Tampilkan postingan dengan label IT consulting. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label IT consulting. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 31 Agustus 2011
IT Consulting: Time Tracking and Invoicing
As a new IT consulting business, it is important to learn about the most common mistakes made with time tracking and invoicing so you can avoid them.
Doing so will put your company in a better overall financial position. You will also be able to sleep better knowing you have greater financial control over your business.
Time Tracking, Billing and Other Issues
Time tracking, billing, invoicing and dealing with credit and collections are big issues in IT consulting. A lot of people wonder which software they should use for time tracking and billing. If you’re just focusing on that, you’re probably missing the bigger point here.
It’s a heck of a lot more important than the software you use. Of course you should use a piece of software that makes it a little easier to do your IT consulting job, but the software is not going to fix the underlying problems.
Your Service Gives IT Consulting Clients Peace of Mind
Steady clients will perceive your IT consulting business as an insurance policy. A steady client is motivated to pay your IT consulting business on time.
There’s a tremendous fear that if they forget to pay your invoices on time, when they have a network emergency, you’ll forget who they are. These are the clients you want to seek out.
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Selasa, 30 Agustus 2011
IT Consulting: Identifying Sweet Spot Clients
If you want to make a decent living and have a good, strong, sustainable IT consulting business, sooner or later you are going to come to this conclusion that the sweet spot of small businesses is the place to be.
You need to know where to look and how to verify that the small business you are pursuing is going to be gratifying enough to work with and lucrative enough of recurring revenue to make them a good sweet spot client.
How Do You Recognize a Sweet Spot Client?
Sweet spot IT consulting clients are no more than a 30-50 minute drive of your IT consulting home base. This way you can gets lots of face time with them. You can also get there quickly if there's an emergency. You don't want to spend a lot of time driving around and sitting in traffic.
Even if you are charging for travel time or charging a service fee or a van fee, driving time is not your most profitable IT consulting time.
How Do You Find Local Sweet Spot Businesses?
You can certainly rent direct mail lists that are in that geographic range 0-50 miles, or 0-80 kilometers. Or you can join some local organizations that are within a half hour to an hour of your location.
How Big Are The Sweet Spot IT Consulting Clients?
Sweet spot IT consulting clients have from 10-50 computers, 10-100 employees, a million to 10 million in sales. And of course, you can rent direct mail lists with at least part of that criteria filled and selected.
Another big thing to find a sweet spot IT consulting client is that they will have a relationship with a local accounting firm or other trusted business advisors. You want to position your consulting firm to be a trusted business advisor of theirs.
Sweet Spot Businesses are Well Connected
Most of these sweet spot IT consulting clients have relationships with other trusted business advisors on an outsource basis. They have a relationship with a local attorney, a local accounting firm, a local consulting firm a local advertising agency and a graphic designer. They know the value of those kinds of relationships.
If you want to get in with companies that already have great relationships with sweet spot businesses, you should be looking at networking with these businesses, a local accounting firm for example.
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Selasa, 26 Oktober 2010
IT Consulting in Micro Small Businesses
Small business is a hot market for IT consulting. There are different sizes of small businesses and they all have different IT consulting needs. In this article you'll learn some items you should be familiar with in order to provide IT consulting to these businesses.
Micro Small Businesses Defined
Micro small businesses are companies that have anywhere from 1-10 computers; windows based in most cases. Usually these companies employ 1-10 people. Revenue (in U.S. dollars) will typically be anywhere from $100,000 up to about a million or so.
The big differentiator in micro small businesses from others, as far as IT consulting is concerned, is that they have no dedicated server yet. They may be running a peer to peer system and that’s the major reason they are bringing you in there.
Don't have a “crisis of confidence”. Many people, when first entering IT consulting are not sure if their skills are strong enough. But most people will find that they are at least capable of working with at least micro small businesses as a starting point.
Micro Small Business: What Hardware You Need for IT Consulting
You need to know about basic desktop PC support, notebooks, PDAs like palm based PDAs and windows cd based PDAs, printers, how to set up servers and dial up modems, DSL, cable modems a little bit about how to set up surge protection, data line protection, and entry level battery back up units.
Software Requirements for Micro Business IT Consulting
You need to be reasonably familiar with the most popular desktop and notebook operating systems out there. But mainly just the basic Microsoft Windows flavors on the desktop and the desktop’s of notebooks and a little bit on PDAs.
Micro businesses are also looking for a lot of very heavy desktop office automation applications support, basic PC support, basic notebook support, the whole Microsoft Office family, Intuits Quickbooks the accounting software is very popular, the Best Software’s ACT software for management is also really popular.
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Micro Small Businesses Defined
Micro small businesses are companies that have anywhere from 1-10 computers; windows based in most cases. Usually these companies employ 1-10 people. Revenue (in U.S. dollars) will typically be anywhere from $100,000 up to about a million or so.
The big differentiator in micro small businesses from others, as far as IT consulting is concerned, is that they have no dedicated server yet. They may be running a peer to peer system and that’s the major reason they are bringing you in there.
Don't have a “crisis of confidence”. Many people, when first entering IT consulting are not sure if their skills are strong enough. But most people will find that they are at least capable of working with at least micro small businesses as a starting point.
Micro Small Business: What Hardware You Need for IT Consulting
You need to know about basic desktop PC support, notebooks, PDAs like palm based PDAs and windows cd based PDAs, printers, how to set up servers and dial up modems, DSL, cable modems a little bit about how to set up surge protection, data line protection, and entry level battery back up units.
Software Requirements for Micro Business IT Consulting
You need to be reasonably familiar with the most popular desktop and notebook operating systems out there. But mainly just the basic Microsoft Windows flavors on the desktop and the desktop’s of notebooks and a little bit on PDAs.
Micro businesses are also looking for a lot of very heavy desktop office automation applications support, basic PC support, basic notebook support, the whole Microsoft Office family, Intuits Quickbooks the accounting software is very popular, the Best Software’s ACT software for management is also really popular.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Jumat, 27 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: The Initial Consultation
You have to think of the sales process as more of like a pre-sales consultation and with an emphasis on consultation. You really want to convey your professionalism and stand out from the other computer consulting "professionals" out there who want to act like used car salespeople.
In this article, you'll learn that this can be done by taking a sincere interest in your prospect’s business, taking a sincere interest in their problems, and getting a grasp on those problems so you can figure out if you have a solution for them within your computer consulting business.
Have You Dug Up Any Dirt?
There may be cases where you find some dirt on them that makes you not want to do business with them. The computer consulting sales call is really a two-way interview process. If you see some weird, bizarre stuff going on or there’s some weird, bizarre stuff in background and in the news about this prospect, you may not want their business. As strange as it sounds, you may want to turn down their business, but again, this is the importance of doing your homework ahead of time and being prepared for your initial consultation.
Realize Time is Money
You’ll probably need to take a half hour to an hour to put together a little introductory packet of things to give them. You’re going to spend a half hour to an hour driving over there. Your consultation will very rarely start on time or finish on time. So by the time you get done, even if you’re super-efficient, usually two or three hours has been spent.
If you take your hourly billing rate that you’re billing out for computer consulting service calls, let’s say you’re billing at $75 an hour for computer consulting, that means you invested $225 in time before gas and mileage and parking and tolls. Before you do that, make sure your computer consulting prospect is a good fit. One of the best ways you can do that is by qualifying them a little better. Doing your homework goes a long way towards this end.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
In this article, you'll learn that this can be done by taking a sincere interest in your prospect’s business, taking a sincere interest in their problems, and getting a grasp on those problems so you can figure out if you have a solution for them within your computer consulting business.
Have You Dug Up Any Dirt?
There may be cases where you find some dirt on them that makes you not want to do business with them. The computer consulting sales call is really a two-way interview process. If you see some weird, bizarre stuff going on or there’s some weird, bizarre stuff in background and in the news about this prospect, you may not want their business. As strange as it sounds, you may want to turn down their business, but again, this is the importance of doing your homework ahead of time and being prepared for your initial consultation.
Realize Time is Money
You’ll probably need to take a half hour to an hour to put together a little introductory packet of things to give them. You’re going to spend a half hour to an hour driving over there. Your consultation will very rarely start on time or finish on time. So by the time you get done, even if you’re super-efficient, usually two or three hours has been spent.
If you take your hourly billing rate that you’re billing out for computer consulting service calls, let’s say you’re billing at $75 an hour for computer consulting, that means you invested $225 in time before gas and mileage and parking and tolls. Before you do that, make sure your computer consulting prospect is a good fit. One of the best ways you can do that is by qualifying them a little better. Doing your homework goes a long way towards this end.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Kamis, 26 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: The Initial Consultation
You have to think of the sales process as more of like a pre-sales consultation and with an emphasis on consultation. You really want to convey your professionalism and stand out from the other computer consulting "professionals" out there who want to act like used car salespeople.
In this article, you'll learn that this can be done by taking a sincere interest in your prospect’s business, taking a sincere interest in their problems, and getting a grasp on those problems so you can figure out if you have a solution for them within your computer consulting business.
Have You Dug Up Any Dirt?
There may be cases where you find some dirt on them that makes you not want to do business with them. The computer consulting sales call is really a two-way interview process. If you see some weird, bizarre stuff going on or there’s some weird, bizarre stuff in background and in the news about this prospect, you may not want their business. As strange as it sounds, you may want to turn down their business, but again, this is the importance of doing your homework ahead of time and being prepared for your initial consultation.
Realize Time is Money
You’ll probably need to take a half hour to an hour to put together a little introductory packet of things to give them. You’re going to spend a half hour to an hour driving over there. Your consultation will very rarely start on time or finish on time. So by the time you get done, even if you’re super-efficient, usually two or three hours has been spent.
If you take your hourly billing rate that you’re billing out for computer consulting service calls, let’s say you’re billing at $75 an hour for computer consulting, that means you invested $225 in time before gas and mileage and parking and tolls. Before you do that, make sure your computer consulting prospect is a good fit. One of the best ways you can do that is by qualifying them a little better. Doing your homework goes a long way towards this end.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
In this article, you'll learn that this can be done by taking a sincere interest in your prospect’s business, taking a sincere interest in their problems, and getting a grasp on those problems so you can figure out if you have a solution for them within your computer consulting business.
Have You Dug Up Any Dirt?
There may be cases where you find some dirt on them that makes you not want to do business with them. The computer consulting sales call is really a two-way interview process. If you see some weird, bizarre stuff going on or there’s some weird, bizarre stuff in background and in the news about this prospect, you may not want their business. As strange as it sounds, you may want to turn down their business, but again, this is the importance of doing your homework ahead of time and being prepared for your initial consultation.
Realize Time is Money
You’ll probably need to take a half hour to an hour to put together a little introductory packet of things to give them. You’re going to spend a half hour to an hour driving over there. Your consultation will very rarely start on time or finish on time. So by the time you get done, even if you’re super-efficient, usually two or three hours has been spent.
If you take your hourly billing rate that you’re billing out for computer consulting service calls, let’s say you’re billing at $75 an hour for computer consulting, that means you invested $225 in time before gas and mileage and parking and tolls. Before you do that, make sure your computer consulting prospect is a good fit. One of the best ways you can do that is by qualifying them a little better. Doing your homework goes a long way towards this end.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Selasa, 24 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Some General Tips
To run a successful computer consulting practice, you need to be able to deliver on that end-to-end solution. Have a good service agreement ready to go. Have an IT audit checklist. Have partnering agreements. Be prepared to take your clients from the beginning to the end of the process with you.
Computer Consulting Service Agreements
If you don’t propose the service agreements to your customers, your small business decision makers probably won't ask for them. You have to tell your computer consulting clients that this is how you work with other customers. You build mutually beneficial relationships where your company essentially becomes your computer department.
Take Your Prospect from Free to Fee
You need to learn how to take your prospects from free to fee. You should never spend several hours on just a proposal. A proposal has no value added and it leaves you in commodity status. That numbers game you don't want to play - it's not very high profit.
Tackle One Thing At a Time
Pick one thing a week for next several weeks and just start working on it. Whether it’s coming up with a couple different marketing ideas you can work with, whether it’s coming up with a service agreement that you can start marketing to your existing computer consulting clients, or whether it’s coming up with customizing the IT audit package.
Start getting your ducks in order. You should be getting your plans in place and building up your network. Make sure you have everything ready so you can hit the ground running. Be ready to do a full frontal assault on the marketplace to let your slice of the market know that you’re out there.
Don't focus on reaching everyone. Define who you’re trying to reach and limit the size and scope.
Consider Yourself an Outsourced IT Department
If you think of the five or six different functions that small businesses need, from the needs analysis, the project management, the training, the desktop rollouts, the desktop fixes, the server, setting up and configuring the servers, maintaining the servers, and build your computer consulting business around that, your business will grow.
Additionally, it will give your client the single point of contact that they really desperately want. The number one responsibility is to think of yourself as your computer consulting client’s outsourced IT department.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting Service Agreements
If you don’t propose the service agreements to your customers, your small business decision makers probably won't ask for them. You have to tell your computer consulting clients that this is how you work with other customers. You build mutually beneficial relationships where your company essentially becomes your computer department.
Take Your Prospect from Free to Fee
You need to learn how to take your prospects from free to fee. You should never spend several hours on just a proposal. A proposal has no value added and it leaves you in commodity status. That numbers game you don't want to play - it's not very high profit.
Tackle One Thing At a Time
Pick one thing a week for next several weeks and just start working on it. Whether it’s coming up with a couple different marketing ideas you can work with, whether it’s coming up with a service agreement that you can start marketing to your existing computer consulting clients, or whether it’s coming up with customizing the IT audit package.
Start getting your ducks in order. You should be getting your plans in place and building up your network. Make sure you have everything ready so you can hit the ground running. Be ready to do a full frontal assault on the marketplace to let your slice of the market know that you’re out there.
Don't focus on reaching everyone. Define who you’re trying to reach and limit the size and scope.
Consider Yourself an Outsourced IT Department
If you think of the five or six different functions that small businesses need, from the needs analysis, the project management, the training, the desktop rollouts, the desktop fixes, the server, setting up and configuring the servers, maintaining the servers, and build your computer consulting business around that, your business will grow.
Additionally, it will give your client the single point of contact that they really desperately want. The number one responsibility is to think of yourself as your computer consulting client’s outsourced IT department.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Sabtu, 21 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Prospective Client Red Flags
Is there a pattern to watch out for with computer consulting prospects that might act as a red flag or early warning detection system? Yes there is - and you’ll get better at spotting them as you go along.
It’s more of an art than a science, but if it looks like the Dilbert cartoon, it probably is going to work out that way.
Do Your Potential Computer Consulting Clients Respect Your Time?
If you walk in and you have a one o’clock appointment and they make you sit around in the waiting room for 15 or 20 minutes, unless there’s a real bona fide emergency, your wait time probably won't decrease once you actually have them as a computer consulting client.
You’re going to show up on time and have to wait. You'll be running up your non-productive time, because they’re disorganized.
Are They Pleasant?
If they’re late, if they’re particularly obnoxious or abusive or nasty or if you find out that the owners or the managers don’t have any respect for their employees, these are subtle clues.
If you get an early warning sign on your first meeting, don't immediately walk out the door. Take it all in, put it in your notes. These are the kinds of things to think about, whether you really want these computer consulting clients or not.
It's a Two Way Street
It’s really a two-way interview process. You should be interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you, to see if it's a match for computer consulting. They need to have a clear idea of where their business is going, what they think they want to use IT for, and what their experience has been in the past with other technology providers.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
It’s more of an art than a science, but if it looks like the Dilbert cartoon, it probably is going to work out that way.
Do Your Potential Computer Consulting Clients Respect Your Time?
If you walk in and you have a one o’clock appointment and they make you sit around in the waiting room for 15 or 20 minutes, unless there’s a real bona fide emergency, your wait time probably won't decrease once you actually have them as a computer consulting client.
You’re going to show up on time and have to wait. You'll be running up your non-productive time, because they’re disorganized.
Are They Pleasant?
If they’re late, if they’re particularly obnoxious or abusive or nasty or if you find out that the owners or the managers don’t have any respect for their employees, these are subtle clues.
If you get an early warning sign on your first meeting, don't immediately walk out the door. Take it all in, put it in your notes. These are the kinds of things to think about, whether you really want these computer consulting clients or not.
It's a Two Way Street
It’s really a two-way interview process. You should be interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you, to see if it's a match for computer consulting. They need to have a clear idea of where their business is going, what they think they want to use IT for, and what their experience has been in the past with other technology providers.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Jumat, 20 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Finding Your Prospects Among Your Leads
Some signs are important to look for when looking for your sweet spot computer consulting clients. Most of these businesses will be doing at least a seven-figure annual sales volume with 10 to 25 employees. In this article, you'll learn how to use additional criteria to pick out your sweet spot computer consulting clients.
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Kamis, 19 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Finding Your Prospects Among Your Leads
Some signs are important to look for when looking for your sweet spot computer consulting clients. Most of these businesses will be doing at least a seven-figure annual sales volume with 10 to 25 employees. In this article, you'll learn how to use additional criteria to pick out your sweet spot computer consulting clients.
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting: The Good Signs and the Bad
Some industries tend to be more IT-intensive than others. Soon, you'll learn the industries that are most likely to need your computer consulting services. There are some good signs and bad signs when it comes to the probability of a business hiring you. You will learn to recognize right off the bat whether a business is going to be receptive to spending $1,000 to $2,000 for computer consulting services.
A really good sign is if you go in to meet with a prospective client and you find out that they’re working with another solution provider in your local community but they’re dissatisfied. Why is that a good thing for you? If they’re dissatisfied and looking around for someone else, that tells you that they’re willing to pay for professional computer consulting services.
A bad sign is they’re working with a moonlighter or they have a friend or a family member who helps out once in a while or they’re getting volunteer support, and they’re not used to paying for high-level professional services. That's a big red flag. Any price you quote them is going to seem really high when they're accustomed to getting service for free.
Sweet Spot Clients Run in Packs
Your sweet spot clients that are willing to spend $1,000 to $2,000 per month on IT services are going to have relationships with other trusted business advisors in the local community like accountants, attorneys, and management consultants. Sometimes they’re even working with other niched tech providers. This will work to your advantage when they start referring you to their contacts.
The Bottom Line about Computer Consulting
By learning to recognize the characteristics of a sweet spot client, you'll save yourself lots of time and energy and more easily turn your prospects into clients. In this article, you’ve learned more about computer consulting.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Rabu, 18 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Finding Prospects Among Your Leads
How do you narrow down your leads and find your prospects? In this article, you'll learn some criteria that will help you narrow down your computer consulting leads and take them to the next step.
One is finding your industry focus. You must laser beam your target market. You need to stand out tremendously from the crowd because everyone other computer consulting professional is chasing after the same hardware services, LAN, and the exact same advertising.
But there are two other really big ways that you can narrow down your leads and improve your batting average. One is size.
Computer Consulting: Three Different Size Audiences to Pursue:
One is the micro small business where there’s just a handful of PCs. It has more to do with the mindset of the business owner than the absolute number of PCs, but it’s a very small number of employees, a very small number of PCs, and at that size, the micro small business doesn’t usually look for extensive high-level IT computer consulting services. The next step up is really the sweet spot where we see most computer consulting professionals still continuing to do very well even in this challenging environment, and that’s the 10- to 50-PC space. A number of different studies have confirmed that the two to one ratio holds across different industries, so if you’re maxing out around a 50-seat LAN, a lot of times that equates to anywhere from a 90- to 100-employee company. At that size, once you get that many PCs, IT is usually a lot more strategically important to the company. Down time becomes much more expensive. You can do simple calculations like taking their annual revenue and dividing by 250 business days a year and eight hours a day and give them real simple ideas of a company doing $4 million a year in annual revenue with 2,000 business hours a year is losing on average $2,000 an hour for down time. A computer consulting professional can save them money in the long run. When you start to get to 50 PCs or 100 PCs or more, you start to enter what we consider the borderline of the top of small business and the bottom of medium-sized business. What can often happen at that size is the IT services bills from your company start to approach what could become a full-time salary of a real IT manager. They’re no longer going to need to outsource the generalist roles--instead they'll hire their own, on-site person.
The Bottom Line About Computer Consulting
To set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to further define your ideal client in order to find the prospects among your leads.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consulting 101 Blog. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
One is finding your industry focus. You must laser beam your target market. You need to stand out tremendously from the crowd because everyone other computer consulting professional is chasing after the same hardware services, LAN, and the exact same advertising.
But there are two other really big ways that you can narrow down your leads and improve your batting average. One is size.
Computer Consulting: Three Different Size Audiences to Pursue:
One is the micro small business where there’s just a handful of PCs. It has more to do with the mindset of the business owner than the absolute number of PCs, but it’s a very small number of employees, a very small number of PCs, and at that size, the micro small business doesn’t usually look for extensive high-level IT computer consulting services. The next step up is really the sweet spot where we see most computer consulting professionals still continuing to do very well even in this challenging environment, and that’s the 10- to 50-PC space. A number of different studies have confirmed that the two to one ratio holds across different industries, so if you’re maxing out around a 50-seat LAN, a lot of times that equates to anywhere from a 90- to 100-employee company. At that size, once you get that many PCs, IT is usually a lot more strategically important to the company. Down time becomes much more expensive. You can do simple calculations like taking their annual revenue and dividing by 250 business days a year and eight hours a day and give them real simple ideas of a company doing $4 million a year in annual revenue with 2,000 business hours a year is losing on average $2,000 an hour for down time. A computer consulting professional can save them money in the long run. When you start to get to 50 PCs or 100 PCs or more, you start to enter what we consider the borderline of the top of small business and the bottom of medium-sized business. What can often happen at that size is the IT services bills from your company start to approach what could become a full-time salary of a real IT manager. They’re no longer going to need to outsource the generalist roles--instead they'll hire their own, on-site person.
The Bottom Line About Computer Consulting
To set yourself apart from the crowd, you need to further define your ideal client in order to find the prospects among your leads.
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Senin, 16 Agustus 2010
Computer Consulting: Do Your Homework
Beware of vendors who ask you to explain what you do in your business. Instead, give a basic explaination of what your computer consulting business is all about so a client can determine if he has any product or service that’s in your picture. Rather than be reactive, go to the interview being proactive! Know what they are doing before you go in and be prepared to help them with their needs.
Computer Consulting: Research to Prepare for Your Meeting
Even though it might take you 30 to 45 minutes to do some homework ahead of time, you need to do your research to increase your chances at closing the sale, either on the spot or within a week or two afterwards. For them to agree to your computer consulting services, you will have to build credibility and mind share with that prospect. It shows that you care about their business.
There's really no excuse for not doing your homework anymore. Today, you can easily go to the Google search engine and type in the person's name or phone number or address and find out everything under the sun that you can about them.
Computer Consulting: What You Need to Know about Your Clients
You should really have a complete profile of:
-What their business is all about
-What industry they’re in
-What types of services they provide
-How many locations they have
-How long they’ve been in business
Find Out Recent News about Your Client
You’re probably going to be able to find articles that have been in the local newspaper about them that might either show up in Google or you can find by going to the newspaper doing a search function there. You want to look for anything you can that’s going to give you extra background and an extra edge so when you go in there, you already know what they’re doing.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
Computer Consulting: Research to Prepare for Your Meeting
Even though it might take you 30 to 45 minutes to do some homework ahead of time, you need to do your research to increase your chances at closing the sale, either on the spot or within a week or two afterwards. For them to agree to your computer consulting services, you will have to build credibility and mind share with that prospect. It shows that you care about their business.
There's really no excuse for not doing your homework anymore. Today, you can easily go to the Google search engine and type in the person's name or phone number or address and find out everything under the sun that you can about them.
Computer Consulting: What You Need to Know about Your Clients
You should really have a complete profile of:
-What their business is all about
-What industry they’re in
-What types of services they provide
-How many locations they have
-How long they’ve been in business
Find Out Recent News about Your Client
You’re probably going to be able to find articles that have been in the local newspaper about them that might either show up in Google or you can find by going to the newspaper doing a search function there. You want to look for anything you can that’s going to give you extra background and an extra edge so when you go in there, you already know what they’re doing.
Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}
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