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?
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 our business by the way, we are both in the B2B services industry channel; we are not Rolls Royce, Rolex or Sunseeker Yachts; 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. (For those of you in any doubt please feel free to read my previous articles on the subject of verticalising):
Is Verticalising The Key To Success For MSP’s and VAR’s?
Why Should MSP’s and VAR’s Be Verticalising?
And 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 IT Channel.
Over the last 2 years we have helped to build and deliver highly effective and profitable campaigns for our customers. During this process we have identified and 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, therefore achieving the highly specialised task of undermining and replacing their existing IT Services supplier.
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 and during the last 2 years 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 that 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 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; 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
No comments:
Post a Comment