Is Your Support Agreement Offering Ready?

When a customer or client of yours is ready to sign your support agreement, the last thing in the World you want to do is put them off for a few weeks while you figure things out.

This not only creates friction in the sales process, that delay can really destroy your credibility.

Make sure your support agreement offering is ready to go ASAP... proactively!

IT Leads/New Client Profile Qualifying Template - Computer Consulting Kit Template Briefing Video

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Looking at the Computer Consulting Kit? This short Briefing Video outlines the idea behind the IT Leads New Client Profile Qualifying Template. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

Computer Consulting Kit - Information Technology Assessment Employee Questionnaire - Template Briefing Video

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Looking at the Computer Consulting Kit? This short Briefing Video describes why you need an Information Technology Assessment Employee Questionnaire. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

The Expense vs. Investment Paradox

Have you ever spent an hour or two courting a new prospect... a GREAT potential customer... only to find out they got sticker shock when they heard you charge $100/hour?

And this prospect can't understand why he can't just hire a teenage computer geek for $15-$20/hour to manage their 30-workstation, 2-server, 3-location, Microsoft Small Business Server-based network.

You almost want to DARE him to take the cheapskate approach.

Let the inexperienced kid royally screw things up.

After all, it'll be a bigger bill for YOU when you come to ride in on your white horse for emergency service at a 50% rate premium.

And in case you think we're immune from hearing from cheapskates and shortsighted small business owners, we get them too.

Only they're consultants, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and wanna-be managed services providers.

These are the folks that'll think nothing of blowing $2,500 on a coupon-pack ad that pulls ONE lead for a $99 service call with a one-shot-deal home user.

But invest in their education to further their business?!? A foreign concept.

So let me ask YOU a question.

Have you held off on investing in your Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course because you **think** it's "expensive"?

Then you probably fall into one of two camps.

How much does your average customer spend with you each year? $300 you say?

Well THAT's your problem. Most consultants, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and managed services providers that we train have steady, high-paying clients that spend that with them just about every week, month after month, year after year. So they have lifetime client values that are at least 50 times higher than yours. So they don't waste all the time and money you do banging your head against the wall 80 hours/week with ingrates, cheapskates, tire kickers, cherry pickers, deadbeats, and software pirates.

How much is a good customer worth to your company? $10,000 to $50,000 right off the bat you say?

Oh cool, you're one of the smart ones... I think. Because you've learned how to work smarter, not harder. Then I'm sure you can see why all you need to do is pickup just ONE more new client from what you've learned from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course and you'll have recouped your entire investment in the course the very first month you're working with that new client. Get four, or five, or six new clients from what you've learned from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course and you'll start to make us wonder if we should've charged you more for the course :-)

So now more than ever, in these times, you can't afford to mess around with your company's future, your career, and your financial livelihood.

Cutting back on your training that you need to improve your client acquisition skills is the last thing that any rational person would want to do.

Stop deliberately sabotaging yourself. And make a promise that you will get more of the best, steady, high-paying consulting clients in your area onto your client list.

And the shortest path to get you there is by empowering yourself with the field-tested, proven system that's already in use in all 50 United States, 8 Canadian provinces, all over the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa and many other nations around the globe.

It's even backed up by our great 10 Times Return on Investment Money Back Guarantee.

So the only way you can lose is by inaction. (You know being lame, apathetic, a couch potato, a professional excuse-maker, a professional procrastinator... whatever you want to call it.) And settling for a customer list that's a bunch of ingrates, cheapskates, tire kickers, cherry pickers, deadbeats, and software pirates.

There's no reason in the World (at least no rational reason) for you to have to do that.

Show your friends, family members, colleagues, prospects, customers, clients, partners, and contractors that you've got what it takes to be outrageously successful in computer consulting.

Go get started with your Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course right now at http://www.computerconsultingkit.net/order

Small Business Computer Consulting Sales - Computer Consulting Kit Templates Briefing Video

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Looking for the Computer Consulting Kit? This short Briefing Video describes the 6 Sales and Technology Assessment Templates for Small Business Computer Consulting. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

Are You Aiming High Enough?

Many consulting firms, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and managed service providers waste a lot of time and money trying to market their services to prospects that are simply too small.

A good general rule of thumb...

If your prospects aren't big enough to need and afford a real dedicated server, they're probably not big enough to service profitably.

Remember, there's no law that says you have to accept every potential customer that comes your way. After all, it's your business. Don't let it accientally become a "non profit".

Indepedent IT Contractor Profile - Computer Consulting Kit briefing video

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Are you new to Hiring And Managing Independent IT Contractors? In this Computer Consulting Kit briefing video, learn about the proven Independent IT Contractor Profile. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

IT Request For Proposal (RFP)/Request For Quote (RFQ) - Computer Consulting Kit briefing video

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Are you new to IT Request For Proposal (RFP) and IT Request For Quote (RFQ) documents? This Computer Consulting Kit briefing video gets you started. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) Release Date

Just heard the news...

Microsoft will be releasing Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (EBS 2008) and Windows Small Business Server 2008 (SBS 2008) on November 12th...

yes, that's November 12th THIS year!

This news is important because many who use the Computer Consulting Kit specialize in installing and supporting the Small Business Server platform.

Direct Mail Formatting Recommendations

Often we'll be asked about putting together a mailing, that' supposed to generate interest in either a technology assessment or seminar.

And just the fact that the consultant is thinking about measurable end-results from the direct mail campaign, as opposed to lame institutional me-me-me advertising, is a huge step in the right direction... although not necessarily the total answer either.

The concept of a soft offer is something that everyone should be looking to embrace.

It’s very difficult to take someone who has never heard of you and try to immediately sell them on a $350 technology assessment, or try to immediately sell them on a $25,000 LAN upgrade, or try to immediately sell them on $1,000 a month maintenance agreement.

You’re going to, in most cases, fall flat on your face because you need to get over that know-like-and-trust hurdle before you can capture their attention. You need to prove that you know what you’re talking about. You need to prove that you understand their problems and that you can provide a solution to that.

So, everything in your early efforts with generating demand should be around some kind of soft offer. In terms of generating interest for a technology assessment, or a seminar, what mailing format works best? I’m partial to the postcard. There are a couple of reasons why.

1. Using a postcard forces you to be extremely concise, which is really important because you don’t have a lot of time or a lot of attention with people that have never heard of you on the first inbound contact.


2. You don’t have to worry about the envelope being opened – it’s already open.


3. Postcards minimize your printing and postage costs.
   

What should you do in terms of the mechanisms to get it to work the best? If you’re just going to do a very simple 4x6 type of postcard, you probably want to have them fax back their business card with the postcard on a piece of paper or some kind of response.

If you’re doing a larger postcard, you typically can have space for them to write in their information and fax that back.

You may want to drive them to a custom web landing page that’s a modified version of your contact form.

There are a couple keys best practices for best results.

• Get your qualified questions answered there.


• Make sure that you’re using some kind of tracking mechanism – a cookie-based mechanism, or analytics package - so you can see out of how many clicks that you got how many resulted in your contact forms being filled out, and that was ultimately used to either register for interest in a technology assessment or sign up for a seminar. A lot of people have used 24-hour voicemail boxes successfully. You basically want to phrase it that way because what you want to do is make sure that the people you’re trying to contact, the non-technical small business owners and managers, understand they’re not going to need to talk to a salesperson that early on in a sales cycle.
  
  Put yourself in their shoes. When you’re first researching something new or you've have something that crosses your desk, is the first thing that you say, “Gee, I want to sign up so that I get a phone call from a sales person every single week nagging me and asking me when I’m ready to buy.” Of course not!
  
  They want to be somewhat anonymous. They want to capture this information early on so they can have it to mull over. The whole idea here is you want to get to someone much earlier on in the sales cycle, long before they’re out price shopping, or long before they've just made a commodity purchase.
  
  Remember, the huge benefit of the postcard is the envelope equals a barrier.

A key thing to keep in mind is that the copy – the words that are on your postcard – are going to be infinitely more important than image, or any kind of pictures, or any kind of ego-trappings that you may think about putting on there.

Don’t worry about bragging about certifications or channel program affiliations, or anything like that. You want to focus on their problems and your solutions to their problems, whether it is in the form of a seminar you’re holding, or a technology assessment that you can do for them, or a special report, or a white paper.

The key thing to keep in mind is that a postcard has a lot of tremendous benefits over doing anything that’s going to be stuffed into an envelope.

Remember, focus on selling the soft offer (seminar, white paper, guide, etc.) and make it so your recipient can reply without having to talk to a salesperson.

IT Partnering Planning Worksheet - Computer Consulting Kit briefing video

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Are you new to IT Partnering? This Computer Consulting Kit briefing video describes the IT Partnering Planning Worksheet and discusses how to partner more successfully and profitably. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

Small Business Virtual IT Project Scheduling Template - briefing video

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Do you provide Virtual IT services for Small Business clients? This Computer Consulting Kit briefing video gets you started with SMB Virtual IT scheduling tips. Learn more when you sign-up for free tips now @ http://www.computerbusinesstips.com

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