Well firstly let me apologise for the none so subtle play on some imagery but I wanted to explore what a business superhero would look like for an MSP or VAR; that illusive employee with the skillset and experience that just does not exist, the professional who is expert in both the technical and sales aspects of the business, who knows how to maximise and deliver the industry myth of excellent service delivery coupled with the commercial realities of maintaining a constant sales pipeline, keeping track of all the customer projects and support requests, whilst also maximising productivity within the engineering department and maximising profitability.
On top of that they are the industry expert for growing your business and profits from increased levels of sales; not just by maximising existing opportunities for growth from effective and continual account management, (whilst also protecting your existing customer base from aggressive approaches from your competitors), but by having the experience and knowledge in these demanding trading conditions, of knowing how to get you new customers and avoid being in the expected 35% of businesses in the channel that will fail in the next 2 -5 years, as has happened in the US.
And it is these skills that are so valuable and in such demand because the trading landscape has changed so much over the last 3 – 5 years. The new business development procedures of the past combined with organic growth and referrals, will just not be enough to survive in the “New Normal” and worse, if you don’t have the skills to grow in these harsh and challenging conditions, you will probably be managing your business into decline, so selling at it at the sort of valuation you would want to receive is not an option either.
As an exercise, here is the core skills section taken from a CV for you to read, in order for you to assess whether or not you feel this person actually exists, let alone whether you could employ them and what you would have to pay? In summary some of the skills this individual will possess are listed below;
Core Skills and Experience
- Formulating and delivering effective and successful new business development strategies.
- Panoramic in-depth understanding of the market, the strengths of your competitors and how to build and exploit your commercial advantages.
- The ability to build genuine USP’s that are of value to target audiences and aligned to target verticals of immediate opportunity.
- Recognised within the channel as the new breed of sales and new business development professional required, in order to overcome the commercial challenges of the current trading landscape, they will have been asked to write a White-Paper covering the new business development challenges faced by the sector; a copy of which can be found by following the link below.
- GDPR strategist capable of obtaining and collating data of decision makers at target customers, building the target database that money can’t buy!
- Market Research, to include transitioning into and targeting new markets of immediate opportunity and building your genuine USP or Value Proposition.
- The construction and delivery of marketing campaigns designed to build trust with target audiences whilst undermining relationships with the provider of existing IT products and services.
- High level of experience in building brands and the effective use of content marketing, direct marketing, e-campaigns and the effective use of social media platforms.
- GDPR strategist and specialist in building GDPR compliant marketing campaigns. • Building and developing winning sales teams, whether that be for account management or in new business development functions.
- Expert at sales enquiry management who understands the nurturing and follow up process required to take new target customers along the journey from engagement with campaigns to the successful sale.
- The writing of customer centred proposals and delivery of the winning pitch.
- Exploitation of markets and the development of lucrative co-selling campaigns with vendors.
- Staff development; building winning teams and a succession plan.
- Project managing technically and politically complex IT projects to successful fruition on time and on budget.
- Deep technical understanding.
- Detailed understanding of the commercial and practical realities of running a successful and profitable engineering department.
- Expert in both traditional in-house IT systems and in transitioning to cloud services and managed services.
I can promise this because this is exactly the level of experience contained within our company and thus available to you, and effectively this is no different to what we do for all our MSP and VAR clients; which ultimately involves us going on to work on a flexible basis around the needs of their business and supplying the skills and expertise required in order to succeed on their behalf.
In the last 24 months we have already constructed, (from the ground floor up), and delivered complete and 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. As well as building sales and marketing campaigns for developers of “Game Changing” software applications.
Should you require, we have immediately available and 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, technical, operational, business development and marketing experience that is IT sector specific, straight to your door.
We know how to build new business development campaigns and to drive them towards successful outcomes; the initiatives involved are “Current,” continually evolving and proven in the demanding trading conditions of today, not in the past. We know how improve your productivity and how to target and speak to the decision makers in your target markets, but 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, via our flexible business development consultancy approach, (supplying expertise required as and when it is required), 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
