You have an almost endless stream of sales opportunities right under your nose – in your existing client list! We all know that it's much easier to sell solutions to clients whom you have already established relationships with than it is to try and sell to new prospects who are not as familiar with you.
Think of every service your clients will ever need, and then offer it. Now, before you think we've lost our minds, we don't expect you to go out and get trained to implement and maintain every service your clients could ever need; it's a matter of finding good vendor and fulfillment partner relationships that can help you sell, quote and deliver. When considering vendor and partner relationships, look for those that will pay commissions as well as an annuity when possible.
What products and services should you be offering in order to provide solutions to all of your client needs? There are many, including:
Many of these products and services are subscription-based. You can set up annuity revenue with your vendors and fulfillment partners and receive revenues for as long as the client pays the vendor – even if the client is no longer your personal client. That's the beauty and value of annuity-based revenue systems. As you expand your service offerings to your existing client base, seek the right vendor relationships that enable you to earn annuity revenue.
The true I.T. Consultant and Trusted Advisor is able to predict and manage all of the technology needs of their clients. Handle it effectively, and get help with the right vendor and fulfillment partner relationships, and you can increase your rates and charge a premium for the design, development, implementation, management and maintenance of solutions that will save your clients money while improving their efficiencies and productivity.
Erick Simpson
MSP University
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Thanks, James - great tip on mining the CRM app. We're looking forward to seeing your presentation at our May Boot Camp!
Erick Simpson
MSP University
http://www.mspu.us
Posted by: Erick Simpson | May 04, 2009 at 06:54 AM
Erick,
I agree with you 100%! You should always be mining your existing customers for sales opportunities. One way of doing this that I think often gets overlooked is to actually keep notes on every conversation you have with your customers in a CRM application. If you do so, you can mine this data later on. For example, are you now offering a back up and disaster recovery service? Search your notes for the words "tape backup" and you have a potential marketing list. We’ve been preaching these things to our customers for years, but it’s only been since the economy took a nosedive that people have really started listening. Now is a good time to get your processes under control, and when the economy rises again, you will rise with it.
I look forward to discussing more sales and opportunity management best practices with you at the boot camp next month!
James Foxall
Senior Vice President
Tigerpaw Software
Posted by: James Foxall (Tigerpaw Software) | April 22, 2009 at 06:46 AM