You should encourage your computer repair business staff to constantly improve themselves and learn about more complex solutions. Higher-end solutions are going to be worth more per hour. Most of your computer repair business staff will already know how to set up small LANs, do troubleshooting duty and basic cleanup jobs and desktop rollouts. But you need to encourage and challenge them by booking up some of their time to work on more sophisticated, long-term projects.
It’s about Professional Gratification
When you put your staff on more advanced projects, its members will get more professional gratification. Those with technical minds and a love for technology like to work on tech projects that are challenging and test their knowledge. Your computer repair business staff will get incredibly frustrated working on simple, repetitive tasks day in, day out.
If you Challenge People, They Will Stay with You!
When your computer repair business staff is experiencing gratification working at their technical peak and getting more challenges with each project, you will have a better chance at keeping their interest for the long haul. When you keep technical staff working on projects beneath their knowledge, you might start losing them to competitors.
Try Sophisticated Networking Projects for Longer-Term Client Relationships
When your computer repair business staff is able to take responsibility for creating long-term client relationships, its members will be much more gratified. Staff members will get to work with clients over a period of time and get to know clients very well. They get to be actively involved in building the relationships that sustain your computer repair business. They get attached and if they are loyal can be a great asset to your company.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
IT Sales Means Getting Past the Gatekeeper
If you want to make IT sales, you have to connect to the person that can get you an “in.” But getting past gatekeepers to find this person is not simple.
IT Sales Cold Calls
Cold calls are not easy, and you are probably not going to get past a gatekeeper/call screener that just takes your name and number but says she/he is not interested. Your best bet is to try a new method of gaining clients. But if you have to make cold IT sales calls, you need to get beyond the brush off.
Techniques for Successful Gatekeeper Circumvention
1. Call before the gatekeeper leaves or gets in (the person probably works from nine to five, eight to six or eight to four).
2. Send an e-mail.
3. Send a fax.
4. Mail a letter.
5. Send a postcard (this works fairly well because it is already an “open” piece of mail and will have a better chance of being seen).
6. Send a Fed-Ex marked “personal/confidential.”
While these “gimmicks” can sometimes work, they have been around for a while, and a lot of people will see through them.
IT Sales: What’s Even BETTER than “Gimmicks”?
The best way to get attention and get past the gatekeeper to the important people is to make a name for yourself in your area. Get to know other professional services providers like accountants and deeply-niched solution providers. Speak at events, hold your own seminars, volunteer and invest real, quality time in networking.
When you earn a reputation in your local community for being good at what you do and paying attention, you will gain the “know,” “like” and “trust” necessary to make IT sales. Trickery is not going to get you the long-term relationships you need to build your business.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
IT Sales Cold Calls
Cold calls are not easy, and you are probably not going to get past a gatekeeper/call screener that just takes your name and number but says she/he is not interested. Your best bet is to try a new method of gaining clients. But if you have to make cold IT sales calls, you need to get beyond the brush off.
Techniques for Successful Gatekeeper Circumvention
1. Call before the gatekeeper leaves or gets in (the person probably works from nine to five, eight to six or eight to four).
2. Send an e-mail.
3. Send a fax.
4. Mail a letter.
5. Send a postcard (this works fairly well because it is already an “open” piece of mail and will have a better chance of being seen).
6. Send a Fed-Ex marked “personal/confidential.”
While these “gimmicks” can sometimes work, they have been around for a while, and a lot of people will see through them.
IT Sales: What’s Even BETTER than “Gimmicks”?
The best way to get attention and get past the gatekeeper to the important people is to make a name for yourself in your area. Get to know other professional services providers like accountants and deeply-niched solution providers. Speak at events, hold your own seminars, volunteer and invest real, quality time in networking.
When you earn a reputation in your local community for being good at what you do and paying attention, you will gain the “know,” “like” and “trust” necessary to make IT sales. Trickery is not going to get you the long-term relationships you need to build your business.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Computer Repair Industry: What Are Your Responsibilities?
You have a lot of different responsibilities when working with clients in the computer repair industry. Which should you include as part of your services?
Coordinate Telecommunications
When working with sweet spot clients in the computer repair industry, you will most likely be working with the local telephone company, whether a CLEC or ILEC in order to get a leased line for your clients. You will have to research which connections you need to use and probably even dial-up networking recommendations. You may also have to work on tech support with ISPs.
The Computer Repair Industry and Testing
Your firm will probably end up working with vertical industry applications. You might bring these in or else just test the application out for your clients before they make the final investment. Your client will want your firm, as part of the computer repair industry to figure out how to fit in vertical applications with a network.
Train the Guru and Other Users
Your firm, as a representative of the computer repair industry will have to be involved in training (even if you don’t like it!). You may do some formal end-user training where you take small groups aside to teach about a new application. You might also engage in more informal training with the internal guru (the person within a small business that everyone comes to with questions). The guru can then train others on more routine aspects of applications.
There Will Be Some Disasters
When you work in the computer repair industry, you will be involved in disaster recovery planning, testing out data backup systems, antivirus software, power protection and general security. You also need to engage in proactive maintenance.
The Computer Repair Industry and Responsibilities
You will have the most value to your customers when you exhibit excellent problem-solving and strategic-planning skills. You need to be able to deal with clients’ IT needs, put them down on paper, organize solutions and figure out which need to be done right away and which can wait until later.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Coordinate Telecommunications
When working with sweet spot clients in the computer repair industry, you will most likely be working with the local telephone company, whether a CLEC or ILEC in order to get a leased line for your clients. You will have to research which connections you need to use and probably even dial-up networking recommendations. You may also have to work on tech support with ISPs.
The Computer Repair Industry and Testing
Your firm will probably end up working with vertical industry applications. You might bring these in or else just test the application out for your clients before they make the final investment. Your client will want your firm, as part of the computer repair industry to figure out how to fit in vertical applications with a network.
Train the Guru and Other Users
Your firm, as a representative of the computer repair industry will have to be involved in training (even if you don’t like it!). You may do some formal end-user training where you take small groups aside to teach about a new application. You might also engage in more informal training with the internal guru (the person within a small business that everyone comes to with questions). The guru can then train others on more routine aspects of applications.
There Will Be Some Disasters
When you work in the computer repair industry, you will be involved in disaster recovery planning, testing out data backup systems, antivirus software, power protection and general security. You also need to engage in proactive maintenance.
The Computer Repair Industry and Responsibilities
You will have the most value to your customers when you exhibit excellent problem-solving and strategic-planning skills. You need to be able to deal with clients’ IT needs, put them down on paper, organize solutions and figure out which need to be done right away and which can wait until later.
Added By: Computer Consulting Kit
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Computer Business Opportunities: Provide Services to Other Businesses
If you want to seize more computer business opportunities, you have to start thinking about providing services to businesses rather than just “consumers.”
Customers that think in terms of retail stores and prices will not need to take your computer business opportunities as an IT services firm. This means, they will not want to sign onto extended services. However, businesses will be interested in this proposition. If your goal is to produce $200,000 annually in pure services revenue, you have a couple choices:
A. Offer business to consumer service (B2C). A person taking these types of computer business opportunities might spend about $250 per year (or a product margin) at your shop. This money will typically go towards a hard drive upgrade, a repair, a Wi-Fi installation or running a Cat 5 cable in a home office. You will need a lot of customers at $250 each to get to that goal of $200,000. In fact, you’ll need 800.
If you are just selling products and don’t really offer after-sale support, the customer volume might appear to be easy to tackle with just a small staff. However, retail customers with these types of computer business opportunities will need to be guided very closely through every process. And the cost of advertising, promotional and marketing dollars to get 800 customers interested will be sizable.
In terms of labor costs, you will need a lot of technicians and system engineers to offer appropriate “free” or “paid” support to customers, with hourly rates being on the very low side.
B. Offer services to business customers (B2B). These clients will commit to spending approximately $1,000 per month every month, adding up to $12,000 annually PER customer.
If you do the math, you can see that these types of computer business opportunities are ideal in comparison to B2C work. You will only need about 16 or 17 of these customers to get to your goal, which means you can manage the task with just one or two high-level technical consultants.
When a business is spending $12,000 annually, it will not be based on the transaction or the one-shot deal. When a business makes a commitment to spend $1,000 annually, that’s a real, bona fide client! And you will have less non-billable time.
Option B, that B2B service, is really your best bet for grabbing great computer business opportunities.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
Customers that think in terms of retail stores and prices will not need to take your computer business opportunities as an IT services firm. This means, they will not want to sign onto extended services. However, businesses will be interested in this proposition. If your goal is to produce $200,000 annually in pure services revenue, you have a couple choices:
A. Offer business to consumer service (B2C). A person taking these types of computer business opportunities might spend about $250 per year (or a product margin) at your shop. This money will typically go towards a hard drive upgrade, a repair, a Wi-Fi installation or running a Cat 5 cable in a home office. You will need a lot of customers at $250 each to get to that goal of $200,000. In fact, you’ll need 800.
If you are just selling products and don’t really offer after-sale support, the customer volume might appear to be easy to tackle with just a small staff. However, retail customers with these types of computer business opportunities will need to be guided very closely through every process. And the cost of advertising, promotional and marketing dollars to get 800 customers interested will be sizable.
In terms of labor costs, you will need a lot of technicians and system engineers to offer appropriate “free” or “paid” support to customers, with hourly rates being on the very low side.
B. Offer services to business customers (B2B). These clients will commit to spending approximately $1,000 per month every month, adding up to $12,000 annually PER customer.
If you do the math, you can see that these types of computer business opportunities are ideal in comparison to B2C work. You will only need about 16 or 17 of these customers to get to your goal, which means you can manage the task with just one or two high-level technical consultants.
When a business is spending $12,000 annually, it will not be based on the transaction or the one-shot deal. When a business makes a commitment to spend $1,000 annually, that’s a real, bona fide client! And you will have less non-billable time.
Option B, that B2B service, is really your best bet for grabbing great computer business opportunities.
Added By: Joshua Feinberg
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