Which Computer Skills Do Your Competitors Possess?

You need computer skills to make your IT business work. But many computer consultants are confused as to which computer skills they have to have to keep up with competitors.

Networking Platforms Competitors Use with Sweet Spot Clients:

The following represents a list of networking platforms most computer consulting professionals use with their clients: Microsoft Small Business Server; Novell Small Business Suite or Novell NetWare; Linux (usually RedHat); Mac OS.

Larger integrators – those with several employees – go the higher end of this market at 25 to 50 PCs or 50 to 100 systems. Some may also go for mid-sized companies with 100 to 500 systems and get involved in more sophisticated problems requiring more complex computer skills than you need to have.

Other Computer Skills Your Larger Competitors Possess:

Larger computer consulting businesses will also often have the following expertise: Network Attached Storage (NAS); Storage Attached Networks (SANs); sophisticated security solutions; checkpoint firewalls; Citrix Terminal Solutions; High-end Wi-Fi solutions; managed hardware.

You do not need these advanced certifications unless you are selling to a real IT manager at a small business.

Necessary Computer Skills to Make Clients Happy

For sweet spot small businesses with 10 to 50 PCs, you really only need virtual IT staff with one or two entry-level certifications working towards the equivalent of an MCSE.

What will really make clients the happiest is solving their problems. They are more interested in your problem-solving computer skills than technical certifications. They want to be certain your company knows about their specific industry and that you can apply IT to solve their business issues.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Sales: How Do You Get Prospects From Free to Fee?

During your initial IT sales consultation, you will probably be expected to look at something for a prospect. They may want you to look quickly at a router or a server or something miniscule. Your best bet if this happens with IT sales is just not to do it.

IT Sales: Quick Looks Can Lead to Big-Time Damage

You may think that just looking at something quickly for a few minutes for a prospect couldn’t possibly do ay harm. But before you look at the item, you have no idea how long it will take to look at it. You’re dealing with a non-paying client, and there’s a chance you might not be able to actually fix something I five minutes. Nothing that comes of this situation will help you with IT sales.

IT Sales: Just Step Away

You need to be really careful about touching anything that might get you in trouble. You should never touch PCs or configurations with servers, laptops or PDAs until you have an agreement to do a IT audit. The key is IT sales, not free work.

Even during a technology assessment, you should just be doing exploratory work that is as low risk as possible. You can’t afford to break anything before you have an agreement to work with a customer regularly, and you can’t afford to be blamed for something by a person with whom you might be working in the future.

IT Sales: The Main Point

Never agree to “take a look” before you close the deal with IT sales.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

IT Specialist: Copy Past Client Successes for Best Results

As an IT specialist, the best way to distinguish yourself is to find a niche within an industry and find clients with similar successful characteristics.

Replicate Your Best Clients

As an IT specialist, you want to fid clients that resemble your current best clients. Look at your current active client list and put it into an Excel format with columns. The first column should have the client name, the next the revenue for the past 12 months. Divide the revenue by 12 to figure out monthly client income and to figure out which IT specialist clients are your most valuable. This process helps you evaluate the following items:

1. Customer Service: Who should get your best IT specialist services?

2. Retention: Which of your clients is worth keeping for the long haul?

3. Profitability: Which clients are paying your bills?

IT Specialist: Put Clients into Categories

Look at your best and most currently active clients and customers. Put them into the following categories:

1. Micro – those clients with fewer than 10 systems;

2. Sweet spot – clients with 10 to 50 PCs;

3. Large clients – those that you might not be able to continue to service without a very high level of technical staff.

Categorizing your clients as an IT specialist allows you to fid clients that best fit with your level of expertise. Look at your list and see which are your biggest and best clients, and which qualities make them similar so you can become an IT specialist in that field. They may be accountants or doctors or office managers. Identify what they share to find more of them.

IT Specialist: Narrowing Down Your Industry Focus

If you hone your focus as an IT specialist, you will immediately become known as an expert in your field. Narrowing your focus, no matter what the focus, helps set you apart from other professionals trying to offer similar services.

IT Specialist: Look at Your Professional Background

Your industry expertise is a great stepping off point. When you offer a case to prospects, you will know about their field of business, and this fact will be very reassuring to them. Small businesses will more likely pick you as an IT specialist than someone without any particular expertise.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Getting Information is the Key to Being an IT Specialist

As an IT specialist, you have to be able to get through to your targets with marketing strategies. The first step to reaching this audience is to study what your niche clients do.

For example, if you are an IT specialist trying to get through to small medical offices, you need to be well informed about business issues that affect decision makers in small medical offices. Subscribe to industry newsletters and publications that medical office managers read, including those on medical economics, financial management and those specific to the Medical Group Management Association.

The resources you use as an IT specialist to learn more about your targets are available worldwide. Start reading publications so you know what really worries your target audience, what painful issues affect them, how they view security and what IT issues are of greatest concern right now. If you become well versed in these topics, you can be an IT specialist equipped to work with your intended targets.

IT Specialist: What Solutions Can You Offer Clients?

How is your target client base using technology to change their businesses and make them more efficient? Regardless of the industry, you need to know about the large trends that are occurring right this minute. When you are an IT specialist, you have to be an expert.

IT Specialist = Virtual CIO

If you are a virtual CIO for your clients, you are not just like any other consulting firm that sells PCs, installs LANS or fixes problems. You are able to analyze very specialized business needs, make suggestions, help with long-term IT planning and make it happen in a timely manner for a reasonable amount of money. You are not just a commodity, but a true IT specialist capable of understanding your prospects’ unique businesses, and because of this fact prospects will want to hire you.

IT Specialists Spend Time Reading Trade Publications

Don’t just read consumer and IT trade publications to get technical knowledge of prospects’ businesses. Instead, as an IT specialist you should learn about business issues and business IT issues for the niche you are serving. Pay attention to special trade publications to be the best IT specialist you can.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Are IT Certifications Necessary?

A majority of sweet spot small business clients for your business will just be learning about the value of IT certifications. But most don’t know enough about IT certifications to appreciate their value and know why different levels are worth more or less than others.

The Meaning of IT Certifications to Clients

You may offer a staff member to a client that is an MCP or CAN with entry-level IT certifications and then the following week offer a more senior level Cisco certified SE or other professional. But this difference in IT certifications will not mean a lot for clients. They might value IT certifications because they want someone doing work that has passed a test, but they will not want to pay incredibly high hourly billing rates for more senior levels of IT certifications.

Many of your sweet spot small business clients will not know the difference between senior-level IT certifications and basic IT certifications because they will not have highly technical needs. If the client ends up having a very sophisticated IT need, this project can be subcontracted out to specialists.

IT Certifications: The Small Business Technology Curve

Sweet spot small businesses are usually many years behind when it comes to technology, so there is no need for you to keep the skills and IT certifications exactly up-to-date for your employees.

Blogged By: Computer Consulting Kit

Which Type of Computer Consulting Business is Right for You?

Computer consulting professionals, like other business owners have two options when deciding to open up their own businesses: independent computer consulting; franchise.

Do you want to build your computer consulting business from the ground, up, or do you want some help? With a franchise in computer consulting, you need to be prepared to start bigger, but there are definitely positives and negatives to either option.

Computer Consulting: Put in the Time to Get Best Results

At the beginning or start-up phase of a computer consulting business, you will have some months when you will need to be very actively working on networking and getting your name out in the community. You will also need to follow up on leads, create many proposals and go out on a lot of sales calls. This will all have to happen before you get any billable hours. Just because you buy into a computer consulting franchise does not mean this type of work will go away faster.

Computer Consulting: It’s a Personal Choice

Consider the right choice for your personal style and personality when deciding on a franchise or a computer consulting business. Your choice will depend upon what you want to get out of your computer consulting business along with your specific skills and the amount of time you have to spare along with your capital.

Added By: Joshua Feinberg

Computer Consulting: Be Active Rather Than Passive

Before opening a computer consulting business you have to be organized and prepared. You must have a company name and business cards along with a good idea of what types of clients you hope to secure and how you will meet them.

Print Business Cards

You need to print computer consulting business cards even if you don’t think you are going to stick with the same design forever. If you decide to change anything in the future, you can always reprint them. Start building awareness by handing some out to friends and family.

Spread the Word About Your Computer Consulting Business

When you are in places where you can network, tell community members about your business and give them business cards. These people can help you sell your computer consulting business.

Computer Consulting and Your Business Community

Get active in local small business owner organizations. Find three or four good trade groups, such as a chamber of commerce, user group or trade group or an industry trade group.

Start With What You Know

Pick an industry focus that suits you and be flexible so you can branch out in the future. Starting with a niche in which you are comfortable will help your credibility and with the creation of marketing materials and your main message.

Computer Consulting: Make Sure There are Enough Prospects

If you have a specific background, focus early marketing and business development on related industries. For example, you might focus on medical offices if you have experience in nursing. Make sure there are at least 500 or 1,000 prospects within your area before you decide on a niche.

Computer Consulting and Branding

You can also brand your computer consulting company by putting your focus in your name.

Added By: Computer Consulting Kit

Mailing to Your Existing Customer Database as Part of IT Marketing

Mailing to a current list of customers and pitching them to try new services or more fully utilize existing technology is a great way to jump-start an IT marketing campaign.

IT Marketing for Customers that Already Know Your Work

An IT marketing mailing to current customers is great because you know everyone personally that is on the list. Similarly, the people on this IT marketing list of current customers know and trust you, which eliminates one of the biggest problems to overcome typically when doing an IT marketing campaign.

IT Marketing: What Do You Want to Pitch?

If you have a certain comfort level with customers about offering them services such as virus protection, firewalls, passwords, backup and power protection, you can pitch an IT audit. You can offer your customers discounted IT audits. For example, if an IT audit is usually $400, offer a $299 audit with a specific ending date for the deal. You can also add bonuses like entry-level battery backup units, surge protectors or a system inventory template. Give away something valuable as part of a good IT marketing plan with IT audits.

IT Marketing: Track Results

If you notice a five percent inquiry rate based on your IT marketing campaign and that out of those, half take the audit you offer, you can measure and compare other lists and responses you get from IT marketing mailings. IT marketing to existing customers will give you the most receptive audience because they know you, like you and trust you.

IT Marketing: Help Customers Use Existing Technology

Examine your current customer relationships and determine how you can help these customers use items they already own. They have probably bought things that are unused or under-used, and you can help them change this.

IT Marketing to Solidify Relationships

Helping current customers use existing resources is a great way to help them maximize efficiency but also a chance for you to get incremental service revenue. These opportunities are also a way for you to add to long-term loyalty and improve relationships that will get your business to the next level and keep you going for the long haul.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101

Setting Rates for IT Support

When you set your rates for IT support, you have to charge what will help you maintain your business. You will not be able to make a decent living if your rates are at $50 per hour.

Micro Small Businesses and IT Support

Micro small businesses can have over ten employees and even dedicated servers. Many are looking for cheap IT support, but also know they need to pay for the best support. Focus on the micro small businesses that can and are willing to pay for IT support that is first rate.

IT Support is the Client’s Decision

If you charge the same rates for small businesses and sweet spot small businesses you need to make choosing you and your sophisticated support up to the client.

If a client believes he/she can do fine with low-level IT support, let him/her go.

Complex Needs Mean Sophisticated IT Support

When you start to get into firewalls and dedicated servers, most of the low-cost IT solutions will start to fall apart. There is no reason for you not to charge micro small businesses $100 per hour or more for IT support, depending on your business model and your aggressiveness.

Added By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit