“What if we could save you money?”….  This question has to be the number one question that salesman have used through the ages to try and close prospects.  It’s also been the primary vehical that most marketing professional have built their sales message around and used to drive revenue.  Granted even when companies say they can’t save you hard cost and that their services will actually cost more, the  rationale is still that you will save money in some other way. Normally companies that can’t show direct savings try to show savings to their prospects soft cost.  Computer business owners have primarily followed the latter path, trying not to show direct hard savings but indirect soft savings such as eliminating lost productivity or increasing productivity.  In the past I have always believed this was the correct path to follow in the marketing process for technology sales.  However, what if there was a way justify buying managed services other than saving money? (more…)

One of the most common reason that are cited by couples that lead to a break up of their marriage, is the lack of communication.  While this can be the kiss of death to a healthy marriage, it can also be one of the factors that could destroy a partnership between a telemarketing firm and an it services provider.  When one partner is in the dark about what the other one is doing or thinking, then it can lead to confusion and blunders.  Lets look at a few examples of situations that have lead to minor problems and others that have had disastrous consequences for computer business marketing owners.

Communication is key!

One of the first issues that can arise with regard to communication between an it call center and a managed services provider can happen right at the start of the relationship.  If the liaison from the telesales company fails to do an introductory interview to find out exactly what their client is offering in clear terms, then this could lead to a disconnect in the marketing efforts.  Vice versus, if the computer consultant fails to clearly state what their model is or level of services to be offered; then this could setup the wrong expectations in the prospects minds. (more…)

“On this list there might only be one prospect that will say YES!” This is what one of my telemarketers told me when I was questioning why he hadn’t set very many IT sales leads that day.  I thought about his statement for a few minutes about and realized that what he was actually saying is that he thought that every one he called was already either not interested or was just waiting for him to call to say they were ready for a computer consultant to come up and give them a proposal for managed services.

As I was considering how I could respond in such a way so that I wouldn’t criticize him but be able to get him to realize that life is in ‘flux’ and that nothing is predetermined, especially in the IT lead generation game.  I realized that it wasn’t just my technology telemarketing agent that saw the glass half empty but that probably many of the computer services sales reps out there see the  marketing leads we give them in the exact same way, that they don’t have any influence on the outcome of their sales calls. (more…)

Often when an IT salesman enters a prospect’s office and is getting ready to begin a marketing presentation, it’s typical that the computer consultant tends to be so focused on what they are going to say in their presentation that they often miss golden opportunities to build rapport.

I know all to well about this problem because I recently blew the perfect chance to build rapport with a prospect.  When I entered the prospect’s headquarters, I was first greeted by a friendly and playful dog.  While I was petting this dog, my thoughts were racing about whether or not I had parked in a tow away zone and my presentation about sales leads

Once I had verified from the computer business owner that in fact my car wasn’t in any danger, then my basic sales voice spoke to me, “Any business owner that keeps his dog at the office must care an awfully lot about his pet!” When I realized this I instantly asked what the dog’s name was. (more…)

If you read our last blog, then I want to make sure you know we are not drinking beer and wine at work….  However, I had a lightning bolt hit me out of the sky when I was at a Italian restaurant a few months ago.

This restaurant had some powerful marketing strategies at work that I want to share with the computer business marketing firms out there. The first strategy this restaurant used was arousing our curiosity!

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A lot of computer business owners who have contacted our marketing firm about generation of sales lead or leads  for their IT services offerings have been curious about  how they get the leads, what the leads look like and what information is included in the sales leads.

I wanted to take this opportunity to show exactly what one of our sales leads looks like and go over the information you will be getting and show how to translate it.

First our technology sales leads are simply emailed to the contact or multiple contacts that our clients indicate to us.  The first item that will catch your eye is the subject like in our emails.  They are always clearly marked as “A new Apt from MSP Telemarketing”. The second item in the subject line is then name of the firm the appointment was set with and the third and most important thing is the date and time of the marketing meeting that was set on your behalf.
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