It’s  a great business and career, with lots of fun and excitement.

However a few words of advice… make sure that you pay attention to the business side of the responsibilities, and not just the technology.

This new YouTube video shows you how to get more great clients with 4 key qualifying questions.

Then learn more proven tips on becoming an IT consultant now at BecomingAnITConsultant.com

   1.  Coordinate Telecommunications and Internet Solutions. With your small business clients, you will probably need to coordinate your own technology support and product installation with the local telephone company or Internet service provider. You will need to research which types of connections are needed and how they will work together to facilitate a sophisticated network.

   2.  Test, Test, Test. As part of delivering a complete, soup-to-nuts IT solution, your computer reseller firm should get involved in vertical industry-niched applications. You may bring the vertical applications in, but your clients might also ask you to test the application before they make a major investment. This way, you’ll control application selection and be able to coordinate application selection with other products you recommend, sell or purchase for them. You will also have to evaluate how vertical applications fit in with your clients’ networks.

   3.  Be Prepared to Train the Guru … or the Masses. Even if you think training won’t be a part of your duties as a computer reseller or you don’t want to do it, you will inevitably have to be involved at some point. Sometimes you will have to conduct formal end-user training where you take small groups aside and show new users an application or a new piece of hardware. Other times, you will have to help the internal guru through informal training. Training the internal guru can often help train others on routine technology matters – i.e., lost toolbar or taskbar recovery, simple troubleshooting – so you can free up time to help with more complicated issues that more easily cost-justify your high hourly billing rates.

   4.  Expect Disaster. Another responsibility you will have to take on with small businesses is disaster recovery planning. You will have to check out the data backup system, the antivirus software, the power protection and the security. You will also need to develop a proactive maintenance plan for your clients.
 
Your biggest value to your clients, even if you decide to be a computer reseller alongside other services, is in your problem solving and strategic planning. In order to build a strong company, you need to make selling complete small business solutions a priority over just reselling products.
 
In this short article we discussed 4 tips to help you manage all the responsibilities that go along with being a successful computer reseller and consultant in the small business market. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients as a computer reseller at the attached link.
 
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This article explores 4 ways you can close more IT sales by customizing your marketing strategies to fit your IT company’s unique identity.

1.    Don’t Be a Commodity. The word “commodity” implies “cheap,” and if you set your company up as just another purchasable item, you will attract price shoppers and not those willing to invest in real, high-end IT support. To avoid getting the attention of prospects looking for the lowest perceived price, focus on selling IT through your expertise and your own brand of problem solving. Present your services in terms of real benefits to the clients you serve.

2.    Don’t Hide Behind Your Marketing Materials. You need to make sure that your marketing materials list you as the owner. Your Web site, business cards and any brochures you provide need to have a personality if you want to be successful with IT sales. Don’t try to hide the size of your company or your identity by keeping details anonymous. You need to sell your legitimate background and the background of those working for you. Communicate your unique beliefs and philosophies about how you help small businesses with their IT challenges.

3.    Being Unique is Key. A lot of computer consultants ask, “Is there one cost-effective way to get great leads no matter where you are in the world when selling IT?” One of the biggest problems IT consultants have is that they neglect to come up with their own unique IT sales pitch and just use something they heard worked for someone else. You need to come up with a pitch that reflects who you are and what you do… and most important of all: what problems you solve for your clients.

4.    Your IT Marketing Materials Must Be Unique. Put your marketing materials to the test. Look at your business card and your home page. Then gather a couple business cards and home pages from local competitors and create a list of differences. A lot of people are selling “PC hardware and software, networks, and service” when selling IT. While this might be what you do too, you need to say something that will set you apart from the competition.

If you want to close more IT sales for your computer consulting business, ask this question: “Do I want to compete against 5-10 local competitors … or a few hundred?” If you can make yourself truly unique as an IT consulting business, you will be well on your way to getting high-paying, steady clients to invest in your sophisticated business solutions.

In this article, we outlined 4 tips that can help you close more IT sales and get better clients for your computer consulting business.

To learn more about proven IT sales techniques that help you close more IT sales faster, sign up for free IT sales tips now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), ITSalesKit.com, All Rights Reserved.

If you decide to become a laptop reseller or to resell any sort of products, you need to think carefully about how you will use it as part of your services. Many resellers negotiate with companies for a certain quantity of product at a certain percentage off the list price.  But you typically have to sell a LOT of laptops to make this worth your while.  And the amount you will spend on marketing will typically far exceed the profit you will get.

The truth is, margins in the electronics business unless you are a HUGE company are not great.  Your best bet if you really want to become a laptop reseller is to work on building relationships with clients and offer advice on the right products to help them round out sophisticated solutions and help procuring them.

To learn more about reselling and what it means to become a laptop reseller (or a reseller of any other product!) visit the attached link.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

What about the size of your customer list?  Actually, list size is unimportant, as is revenue.  The real key to IT sales is longevity and the long-term relationships you develop with your prospects, customers and clients.  The following tips can help you with IT sales.

Tip 1:  Think about Lifetime Value

The lifetime value of your computer consulting clients could be in the six-figure range, so you really need to get to know owners and partners of the companies you work with if you want a genuine “in” on IT sales.  The time you invest in building relationships will really pay off in the long run.  

Tip 2:  Manage Customer Expectations

If you are initially doing all the IT sales yourself, you won’t have to worry about inconsistent salespeople or pitches.  When you have inconsistent and misrepresentative salespeople, you will have a lot of issues managing expectations of your prospects.  You need to build a very personal relationship with your prospects at the beginning of the IT sales cycle.

Tip 3:  Train Your IT Sales Staff YOURSELF

Many consultants are actively involved in the IT sales process in the early stages of growing their businesses.  When this process becomes more routine and you have 5-10 great clients on your roster that generate substantial monthly revenue, you can train new salespeople and staff to do some of the work for you.  Delegate IT sales staff only when you are big enough to handle it.

Today we talked about some tips for better IT sales management.  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link!

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

You’re an IT Consultant … Prepare!

Doing some homework and research on clients before a meeting may take you 30-45 minutes, but you have to invest the time as a responsible IT consultant so you can help close the sale.  In order for prospects to agree to pay for your services, you have to build credibility, and part of this is showing you know and care about their unique business problems. It’s pretty easy to go to Google and type in a person’s name or phone number and address to get a little information.  

An IT Consultant Knows Prospects and Clients

You need to learn …

1.    What their business is about;

2.    Their specific industry;

3.    The types of services they provide;

4.    The number of locations they have;

5.    How long they’ve existed.

You should also look up news stories and see what your potential clients have been up to in the community.

Today we talked about how you as an IT consultant can get more involved with your clients and build a better business.  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link!

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Why?  Basically, you’ll spend a great deal of money and more importantly TIME getting certified and learning cutting-edge technologies.  But, when it comes down to it, computer repair – hardware repair – is a commodity and can be an incredibly low-margin situation.  As hardware becomes more disposable and replaceable, less people even engage in real computer repair.  And, computer repair contracts and IT consulting contracts in general with national service organizations just don’t work.

Disposable Hardware

As an example, think about a $600 consumer-grade PC.  Who will spend money on computer repair for this type of hardware when it has passed its warranty point?  And who will spend money to fix an out-of-warranty $400 laser printer?  Not many small businesses would do this, and neither would national service organizations.  

Low Labor Allowances

National service organizations usually will be dealing with warranty repairs on pretty inexpensive hardware … so how much labor allowance will be available for computer repair on a $1,200 laptop?  A lot of big hardware vendors are usually close to going out of business.  Unless you’re Dell, HP and IBM and are a vendor, you probably will be depending heavily on these low-end repairs to stay in business.

What is the Profit Margin on Computer Repair Contracts?

Think about it – you will probably not make much more than $50-$200 (at the absolute MOST) on a computer repair.  So what is a better choice?  Finding small businesses in your area that need high-level, sophisticated IT planning and services very regularly.  

You Won’t Make a Profit with National Service Providers

When you are a subcontractor for a national service organization, you won’t be able to efficiently run your business.  You will be in eight different offices each day instead of one or two.  You will be told that you only get $65 for even a complicated, lengthy computer repair instead of billing out at $100 or even $150 per hour.  It’s just not practical, and your computer repair business can’t last that way!

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

You might spend 30-45 minutes researching prospects before a meeting, but this homework will help increase your chances of selling your services, either immediately or a week or two afterwards.  If you want prospects to agree to your computer consulting services, you have to build credibility and share information with them to show you care about their businesses.

What’s your excuse for not doing homework?  There isn’t one!  Google is easy to use, and all you have to do is type in a person’s name or phone number and address to find out everything possible about him/her.   

A Complete Profile for Prospective Computer Consulting Clients:

1.    What the business is all about;

2.    Which industry they are in;

3.    The types of services provided;

4.    The number of locations;

5.    The length of time they’ve been in business.  

What’s the Latest about Your Computer Consulting Prospects?

You will most likely find articles in the local paper about prospects that will show up in Google or when you go to the newspaper’s site and perform the search function.  Look for any extra background information to give yourself an added edge so you know what to expect in computer consulting.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Tip 1:  Most Small Businesses Don’t Know about Small Business Server

Even though your area may have hundreds or even thousands of small businesses that would be well served by Small Business Server, most don’t know what it is.  If you want to increase your consulting profits and stop selling yourself as a commodity, you should probably lead off your sales pitch with something that is a more recognizable service than Small Business Server – like virus protection, SPAM blocking or other security issues.    

Tip 2:  Sell Your Small Business Prospects on Your Company First

If you’re going to sell Small Business Server, you don’t want to be just a “reseller” of the product.  The real money is going to happen when you establish a real relationship with your prospects.  You want to become their outsourced IT department.  

No small business owner will be dreaming of working with Small Business Server.  But most small business owners lose sleep over worrying about what will happen if computer systems fail.  You should sell yourself as the solution to business problems, and Small Business Server can be a tool to help you do this for your clients once you have a relationship.  

Tip 3:  Microsoft Doesn’t Really Care as Much about Computer Consultants as It Claims

The first version of Small Business Server was released in 1997 and code-named “SAM” because it was meant to be sold at Sam’s Club warehouse clubs to avoid having to put it into the reseller channel.  Therefore, the people that made the first product made it with the intention that it would be so simple that it could be used by anyone without the help of a computer consultant.

After the first version was on the market, Microsoft changed its mind and realized that the best way to reach small business owners was by going through its reseller channel and changed its plan.  But small business owners can still find 5-user versions of Small Business Server in retail stores.

Microsoft does not really “protect” sales of its Small Business Server, so you should not either.  Sell your company before you sell Small Business Server and build relationships.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

No “20 Questions”

Leads and prospects will call and start interviewing you.  They will ask you tons of questions until you feel like you are on a game show and not trying to get IT sales.  You need to be able to cut them off at a certain point.  After an hour, explain to them you have a lot of notes describing all their problems and that you would recommend they go to XYZ as the next steps or else talk about what they can do next.  

When you are done with your IT sales presentation, you need to move past it.  The next logical step in IT sales is having a systems engineer or a technician come back later and spend a couple hours on a site survey.   

Why a Site Survey?

The site survey inventories problems and helps you sort through them.  You and your prospect can then decide what you should do first, second, third and fourth.  The survey should also include a report for your prospect/customer.  Document everything you do so you know where the prospect is in terms of security, software licensing, data protection and everything else.

The Main Idea with IT Sales

IT sales means stopping the brain-picking and asking prospects about doing a site survey.  Explain how moving forward will help them and try to close a sale.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT Consultants That Charge Are Professionals

If you want others to see you as a true professional, you have to charge hourly rates comparable to those computer consultants that you hope to compete with once you go full time.  If you charge too low, you will not be able to build on-going revenue that will allow you to become a full-time consultant.  When contracts come up for renewal, you will have a difficult time raising your rates unless you make them high enough in the beginning. 

Competing full-time IT consultants already know which billing rates will keep them afloat.  Successful IT consultants also know about taxes, training expenses, insurance, marketing, promotion, research and administrative costs. 

IT Consultants Value Their Services

If you think you can charge rock-bottom rates for your consulting services, market to those that will like that concept while charging $25, $35 or $45 per hour and working like crazy and still stay alive, you are wrong.  You can’t work that many hours on a full-time basis. 

IT consultants that make it study the competition when setting rates and give themselves multiple sources of steady consulting revenue. 

The Main Idea with IT Consultants

You have to diversify your revenue sources and build a client base if you want to compete with other IT consultants that have gone full-time.  Don’t quit your day job if 90% of your revenue is from just one or two clients. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

An IT sales call is about checking to see that you and your prospect are on the same page and that the prospect will be a client your company can manage.  Does the prospect look like other successful clients?  You should have already asked the important questions about company size and platform.  The IT sales call is about gauging personality and willingness to work with your specific solutions.

For most good IT sales opportunities, you should spend about an hour getting to know their needs and giving away very controlled free advice.  Be ready to cut the free advice off at some point and start discussing the possibility of hiring your firm for an IT audit or tech assessment.  

“Free” is Not a Living

If you keep offering prospects things for free, you will never realize a profit.  There are plenty of small businesses that will take advantage of free advice indefinitely with no intention of helping you make IT sales.  

What Do You Want to Sell Prospects?

Don’t give away your business for free.  Instead, assess your clients’ various needs – both immediate and long term – and know what they are before the IT sales call.  How will you be a solution?  You need to be ready to be a solution to their worst problems and be prepared to offer a half-day audit for a couple hundred dollars at a fixed rate.  

If you see a greater opportunity during the IT sales call — $50,000 – $100,000 in services – you can afford to give away more than an hour as part of the IT sales call, but make sure to know where you are going before you even enter the door.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT Sales:  Adding Value for Prospects

Sell the value of your company as part of IT sales rather than generic products.  Similarly, stop selling to customers that will base decisions on product offerings and price.  If you can’t bundle in value-added services, you need to stop competing solely on the basis of price.  Being able to survive will depend upon your ability to add value and sell services.

IT sales is about selling “You, Incorporated.”  Your whole marketing plan should revolve around reaching clients instead of customers and establishing long-term relationships with clients that will be willing and able to hire you as an outsourced IT department.   

IT Sales:  Use Your Expertise

There are possibly hundreds of professionals in your area capable of doing easy technical fixes.  But you are one of only a few that do exactly what you do.  When you stress your specific expertise as part of IT sales, you get rid of price-sensitive buyers.  

IT Sales:  Experience and Niche Mean Higher Rates

When you eliminate price-sensitive buyers, you can add to your rates.  Business-to-business clients will know they have to pay more for your expertise and will value it as specific to their businesses.  

Successful IT sales is about changing your mindset and using new marketing and advertising techniques that stress you and your particular services and solutions.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101

Iventosch’s position will help join the company’s Americas and worldwide solution providers channel programs that also benefit vendors.  According to company spokespeople, Iventosch’s channel programs helped enhance relationships between solution providers and vendors.  His new position will help make all channel programs throughoug the world more consistently run.  Iventosch is looking forward to using his strategies for solution providers and vendors in a global setting to help improve best practices in both North America and beyond.

Until new candidates for Iventosch’s position have been interviewed, he will continue to handle both the Americas solution providers channel and the new worldwide channel sales.  Many solution providers are excited about the new appointment and have been very pleased with his work with them in the past.

Added By;  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Getting past gatekeepers within companies is not easy, but certain techniques can help make it more possible.

Cold IT Sales Calls

Most gatekeepers will only take your name and number and probably will express a lack of interest in your services.  This happens most often during cold calling, so you should probably implement some new IT sales techniques to improve your chances of getting new clients.  If you’re going to use cold IT sales calls to build demand generation activities, you have to get past the gatekeeper to get to the next step.

Methods for Getting Past the Gatekeeper

1.    Call before or after the gatekeeper leaves.  You can expect them to be on a nine-to-five, eight-to-six or eight-to-four schedule.

2.    Send an e-mail.

3.    Send a fax.

4.    Send a letter.

5.    Send a postcard.

6.    Send a Fed-Ex marked “personal and confidential.”

Unfortunately many of these IT sales call strategies have been used by many people for years, so you may not have success with them.

The Ultimate IT Sales Strategy

The best way to get past gatekeepers is to become a known expert within your community.  Get to know power brokers like local accountants and solution providers in deep niches, speak at events, hold seminars, volunteer and invest quality time in network-building activities.  When you get a reputation within your community for being an expert and someone known, liked and trusted you will have better luck with IT sales.  

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

An IT sales call can’t be an extended free consultation.  You’re not there to answer countless questions for free and show your certifications, prove your technical expertise or display your brain power.  The purpose of a first IT sales call is to figure out if you can work with the prospect for the long term.  

IT Sales:  Can You Work With this Prospect?

You need to make a big part of the IT sales call determining if the prospect is a good fit for your company, and specifically that the client resembles other good clients you have.  By this time you’ve already asked important questions about size and platforms.  You are looking at personalities and good chemistry to go to the next IT sales step.  

Spend an hour or so figuring out a prospect’s needs and giving away some limited advice for free.  But, be prepared to stop it at that point and start talking about IT sales, typically by proposing an IT audit or a tech assessment.  Move from free to fee!

Free in IT Sales Will Not Equal Success

If you don’t stop offering things for free, you will not earn a profit.  You have to draw the line or small businesses will keep asking you for free advice that will never end in IT sales.

What Service Do You Want to Sell Them?

Don’t give away the store.  Determine your client’s needs now before you go on the IT sales call.  Think about how you can solve problems and be prepared to sell something concrete for a fixed price, like an IT audit or a tech assessment.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

How do you know whether a service call is appropriate?

Computer Consulting Emergency or Not?

If you want to find the time wasters to work better, you need to determine the urgency of the sales call from the very beginning.  It may be a server down problem that is destroying productivity at the company, which is really an emergency and something that requires immediate attention.  

On the other hand, it could just be a link not working between a PDA and a computer or something that is just a one-person problem.  This would be less of a good use of your time when you’re busy with computer consulting.

What’s the Computer Consulting Budget?

You need to know what your clients’ budgets is before you go into the situation.  If they are broke and have no ability to pay, you are wasting your time.  Don’t ignore them completely; put them on a follow-up list for three or six months and find out later if there is more money available for your services.

Computer Consulting:  Are You Being Polite?

You can’t ask outright about money issues.  Be subtle with your inquiries, and of course tactful.  Ask if the prospects currently get computer consulting support and how they have received it in the past.  If they use volunteers or moonlighters, it’s probably going to be a waste of your time because they most likely do not have a proper IT budget.  If the prospects are working with other VARs or with a legitimate competitor, you can assume there are funds.

What’s the Degree of Pain and How Badly Do They Need Computer Consulting Services?

You need to figure out what the prospects are facing and if you have a solution that can fix it.

Your time is part of your inventory and should not be freely offered.  Be careful when proceeding in computer consulting.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Think about the sales process.  The initial consultation is more of a pre-sales consultation than an actual sales opportunity.  You want your professionalism to shine and to stand out from other computer consulting professionals.

So how do you handle the initial consultation in computer consulting?  You need to show interest in your prospects’ businesses, their problems and get a real handle on these problems to determine whether or not you have a solution to help them as part of your computer consulting business.

Get the Dirt

When you’re researching prospects, you might find dirt that makes doing business with them highly undesirable.  The initial computer consulting sales call is an interview for you as well as for your clients, and if you see some really strange things anywhere when doing your homework, you may want to decline.

Time = Money in Computer Consulting

You will most likely need a half an hour or an hour to get together some informational materials for prospects.  You will spend another half an hour or more driving to the site, and your consultation will probably not start or end on time.  Even if you’re really well-organized, you could spend two or three hours on an initial consultation easily.

For example, if your hourly billing rate is $75 an hour for computer consulting, you will probably invest about $225 in your time on an initial consultation, so you have to be sure you do some qualifying to figure out if you will be a good fit and vice versa.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

You should be careful of vendors that try to tell you what you do in your business.  Give a basic explanation of what your computer consulting business does so a client can quickly figure out if you can work together.  Be proactive and know what your prospects are doing before you go into the sales meeting so you are ready to be of service.

Computer Consulting:  What Research Will Prepare You For Your Meeting?

Although you might have to spend 30 to 45 minutes doing research before a sales call, you need to in order to close a sale right away or within a week or two.  In order for prospects to buy into your computer consulting services, you need to build your credibility and share ideas with your prospect to show you really care.  With so many resources, particularly the Internet, you have no excuse to avoid finding information about prospects in advance of meeting.

Computer Consulting:  Know Your Clients

A client profile should include the following information:  details about the client’s business; the industry of the business; the types of services provided by the business; number of company locations; number of years the company has been in business.

Recent News About You Client

You will probably find articles about clients in the local newspaper by looking at Google or searching through the online version of a newspaper.  Look for anything you can find that will give extra information about a client so you can be familiar before you even set foot in the client’s office as a computer consulting professional.

Created By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT sales calls are no big deal if you are well-prepared.  Do background research and determine how urgent the clients’ needs are.  You can better your chances in IT sales if you can clearly identify clients’ biggest needs and be their IT answer.

IT Sales:  Is Your Client in Pain?

Get prospects to tell you their three biggest problems.  They may not be able to limit them to three, but you need to get them thinking and verbalizing.  Only when you have enough information can you create a tangible solution that will close IT sales.

IT Sales:  Do Detective Work

Being a prospect’s problem solution may sound easier than it is in actuality.  But if you know their problems inside and out, you are closer to achieving IT sales.  Ask questions that elicit reasonable and logical responses about issues.  Then think about how your solution can be the most cost-effective solution possible. 

IT Sales:  No One Likes Computer Problems

People tend to get heated when thinking about computer problems, and this can lead to frustration.  Don’t be intimidated by strong emotions.  You have to get to the core of the problem so you can recommend solutions that will help you close IT sales.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101