Follow-up is necessary to your marketing and contact management strategies, and it needs to be conscientious and persistent without being overly aggressive. Your follow-up techniques should exercise your creativity and be personalized to each lead or prospect. Follow-up is a way to appeal to people, not overwhelm them or drive them away from you.
Follow-Up Tips for Your Computer Services Business
1. Send a follow-up invitation letter about an event at which you’re speaking.
2. Tell prospects you’re going to be presenting at a trade show and give them a free pass to the show.
3. Ask for a referral through a follow-up call, e-mail, letter, etc.
4. Send a follow-up letter offering support after a natural disaster.
5. If you get word of a promotion the prospect had, an award he/she won, a new business obtained or positive media coverage, make a follow-up congratulatory call.
6. Discuss a joint venture opportunity like a trade show, seminar, or some other event, if appropriate.
7. Send a card to prospects on major holidays as a very personal follow-up device.
Follow-up gives a reason to stay in touch with prospects and can vary depending on the personality and business of the prospect. Keep your name in prospects’ minds without turning them off to the possibility of working with you.
Added By: Computer Consulting 101
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Monday, November 27, 2006
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Do You Need to Have a Salesperson During Start-Up?
In computer consulting, you’d be better off not having a salesperson early in the life of your business. Your focus should be on figuring out the identity of your business and communicating it. If you have a salesperson, you can draw focus away from your main business in favor of human resource issues and business development.
Instead of figuring out account ownership and controlling accounts, you will be monitoring someone else, motivating someone else and training someone else as a salesperson when you should be training your prospects, clients and yourself instead.
The computer services industry is about you being your business, and an outside salesperson will not be able to fully capture your talents and abilities. Your clients are buying you rather than your products and services, and you need to get your uniqueness across.
Account Ownership and the Salesperson
The other problem with having a salesperson is account ownership. Even if you have all sorts of non-disclosure agreements, non-competes and others a salesperson could technically claim legal entitlement to your accounts, and a long battle could kill your business. If an outside salesperson recruits 90% of your client base the first year, this is a lot of ownership to give someone that is not you.
Hiring a Salesperson
You will have a lot of time to hire a salesperson as your business evolves. During the first three to six months, a salesperson can actually be a liability. Besides the time and energy spent on the salesperson, legal issues could crop up and stall or halt your business. Keep your initial roster of sweet spot clients to yourself and enjoy a more stable business in the long-run.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
Instead of figuring out account ownership and controlling accounts, you will be monitoring someone else, motivating someone else and training someone else as a salesperson when you should be training your prospects, clients and yourself instead.
The computer services industry is about you being your business, and an outside salesperson will not be able to fully capture your talents and abilities. Your clients are buying you rather than your products and services, and you need to get your uniqueness across.
Account Ownership and the Salesperson
The other problem with having a salesperson is account ownership. Even if you have all sorts of non-disclosure agreements, non-competes and others a salesperson could technically claim legal entitlement to your accounts, and a long battle could kill your business. If an outside salesperson recruits 90% of your client base the first year, this is a lot of ownership to give someone that is not you.
Hiring a Salesperson
You will have a lot of time to hire a salesperson as your business evolves. During the first three to six months, a salesperson can actually be a liability. Besides the time and energy spent on the salesperson, legal issues could crop up and stall or halt your business. Keep your initial roster of sweet spot clients to yourself and enjoy a more stable business in the long-run.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
Monday, November 20, 2006
What Type of Computer Business Software Should You Be Purchasing?
Deciding on the right computer business software can overwhelm even the most savvy network consultants. There are a lot of good products, and deciding which ones you want to spend time and money on can be a real challenge.
The main point with computer business software is that you want to expand capabilities without spending too much time or money on products, particularly before you know there is a market for them. Computer business software is a real investment, so you need to exercise care when selecting the right programs and packages for your clients.
Attract the Sweet Spot Clients
You want to think about whether the business computer software you purchase will be attractive to sweet spot clients. If you invest time learning this and a few hundred dollars on training, you want to know you will make this money back.
Recommended Computer Business Software Products
Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) and Novell’s Small Business Suite are two highly recommended computer business software products that can add value to a business.
Why?
1. Both computer business software products are inexpensive to purchase.
2. You will not need to spend a great deal of money to get a not-for-resale copy or a demo model of these computer business software products to help you learn.
3. Both these products give you most of what you need for just a few hundred dollars.
4. Both types of computer business software will only take about eight to ten hours of installing, breaking and reinstalling in order to learn.
How to Choose Computer Business Software
Just pick one of these two products rather than trying to support both in the beginning. Unless you are really strong with Windows and Netware, you won’t want to attempt to support both right away. Whatever you choose, you can use the computer business software to run your own business until you feel comfortable enough to do start installing for clients.
Computer business software is an investment, so you need to know, whatever type you choose, that you will be able to recover and make a return on the time and money spent learning and implementing.
Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101
The main point with computer business software is that you want to expand capabilities without spending too much time or money on products, particularly before you know there is a market for them. Computer business software is a real investment, so you need to exercise care when selecting the right programs and packages for your clients.
Attract the Sweet Spot Clients
You want to think about whether the business computer software you purchase will be attractive to sweet spot clients. If you invest time learning this and a few hundred dollars on training, you want to know you will make this money back.
Recommended Computer Business Software Products
Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) and Novell’s Small Business Suite are two highly recommended computer business software products that can add value to a business.
Why?
1. Both computer business software products are inexpensive to purchase.
2. You will not need to spend a great deal of money to get a not-for-resale copy or a demo model of these computer business software products to help you learn.
3. Both these products give you most of what you need for just a few hundred dollars.
4. Both types of computer business software will only take about eight to ten hours of installing, breaking and reinstalling in order to learn.
How to Choose Computer Business Software
Just pick one of these two products rather than trying to support both in the beginning. Unless you are really strong with Windows and Netware, you won’t want to attempt to support both right away. Whatever you choose, you can use the computer business software to run your own business until you feel comfortable enough to do start installing for clients.
Computer business software is an investment, so you need to know, whatever type you choose, that you will be able to recover and make a return on the time and money spent learning and implementing.
Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101
Saturday, November 18, 2006
IT Services Outsourcing: It's What You Need Most When You Don't Know It All
IT services outsourcing is what you will have to be prepared to do when prospects ask for products and services you can't provide. New business owners often try to do and know everything; but one of the benefits of being part of the computer industry is having access to a large pool of people to use for IT outsourcing.
When you first start your own company, you need to focus on getting business and spend significant time on networking and relationship marketing, which means you can't offer everything to everyone.
Rely on IT Services Outsourcing
IT services outsourcing will give you time to do marketing and networking activities essential to the future growth of your business. You don't have enough time to learn everything you may be asked to offer, but you don't want to lose relationships either.
So what do you do?
Two Choices With IT Services Outsourcing:
1. Referral relationships with other niche technology providers in your area;
2. Partnerships and subcontractor relationships.
The fastest way to set up your IT services outsourcing is to set up one of these two choices as part of your business. As you start to get a lot of requests for the same types of IT services you should probably think about learning the skills so you can offer them in-house. When there is a large enough demand, the time and financial investment will be worth it. Until then, use IT outsourcing to manage your time and get business done efficiently.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
When you first start your own company, you need to focus on getting business and spend significant time on networking and relationship marketing, which means you can't offer everything to everyone.
Rely on IT Services Outsourcing
IT services outsourcing will give you time to do marketing and networking activities essential to the future growth of your business. You don't have enough time to learn everything you may be asked to offer, but you don't want to lose relationships either.
So what do you do?
Two Choices With IT Services Outsourcing:
1. Referral relationships with other niche technology providers in your area;
2. Partnerships and subcontractor relationships.
The fastest way to set up your IT services outsourcing is to set up one of these two choices as part of your business. As you start to get a lot of requests for the same types of IT services you should probably think about learning the skills so you can offer them in-house. When there is a large enough demand, the time and financial investment will be worth it. Until then, use IT outsourcing to manage your time and get business done efficiently.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
Monday, November 13, 2006
Seminar Topics: Focus on Business Instead of IT
You may sometimes be hard-pressed to think of good seminar topics. But hosting seminars can help you network and fully utilize relationship marketing. You just need to figure out how to use a seminar topic that will get to clients within the sweet spot.
Often IT professionals choose IT-based topics for their seminar topics. However, the people interested in tech seminars will be in the technology business, and you probably will just attract your competitors rather than potential clients. Offer seminar topics that focus on business problems, and most especially those you can solve and you will get the right response.
The best way to arrive at seminar topics is to be industry-specific. Figure out how you can help businesses within a certain industry and then let them come to you! Your seminar topics can be created for a general audience, but they need to be important specifically to business owners and not techies.
Suggested Seminar Topics:
1. Designing a more modern network;
2. Ways to shop for the best file server;
3. Improving IT security;
4. Increasing IT productivity;
5. Maximizing your return on investment in IT;
6. Computer virus protection;
7. Creating an effective firewall;
8. Protecting your wireless network.
Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101
Often IT professionals choose IT-based topics for their seminar topics. However, the people interested in tech seminars will be in the technology business, and you probably will just attract your competitors rather than potential clients. Offer seminar topics that focus on business problems, and most especially those you can solve and you will get the right response.
The best way to arrive at seminar topics is to be industry-specific. Figure out how you can help businesses within a certain industry and then let them come to you! Your seminar topics can be created for a general audience, but they need to be important specifically to business owners and not techies.
Suggested Seminar Topics:
1. Designing a more modern network;
2. Ways to shop for the best file server;
3. Improving IT security;
4. Increasing IT productivity;
5. Maximizing your return on investment in IT;
6. Computer virus protection;
7. Creating an effective firewall;
8. Protecting your wireless network.
Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Business Start-Up: Get Your Name Out There
You have to be creative during new business start-up and think of ways to tempt people to give you a chance.
A lot of times, the earliest clients are friends of the family and other family members; but in reality, you should avoid this type of business during the business start-up phase. Without distance from people, you will have a hard time doing business; when things go sour or expectations are wrong, dealing with those close to you is very challenging.
Ideas For Getting Clients During Business Start-Up
1. Put together a “who knows that you are starting a new business” list. This list can help track all business contacts you make before, during and after business start-up.
2. Include people that SHOULD know you are starting a new business on the initial “who knows that you are starting a new business” list. Fill this in by asking each contact with whom you speak if he/she can refer someone. Referrals are key, so make sure to ask contacts to let you know when they hear someone complaining about technology.
3. When you talk to a contact during business start-up, come up with a way to keep your name in-mind. A tech support sticker is a great way to accomplish this goal. Ask contacts to put stickers on their computers and give each person three extra stickers to pass onto friends and colleagues.
4. The must-have item when you are in the business start-up phase is a good business card. Hand out business cards whenever you deem it appropriate to get your name out there and keep it on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Getting new clients isn’t easy, but you can rely on your current contacts to bring in referrals. Train contacts to listen for people with tech problems and let them know you are engaged in business start-up.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
A lot of times, the earliest clients are friends of the family and other family members; but in reality, you should avoid this type of business during the business start-up phase. Without distance from people, you will have a hard time doing business; when things go sour or expectations are wrong, dealing with those close to you is very challenging.
Ideas For Getting Clients During Business Start-Up
1. Put together a “who knows that you are starting a new business” list. This list can help track all business contacts you make before, during and after business start-up.
2. Include people that SHOULD know you are starting a new business on the initial “who knows that you are starting a new business” list. Fill this in by asking each contact with whom you speak if he/she can refer someone. Referrals are key, so make sure to ask contacts to let you know when they hear someone complaining about technology.
3. When you talk to a contact during business start-up, come up with a way to keep your name in-mind. A tech support sticker is a great way to accomplish this goal. Ask contacts to put stickers on their computers and give each person three extra stickers to pass onto friends and colleagues.
4. The must-have item when you are in the business start-up phase is a good business card. Hand out business cards whenever you deem it appropriate to get your name out there and keep it on the tip of everyone’s tongue.
Getting new clients isn’t easy, but you can rely on your current contacts to bring in referrals. Train contacts to listen for people with tech problems and let them know you are engaged in business start-up.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Monday, November 06, 2006
Business Contact Information and Tracking Strategies
You need business contact information in order to qualify clients. During this pre-qualification process you need to be looking for very specific business contact information and track it.
Get Business Contact Information
Each prospect file needs to have a list of business contact information. No matter you get it, you need to get it. Phone calls and web site information request forms are two great ways to get the business contact information you need; forms such as these can be printed out and e-mailed or faxed to you. This information is necessary before you go on a sales call.
What Business Contact Information Do You Need?
1) Contact information; 2) URL of the web site; 3) the industry of the business; 4) the number of employees; 5) the number of locations; 6) number of computer users; 7) number of desktops; 8) number of laptops; 9) quantity of servers; 10) brand of PCs; 11) most used and most important software application; 12) which versions of Windows and Office are used; 13) whether the prospects use NetWare, Linux or Unix; 14) whether the system used is host-based; 15) a definition of their top 5 computer problems, listed in descending order; 16) current PC and tech support resources of the prospect; 17) how the prospect first heard about your business.
All this business contact information can help you get a good handle on prospect needs. You can then analyze whether or not the business is right for your sweet spot and make sure the size of the company is right and that it uses compatible hardware and software systems.
Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg
Get Business Contact Information
Each prospect file needs to have a list of business contact information. No matter you get it, you need to get it. Phone calls and web site information request forms are two great ways to get the business contact information you need; forms such as these can be printed out and e-mailed or faxed to you. This information is necessary before you go on a sales call.
What Business Contact Information Do You Need?
1) Contact information; 2) URL of the web site; 3) the industry of the business; 4) the number of employees; 5) the number of locations; 6) number of computer users; 7) number of desktops; 8) number of laptops; 9) quantity of servers; 10) brand of PCs; 11) most used and most important software application; 12) which versions of Windows and Office are used; 13) whether the prospects use NetWare, Linux or Unix; 14) whether the system used is host-based; 15) a definition of their top 5 computer problems, listed in descending order; 16) current PC and tech support resources of the prospect; 17) how the prospect first heard about your business.
All this business contact information can help you get a good handle on prospect needs. You can then analyze whether or not the business is right for your sweet spot and make sure the size of the company is right and that it uses compatible hardware and software systems.
Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg
Saturday, November 04, 2006
IT Consulting Services and the Importance of Fulfilling Client Needs
Because there are many different IT consulting services, when you are first starting out you may have difficulty figuring out which to offer. You might wonder if you are supposed to sell what you know, what is trendy or what you think people might want.
The key to discovering which IT consulting services you should sell and which products you need in order to offer appropriate support is presenting prospects with the IT consulting services they absolutely need.
While this concept might seem obvious, usually start-ups make the mistake of offering what clients want rather than what they need. The IT consulting services a business owner would like to have are not always the ones they really need in order to function. You need to sell prospects the IT consulting services that are needed right now so they can keep running efficiently. Once you set up a basic framework, you can handle wants.
When you have non-technical business owners or managers, their needs might be simple. If they think they might need IT consulting services to fix basic performance problems, provide them. Once you prove you know your stuff, you can try to sell them the IT consulting services you know they need to get to the next level of performance. Take care of aches and pains first, then sell more sophisticated solutions.
When you think about the IT consulting services you want to offer, put yourself in prospects’ shoes. Separate needs from wants, and remember that surface needs, while seemingly simple to you, are important to prospects and must be addressed. Offer IT consulting services that are a mixture of basic and long-term and you can become an asset to a small business.
Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg
The key to discovering which IT consulting services you should sell and which products you need in order to offer appropriate support is presenting prospects with the IT consulting services they absolutely need.
While this concept might seem obvious, usually start-ups make the mistake of offering what clients want rather than what they need. The IT consulting services a business owner would like to have are not always the ones they really need in order to function. You need to sell prospects the IT consulting services that are needed right now so they can keep running efficiently. Once you set up a basic framework, you can handle wants.
When you have non-technical business owners or managers, their needs might be simple. If they think they might need IT consulting services to fix basic performance problems, provide them. Once you prove you know your stuff, you can try to sell them the IT consulting services you know they need to get to the next level of performance. Take care of aches and pains first, then sell more sophisticated solutions.
When you think about the IT consulting services you want to offer, put yourself in prospects’ shoes. Separate needs from wants, and remember that surface needs, while seemingly simple to you, are important to prospects and must be addressed. Offer IT consulting services that are a mixture of basic and long-term and you can become an asset to a small business.
Blogged By: Joshua Feinberg
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