The best piece of advice I ever received in my business career was this; “Know What You Are Good At, Then Wake Up Every Morning And Go And Do Just That!”,,,,,, and now that I am building sales marketing and business development programmes in the MSP and VAR sector, I know that very few of our customers have this focus.
Now in order to get this point over, let me draw an analogy; I am not a particular fan of football, but even I know that there is a player called Cristiano Ronaldo, who I understand, by all accounts, is quite good! I understand that he scores a lot of goals and has won many trophies, including leading his national team, Portugal, to winning the European Championships!
Now let me tell you how he is likely to plan his working day, because he should be an example to us all; both he and his manager have identified his individual USP, they know exactly what he is good at, what he can bring to the team, its overall objectives and aspirations. Now having identified that, he will get up every morning and when he goes to work he will work exactly on that. He will not wonder what it is like to play in goal and give that a try for a couple of games, or try another sport, like rugby or tennis; why? Well, because there is nothing to be gained!
Why is this important? Well this is exactly where we start when discussing our sales, marketing and business development programmes with MSP’s and VAR’s when I will probably start any meeting with a customer with 2 very important questions, they are as follows;
• What are you the best at?
• Why should anyone purchase your products or your services?
The importance of having the answers to these questions and then having this understanding running through your business must not be underestimated, because if you don’t have this focus you will probably be running from pillar to post with no direction; and worse, you will have no message and no way of delivering it to a receptive target audience.
Then we get to the inconvenient truth that none of your customers wake up in the morning wanting to buy your products or services. This is the same for me by the way, we are both in the B2B services industry channel; we are not Rolls Royce, Rolex or Sunseeker; there is no desire to jump out of bed and go and purchase our products or our services.
So how do we overcome this; well we start by focusing on what we are good at and where our products or services have most value, because then we can begin to target markets where we have a “USP” and a genuine “Value Proposition”.
Those of you who are regular followers of my blog will understand that I am beginning to bang the drum of verticalised markets again and how important it is to your overall success. Well yes I am and for one good reason; I know it works and it is the only way your business can succeed long term in the sector.
Over the last 18 months we have helped to build and deliver highly effective and profitable campaigns for our customers. During this process we have built a “Value Proposition” for our customers, having identified target markets where their services or product offering is going to have tangible commercial value.
We have then built the database required to get the contact details of the decision makers within their target markets and chosen geographical area; then we have built and delivered the campaigns required to engage with and obtain the business of the identified target audience.
This process involves us working on a flexible basis around the needs of your business and supplying the skills and expertise required in order to succeed on your behalf. In the last 18 months we have already constructed and delivered successful sales, marketing and business development campaigns for MSPs and VARs operating in the Independent Schools, Pharmaceuticals, Legal, Recruitment, Accountancy and Financial Services sectors, to name just a few.
We have existing, highly effective and proven sales, marketing and business development campaign modules ready for your business, which have already been utilised to sell many different product or services offerings; from traditional in-house infrastructure to cloud based solutions.
My fellow directors and I have over 40 years combined experience in growing businesses and can deliver sales, operational, business development and marketing experience that is IT sector specific, straight to your door.
We know how to build these models, they are “Current” and continually evolving, we know how to target and speak to the decision makers in your target markets and most importantly, we know how to grow your business and make you money!
If this has resonated with you and you would like to explore how we can help you achieve your growth aspirations, then please do not hesitate to contact Andrew Banning on 0118 947 1010, or at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
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