Computer Consulting: Find Your Prospects

Finding your prospects among all your computer consulting leads can be a challenge, but there are some things you can look for that will help you narrow the selection process down significantly. Narrowing your computer consulting focus is one technique, but there some other big strategies.

Three Different Audience Sizes

How big should the companies you target with your computer consulting business be? One arena is the micro small business market – companies that just have a few PCs, a small number of employees. This size is challenging for computer consulting because these businesses are not typically looking for IT support.

The sweet spot of computer consulting is the nest step up and is typically the most popular target area amidst professionals. Computer consultants do well in this area of 10 – 50 PCs. At this size of company, professionals will find that downtime is more expensive and as a computer consulting expert, you can make a strong case when selling them on your services by explaining to them how costly technology problems can be.

The next step up is the borderline of the small business market and the bottom of medium-sized businesses. At this stage, you might find IT services bills that approach the same amount as a full-time, salaried IT manager. They will no longer need to outsource generalist computer consulting roles, because they will do better with an on-site person.

If you want to really narrow down your computer consulting focus and find good prospects, you need to define your ideal client and target.

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Get Rid of Computer Consulting Time Wasters

When you are working in computer consulting, you are selling your personality, charisma and business knowledge. But your time is at a premium and you can’t afford to waste it. You have to keep track of every hour, whether billable, sales-related, prospecting or administrative.

How do you figure out what is worth your time?

Is It a Computer Consulting Emergency

If you need to get rid of those that will waste your time and be more efficient, you have to know their sense of urgency. Is it a server down issue that is affecting 27 workers and destroying productivity? Then it’s a pretty urgent computer consulting need.

It could be something much less urgent, like a broken PDA or something that affects just one person. Figure out what the situation is and whether it is a good use of your computer consulting time or not.

Identify the Budget

When you know what a company’s budget is from the beginning you can figure out if you are wasting your time. If a prospect has no money, you should not be continuing the conversation about computer consulting. Put them on a follow-up list for three or six months to find out if they have money in the future, but otherwise, let it go.

Computer Consulting and Tact

You can’t ask someone flat-out whether or not he/she is too broke to afford your services. You can, however investigate by asking questions about current computer consulting support or how a prospect has received it in the past. If a prospect has only used volunteers or moonlighters previously, you can guess this person does not have the money to pay you for your services.

On the flip side, you might find out a prospect is already working with another VAR – a competitor even – at which point you know the prospect would be able to afford your services.

What is the Level of Pain?

You need to ask yourself how much pain a prospect is in, and if you can offer an effective computer consulting solution that will fix it. This will determine whether or not the relationship is worth it, and whether a prospect – or you – will be wasting time by pursuing a relationship.

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Finding Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Clients

If you want to do great business with your computer consulting business, you need to decide to work with the sweet spot of small businesses.

But how do you decide who fits into this category? How do you really figure out which prospects will bring you enough recurring revenue to be real sweet spot clients?

What Are the Signs of Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Clients?

Sweet spot clients are located no more than 30-50 minutes driving distance from your home base. You want to be able to get plenty of face time with them and get there quickly in emergencies. You don’t want to have to sit in traffic and waste valuable billing hours.

Finding Local Sweet Spot Clients

To get great computer consulting prospects, you can rent direct mail lists that provide information on businesses in the range of 0 – 50 miles or 0 – 80 kilometers. You can also join local organizations located within a half an hour or an hour of your business.

How Big Are These Clients?

Computer consulting sweet spot clients have 10 – 50 computers, 10 – 100 employees and a million to 10 million dollars in sales. You can also find sweet spot clients by going through local accounting firms and other trusted business advisors. You are going to fall into this “trusted advisors” category too, so you should position yourself right in the middle of it from the beginning.

Well-Connected Businesses

Sweet spot computer consulting clients have strong relationships with other business advisors, typically through outsourcing. They will have relationships with attorneys, accountants, advertising consultants, graphic designers and others, and so they already value the type of relationship you are trying to develop.

Get to sweet spot small business clients in computer consulting by going through companies with which they will work at networking events.

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Get the Computer Consulting Word Out

Your current computer consulting business clients, friends and family have to know all about your business. They should know which kinds of companies you serve, what you do and also that you are very appreciative of referrals.

When you ask really good open-ended questions, you might find thyat a simple discussion turns into a $10,000 or even $15,000 opportunity.

What Did You Overhear?

Sometimes you might overhear conversations in your computer consulting work that tell you someone needs your help. You may get a client asking on behalf of someone in accounting at the same business that is having the same problem over and over again. This is your chance to snag a new opportunity.

The Best Questions Are Open Ended

You need to get customers talking in constructive ways about your computer consulting business. Instead of asking them, “Are we doing a good job?” you can ask questions that lead to more than a “Yes” or “No” answer. For example:

“How are we doing?”

“How else can we help?”

“What do you like about the service we’re providing?”

“How can we improve?”

Take Information to Improve Your Computer Consulting Business

Any information you get from customers and clients can be used to make improvements and create new ways of working in relationships that can benefit both you and your computer consulting clients.

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What's Your Computer Consulting Business Client Criteria?

If you are looking for high-quality customers and clients for your computer consulting business, you need to know some qualifying criteria.

Proximity

A prospect/customer/client for your computer consulting business should be within a 30 – 60-minute drive from your location. Proximity is also important to the networking events you attend and any part of your marketing campaign.

Client Size

When you are trying to find prospects for your computer consulting business, you need to find businesses with 10 – 50 PC’s. The concept behind this is that the prospect should be big enough to need a real server, which typically means the company has 10 – 100 employees and usually $1 million - $10 million in annual sales. You will need this information to help you with marketing activities.

What Should Prospects Use?

Potential clients should have their own e-mail domain, so you will want to know how computer consulting business prospects get and send e-mails in your first meeting. Ideal prospects will usually have a dedicated server or internet access and therefore, more sophisticated IT needs.

Are Prospects Serious about IT?

If you encounter a prospect without a dedicated server or Internet access or if they have a P2P server, you probably want to keep looking.

The Main Idea about Computer Consulting Business Prospects

Any prospective client you are targeting for your computer consulting business should be devoted to supporting his/her IT assets.

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Locating Computer Consulting Sweet Spot Clients for Your Business

If you want to get computer consulting clients that will spend $1,000 or $2,000 monthly on services, you need to evaluate each prospect and client.

Ask yourself the following computer consulting qualifying questions:

1. Is the prospect/client big enough for a real server, firewall, backup solution and offsite or online backup?

2. Does the computer consulting prospect/client need a focus on security, power protection and virus protection?

3. Does the prospect/client need an on-going, real professional for IT needs and network support?

Your best computer consulting clients will not be able to have simply volunteers or even a moonlighter. Small businesses that are sweet spot computer consulting clients will get larger, have more PCs and have a lot more revenue to worry about if systems crash.

Who is Able to Pay for Your Services?

Sweet spot computer consulting clients will be able to pay you consistently for on-going support. You will be on-site twice a month, get emergency support phone calls and conduct remote support. You will be an outsourced IT department.

What Does a Sweet Spot Computer Consulting Client Look Like?

Your ideal clients will have more than just a P2P network. They will need to be big enough computer consulting clients that downtime will be expensive and a major blog to their company.

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Don't Live in the 90's with Computer Consulting Marketing

In the 1990’s, certifications were really important in computer consulting. Many computer consulting professionals used their affiliations with major computer companies to sell their services.

Today, computer consulting professionals don’t lead off by talking about their important partnerships because they don’t want to be just one more person selling the company’s products. They want to be their own computer consulting companies.

No More Benefits of Major Partnerships?

In the 90’s, you got a lot of co-op advertising and other benefits when you were part of a partner program. But today, as the benefits disappear, there is really no reason financially to put logos for major computer companies all over the place. You want to spend time branding yourself instead of just focusing on your solutions.

Which Products Do You Know?

When you get new computer consulting prospective clients and are talking them through the qualification stages, you will want to recommend solutions that are within your comfort zone. If you are authorized to belong to a program, you will recommend that solution, but you don’t want to make this product or platform the focus of your marketing campaign.

You Are More Than a Commodity

If you start relationships with prospects by talking about platforms or products, you become just a commodity and you base your benefits on price. Why should prospects buy their NetWare license from you if buying it online or through mail order is cheaper? You don’t want to be part of a bidding war.

Don’t use 90’s-style marketing when working on your computer consulting business and instead think about what you can really do for clients.

Submitted By: Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

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What about the Initial Computer Consulting Consultation?

In computer consulting, the first meeting should have a mind-set of “pre-sales” rather than sales. You need to make yourself stand out amidst all the other computer consulting professionals by taking a real interest in prospects’ businesses and problems. Then you need to find out whether or not your type of solutions will work for them.

What’s the Deal with Your Prospects?

In some cases, you may find out some things about your prospects that makes having them work with your computer consulting firm a bad idea. You need to think of the first computer consulting meeting as an interview; you are interviewing your prospect and your prospect is interviewing you. If you find odd information out about your prospect during the course of your homework, you probably don’t want to get involved.

Time = Money

The first computer consulting meeting involves some time. You will need about a half hour or an hour to put together a packet of information for prospects. Then you will most likely have to drive to the site for about half an hour to an hour. And because you can expect your computer consulting meeting to start or finish later than expected, even with totally efficient practices, you should think of it as about two or three hours.

How does time equate to money? If you are billing $75 per hour for computer consulting, you can expect to invest about $225 in an initial computer consulting call prior to gas, mileage, parking and tolls. You need to be sure your computer consulting prospect is right for your business by qualifying and doing your homework.

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Small Business Computer Consulting: What Do You Need to Know about Micro Small Businesses?

Many involved in IT consulting start by catering to micro small businesses. If you are going to work with this type of small business, you need to know general hardware and software, peer-to-peer networking and skills such as Goldmine, Peachtree and other tech management and accounting software. Virus protection will also be very important, so you need to know McAfee and Norton. Also get to know firewall protection such as Zone Alarm, Norton personal firewall and PC Anywhere.

IT Consulting and Networking for Micro Small Businesses

You should get to know the process of setting up basic P2P LANs for this type of small business client. You need to help them so they can share CD-ROMs, printers, internet access and other similar items. Also familiarize yourself with inexpensive routers that share a broadband connection.

When working with IT consulting for micro small businesses, you also have to get to know some Y-5 products. Get to know the wireless products that let you do limited wireless access, particularly the entry-level ones you will find in warehouse clubs and office supply superstores.

The Main Idea with IT Consulting and Micro Small Businesses

You should really know half or more of the above items to get involved in IT consulting for micro small businesses.

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More Computer Consulting Tips for Small Businesses

If you are a small business and you use computers, chances are you will at some point need the help and expertise of a trained computer consulting professional. But as a potentially “non-technical” small business owner, how do you evaluate “competence” when you are interviewing potential computer consulting firms, particularly when you get past the initial interview? The following questions can help you make your decision.

Questions: Reseller, Pure Computer Consulting Company or Hybrid Tech Provider

1. “Does your company resell tech products such as hardware and software?”

2. “Does your company rely on sales of products or can we get products from someone else? Can we use your procurement/needs analysis expertise even if we go with other product suppliers?”

3. “Do you work with other ISPs, phone companies, etc. and accept commission fees from these businesses?”

Questions: Costs, Hidden Charges, Billing

1. “What are your payment terms, rates, billing minimums? What is ‘billable’?”

2. “Are travel time, phone support, online support and remote support extra?”

3. “Do you have hourly billing premiums for emergency or after-hours work? How do you define these terms?”

4. “Do you have computer consulting support contracts? What are their benefits?”

Questions: References, Case Studies, Testimonials

1. “Tell me about a long-term small business client.”

2. “Tell me about a recently added account.”

3. “Tell me about an account that just didn’t work out.”

4. “Do you have references?”

Questions: Research and Keeping Up to Speed

1. “How do you stay with new tech developments?”

2. “What is billed to clients and what is internally absorbed?”

Questions: Training Approach

1. “Do you do in-depth user training? What kind of training do you provide?”

2. “Will you train an internal guru to be more self-sufficient, even if it means less billable hours for your computer consulting firm?”

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The Computer Consulting Business and Hardware Warranties

When trying to run a computer consulting business, you can’t waste valuable time and your clients’ budgets trying to work through problems with a monitor or CD-RW drive. If your computer consulting business is so large that you have senior-level and technician-level staff, you will be able to work through these problems efficiently.

But what if you are a one-person company? In this case, you would be wise to let your PC vendor’s tech support staff handle hardware warranty repairs using national service providers.

What is Warranty Service?

When you are a computer consulting business, you need to know how long the warranty period is for hardware. You also need to know if it covers parts and labor and what the response time will be on the service.

Is the vendor going to pressure your clients to do their own work? And will your clients be willing t pay your computer consulting firm to do it?

Hardware Warranty Service Calls

You should have your clients’ internal gurus do the scheduling for hardware warranty service calls so that they are at the same time as computer consulting business you might be doing. At the very least, your clients’ gurus need to be present to supervise the hardware technicians.

You Need to Get Involved

You have to think about how involved you want to be as a computer consulting business when it comes to managing hardware warranty repairs. Sometimes getting fully involved, end-to-end makes sense. Other times, you might be better off training internal gurus to make the vendor tech support calls and supervise hardware warranty repairs.

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Computer Consulting and Hard Drive Replacement

Most of the time you will be dealing with computer consulting clients that have business-focused rather than technical backgrounds. Therefore many will not immediately understand concepts such as hard drive replacement.

In order to manage the expectations of your computer consulting clients, you need to educate them on how to format a hard drive, load the operating system, configure device drivers, load software applications, customize the operating system and restore data.

Computer Consulting Client Education

When you are a computer consulting business owner, you learn that hard drive replacement doesn’t just mean removing shrink wrap and installing the drive into the PC. But your clients might think the process is that simple, or they might think the OS files, drivers and software applications will already be available without any effort. Make sure you take a few minutes when you are talking about PC warranties to explain the real situation with hard drive installation to clients.

How Does the Vendor Deal with Hard Drive Replacement?

Your preferred PC vendors will have different ways of handling hard drive replacement under warranty, and you need to understand the policies. Find out what types of labor is involved and covered with desktop PC and notebook hard drive replacements under warranty.

Some vendors’ warranties state the hard drive needs to be physically replaced and operational and recognized by the PC hardware setup program. This type of warranty will mean the technician’s job is complete the moment the replacement hard drive is installed on your computer consulting client’s PC.

What is the Real Cost?

Many PC vendors are getting pressure financially to reduce support and warranty costs, so your computer consulting business clients are probably going to get fewer features than they got before. Hard drives for desktop PCs are only about $100 to $200.

You need your clients to understand hard drive replacement under warranty and to know that the replacement doesn’t cover substantial labor costs associated with replacement and restoration of the system. Your clients can outsource this work to your computer consulting business, but will risk paying $200 - $500 or more in labor just to get their computers up and running.

The Main Idea about Hard Drive Replacement

Recovering a crashed desktop PC hard drive can be really expensive in terms of soft costs, most of which will not be covered by the PC vendor’s warranty. Therefore, purchasing extended warranty coverage for entry-level desktop PCs often will not be worth the extra money for your computer consulting clients.

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Virtual IT and the World of Computer Consulting

If you own a computer consulting company, chances are you are looking for opportunities to build your relationships with small businesses and better understand the value of virtual IT.

Most Computer Consulting Companies Get Virtual IT All Wrong

Most computer consulting business owners don’t work as efficiently as they could because they get too obsessed with technology and don’t pay enough attention to the real meaning of bringing virtual IT solutions to small businesses. If you don’t fully understand how to run a computer consulting business, you will not achieve longevity. Keeping small business clients needs to be your first priority as a consultant, and keeping abreast of the latest tech advancements can’t get in the way of this priority.

Don’t get sidetracked by hardware, operating systems or applications. Instead get sidetracked by business opportunities that determine how you will solve clients’ biggest business problems with virtual IT solutions.

Combine Computer Consulting and Virtual IT

The concept of virtual IT should be at the heart of your business. This allows your computer consulting company to work as an integral part of your small business cleints’ companies. Your computer consulting company needs to be an outsourced IT department for small businesses. You will become the CIO, CTO or IT manager for your small business clients.

Like any great internal IT department, your virtual IT business will need to have a complete solution for clients that includes help desk, desktop support, network admin, engineering, security, training, procurement and asset management. Anything less than a total virtual IT solution will leave computer consulting earnings up for grabs.

The Main Point about Virtual IT

Computer consulting companies often make mistakes when they work with their small businesses because they get too wrapped up in technology and not wrapped up enough in business solutions and the real idea behind virtual IT. Virtual IT should be at the core of every solution provided to clients.

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Computer Consulting and Micro Small Businesses

Those new to the computer consulting business often ask what they should do about smaller clients that have two to five PCs. Is there a problem with keeping micro small business clients, even when they are willing to pay an hourly rate and agree to be scheduled in when a computer consulting firm can make time? Many new to the industry don’t want to miss out on an opportunity for income before they get larger clients.

Ask Yourself, “Are Micro Small Business Clients Taking Too Much Time?”

The answer to this computer consulting question is based on time management. If you can fit these clients into your schedule, then you should. But you need to make sure you are leaving time for marketing activities – direct mail campaigns, follow-up phone calls, expos, seminars and other networking events.

You shouldn’t take all your free time during the week to provide service to micro small business clients, because they will most likely not grow in the next year or two.

Always Make Time for Marketing

Computer consulting professionals often complain that they spend so much time tending to running a store that they have no time left for marketing books and learning new business skills. To add to that, they then can’t find the time to get out and practice the skills learned.

The truth is, you simply need to devote time to marketing your computer consulting business and serving sweet spot small business clients.

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Should Your Computer Consulting Clients Be Micro Small Businesses?

You have to be very careful when providing computer consulting services to micro small businesses. You will most likely end up with some non-billable hours. However, if you have a larger base of computer consulting clients you can handle losses much more easily.

Bigger Clients Make Losses Easier to Swallow

If you have a computer consulting customer billing $2,000 annually, and you have to not get paid for a $500 job, you will have given up 25 percent of your total billing for that customer. However, if you are earning $10,000 from a client and have to do the same job, it’s not devastating. Essentially, the bigger the client, the better off you are when you come across non-billable time.

Are You Getting Sidetracked by Micro Business Computer Consulting Clients?

If computer consulting for micro businesses is taking away from finding better business and sweet spot clients, you have to change your plan. You have to give yourself time to go after high quality sweet spot clients that have at least 10 systems, a real server and the ability to pay for $5,000 - $10,000 annually in steady services.

Keep Your Eye on Larger Computer Consulting Clients

You need to stop depending upon micro small businesses to build your revenue, because it’s never going to be possible. You have to start signing up larger clients to realize the full potential of your computer consulting business.

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Find the Right Computer Consulting Clients as Part of Startup

During the startup phase of your computer consulting business – even if you just have very basic technical support skills – you need to get paying clients that fit your style and expertise.

Computer Consulting Clients to Pursue First

Start your business by working with home offices and small businesses and companies that just have simple peer-to-peer networks. This will give you a chance to get paying clients and reference accounts to grow your company.

One-Shot Deals Should be Gateways

You can use one-shot deals to start your computer consulting business, but you will need to get beyond that. Your successful business will need recurring revenue and agreements with clients, along with advanced dedicated server solutions. You can take on small one-shot deal accounts, but you will need to make the goal the development of relationships with long-term computer consulting clients.

Never Stop Learning

If you think technical training is preventing you from getting the best clients, take time each week for training. Look at tutorials, resource kits and not-for-resale software. Break installations and review the setup process until you are more comfortable with the software.

Paying clients will be the key to long-term success for your computer consulting firm, so make sure you get the best ones to ensure longevity for your business.

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