George Sierchio's Coaching Blog for Technology Consulting ...

What I find causes many technology (MSP, VAR, Integrators, etc) service and consulting business owners to suffer through less than successful marketing campaigns is not enough concentration on the ?how? of marketing and too much focus on the ?what? that they are marketing. So here?s a short and sweet post on a concept that packs a lot of punch.

Before you can market anything, it?s a given that the ?what?, meaning the service itself, its delivery and pricing, are well thought out and set. Once that is the case, the best ?what? can?t be sold if the ?how? isn?t also well planned. So let?s take a peek at the ?how? a little deeper.

The pieces of marketing a service, program, product, etc consist of:

?How are you determining your target? A very detailed profile of who the ideal buyer is including industry, company size/revenues/etc, problems they have that the item solves, and the best person to contact that can make a decision and better yet write the check.

?How you are reaching potential buyers and make them a true lead? Meaning both method (direct marketing, internet search, joint ventures, etc) and the media (blogs, articles, email series, white papers, books, video, webinars, in person events, etc).

?How are you further connecting with potential prospects? A marketing funnel to take them from lead to sale prospect is key. Consulting and services are very much a relationship type of sale so thinking a lead will likely buy without constantly pushing them along a funnel that builds that relationship is a bad approach to take. A funnel encompasses a multi-step approach. By steps I mean not just hitting them over the head 10 times but more importantly having calls to action that take them into a higher level of the relationship along the funnel starting with education and moving further from there towards talking directly about your offerings as it pertains to their situation.

?How are you keeping clients engaged? Once they are into the sales process (which includes displaying how your programs, services, etc. are different from the competition and valuable to the buyer) and a sale is made, the last piece of the ?how? is triggered. Part of the purpose behind having a client management process is to stay connected to them, keep them as a client and be able to put more things in front of them that make sense for them to buy from you.

The fact of the matter is that being in the IT (MSP, VAR, Integrators, etc) service and consulting industry means a lot of competition to deal with even if you do provide superior offerings. The good news is a shift in your thoughts on the importance of ?how? regarding marketing will be a huge step in setting you apart from the majority of the others out there. Ultimately, this will help to fight off the bigger guys playing numbers games like dialing for dollars as well as the inferior fly-by-night, here-today-gone-tomorrow shops winning work through cut rate pricing and offerings.

By the way, as far as dealing with cut rate competition, they really aren?t competition anyway as the clients they land are typically NOT good clients to have. Doing a good job in bullet point #1 above will take them out of the picture right off the bat.

Want to talk about what you?re doing and how to get better results? Leave a comment or contact us directly.

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To Your Business Success-

George Sierchio
The Consultant?s Coach

Source: http://www.georgesierchio.com/2011/06/successful-technology-service-marketing.html

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