Computer consultants that want to grow their businesses through it services marketing face a serious barrier to achieving that goal. The problem is that the vast majority of the companies in the market have in-house IT departments.
There are still a cadre of services that can profitably be sold to these firms like server management. However, none of these proposals usually ever see the light of day because these decisions are pocket vetoed by the IT Director.
Most managed services providers view the IT Director as sort of a Svengali character who controls the CFO and stops them from ever thinking about outsourcing because they’re afraid of losing their job. Therefore the big question is how can you sell in such a hostel environment? (more…)
I think the grandiose goal of many computer business owners is to grow their business to amazing heights so they can push their competitors out of business and establish a near monopoly that spreads all over the country! Well maybe they don’t all want to get that big, but at least they want to grow through IT marketing so they can make a few million in reoccurring revenue. Then they can step away from the company and let someone else managed the tedious day-to-day activities and finally enjoy what life has to offer. The problem is that most of the average computer consultants probably feel they are a million miles away from ever achieving either one of those goals. The question is what is the final piece of the puzzle that can get these guy’s IT services marketing back on the track to achieve their Dreams? 
We have probably all seen some movie or TV show where there is either a tent revival flim flam man or a traveling snake oil sales man that puts on a hoax by having a grifter pretend they were cured by either the healing or the elixir. Perhaps the grifter dramatically stands up out of their wheel chair or releases their crutches and exclaims, “I Can Walk!“ When other people watching the show see how this person was miraculously healed then they start forking over their money to the matchstick men.
I have been watching what the disaster recovery industry has been offering in the market place for over 10 years. I have seen how the industry has evolved from the early days when computer consultants would fasten together their own data backup solutions with duct tape and bailing wire to the point when the first products were offered by IT Vendors through the channel. For much of this history there has been relatively little technology advancement as many vendors would simply ‘borrow’ their core technology and the only enhancements they would make was to their sales and marketing. However, this is all about to change as a new disaster recovery juggernaut has entered the fray and has awakened this sleepy industry from it’s doldrums. Axcient has literally built a better mouse trap and outdone their competitors at every level but how can this impact your IT marketing? 
I once heard a famous magician explain to someone that was pestering him for his secrets that if did reveal the secrets to his prestidigitation then they would no longer be amazing. In fact in the very instant the information would be conveyed suddenly the formerly enraptured audience would consider the tricks very common place and believe they could have figured it out on their own. Recently I was questioned by a computer consultant that wanted to get some of the secrets we use in our process of telemarketing and sales training. However, the same is true with the secrets to IT services marketing as with Magic! Even the most brilliant technique that is used to get past gatekeepers, once revealed, would suddenly be perceived as mundane and ordinary. 
It was once a wartime strategy to stealthily poison your enemies water supply at it’s source and thereby defeat your adversaries without having to fire a shot. Later this term was used for another type of battle that was fought with words instead of weapons and that was debating. You could proverbial poison the well of ideas of your opponent by making false claims or ad hominem attacks about them and turning everybody away from their beliefs. This is exactly what has happened to the concept of using outsourced telemarketing to help grow a computer business. Some IT companies have tried telemarketing and failed so they are spreading vitriolic poison around the industry. The real issue to consider is if the isolated experiences of these people should cause every other technology firm to rule out using telemarketing for IT marketing. Another question that’s worth considering is what might be the root cause of those failures that have caused so much consternation?
If you have ever spent any time in your career making cold calls for some product or service then you can probably remember hearing the most common objection to doing any thing new, “If It Ain’t Broke Then Don’t Fix It.” It seems like this objection comes up even more often when you’re marketing anything new with IT services. It’s amazing how pervasive this phrase has spread among professional business owners and on the surface it’s seems the logic behind this old saying is pretty air tight. After All if some product you have or concept is still working then why on earth would you ever spend any time trying to fix it? 
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. 
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?
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. 
