Let me start this post by qualifying that statement, because it is designed to be provocative and thought provoking as well as following on from my last content marketing post; An MSP Or VAR?,,,,, Are You Going Into 2018 With The Right Team?
Regular followers of my blog will know that since the summer I have been discussing the challenges facing the IT Services Sector and the importance that new business development professionals will play in who succeeds and who doesn’t, but in not wanting to revisit that too much in this post I thought I would discuss the subject of marketing.
Yes that issue that you all understandably are sceptical about, just like me, because there is nothing more frustrating than expensive marketing campaigns that don’t deliver. Now, I don’t want to delve into marketing, in terms of strategies, too much here, that is a “White Paper” in itself, but I caution you all; choose your marketing partner very carefully because just like every other industry, we have some unique marketing hurdles to overcome, mainly because no one is really very interested in what we have for sale!
Now this fact alone delivers some challenges, so marketing companies who aren’t ready to discuss and embrace this fact with you, I would recommend you avoid. A good marketing company, for the IT Services Sector, will work with you to understand your product and services offering, find verticalised markets where there is demand and where you have a genuine USP, and then know how to get your messages to the decision makers within these target verticals in order to generate sales leads.
Now the companies capable of achieving this are very rare, we are one but I have yet to find another, and even if you do find someone apart from us who can construct and deliver these campaigns for you, please do not think that the job is done, sit back and wait for the phone in the sales department to start ringing, because it won’t, in fact the work is only just beginning.
Thus the title of this post and the link to effective and successful marketing campaigns being exploited and maximised by effective and successful new business development professionals. The effective and successful marketing campaign is very important, delivered correctly it will be what gets the attention and the interest of your target market, so you can begin to build trust with your target audience. But the inconvenient truth is that everyone you are sending expensive marketing campaign messages to has no business to give you; they already have an IT system and a service provision and unfortunately to survive and grow, the only viable new business development model is one of overcoming lethargy to change with new target audiences and replacing an existing services provider, because everyone you are sending marketing messages to will, in all likelihood, already have one.
It is this journey that a successful and effective new business development professional will know how to take new target customers on, because they know that people just don’t receive one marketing message, (regardless of how effective it is), then pick up the phone to give you some new business. In reality earning their attention is difficult enough, but you need to know how to measure their attention and then develop that attention and interest over a period of time, just to get to the stage of a first exploratory call/meeting. But this really is the “Only Game In Town” in terms of planning for growth during 2018 and beyond.
So just where are these highly skilled new business development professionals? Well that is the next problem because these professionals are very scarce in the IT Services Sector and therefore have the highest rate of salary increase in the channel, because those truly capable, in the new and current market conditions, are very scare and highly sought after. We are not talking about account managers here, people we have always employed to maximise our existing accounts and deliver our organic growth. No these are professionals who know how to identify target markets for your product and services offering, get your message out there and then make the phone in the sales department ring, in order to deliver your company new opportunities to do business.
Luckily for those of you needing these skills going in to 2018 all is not lost because help is available to the owners of MSP’s and VAR’s looking for the answers to the challenges that growing sales pipelines and delivering sustained growth present. My fellow directors and I have over 40 years combined experience in growing businesses, including growing an MSP from £900k to £3.5 Million turnover during the last recession, and as such, can deliver sales, operational, business development and marketing experience that is IT sector specific, straight to your door.
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, we have already constructed and delivered highly targeted sales, marketing and business development campaigns for MSP’s and VAR’s, building bespoke product offerings including public Wi-Fi services, secure cloud based hosted desktops and traditional IT infrastructure services, for companies looking to expand into the Pharmaceuticals, Law, Independent Schools, Recruitment, Accountancy and Financial Services sectors, to name just a few.
In many cases we build and run the campaigns from the ground floor up, operating as outsourced sales and business development resource partners, or alternatively just build the highly targeted and effective marketing campaigns required to feed your sales operation and to drive growth to your business.
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 post 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 myself or my colleague Jane Gatfield on 0118 947 1010, or email us at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk or
janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
For more information about our services please visit www.virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
To read more posts covering all aspects of sales, marketing and business development for MSP’s and VAR’s, please visit our blog; to http://it-business-growth-strategies.blogspot.co.uk/
DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER
This post forms a small portion of a white paper I have written covering The Art of The Approach, a specific sales based white paper written for the IT Sector. To request a copy please email me directly at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
