Being an IT Specialist and Finding Your Niche

If you want to be an IT specialist, you need to find and develop your niche.

The Horizontal Niche

You can choose your niche vertically as an IT specialist by choosing clients within the same industry, or you can choose them based on who THEIR contacts are – office managers, etc. Take an informational survey and ask what your clients’ largest IT problems are, what their biggest business problems are, etc. and try to become a solution to all these problems.

When you offer a total, sophisticated solution as an IT specialist, you have a better chance at retaining your clients. When you ask the right questions, you get help designing a marketing plan that will help you replicate your best clients.

What Should You Know?

You should know the answers to a specific type of questions in regards to your target prospects as an IT specialist: Who are they? What do they read? Which trade publications are available and which e-zines? Which newsletters do your targets get? Which local and regional conferences will they attend? Which trade groups have local chapters, and do they belong to them? Where do your prospects hang out? What do your prospects talk about? What are your prospects worries?

Talk to your best clients to get the answers you need as an IT specialist.

Personal Relationships and Being an IT Specialist

You’ve probably started creating personal relationships with your clients, so take them out for breakfast or lunch and tell them of your plans to be an IT specialist. Ask the right questions to find more clients just like them and grow your business.

If you want more clients in a horizontal niche as an IT specialist, find out as much as you can about their jobs, where they hang out and other important concepts.

Submitted By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

How Do You Set Your Computer Repair Prices?

You shouldn’t have an ethical dilemma when you’re deciding on what to charge in terms of computer repair prices. If you’re working in the small business space, you can’t compete with large industry players like Best Buy and CompUSA that are offering service for a “steal.” You have to make a living!

What about Micro Small Businesses?

How do you deal with setting computer repair prices for micro small businesses? Many of them have more than 10 employees and even will go beyond P2P networking with a dedicated server. Especially when this is the case, you have to make sure to offer prices that are right for this type of sophistication.

If you really want to make it in the computer repair business – when you are not a large company like Best Buy, etc. – and still work with micro small businesses, you have to focus on those that can pay you higher computer repair prices for your outstanding service. You are going to have to choose customers based on their ability to pay.

The Client Should Decide

If you are charging the same computer repair prices to every small business with which you work, the process of choosing customers is simple; small businesses will decide whether or not they need you and can afford you. Those that really do want the impersonal, screwdriver technician can just go to Best Buy, and you can focus on those people that value you.

Sophisticated IT Needs Mean Higher Rates

When you’re dealing with real servers, sophisticated computer systems, complicated internet access and other elements, you are going to run into more complex repairs when something goes awry. This means customers have to be willing to pay premium computer repair prices.

You really should be charging everyone you encounter in small business computer consulting $100 or more per hour for services. Revisit your business model and decide what you think is best for you and your customers when it comes to computer repair prices. Your best bet is to get very profitable volume rather than a potentially unmanageable volume.

Submitted By: Joshua Feinberg

Target the IT Consulting Sweet Spot

IT consulting professionals in the small business arena often market to sweet spot small businesses. These are the businesses that typically give those in the IT consulting over $100 per hour.

Focus on Their Needs

Sweet spot small businesses have usually outgrown P2P networks and need one or more dedicated servers. This can really help IT consulting professionals because the competition they had when targeting smaller firms is no longer applicable.

When clients need a dedicated server, they also need professional help. They can no longer exist with a low-budget mentality and non-existent options, which means they need to charge higher prices for more sophisticated solutions.

Sweet Spot Business Size

If you are in small business IT consulting, you need to know that sweet spot small businesses have 10 – 50 computers and 10 – 100 employees. If you want to target companies with direct mail and other types of marketing, you should remember that they have between $1 million and $10 million in revenue annually.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing Requires Measuring Your Response

Tracking and measuring results is a very large part of your IT marketing plan. Ideally, you should be tracking your response along with how many responses turn into sales. But minimally, you should be looking at the type of inquiries that result from different marketing techniques.

Four Ways to Measure Response

1. Send targets to a URL so you can track website visits.

2. Get leads and prospects to tell you how they heard of you when you get them on the phone.

3. Set up a specific phone number for prospects to call with requests.

4. Diversify your response types to correspond with you diverse IT marketing campaigns. EXAMPLE: With postcards, offer a reduced price IT audit and with the newspaper ad offer a free seminar.

IT Marketing and Real Numbers

As an example, if you are mailing 1,000 postcards to 1,000 law offices within your area and attaching a free seminar, report or free needs analysis, you need to track how many of these postcards turned into inquiries.

You may get almost a two percent response rate on an inquiry (a great number!). You might have had a 1.7 percent response rate on inquiries and out of those 17 inquiries, one turned into a great account and one turned into a one-shot deal. Therefore, you can calculate that for the 1,000 attorney postcards, you got 17 inquiries and two business opportunities that brought $19,500 within the first year.

This would be a great return, even if you spent money on list rental or professional graphic design and when you include postage, copywriting costs, etc. A $500 or $700 investment turned into a one-shot deal that covered the cost of your mailing and you also found a huge account that went above and beyond the investment cost.

The Main Idea about IT Marketing

You need to measure response rate when it comes to IT marketing activities to track where and how you spent money and your ROI.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

IT Marketing: How Long Until Success?

When it comes to IT marketing your computer consulting business, you can’t expect instant success. But there are some steps you can take to make the process run as smoothly as possible.

IT Marketing Requires a System

If you are doing well with IT marketing, you may have joined the Chamber and be ready to go to your first networking meeting. You might have even participated in venture capital groups in the IT field and be handing out business cards everywhere you go. Still, you may not be seeing great success yet. What’s the problem exactly?

You need to give your system time to develop. You can expect to wait three to six months before you see any sort of benefits from your efforts. If after six months you are still seeing no results, you probably just need to change your IT marketing techniques or join a different networking organization.

IT Marketing: Stress Personal Relationships

You can’t just go to a few networking meetings and get a great account. Sometimes you might get lucky, but the majority of the time it pays to make sure people know, like and trust you.

If you have a great personality and are friendly and charismatic, you probably like working with people. If you prefer to be alone, you probably aren’t going to go really far with your IT marketing efforts unless you change your attitude a bit.

First impressions are going to be very important, so you should dress neatly and start to build a good relationship with people you meet. Chemistry and a good rapport mean everything. You also need to be prepared to send business to those you meet if you find someone that needs their services. Put yourself out in the public.

The Main Idea with IT Marketing

Successful IT marketing requires patience and building personal relationships.

Submitted By: Joshua Feinberg

Getting IT Sales and Determining Clients' Needs

When you engage in your first IT sales meeting with a prospect, you need to make sure you get into their top 3 problems. You might find out that the problems your prospects have are not actually any that you or subcontractors and partners can help with, at which point you want to move onto the next prospect.

WHAT ARE THEIR PREFERENCES?

You need to get prospects talking about their previous IT support. Asking them questions about their likes and dislikes can give you clues as to what you need to say and do to get to IT sales.

Also determine whether prospects have an emergency that needs to be dealt with in the next day or two days or if they are looking for IT audits, site surveys or tech assessments. Sometimes prospects will want something different from anything you are expecting, but most of the time you will know by asking some simple questions how to get to IT sales.

GETTING CLIENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH IT SALES

Your goal with IT sales meetings is to turn prospects into paying customers and clients. You want them to go beyond picking your brain and move onto writing a check to your company for services.

Be sure you have something ready to offer prospects and that you have proposals that clearly address their needs. Having blank forms with you during the initial IT sales meeting will help push them along the right track to becoming paying customers.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales: Find Out How Immediately They Need You

The initial IT sales consultations you have with clients have to end in a step towards paid services, such as site surveys. Sometimes prospects will be very interested in this, but others might give you some delay. You should not get a “delayed reaction” when it comes to IT sales if you convey the true importance of the project.

ASK QUESTIONS TO GET TO IT SALES

Prospects may tell you they want to go from DOS-based fax software to 32-bit fax software, fax to PDAs in the field or set up VPNs between offices. Find out if these are possibilities by asking important questions:

1. When would you like to start if everything looks good?

2. How important is this project?

3. When would you like to start the project?

4. What’s keeping you from starting this project right now?

5. Why has this project been delayed previously?

CHANGING NEEDS

You might find out by asking questions to get to IT sales that a project has been delayed by a prospect previously because it was too expensive or seemed impossible. Maybe the challenge of the project was more than the prospect expected.

DIRECT QUESTIONS CAN LEAD TO IT SALES

If you determine the urgency level and are still feeling blown off during an IT sales consultation you can ask non-pushy but pressing questions:


1. When is a good time for me to follow up with you?

2. When do you expect you will be in a better position to discuss this project again?

THE MAIN POINT

You need to know that with IT sales, no “no” is ever a true “no.” You need to learn about your prospect, his/her problem and its urgency.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Small Business Computer Consulting: What Do You Need to Know about Micro Small Businesses?

Many involved in IT consulting start by catering to micro small businesses. If you are going to work with this type of small business, you need to know general hardware and software, peer-to-peer networking and skills such as Goldmine, Peachtree and other tech management and accounting software. Virus protection will also be very important, so you need to know McAfee and Norton. Also get to know firewall protection such as Zone Alarm, Norton personal firewall and PC Anywhere.

IT Consulting and Networking for Micro Small Businesses

You should get to know the process of setting up basic P2P LANs for this type of small business client. You need to help them so they can share CD-ROMs, printers, internet access and other similar items. Also familiarize yourself with inexpensive routers that share a broadband connection.

When working with IT consulting for micro small businesses, you also have to get to know some Y-5 products. Get to know the wireless products that let you do limited wireless access, particularly the entry-level ones you will find in warehouse clubs and office supply superstores.

The Main Idea with IT Consulting and Micro Small Businesses

You should really know half or more of the above items to get involved in IT consulting for micro small businesses.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

More Computer Consulting Tips for Small Businesses

If you are a small business and you use computers, chances are you will at some point need the help and expertise of a trained computer consulting professional. But as a potentially “non-technical” small business owner, how do you evaluate “competence” when you are interviewing potential computer consulting firms, particularly when you get past the initial interview? The following questions can help you make your decision.

Questions: Reseller, Pure Computer Consulting Company or Hybrid Tech Provider

1. “Does your company resell tech products such as hardware and software?”

2. “Does your company rely on sales of products or can we get products from someone else? Can we use your procurement/needs analysis expertise even if we go with other product suppliers?”

3. “Do you work with other ISPs, phone companies, etc. and accept commission fees from these businesses?”

Questions: Costs, Hidden Charges, Billing

1. “What are your payment terms, rates, billing minimums? What is ‘billable’?”

2. “Are travel time, phone support, online support and remote support extra?”

3. “Do you have hourly billing premiums for emergency or after-hours work? How do you define these terms?”

4. “Do you have computer consulting support contracts? What are their benefits?”

Questions: References, Case Studies, Testimonials

1. “Tell me about a long-term small business client.”

2. “Tell me about a recently added account.”

3. “Tell me about an account that just didn’t work out.”

4. “Do you have references?”

Questions: Research and Keeping Up to Speed

1. “How do you stay with new tech developments?”

2. “What is billed to clients and what is internally absorbed?”

Questions: Training Approach

1. “Do you do in-depth user training? What kind of training do you provide?”

2. “Will you train an internal guru to be more self-sufficient, even if it means less billable hours for your computer consulting firm?”

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit