Becoming an IT Consultant? Ask Your Prospects These 4 Key Questions

One of the most important parts of becoming an IT consultant is making sure you know which type of small business clients you want to attract.

How can you find the prospective clients that will most benefit from your services long-term?

Look for companies that are big enough to need your services on a regular basis. So these potential clients are candidates for signing on-going service contracts, that bring you the steady revenue that will be the foundation of your business. Doing this successfully, as you are becoming an IT consultant, means you absolutely need to know the major qualifying questions inside out and backwards, like the back of your hand.

1. Geographically Desirable? Because most small business clients need a lot of hand-holding, potential clients need to be located nearby to you. Look for prospects located within a 30 - 60-minute drive from your location. If you live in a large urban area, for example, your service area may shrink considerably, as there will be a high concentration of viable prospects very nearby. Also think about proximity as you attend networking events and develop your marketing campaigns.
2. Big Enough, But Not Too Big? Think Goldilocks: not too big, not too small. As you are becoming an IT consultant, target clients that have 10-75 workstations. At this size, the prospect is big enough to need a real, dedicated server … but not so big that the prospect needs a full-time, in-house IT department. Another way to think about this is that the prospect will likely have $1 million - $10 million in annual sales, or your local currency equivalent. Know this type of information about your potential clients, so you can develop much more powerful, affordable, and cost-effective marketing strategies.
3. A Platform You Can Support? Before you get too far into the sales process, be sure to properly qualify prospective clients based on their installed platform of OS's and NOS's. For example, if your specialty is Windows-family OS's/NOS's and a prospect is 100% standardized on Mac's, you should refer that prospect elsewhere.
   
4. Serious About IT? If you come across a small business prospect for your IT consulting business that doesn’t have a dedicated server, because they're messing around with peer-to-peer ad-hoc networking, you probably want to run the other way. Before you spend too much time on a potential client, make sure the prospective client is really ready for your solutions.

In this short article, we talked about 4 simple, but very powerful qualifying criteria for prospective clients. By consistently asking these questions, you can more proactively manage the selling process and utilize your limited time more effectively. Learn more about becoming an IT consultant and attracting steady, high-paying clients now at http://www.BecomingAnITConsultant.com

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