If you have ever pick up the phone to make some cold calls for your computer business then you have probably made contact with tons of people that were rude.   They will hang up on you or try to rush you through your presentation by saying, “Get to the point”.  Sometimes you might think that these people just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.  Many conclude that there are some people that you just can’t sale and so the goals is to just keep calling until you reach someone that is in a good mood.  However, is it possible to transform someone that seems to have a bad bedside manner magically into a Pollyanna that is positive and chipper?  If this is possible then it would mean that you could make far less calls and get more IT sales leads. (more…)

In the old west if the local towns people had a problem with rustlers or land barons using Machiavellian tactics to intimidate them, then all they had to do was call in a gunslinger for hire to help vanquish the rapscallions.  Well at least that’s how it worked in the old west that Hollywood portrays in the movies.  Normally none of the local people had any skill at handling a pistol in a gunfight and this is why they had to turn to a hired gun.  This is the same situation that many computer business owners are  faced with when it comes to selling managed services.  They may not have the skills or time to maximize the marketing potential from all their sales leads.  Since most IT providers either can’t find or afford a good local salesperson then is there the equivalent of a hired sales gun?

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There is a Fork in there road for many computer consultants that are in the process of marketing their business.  There are really two basic ways of packaging your services and offering them to the public, but they are both extremely different from one another.  The first concept is to have more of a boutique computer company that only plans on having a very few select customers and therefore charges the highest price possible.  The other style is to try to reach the mass market by signing up as many clients as humanly possible.  The problem arises when a technology firm is trying to reach the mass market but doing so with the highest price possible.  The two methods can’t be more incompatible and therefore not realizing the difference can destroy your chances of successful IT marketing. (more…)

Crashing airplanes in the process of learning to fly would be a very dangerous and costly proposition.  In fact, real planes are so expensive  that most people would never even attempt to fly one without quite a bit of class room training along with spending plenty of time in the air with an experienced pilot.  Not only does this just make particle sense it is also a legal requirement before a pilot can get a license to fly.  Unfortunately, there isn’t a similar requirement for managed services providers to get certified by a marketing expert before risking precious capital and time trying to learn IT services marketing on their own.

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Have you ever gone shopping for something you really wanted only to find all the shelves empty.  Then you go from one store to the next and at each store you find all the shelves empty.  This can be very frustrating and end up wasting a lot of time, however many computer business owners go in pursuit of an IT marketing compensation plan commonly called having ’skin in the game’ that doesn’t really exist.  This concept would be very attractive for the consultants because it means they only pay if and when a marketing techniques produces results.  I have tried to pitch this idea to a few advertisers like the local radio station and newspaper but for some strange reason when I suggested that I only pay when a sale closes they looked at me like I was crazy!  Why can’t this model be found in the market place but more importantly why keep searching for it? (more…)

When computer consultants are trying to decide which marketing path to take, there is a blinding array of choices and factors to consider.  The one factor that always seems to be at the top of the list for most MSPs is the bottom line price of the IT marketing services they might be evaluating.  Whether it’s a post card campaign or a SEO service the big question is usually what is it going to cost.  The second most important question is what kind of ROI should I expect from my investment.  However, one issue that usually is not considered is how much time will be lost or wasted if the campaign is not successful.  Why should you consider such negative concept before you pull the trigger on any marketing plans? (more…)

When we market our services to computer business owners we have found it very beneficial to ask one probing question that will reveal which contacts might be a good match for our telemarketing  service.  The question that we ask is whether their business has too much business to grow or if they are looking to expand.  Surprisingly this question has turned up far more managed services that are too busy and not looking to grow their businesses.  What is even more interesting is that the technology providers that indicated they did want to expand were shocked that anyone would say they didn’t want to grow.  What’s causing so many MSP to stop trying to expand their client base with IT marketing? (more…)

It’s a common expression that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks but what about teaching a computer consultant new IT marketing techniques?  The old ways that I am talking about are the tried and true method of selling prospects by conducting a needs assessment, where you try to identify pain points.  This is the approach that just about every IT guy is familiar with and for the most part they are very skillful at squeezing out the very last drop of issues and problems that a business which in pain is having.  The question that we are asking is how difficult is it to take the average managed services provider and teach them new sales techniques that put them out of their comfort zone?  The technique I am referring to is the ability to sell to a business that doesn’t have any immediate pain. (more…)

Is your computer business model sexy enough to convince companies that are happy with their current tech provider to take a second look as you walk by?  Would they blow some wolf whistles as you walked by and think about cheating on their current consultant?  Since companies are not wedded to their IT provider then there would be nothing immodest about having a sexier model and flaunting it all over town.  However, one managed services provider recently told me flat out that his service deliver model was anything but sexy and seemed to be proud of that fact.  In fact it almost seemed that he was offended that I might even suggest the importance of trying to dress up his model to attract more prospect.

If you have a drab and dreary old technology model then do you think there would be anything wrong with improving it and would there been any possible benefit to taking the effort to research lots of new MSP vendors and evaluate what services may enhance your current offerings? (more…)

We have all seen the scene in the movies where the ‘deal’ is about to go down where one shady party has the money in a silver brief case and the other party has the ‘goods’ in their brief case, either secrets or some other illegal contraband.  Of course, in most cases since neither party trust the other the question arises as to who exactly is going to be the first to hand over their case to the other party and wait to get back what he wants in exchange.  Many times these exchanges in the Movies end with one side killing the other and taking both brief cases.  So how easy is it to make the same switch in the managed services sales process?  The switch we are discussing is where you have a proposal that the IT sales prospect wants, but they have the network audit information that you want.  This is where the marketing standoff usually begins and this ’switch’ almost never ends up happening! (more…)