What Should You Seek Out in Contact Management Systems?

Contact management systems can help you manage the effectiveness of the marketing strategies you use. Why put together a haphazard spreadsheet to track contacts when you can use contact management systems that can do more complex fork for you?

Your first job when starting a business is development of the business, not software development. Don’t spend time custom-designing contact management systems when you could be getting more contacts.

WHAT TYPE OF CONTACT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS DO YOU NEED?

You can spend over $25,000 on a complex contact management system if you want to, but what you spend it not as critical as the amount of time you spend using the system. Most products work well off the shelf, but there are two that stand out – ACT and Goldmine. What’s the difference?

1. ACT is just over $230 and offers PDA links as well as a version that is usable online.

2. Goldmine is second to ACT in popularity and is a type of contact management system with similar features but at a less expensive $200.

Maximizer and Sales Force are also useful contact management systems. Sales Force sports a free online service or a more expensive Team Edition online service for $1000 annually.

FEATURES TO LOOK FOR IN CONTACT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

You should look for import and export capability from the following Microsoft formats: Word; Excel; Outlook. Also look for links to PDAs, accounting software and packages that offer the best client server online solutions.

Contact management systems are incredibly useful, but only if you use them. Research products before purchasing and make a commitment to use them properly so you can best track the effectiveness of your marketing strategeis.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Sales Calls Are More Than Just Selling

Sales calls can be exciting, but extremely stressful. While as a new business owner you may be tempted to focus on the sales angle of the sales calls, you need to focus just as much on the information you’re getting.

Prior to a sales call, you should have done your homework about the prospect’s business. Find out how many computer users the company has, the number of computer systems, software applications, types of operating systems and their general problems.

How can you make the most of a sales call?

LISTEN, DON’T TALK

The sales call is about the prospect, and not you. Let them speak, vent and reveal information that will help you make the sale.

TAKE DILIGENT NOTES

You can’t rely on your memory in a sales call. If you have a pen or pencil and paper, you will appear professional, interested and you will help yourself keep track of valuable information.

ANALYZE A PROSPECT’S ABILITY AS A CLIENT

Do you want this prospect as a client? Not every sales call will lead to a client, so look for unrealistic expectations, nasty personalities and lack of focus and direction when you are on a sales call.

WHAT IS THE URGENCY?

The sales call can help you figure out how long the prospect’s problem has been an issue, how it has affected the business and how bad the problem is.

WHERE IS THE PROSPECT RECEIVING SUPPORT?

Find out what support the prospect currently receives to manage systems. This is a critical question to have answered during a sales call. Also find out past supporters of the system to help you gauge the prospect’s ability for long-term relationships.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Getting New Clients During IT Business Start-Up

Starting a fresh IT business can be very challenging. Customers rarely come calling without effort, and you will most likely not get first clients that will become long-term, sweet spot clients.

When you start a new business, you won’t have a complete business foundation, and your clientele will be made up of stepping-stone clients. These people will bring in early revenue and help you get your first positive business testimonials.

Six months after IT business start-up, you need to be selective about the clients you get. Earlier, accounts will be smaller than you might like, but you still need to be confident that these early stepping-stone clients will eventually give way to ideal sweet spot clients.

Expect to work with the following items during IT business start-up: LAN audits; MCSC tutoring; training seminars; small peer-to-peer jobs; upgrades; PC tune-ups; some web design; optimization and trouble-shooting with customers.

During IT business start-up, your personal and business network are absolutely critical. Contacts will refer you to small jobs, and as you complete these small jobs well your services will become more widely-known. More referral business will start coming in soon after you start your new business.

Don’t ignore any potential customers during IT business start-up, and don’t get discouraged. IT business start-up is an exercise in patience and perseverance, and any of your small jobs could lead to something larger and more valuable.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Referral Programs: How to Build Incentives in Order to Improve Quality and Quantity of Referrals

Referral programs can help grow your network consulting company. Referral programs offer service credits to special clients that bring new business to you. A good referral program will encourage your clients to pass your name along to their acquaintances and business partners by providing them with unparalleled benefits. Referral programs, such as the following can typically improve your business response rate:

1. Give satisfied customers fliers describing referral programs you have, such as the following programs:

a. Explain to them you are eager to help friends of theirs with computer problems. Tell the clients that they can earn service credits by referring friends, family members and business associates to your firm.

b. Tell clients that part of your referral program involves sending prospects they refer a certificate for 10% off a first service visit. When the friend uses the certificate, say you will give the clients a $100 service credit to their account. Of course, thank them for their loyal business.

2. Mail out a clear description of your referral program to inactive clients as well as other business contacts.

3. Send a referral program mailing every 90 days to remind clients without overwhelming.

4. Add a line to your e-mail signature with a promotional blurb about your referral program.

5. Clients might feel strange about accepting a reward from you as part of a referral program, so don’t be apologetic about it. They will see referrals as a fair way to reward you for your hard work. You might, instead of other types of referrals make a donation to a local charity or bring them chocolates, send them flowers or provide with other types of appreciative gifts.

Good referral programs will motivate clients and contacts to send you business. Since the most successful marketing comes from other people, the more you can get your clients talking about the work you do in a positive light, the better off your business will be.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

The Best Way to Use Your Time During Sales Calls

Making sales calls is a challenging process and requires specific techniques and procedures. Many IT consultants are not well-versed in the sales process, and uninitiated sales calls can be scary. As an IT consultant, you need to see sales calls in the right light and fully understand the range of outcomes you might receive. When you properly analyze these factors, you can start to develop the tools you need to be an expert on sales calls.

SALES CALLS ARE NOT ABOUT SELLING

During the process of a sales call, you need to guide the prospect’s decisions. Your questions should entice them into hiring you rather than push them into using your services. If you are successful during a sales call, the client will be pushing you to take them.

THE FOUR OUTCOMES OF SALES CALLS

Every sales call will have one of four outcomes, two good and two bad.

GOOD SALES CALL OUTCOMES

1. The client needs emergency service. A lot of sales calls will end in this manner; something will be broken and need to be fixed. You might fix it right away and prove you know what you’re doing, are good with people and are trustworthy. You could end up with a couple hundred dollars in revenue and confirmation that the client is willing to pay for your services.

2. The client will be interested in your IT audit or IT needs assessment offer, and the sales call will involve a contract for future work.

BAD SALES CALL OUTCOMES

1. The client will turn out to be just using you to gain information – free advice. These people are typically not the type that have ever paid for IT service, and have no plans to pay for it in the near future. You need to get rid of them immediately.

2. The client is just shopping for the best price. This type of sales call is just a bid solicitation, and the client will not actually want your services. They just want to know how much services like yours might cost.

Sales calls are an important part of business, and some will end on a positive note and further your company, while others might just waste your time. Don’t engage in hard selling techniques. Let the client come to you and be able to identify what type of sales call you are on so you can best use your time.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Business Income: What You Can Expect to Make

Your business inputs establish your business income. A lot of times those starting out in the computer consulting business want to be able to gauge what they will make in the first year. They base their business decisions on income.

The truth is, you can’t know exactly how much you’re going to make because your business income depends on many different and unpredictable variables. However, you can control these variables. The following questions can help you plan to maximize your business income:

1. What is your schooling and work experience?

2. Are you selective when you choose clients? If you just take anyone on as a client, you might end up working with people that have huge problems and can make your job very difficult. The business income in this case becomes too much trouble.

3. What is your personality and temperament? You need to remain calm and professional, which means you need to think about whether or not you are easily irritated and stressed with clients or in general.

4. How much time do you spend on sales calls? You will need to be able to spend enough time on sales if you expect to earn a good business income.

5. Are you good with following up? The sales call and initial consultation is just the beginning of a longer relationship, and you can lose business without follow-up.

6. Is your marketing strategy aggressive? The more strategies you use, the more reach you will have.

7. Are your business partnerships with other advisers strong? These relationships are very important if you want to maximize your business income from both a marketing perspective and a knowledge- and wisdom-gained perspective.


Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101

Using Credit Terms to Manage Receivables

Using credit terms and credit extension policies with customers is a delicate operation. You need to be careful about managing money and make sure your cash flow isn’t interrupted by the process, but you also want to make sure your clients will want to buy your services. The following rules can help you maintain good credit terms and keep clients happy:

First Rule For Good Credit Terms: Get paid as you work, and you will not get stuck with major bills. Don’t give credit terms until after the first bill has been paid.

Second Rule For Good Credit Terms: Get credit card authorizations if you can. You can ask for a credit card or do a check before you leave the site.

Third Rule For Good Credit Terms: Demand a credit check and an application and make no exceptions.

Fourth Rule For Good Credit Terms: Ask clients to give you a deposit up-front to protect you from losing money in the future. If you have a check in hand for half the amount, you know you are more likely to get the second half. Enforce this under all circumstances.

Credit Terms Rule #5: Don’t give credit on product sales, because they don’t produce a lot of money. Make sure the client prepays you for this item or that you get an authorization on a credit card.

Credit card terms can be very important to business operation, but you have to keep in mind that you are a computer consultant and not a bank or loan department.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

What Promotion Tools Are Most Effective?

There are many different types of promotion tools and each has its own price and effectiveness rate. No matter how different the promotion tools are, they all are designed to promote your business and make your name known.

There are varying degrees of effectiveness for promotion tools; some work really well, some work most of the time and some just don’t work at all. Before you choose a promotion tool for your business, you need to analyze each one carefully.

ANALYSIS OF PROMOTION TOOLS

The following questions will help you figure out which promotion tools are viable:

1. Where will you be promoting and adverising?

2. How will the promotion tool you use get to the market? Will you use e-mails, postcards, organizational membership or something else?

3. Can the promotion tool showcase how unique you and your services are? How can you be unique and stand out above your competitors without spending a lot of money?

When weighing the pros and cons of specific promotion tools, use your creativity. If you choose an obvious promotion tool, you will get predictable and probably boring results. Take a risk by choosing a promotion tool that sets you apart from the rest, over one that just shows how well you follow rules.

WHAT ARE GOOD PROMOTION TOOLS?

1. Involving yourself in organizations;

2. Becoming the expert technology person on a panel of business leaders;

3. Becoming the preferred provider for a high-profile, well-respected company.

Just remember that not all promotion tools will have the same results. As a business owner, you need to choose those that showcase your specific skills and uniqueness and set you apart from the huge crowd.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg

Business Expenses and What to Incorporate into Your Budget

Business expenses are a part of any professional endeavor, and you need to create a budget listing your main business expenses and what each will run you per year before you even start any business. The best way to track business expenses is with a cash flow planner. This item will help you plan for business expenses and the leftover cash one quarter, 13 weeks at a time.

The following is a list of common business expenses:

SALARY: Six to nine months after you’ve started your business you should be earning enough income to take some out for yourself. At the beginning salary is a great business expense even if you’re only getting $400 - $500 weekly.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS: Benefits are yet more significant business expenses. You should investigate to see what the competitive benefits rates are currently and if you are still employed, figure out from your current employer what the total monthly premiums are. You may not be able to get a group discount rate at the beginning, so be prepared.

IRA: Many business owners forget about this business expense, but you need to be able to retire eventually; make an IRA a priority at the beginning rather than using it as an after-thought.

PAYROLL TAXES: You need to talk to your accountant about this business expense so he/she can give you the right advice specific to your business.

CERTIFICATION AND TRAINING: This business expense will be about $1,000 annually.

SUBSCRIPTIONS/DUES: This business expense will be about $300 a quarter.

PURCHASED PRODUCTS FOR INTERNAL USE: This business expense involves spare PCs and parts. You need to budget this in as a business expense that will run you about $3,000 to $4, 000 per year. You need to only buy items that will bring you immediate ROI and tie to billable hours.

TELEPHONE AND ISP: You should consider this business expense to total about $110 a month that includes a business phone plus a low-cost DSL account.

MARKETING/PROMOTION: You need to invest a lot into these items – about $5,000 - $6,000 each year.

COMMERCIAL INSURANCE: This business expense should be approximately $2,200 per annum.

TRANSPORTATION: You can expect this to be $30 each week.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: This yearly business expense will be about $2,000.

CORPORATE INCOME TAXES: These business expenses will vary; you should discuss specifics with your trusted accountant.

LOANS AND PAYMENTS: These items will depend upon your borrowing and situation, but you definitely need to plan for them in your budget.

Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg