you succeed.

FRANCHISES ARE NOT GUARANTEES

Just because you decide to open up a franchise with pre-established policies and images does not mean you have ready-made clients. And buying a business already in operation with existing clients is a lot more expensive. Even the purchase of a small computer consulting business could cost a few hundred thousand or a few million dollars.

COMPUTER CONSULTING BUSINES START-UP COSTS

If you start your own computer consulting firm, you can do so inexpensively for a few thousand dollars. You will need a business phone number and voice mail, a cell phone, business cards and legal licenses and registrations. You will want to consult an attorney and an accountant and get insurance. Many times you can start from a home office.

FRANCHISES REQUIRE FLEXIBILITY

When you buy a franchise, you give away some control. You have to do things in specific ways according to set rules, and you can’t stray very far from the guidelines. Your company pays the franchiser a percentage of the annual revenue until the end of time. And you lose some control over taking your computer consulting business in new directions.

As someone starting a computer consulting business, you have some options. You can star an independent consulting firm, buy a franchise or buy a pre-established business. Just keep in mind that a totally new computer consulting business will require more work than money.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

How to Get Favorable Media Publicity

You want to create media publicity because it is a free way to get some typically expensive exposure. Once you get media publicity, you can continue to use it now and in the future. The following ways can help get reporters on your side and give you the most favorable coverage:

1. Expose yourself as an expert in order to get good media publicity. You should go to seminars and join committees to increase your community profile.

2. When approached by the media, make yourself stand out by communicating a unique angle. Your ideas will be more quotable and you will get recognized above other experts.

3. Always treat the media respectfully and professionally. Return phone calls and emails as soon as you can, since the media publicity typically is awarded to the first two of ten experts reporters approach.

4. Create friendly relationships with reporters that typically cover your industry. Since many seek out media publicity, you have to be proactive about establishing good relationships with those that might call you so they will call you more often.

5. Don’t let stories be all about you. Sometimes you can approach the media with news of interest in your industry, prompting reporters to come to you in the future for your advice and opinions.

6. Get creative about media publicity by giving inside looks at your IT world.

No matter how you go about getting media publicity, you have to keep persevering even if you don’t get attention right away. Similarly, once you get on the front page of a newspaper after months of pitching a media publicity idea, don’t expect to have people calling you constantly. You may only get a few inquiries and a few calls to congratulate you. The most important part of media publicity is strengthening credibility, not getting more sales.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Number Portability Expected to Hurt Smaller Solution Providers in September

Number portability is set to hit the market in September and will potentially financially hurt small solution providers less equipped that use least cost routing (LCR). This issue is causing worry among customers expecting that the negative impact on solution providers will translate to higher costs for them.

Industry experts still state that while there may be some impact, churn rates will probably be lower, allowing consumers to port to alternative networks. Number portability makes it possible for users to choose alternative network providers without changing numbers, which allows them to have more options within the market.

Experts also state that convenience is typically what determines churn rates. Traditionally 90% of new connections are customers that pre-pay and don’t need or want to go through the difficult process of porting. They usually throw away old SIM cards and get new numbers.

Solution provider Vodacom recently got rid of one million inactive prepaid consumers, which displays how simple it is for these consumers to just buy totally new packages when they need a number. The biggest problem for customers is the cost of changing providers, which is still unregulated.

Because many subscribers get stuck in contracts, they won’t be able to break out of them with the dawn of number portability. The service provider releasing the client from the contract and the one signing this same client up have to agree on a standard process, meaning that sometimes certain solution providers will refuse to allow number migration if there is an outstanding bill or any sort of dispute surrounding a contract. Commitments will probably have to be more long-term, causing customers to have to think more carefully about the process of signing up for specific contracts.

Because no one wants to lose money, there will be a lot of money spent on retention marketing, which will be a great deal for consumers but might very well cause difficulties for solution providers. Call centers will probably be better, and the competition among providers will cause better customer service in general and some special opportunities.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Computer Consultants Help Design High Tech Computing Center and Database at Cornell University

The interdisciplinary research center stationed at Cornell University that provides IT services for research and education, The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) stated this week that computer consultants had helped design a new computing center and informatics system as part of the Biorepository at the medical research center. The new center located at the Feinstein Center for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY will be a data warehouse and data mining center that will help manage the large amounts of information stored in Cornell’s collection and help more efficiently analyze and process biological specimens.

The Biorepository was built in 1998 and now houses thousands of human samples, including serum, plasma, DNA, cells, tissues and tumors. Accompanying these samples are huge amounts of data attached to important scientific studies. Thanks to expert computer consultants, the process of analyzing and handling these specimens will now be much simpler and provide more detailed information for students and staff.

Those at Cornell have stated that until computer consultants helped design this new data management system, longer studies with huge datasets were nearly impossible to efficiently manage and manipulate. The Feinstein Biorepository informatics system offers a symmetrical multi-processor (SMP) Unisys ES7000 computer that can be expanded to 256 GB of RAM that runs four 64-bit Intel Itanium 2 processors that can themselves be increased to 64. This unique system runs Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2. Data is stored through four host bus adapters to an EMC CLARIION CX300 RAID disk array. Also part of the computing center is a series of 32-bit applications that run on Dell PowerEdge servers and PowerVault disk arrays. This new system will hopefully offer a much more streamlined data management system than previously was being useed and will help Cornell University fully utilize its cyberinfrastructure resources for both research and education, providing valuable insight to medical experts, university students, professors K-12 outreach programs and other teaching and learning programs attached to the university.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Computer Consulting 101: An Easy Fix for Any PC

All businesses should enlist the support of a good local computer consulting business, but some computer problems require little time and no money to fix. And you don’t have to have certifications or even much computer knowledge to repair simple issues.

The best piece of advice for anyone using computers is reboot first. If you are panicking, you may not think to try this simple procedure, but studies have shown that ten to twenty percent of the time, rebooting is what fixes a problem and avoids spending money and time calling a computer consulting firm.

The reboot process is simple:

1. Exit out of files and programs.

2. Go through a shutdown and restart sequence as prompted by your PC.

3. If your problem may be hardware-related (if it involves a mouse, keyboard or sound card), go one step further by going to the start menu, shutting down your PC then turning the power off for a minute or so before starting it back up again.

Many times your problem will resolve itself by going through these simple steps. And because calling a computer consulting firm is expensive, and when the problem is so simple to fix, also a bit embarrassing remembering to reboot first will save computer consulting budgets and your ego!

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Strategic Marketing Plans and How They Can Help Your New Business

Strategic marketing plans should be an essential pat of any new computer consulting business and can help you name a specific way to achieve a greater marketing goal. Successful businesses have strategic marketing plans in place from the get-go and refer back to them when completing all business activities.

The most important element of developing a strategic marketing plan is figuring out the different possible marketing activities. The following list provides some guidelines for creating a good strategic marketing plan:

1. You should spend half your time and money on marketing through organizations as well as referral marketing.

2. Spend 20% of your time and finances on speaking, teaching and seminar marketing and other related activities. This portion of a strategic marketing plan figures in not only solo seminars but also joint seminars with accountants and other tech providers.

3. Direct mail is the next part of your strategic marketing plan and will take about 20% of your time. You need to focus on targeting, as you would with any other element of the plan.

4. The smallest amount of time and money, 10% of it, should involve marketing activities that may or may not work for you. These can range from door hangers and telemarketing to going after specific industries. You might fail a lot when experimenting with these techniques, but testing them is critical.

If you build your strategic marketing plan from the beginning of your business it will keep you focused and on track and help you explore the many options available to you in the computer business.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Computer Business Dell Decides to Recall 4.1 Million Sony Batteries for Laptops

On Monday computer business Dell, Inc. stated it would be recalling 4.1 million Sony Corp.-made computer batteries due to their flammable nature. The batteries are said to have the potential to overheat and catch fire. The computer business worked out the recall with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Dell spokespeople stated that the batteries eligible for the recall were those put in notebooks shipped between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006.

While the incidence of batteries actually catching fire is low, in some cases a short circuit could overheat the batteries and create smoke or even fire. These battery packs came with certain machines from the computer business Dell, including Latitude, Inspiron, XPS and some other workstation notebooks. Dell will launch a website with more specific model information and information about how to get free batteries from the computer business to replace those that may be faulty.

Spokespeople for Sony also stated that they have been investigating issues with these battery packs for over a month after reports began to come in about smoking computers. Lithium-ion batteries have been in production for a decade and are also used in cell phones and mp3 players. Sometimes the tiny metallic parts in these batteries short circuit the entire system and can be further affected by specific configurations. Sony is helping computer business Dell fund the recall, but there is no estimated amount on the table for the total cost of the endeavor or how it will be split between the companies.

Computer business Dell has struggled lately to keep sales up against rival Hewlett-Packard in particular, and this latest development does not help the cause. HP does not use Sony batteries, so the company has not been impacted by this news, however Apple Computer, Inc. is looking to make sure its products are safe.

Dell remains the world’s largest PC maker, but Monday’s recall is the third of Dell notebook batteries within the past five years. The Safety Commission has reported 339 different incidents involving lithium batteries catching fire in both cell phones and laptops, not simply Dell-based products, between 2003 and 2005.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Up and Coming IT Consulting Firm Treetop Tech Hires New Senior Executive

Fast-growing IT consulting firm Treetop Tech recently announced the appointment of Chris Middleton as the new Director of Consulting and Project Services. The IT consulting company has been recognized as one of the fastest growing IT services businesses in the U.S. since 2004 by Inc. Magazine.

As a new senior executive, Middleton will be managing Treetop’s staff of specialized IT consultants and helping increase IT consulting practice areas such as Agile Business Solutions, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).

Spokespeople for Treetop state that Middleton comes into the position with experience managing enterprise information technology solutions as a Senior Manager formerly at Accenture and IT Director at Capital One. Middleton is excited about working with leading software development technologies from major players including Microsoft, IBM and Oracle.

Middleton is coming into his new senior executive IT consulting position from Capital One, a global 200 financial services company where he acted as an IT director for the Credit Recovery Services (CRS) Division. Previously he has also worked as Senior Manager at Accenture, in charge of software development and implementation.

IT Consulting firm Treetop Tech was started in 1997 in Boise, Idaho and has been growing steadily since 2004, with partnerships with IBM, Oracle and Microsoft.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

What IT Certifications Will Your Clients Expect to Support Their Businesses?

Your sweet spot small business clients will need specialized support, including strong desktop support skills and some minor LAN skills. What skills and IT certifications are most important to your sweet spot business clients?

WHAT TASKS ARE YOU SUPPORTING?

Most sweet spot clients need help with popular items like Microsoft Office, Intuit QuickBooks and Interact ACT! They will also need assistance with hardware upgrades or even with setting up shared folder backups and maintaining antivirus and firewall software. Many clients will also need help syncing PDAs.

THE DISTINCTIVE NEEDS OF MICRO SMALL BUSINESSES

Businesses with less than 10 PCs that use P2P networks will not need or expect you to have a lot of IT certifications, so you shouldn’t waste your money on them. IT certifications in the world of micro small businesses sometimes are seen as a detriment because owners may feel like you are overqualified and too expensive.

REAL IT MANAGERS LOOK FOR IT CERTIFICATIONS

When you are selling services you a real IT manager at a larger small business that has 50 plus systems, you run into someone that is looking more closely at your IT certifications. A real IT manager will know what the different IT certifications are and will typically be looking for niched experts instead of more generalized IT consultants. Because this type of business does not do much outsourcing of IT work, they will be pickier about the person chosen to support the company and more likely to be invested in IT certifications such as those surrounding Microsoft programs.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

What Are the Best Business Organizations for You to Join?

Business organizations can really help you with your relationship marketing. When you join business organizations you expose yourself to important business owners in your community and get the opportunity to get active and fully use relationship marketing.

The Chamber of Commerce may be the most common business organization for many professionals, but there are many others that can help you immensely.

HOW DO YOU FIND BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS?

1. Look through the local newspaper and watch out for community announcements about business organizations

2. Regularly read and subscribe to an area business journal.

3. Go to local government offices, business assistance offices and economic development offices for referrals to different business organizations you can join.

4. Look at the Gal Group Encyclopedia Associations.

5. Go to a reference librarian and ask for the names of good area business organizations.

6. Inquire within your network about business organizations and what might be best for you.

7. Go to national organizations, then narrow down your search to state, county then city level.

8. Use Business Referral Networks to find leads about business organizations. BNI.com and bltip.com are some good examples.

9. Look at civic organizations, which are not business organizations but house a lot of local business owners. Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions are all this type of organization.

SPECIALTY BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS

Specialty business organizations are also a viable option and include the following groups: minority business owners associations; IT industry business organizations; the ICCA (Independent Computer Consultants Association); International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners for Microsoft Certified Partners; the “F’ group.

Business organizations will help you meet prospects and other business owners, and you should explore the many options beyond the Chamber of Commerce to find the perfect ones for you.

Created By: Joshua Feinberg

First Tips for Companies Hiring Computer Consulting Firms

If you find that you are thinking of adding the services of a computer consulting firm to your business plan, you need to be prepared to ask the right questions so you help assure you get the best company for the job. The following tips can help overcome the root of the problem – the fact that small business owners often don’t know how to deal with difficult computer consultants or how to weed them out of the running for contracts.

PART TIME OR FULL TIME?

Is the computer consulting firm in question one that houses consultants with day jobs or are they moonlighting?

SOLO PRACTIONER OR TRUE COMPUTER CONSULTING COMPANY?

If the computer consulting firm uses the term “we” a lot, ask who the other people are working with the company. You need to know if they are employees or contractors and what their backgrounds and fields of expertise are. The more specific your questions, the more you will eliminate confusion.

COMPUTER CONSULTING: IS IT A SMALL BUSINESS OR LAGE COMPANY FIRM?

You should ask the prospective computer consulting firm about the size of the typical client, based on total number of PCs, employees and the annual revenue.

GENERALIST OR SPECIALIST?

Ask the prospect what industries his/her company has worked with and with what software applications. What kinds of products and services will the computer consulting company not manage? Does the company work with any specific hardware, software or services vendors?

Addressing these four categories of questions will help get the hiring process started for even those businesses with no experience hiring computer consulting clients to handle technology needs.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Using Two-Step Sales Processes for Direct Mail

Different types of marketing call for different sales techniques. Computer resellers often use direct mail advertising in their marketing strategies and compliment it with the two-step sales process.

A TWO-STEP SALES PROCESS DEFINED

The basis for a two-step sales process is the idea that you can’t get a $10,000 client from a direct mail postcard alone. The two-step sales process helps you get your foot in the door by getting the attention of your target.

The standard two-step sales process includes the following procedures:

1. Calling to reserv a seminar seat

2. Calling to request a report

3. Setting up a free mini needs analysis with no further obligation

4. Providing a confirmation email address

The actual service offered is far less important than eliciting the first response. When you have a person interested, you will be more likely to sell them the second part of the two-step sales process.

TRACKING IN TWO-STEP SALES PROCESSES

Using the two-step sales process involves built-in tracking devices. If you send out 2500 direct mail postcards, you need to figure out exactly how many inquiries the mailing produced. The other element to track as part of the two-step sales process is how many inquiries became paying clients during 30-day, 60-day, 90-day, 100-day, 180-day periods following the mailing.

These statistics are important when you plan your direct mail campaign and two-step sales process. They will tell you what is working so you can do more of it in the future.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Network Consulting News: Hackers Go After Corporate Hand-Held Devices

Professional handheld devices, particularly Blackberries have recently become a popular target for hackers looking to infiltrate computer systems, which has network consulting professionals looking for new ways to beef up technological security in corporations. A network consulting professional and security expert recently developed a Trojan horse that can get into Blackberry systems.

The Trojan horse, created as a test to prove vulnerabilities within handheld devices is hidden in a tic-tac-toe game that can be easily emailed to any Blackberry device. The malicious program is called BBProxy and was designed by Jesse D-Aguanno of the IT risk management company Praetorian Global and was revealed at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas.

While BBProxy does not attack computer systems itself, the designer stated that network consulting professionals and corporate employees still need to be wary of the potential for programs such as these to eventually morph into viruses that can destroy systems used with handheld devices. Many believe falsely that because of the nature of handheld devices – their size and uses – they cannot harm an internal network. However, even Blackberries run code and are machines that are constantly connected to internal networks and are allowed access to many important files and programs. Most corporations do not limit access of Blackberries, so it can get to everything within a networking system.

While many companies use Blackberry devices as an integral part of their daily lives, many don’t realize how important handheld device security is when working with networking consulting firms. Experts state that companies that are trying to protect a wireless network typically need wireless devices such as Blackberries to have very specific hardware addresses and encryption keys for network access. Still, security measures get more difficult to implement as systems get more sophisticated, and the more technology continues to advance, the more the need to download important patches and updates to software and systems, including the recent Microsoft security patches becomes.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Computer Business CA Decides to Eliminate 1,700 Jobs

Computer business software maker CA recently announced it was going to eliminate 10.5 percent of its workforce, or 1,700 jobs due to a significantly decreased first quarter net income that did not match up to increasing expenses.

Computer business CA has had some accounting issues in the past, accompanied by many years of financial losses and also key personnel losses. The cuts are just one part of a restructuring of the company that will cost $200 million in the next two quarters.

The computer business is headquartered in Islandia, New York and spokespeople are confident that closing some of the offices and restructuring others will help bring about $200 million in savings per year once it is complete in 2008.

CA’s net income decreased to $35 million from $97 million last year, while revenue was $956 million up from $927 million. Experts expect that the net income will be just 3 cents per share on revenue of $931 million this year.

CA CEO John Swainson is helping with the new initiative to turn the computer business around. The company got rid of its top sales executive early in the summer and started rebuilding a sales force when it found that former accounting practices were not working. Scandals, including former CEO Sanjay Kumar’s accounting fraud charges based on a $2.2 billion dollar problem further rocked the company’s infrastructure and standing.

CA is responsible for selling software to help companies manage networks including mainframe computers, PCs and wireless devices. Other rivals in the computer business software industry, such as IBM and Compuware Corp. have been thriving, motivating the company further to do a complete overhaul.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

How to Transform Computer Consulting Leads into Prospects

As someone in the computer consulting field, you may find it challenging to figure out which of your leads will make the best prospects.

FIND YOUR INDUSTRY FOCUS

The first way to find prospects is to determine your industry focus. You need to reach out to your target market and stand out, because everyone in the computer consulting industry is looking for the same advertising techniques, hardware services and LAN.

COMPUTER CONSULTING AND DIFFERENT SIZE AUDIENCES

When thinking about computer consulting leads, you should go after three different size audiences. The first is the micro small business that has just a few PCs. The mindset of the business owner is more important than the number of PCs, but micro small businesses typically have a very small number of employees and PCs and is not looking for sophisticated computer consulting services.

The sweet spot is the next step up and is where most computer consulting professionals do the best. This size is marked by 10-50 PCs. Many experts state that the two to one ratio is good across many different industries, so if you are maxing out at a 50-seat LAN, this typically means a 90-100-employee business. Typically this size of company needs IT services a lot more than others because downtime is suddenly expensive. You can figure out their losses and gains by looking at their annual revenue and dividing it by 250 business days per year and eight hours a day. For example, a company with $4 million a year in revenue that has 2,000 business hours a year is probably losing $2,000 an hour when their system is down. You as a computer consulting expert can save them long-term money by helping them.

When you get to the range of companies that have 50 PCs, 100 PCs or more, you are getting into the borderline of the top of small business and into medium-sized businesses. This is when the IT services bills your company gives are comparable to the salary of a full-time IT manager. They typically will not outsource this type of work because it makes sense for them to hire their own on-site IT person.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

How to Transform Computer Consulting Leads into Prospects

As someone in the computer consulting field, you may find it challenging to figure out which of your leads will make the best prospects.

FIND YOUR INDUSTRY FOCUS

The first way to find prospects is to determine your industry focus. You need to reach out to your target market and stand out, because everyone in the computer consulting industry is looking for the same advertising techniques, hardware services and LAN.

COMPUTER CONSULTING AND DIFFERENT SIZE AUDIENCES

When thinking about computer consulting leads, you should go after three different size audiences. The first is the micro small business that has just a few PCs. The mindset of the business owner is more important than the number of PCs, but micro small businesses typically have a very small number of employees and PCs and is not looking for sophisticated computer consulting services.

The sweet spot is the next step up and is where most computer consulting professionals do the best. This size is marked by 10-50 PCs. Many experts state that the two to one ratio is good across many different industries, so if you are maxing out at a 50-seat LAN, this typically means a 90-100-employee business. Typically this size of company needs IT services a lot more than others because downtime is suddenly expensive. You can figure out their losses and gains by looking at their annual revenue and dividing it by 250 business days per year and eight hours a day. For example, a company with $4 million a year in revenue that has 2,000 business hours a year is probably losing $2,000 an hour when their system is down. You as a computer consulting expert can save them long-term money by helping them.

When you get to the range of companies that have 50 PCs, 100 PCs or more, you are getting into the borderline of the top of small business and into medium-sized businesses. This is when the IT services bills your company gives are comparable to the salary of a full-time IT manager. They typically will not outsource this type of work because it makes sense for them to hire their own on-site IT person.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

An Initial Set of Professional Networking Tips for IT Consultants

The best way to make business contacts and get good leads that will become sales is through professional networking. Any IT consultant should get into professional networking from the beginning of his/her career.

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING IS ABOUT FOLLOW-UP

You have to keep in touch with your prospects between meetings by calling or sending emails. If you come across people through your professional networking activities that seem to be in positions of power and influence or people that could give you good referrals, suggest meeting for coffee, breakfast or playing a round of golf. Follow-up is the only way in professional networking to compete with other IT consultants.

PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING IS ABOUT HELPING SOMEONE ELSE

You should never be self-centered in your professional networking endeavors. Ask about the contact’s problems and use the professional networking time to really understand what the person is experiencing. You should focus on helping the person before yourself.

NO MARKETING COLLATERAL? USE PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING ANYWAY

New IT consultants often worry about not having marketing collateral, but during professional networking sessions, typically your contacts will not care if you have an 8-page professionally-done brochure or one you created yourself that has your basic information. The most important item you need is a simple web page that has basic information to tell contacts about your company.

DRESSING FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING

You should always dress in a way that fits the event you are attending. Informal events typically call for business casual wear, whereas formal events require suits for men and suits or dresses for women.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A NAMETAG IN PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING

You should make a plastic nametag with your company logo on it to wear to professional networking events instead of relying on the provided magic marker sticky nametags. This will put your brand out there and make people remember your name and your company.

Professional networking can help you get contacts that could turn into valuable clients. If you follow some simple professional networking tips, your efforts will really pay off.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

New Product For Solution Providers: A Box of Systems Integration

Cast Iron Systems recently released a new product for solution providers, iA3000, which provides an innovative way to carry out integration development. The iA3000 started shipping in May and includes an appliance that can help integrate applications in need of point-to-point integrations.

This new appliance for solution providers gets rid of the need to use specialized experts for integration because it lets programmers integrate the systems themselves, allowing solution providers to better manage integration jobs.

The new product from Cast Iron is not a sophisticated product like those offered by WebMethods, Tibco or Vitria, but it is perfect for almost all midsize and small projects, according to experts at CRN. Cast Iron also offers the iA3000-SF appliance that can help with Salesforce.com integration with external systems of all types.

The iA3000 is excellent for the midsize market, a place where clients frequently employ system integrators to build customized solutions. Custom solutions offered by solution providers can be very complex, the introduction of the simplifying iA3000 can help streamline the process of integrating components for critical systems and get companies up and running faster. Traditionally, all parts in complicated systems are maintained by two to three IT groups, which can get pricey. The iA3000 can decrease costs because it reduces maintenance and allows single solution providers the possibility to conduct entire projects.

The iA3000 for solution providers software helps with inter-system connectivity, data transformation and mapping, workflow and important management functions. There are many connective end points for the iA3000 and the product comes with drivers for all the major databases, flat files, HTTP, inbound/outbound e-mail among others.

The iA3000 connects to SAP using BAPI and iDOC and supports major packaged back-office applications, including PeopleSoft, Siebel and Oracle. In order to connect to legacy mainframes and midrange servers, customers have to use web services wrappers of link to DB2 databases.

For more information on the many features of the iA3000, please visit the above link. This new product will help solution providers offer better service to customers and improve project efficiency. Cast Iron Systems is making plans to announce a channel partner program in September.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

IT Consultants Warned of Symantec Backup Exec Issues

On Friday major company Symantec announced to IT consultants and users there was a flaw in its Backup Exec storage program. This vulnerability could allow remote attacks on machines and the ability for those attacking to get full control of a machine and view and manipulate sensitive information on corporate networks. This issue is said to affect versions 9.1 and 9.2 of Backup Exec for NetWare Servers and Remote Agent for Windows Servers.

Symantec has already designed fixes to help IT consultants and companies deal with the NetWare problems, but is still investigating flaws in Backup Exec for Windows Servers, Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server (CPS), Remote Agent and other types of Backup Exec Remote Agents.

This particular flaw impacts RPC, the remote procedure call in Backup Exec and if exploited could allow remote attackers the ability to send dangerous code to applications and get control over a machine. Even unsuccessful attacks could cause denial-of-service attacks on systems, according to Symantec and other IT consultants looking at the problems.

This same RPC protocol in charge of an application running on one PC to communicate to another computer was part of the problem in the 2003 Blaster worm that shut down many Windows PCs without any action by users.

The latest vulnerability was discovered by Ron Gula, CTO at Tenable Network Security in Columbia, Maryland. He and other IT consultants looking at the issue have stated that the impact of the flaw is slightly hindered because Backup Exec is typically installed on an internal network and therefore inaccessible from the Internet.

Symantec has declared this flaw is a 10 out of 10 on the danger scale. A year ago, Symantec released a patch for Backup Exec for Windows and NetWare servers that was allowing attackers to control a password in the server and agent authentication process.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Study Up to Succeed in IT Consulting

To be successful in the IT consulting world, you need to focus on client research. Be wary of vendors asking you to explain what your business is about, instead offering a basic idea of what your computer consulting business is about, including philosophy and style so a client can figure out if his/her business will fit in with yours. If you know what is required of you before you go in to meet a client, you will be able to best help the client solve problems.

COMPUTER CONSULTING AND RESEARCHING A MEETING

It might take you 30 to 45 minutes to study up on a client prior to a meeting, but this research will put you ahead and help you close the sale, either at the initial meeting or shortly afterwards. In order for a client to agree to work with you, you have share your views and build credibility with the prospect, communicating concern for your field and their business. Research is often as easy as a search through the Google search engine.

COMPUTER CONSULTING: WHAT’S TO KNOW ABOUT CLIENTS?

To get a thorough profile of a company you may work with, you should answer the following questions:

1. What is the goal of the business?

2. What is the industry?

3. What types of services are provided?

4. How many locations are there?

5. How long has the company existed?

FINDING RECENT NEWS ABOUT A COMPUTER CONSULTING PROSPECT

You will most likely be able to unearth articles from the local newspaper about your prospect that may show up in Google, or else you will be able to find them by going to the newspaper search function online. Look for anything that gives you extra background and the competitive edge to know what the company is about before going in to make a sale.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Further Tips for Success in Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing can be an excellent tool for those involved in IT consulting. The following pieces of advice can help you maximize your relationship marketing skills:

1. Watch for really good contacts. As soon as you become part of a business organization, you should communicate with the office managers, business managers and administrators so you can gain access to the main decision makers of businesses.

2. Try to steer clear of people that will not give good referrals. Don’t waste relationship marketing time on people that only came because they were urged by a superior or on people that just want to ask for free advice about computer problems. Also stay away from Fortune 1000 companies and bankers that have in-house IT departments along with low budget non-profit professionals and salespeople.

3. Join multiple organizations and don’t go quite as frequently to meetings for each one. Relationship marketing is best carried out in a selective manner, a technique that gives you a better chance of meeting people and developing true bonds.

4. Actively participate in committees. Your best bet in relationship marketing for committees is educational committees because you can directly impact the topic of IT issues and suggest yourself as a speaker. Being a speaker is a great way to get your name out to the public.

5. Live demonstrations will prove very useful in your relationship marketing efforts because they allow you to show off your expertise using speaking engagements, committee work, discounted organizational work and other skills. A good performance will help people see you as a helpful and valuable asset to their companies.

6. Maximize free and inexpensive promotional activities with the organizations. Many will let you place your brochures, flyers or business cards in their offices as a member. They will also often list you and your business url in their own online materials.

7. Put contacts immediately into your tracking materials. Even if you don’t think there is a need or even an interest right away, every prospect should get the same follow-up. You never quite know what type of person will be most receptive to your relationship marketing techniques.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Even More Hiring Tips for Computer Consulting

If you find yourself in need of a high quality computer consulting firm, but lack the know-how to properly evaluate the company’s competence, the following in-depth questions can help you as a small business to find the best fit for your needs.

RESELLER, “PURE” COMPUTER CONSULTING COMPANY, HYBRID TECH PROVIDER

Does the company resell different tech products, including hardware and software? Will you be able to shop for products elsewhere, or is the computer consulting company a profit center? Are services exclusive to buying hardware and software, or will you be able to buy just needs analysis and procurement?

Are there vendors – ISPs or telephone companies – that the computer consulting firm represents, and does the company take referral fees or commissions for getting you to work with certain vendors?

COSTS, CHARGES, BILLING PROCEDURES

What are the payment terms, rates and hourly billing minimums for the computer consulting business? Does the company charge for travel time, telephone support, e-mail, online support or remote support? Similarly, are there hourly rate billing premiums that apply to emergency or odd-hours services? How are these defined?

Does the computer consulting firm offer support contracts?

CLIENT REFERENCE ACCOUNTS, TESTIMONIALS AND CASE STUDIES

Get the computer consulting company to detail a long-term small business client account, a recently signed-on client and one that did not quite work out.

Can the computer consulting company show you references?

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AND KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

How does the computer consulting company stay in touch with the latest tech advances?

What are clients billed for and what is taken internally by the computer consulting company? Are there any unclear areas for billing?

TRAINING AND SHARING KNOWLEDGE

What is the computer consulting firm’s stance on handholding and user training? What kind of tech training does the firm provide? Are representatives willing to train internal computer administrators to be more independent even if it takes opportunities to bill more hours?

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Getting the Most Out of Your Business Group Membership

Business groups are a great way to gain marketing and networking opportunities in the computer consulting business. But you have to join the right business group to suit your needs and become an active member.

Typically there are multiple business groups in one area, so you have to choose wisely to get the most out of your time. The following rule will help you make the right decision about your business group:

The bigger the business group is, the better. Big business groups tend to get more active members to attend networking events, and if there are more people in the room, you have a better chance of connecting with future sweet spot clients. You have to attend business group meetings to meet people and make contacts.

With business group marketing, as with any other type of marketing you have to deal with awkwardness and some rejection, but you have to be persistent. The following tips will help you hang in there:

1. Go into each business meeting with a positive and confident attitude instead of a negative or intimidated one that will convey the wrong message to members.

2. Look towards the business groups within a one-hour radius of your location rather than the first one you find.

3. Attend at least two business group meetings before making a decision about membership.

4. Be patient. You won’t meet your ideal contact in the first hour of a business group meeting.

5. Travel outside your comfort zone and mingle with other attendees. Start by approaching the people that look awkward and talking to them.

6. Seek out accountants, engineers, controllers, operations managers and other analytical members that aren’t natural talkers. These people will make great referral contacts because many of them are decision makers.


Remember that you will get back what you put into business group marketing, so make your interactions count.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Qwest Announces it Will Provide Advanced Network Services to the Firm Affiliated Computer Services

Computer services firm and solution provider Qwest Communications International, Inc. expressed it had signed a two-year contract with Dallas-based company Affiliated Computer Services (ACS). ACS provides business process outsourcing and IT solutions and will use Qwest to help increase the scope and geography of its services.

ACS intends to connect domestic data centers to Qwest’s MPLS-based network using the iQ Networking wide-area network platform. Using Qwest’s resources, the computer services firm will create a data infrastructure that will be used for all ACS locations and let the company have better control over its network and reduce costs, increasing efficiency.

According to spokespeople for ACS, computer services firm Qwest will help to build business and networking capabilities and allow the company to better compete within its industry, both nationally and globally. The relationship will hopefully help the process of doing business with ACS customers faster and simpler.

Qwest released iQ Networking early in 2004. The platform is the company’s convergence solution and can support many different applications, including VoIP, messaging and many other IPcommunications.

Created By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Why You Need Small Business Development as IT Consultants

Computer expert Joshua Feinberg of Computer Consulting 101 states that you need small business development in order to start out as IT consultants. Your name needs to be floating around the community as much as possible if you are going to succeed in the industry. Because business will not come to you, there are many small business development techniques that can start IT consultants out on the right foot.

The best way for IT consultants to further small business development is to make contact with business organizations. You should cover your entire region, which will take time and effort. You should plan to go to 8 to 12 business organization events per month, spending at least 15 to 25% per year on small business development. This means that for every 40 hour work week, two days should be spent on small business development building.

While contacting business organizations is the best method for small business development, other activities include the following: follow-ups, targeted direct mail campaigns, seminars and networking.

Before you have real clients, you will spend 50 – 80% of the time on small business development. Once you’re more stable, you can cut down on your small business development activities, going to four to sex events a month and then later two to three.

Administrative tasks and IT training takes the back seat to small business development when you are first starting as IT consultants. You can get back to those items once you have built relationships with a good number of long-term clients.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Passing Through the Gatekeeper During IT Sales Calls

When making IT sales calls, you have to get in touch with the right person in order to succeed. Sometimes you have to get creative when thinking of ways to get past the gatekeeper, but the best way is to become known and trusted within your community. Often getting past gatekeepers is a very difficult task, but there are techniques you can use to make the process easier.

COLD IT SALES CALLS ARE VERY HARD

When confronted with a gatekeeper that takes your name and number and states lack of interest in your services, you may find yourself a bit discouraged. This happens often during cold IT sales calls, which means you probably want to think of other methods to get new clients. If you are going to use this type of strategy, you will need to get past the gatekeeper.

TIPS FOR GETTING THROUGH DURING IT SALES CALLS

1. Call before or after the gatekeeper leaves.

2. Send an email

3. Send a fax

4. Mail a letter

5. Send a postcard

6. Send a “personal confidential” Fed-Ex.

Because a lot of these techniques have been used often, many companies will already have plans in place to prevent their effectiveness.

IT SALES IS THE BEST WAY THROUGH

The best way to get past the gatekeeper in IT sales is to become well-known within the community. Get to know important figures like local accountants and solution providers, speak at events, hold seminars, volunteer and invest time and energy into building a strong network.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Direct Mail Postcards and How to Use Them for the First Time as Solution Providers

Direct mail campaigns can help solution providers get to many clients with just one mailing. There are several techniques that can help solution providers maximize the effectiveness of a direct mail campaign:

1. When mailing over 1,000 pieces, use two different headlines to test the effectiveness of each. On a similar note, you should also test which headline changes more inquiries and prospects into customers.

2. Put your name and photo on the direct mail campaign postcards.

3. Add a sentence from a benefits-centered testimonial provided by a local small business owner.

4. Use the two-step selling process as part of your direct mail postcards campaign. You can offer small business owners something for free that they just can’t pass up, forcing them to fill out a qualifying questionnaire. Free items could be booklets, CDs or DVDs.

5. Instead of a free product, you could also offer a free needs analysis appointment or a free initial consultation. Stick to a strict 30-45 minute time period.

6. Free offers will build trust when used as part of direct mail postcards campaigns, which means as solution providers you must follow through with the offers.

7. Present a seminar, which are a good addition to any successful business plan and can be offered through a thorough direct mail campaign.

8. Set a deadline for free offers, typically approximately 14-30 days from the time of the mailing. You can also limit the quantity of the free product or service to the first X number of customers.

Direct mail campaigns tend to be somewhat impersonal so creativity when planning them will go a long way to getting people to respond. Add personal touches, testimonials and free offers as part of the plan and you will get the most out of your direct mail campaigns.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Computer Consulting Firm Commercial Data Systems Earns HUBZone Certification

Computer consulting firm Commercial Data Systems, based in Honolulu recently received “HUBZone” certification from the U.S. Small Business Administration. This certification allows the computer consulting firm to have access to federal jobs and government loans.

Vice president of sales and marketing for Commercial Data Systems Mark Gilbert states this new certification will give the computer consulting business preferred status from the government and will give it access to the $70 billion spent on IT by the federal government each year. Three percent of this amount typically goes to HUBZone certified companies, which means Commercia Data Systems’ market will double.

Gilbert went on to say he did not find out his company could qualify for HUBZone certification until he read an article on the PBN website that announced all of Hawaii as a HUBZone, otherwise known as a historically underutilized business zone. Any company with 35 percent of its employees living in Hawaii that does business with the federal government can apply for and benefit from this certification.

This certification makes computer consulting firm Commercial Data Systems the largest minority-owned HubZone company in the United States. The consulting business was begun in 1986 and has two headquarters – one in Hawaii and one in New Mexico.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Computer Business Lenovo Turns Profit After Acquisition of IBM

Computer business Lenovo recently reported it is finally making a profit again and successfully integrating the PC business purchased from major computer company IBM. Lenovo’s net profit for three months to June 30 was $5 million compared with the previous year’s same period, when it was $45.9 million. Despite sharp profit decreases, the amount was a great improvement over the $116 million loss the computer business experienced in the previous three months. Lenovo is now the third biggest computer business next to Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

In 2005, Lenovo officially bought IBM’s PC business and has been struggling to turn a profit ever since. The computer business states it will continue to stress cutting costs as competition increases.

Experts state that cutting expenditures will be a critical move for the computer business in light of the fact that rivals like Dell are cutting prices significantly in an attempt to attract more customers. Lenovo has been under attack for buying the IBM PC business, but the company is confident it will still be able to increase sales of laptops and notebooks. Many are stating that Lenovo is doing a good job of growing its business and that focusing on laptops is an important step for every company, since notebooks will eventually replace desktops as the most desirable products.

According to Lenovo, shipments of notebook computers went up 23% in the last quarter.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Getting Past the First IT Consulting Sales Call

IT sales is about getting past the first sales call and moving towards the future. You need to be in control of the conversation and move your prospect towards IT sales. The IT sales call revolves around qualifying the lead and not wasting time on prospects that just want to get some information for free, which happens often with IT sales. How do you move past the first sales call and onto a greater relationship?

NO MORE “20 QUESTIONS”

Most prospects will call you and give you a series of interview questions. Typically, you might not even know when an IT sales call turns into them grilling you because they will overwhelm you with questions and end up getting more out of you than you anticipated.

You need to draw a clear line that tells prospects you are not willing to go any further with answering questions until they deal with the problems they have outlined. You should provide them with your ideas on recommended next steps or open up a dialogue about what is going to happen next.

When you are done with the IT sales presentation, immediately move prospects towards the next step, which would be to have you or a technician come back and do a site survey.

WHY A SITE SURVEY IS A GOOD NEXT STEP

The site survey will help inventory problems and help you deal with them. That way you and your prospect can decide what will come first, second, third and fourth in the process of handling issues. You should give your client a report and document everything, including security, software licensing, data protection and any other issues that are important.

Once the process of IT sales during the initial call is ending, offer a site survey and explain clearly what it is and how it can help solve problems. The site survey is your first closing attempt, and will prevent you from spending hours giving away too much information and save you from working with a non-serious client.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Build Business Relationships -- Especially When You Know No One

You probably find it very difficult to create business relationships when you don’t yet know anyone. Whether you are new to town, unfamiliar with the area or are not part of a business organization, the only way to start business relationships is to just start doing it. If you are a relatively new computer solution provider, you probably have not yet started to fully understand the importance of business relationships, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t jump right in.

PUT YOUR BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS ON THE FAST TRACK

There is no real way to speed up the process of building business relationships. They are about time and numbers, meaning you must put in time with people to get larger numbers of contacts. The 90/10 rule applies to the cultivation of business relationships, meaning that or every ten hours of time, nine you should spend working on your business relationships and the other one hour keeping abreast of technological advances.

To speed up the building of relationships, just put in a regular 8-10 hours per week joining business organizations and taking part. You should go to two or three events per week instead of that same number per month. If you carry out this process, you will meet 80-100 people and increase your chances of developing very strong business relationships.

You can’t create strong business relationships overnight. If you don’t know anyone or are new to the area, be proactive about going out and getting active in the community and in business organizations.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

How to Eliminate Time Wasting Computer Consulting Prospects

When you work in computer consulting, you are selling time. Because your time is valuable, you need to qualify each customer service call before making it so you can decide if the need is urgent enough, financially feasible and if the client is truly in pain. As someone in computer consulting, your time is being sold above personality and business knowledge, so you can’t afford time wasting prospects and clients. You should be accounting for each hour spent, billable or non-billable. Every hour is valuable, even those not dedicated to sales. Prospecting, administrative and other types of hours need to be efficiently used.

IS IT AN EMERGENCY?

If you want to truly get rid of time wasting clients, you need to gauge the level of urgency when you first speak to them via phone, email or in person. A client may have a down server that is destroying work for 27 employees, and this definitely qualifies as an emergency. However, the client may be dealing with a dysfunctional link between a PDA and a salesperson’s computer; a one-person emergency is not the best use of your time.

COMPUTER CONSULTING BUDGET

You need to know clients’ budgets going into the project. If the company is broke, it will be a waste of your time to even consider doing work. Put these people on a follow-up list and call back in three or six months to find out how much IT money is available.

YOUR TACT AS A COMPUTER CONSULTING PROFESSIONAL

You have to be careful when speaking to prospects about computer consulting support. Ask questions about previous and present computer consulting support. If you find they have only used volunteers or moonlighters offering bargain prices, you will know how big the IT budget is. You may find that a company is already working with another provider, even someone you think of as competition. This will let you know the client is able to afford your services and willing to pay for them.

WHAT IS THE LEVEL OF PAIN?

If you can identify the amount of pain a prospect is in, you will be better equipped to pitch the right solution and sell your computer consulting services.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

An Initial Set of Tricks for Solution Providers in Training Seminars

Solution providers should think about using training seminars as a marketing strategy in order to learn skills that can increase trust and credibility in the industry. This initial set of tips can help you as a solution provider when sponsoring training seminars:

1. Training seminars are marketing tools and not just charity work for others. This means you have to make the seminar worthwhile for attendees while putting forth a clear sales message for yourself.

2. You should choose a training seminar topic that will interest your target. Survey people within your network – at least 10-20 – to figure out what might be most appealing.

3. Keep track of commonalities between respondents when giving an informal pre-survey. Add these additional topics to the current training seminar when relevant, or simply use them for future sessions.

4. Know the topic you choose well to prove your strengths instead of illuminating weak areas.

5. Make a clear RSVP date and offer limited space. These two elements should be clear when you are sending out announcements for the training seminar so people will register on time believing your event to be in high demand.

6. Send a confirmation in writing to all that register for the training seminar to help ensure attendance. You can even make calls the day before as an extra measure.

7. Provide a check-in system so you can track attendees. Follow up with registrants that don’t end up coming to the training seminar to let them know they are important.

8. Make a survey for the training seminar that people can fill out at the end. You can provide a free report or CD along with other seminar materials to those that finish them. The information attendees put on the survey will give you ideas for marketing, leads and referrals in the future.

9. Give a special offer to those signing up for your featured service and make the offer only available for a limited time. Therefore attendees will have to decide quickly while they are still thinking of what you offer.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Time Warner Computer Business Purchases Xspedius

Computer business communications provider Time Warner Telecom Inc. announced that it would be acquiring telecommunications provider Xspedius Communications, LLC in a $531.5 million deal. Accordint the the deal, Time Warner will pay $212.5 million in cash and $319 million in stock to Xspedius, but will not accept any of the company’s outstanding debt. The deal will be done within the next six months, assuming typical closing procedures.

Computer business Time Warner Telecom offers networking solutions to 22 states worth of businesses and organizations in the United States. It provides data and Internet access, local and long distance voice services for long distance companies, wireless companies and other enterprise organizations.

Xspedius is based in Missourri and provides services in communications to enterprise businesses and customers of carriers. Among its offerings are metro Ethernet, local and long distance voice, data and Internet access services and other telecommunications items to 43 different markets across the United States and D.C.

Time Warner is predicting that Xspedius will alone create approximately $230 million to $250 million of revenue in 2007. The purchase of the company by the computer business will expand the reach of Time Warner and give it a larger national presence.


For the full year of 2007, Time Warner Telecom expects Xspedius' stand-alone operations to generate about $230m to $250m of revenue, Time Warner said in a statement. Time Warner Telecom, based in Littleton, CO started in 1993 as an outgrowth of Time Warner Cable and in 1997 began to deliver business services. The computer business company is now totally separate from Time Warner Cable and has been since 1999.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

News for IT Consultants: Zeus Partners with IXEurope

The latest news for IT consultants is that top software provider Zeus Technology, based in Cambridge will be partnering with IXEurope. This new relationship will be the only traffic management software offered by IXEurope as part of its IXExchange community portal.

IXEurope is a leading and steadily growing provider of datacenter services and uses the IXExchange portal as a reference library that provides information to IT consultants and others about specific services and products. Other customers of IXEurope, besides IT consultants include managed service providers and network service providers. The Zeus and IXEurope combination, called ZXTM will offer different organizations a thorough plan for traffic management, network security and resource optimization to make interaction between different application services more efficient.

Zeus is accompanying a network of approved partners providing IXEurope customers many different IT and networking systems that help better facilitate performance in datacenters. The ZXTM is an expansion of Zeus’ activity within the IT consultants channel that up until this point has included OEM and licensing agreements.

As Zeus grows, more customers are using the datacenter services to host and manage business applications, according to spokespeople for the company. Since the traffic and performance needs of companies is increasing as technology expands, ZXTM will become more necessary and in demand for those looking for more flexible and long-term solutions.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg