A dramatic question I know but one that needs to be thought through, and with some urgency! Firstly let me further qualify the question above which refers to restrictions posed by GDPR, a piece of legislation that became law as of 25th May.
Now I don’t want to get too bogged down with the minutia of the legislation which is a huge and onerous extension to the data protection regulations that currently exist, just how it will affect all businesses, (ours included), in regard to the data that you hold for customers; because for many of you the penny hasn’t dropped yet, in regard to how hampered this now leaves your new business development and marketing initiatives. In fact “hampered” is the wrong expression, what I should have said is; “how it has brought all your new business development and marketing initiatives to an immediate halt!”
Those of you who have worked with us in the past and those who are still enjoying campaigns delivered by us will know just how much I bang on about data and the fact that “Data Is The New Gold!” With the recent furore surrounding Cambridge Analytica and Facebook, we should all be in no doubt about just how powerful companies holding large amounts of customer data are and in the coming years those without data, aligned to the necessary legal “Opt Ins,” are going to be left floundering and with no direction, in terms of being able to grow their business.
This may sound dramatic, and for those of you who haven’t read our articles written for campaigns in the IT, Automotive and the Real Estate sectors, warning about how the new breed of internet based businesses, (the likes of Purple Bricks and Carwow to name just a few), are first and foremost industrialised data collation businesses, let me take 10 minutes of your time to enlighten you on the one way journey your business is heading towards, and possibly without you realising it!
I think we can all agree that for most reading this article, referrals and repeat business from effective account management practices will now only get you so far, in terms of keeping revenues and bottom line profits where they currently are. In a trading landscape that is evolving at a frightening rate and where the first purchase market is now exhausted and at an end, the only model for new business development is going to be the undermining of current IT Services Providers who are currently ensconced with customers in your target markets.
Now this process is challenging enough, but before you can target a specific audience and market your products and services, you will require the means to be able to get your messages to them; and herein lies the problem, because without their data, especially their contact details, you will not be able to do this. Now in the past you could purchase a dubious list of contact email addresses, (I say dubious because I never found one that contained the actual contact details of any decision makers, therefore they were worthless), and if you really want to waste your money, you probably still could purchase one.
Unfortunately this list will be useless now and for 2 reasons; forget the dubious quality of the data you are purchasing, one of the many stipulations of GDPR legislation is the requirement for legally required “Opt Ins” before marketing messages can be sent to target audiences; so if you have no contact data and/or the contact data that you do hold does not contain the legally required “Opt Ins,” just how are your current marketing and new business development procedures going to move forward and build the campaigns required to grow your business?
What does this mean for your business, the people you employ in these roles? I don’t know and I can’t comment on an individual basis, but in all likelihood there is a huge job of highly specialised work to be done, in order to ensure that you have the ability to take your core offering out to new target markets, all of which is a highly specialised role and one that the sector is only now beginning to grasp!
So what’s the answer to this pressing problem of our time? Well luckily help is available; I can’t for obvious reasons put all the answers to this problem into this article, they are after all our valuable IP and form part of our Value Proposition, and as such also form part of our new business development consultancy services and initiatives. But what I can do is say that if you need to build a new business development campaign that is capable of targeting the decision makers in your chosen target sectors, then the first part of building the foundations for this process will be the ability to be able to contact and connect with these target high profile professionals.
I can also reassure you that we know exactly how to do this and to, at the very least, build your target data base of customer contact details, even if you eventually still end up running any subsequent campaigns yourself. And I don’t mean a database full of “Sales@” or “Info@” email addresses; no I mean the genuine individual email addresses of the decision makers within your target markets; the owners, managing directors, partners, senior directors or anyone who is likely to wield influence within the businesses you wish to target.
We can of course do an awful lot more than this, in terms of helping you to grow your business, but this process will be a very important step in the journey; you can have the most compelling marketing messages aligned to the most compelling product and services offering, but if you can’t deliver that message to anyone, you will end up being one of the world’s best kept secrets which will mean you are doomed to fail!
We know how to connect you with the decision makers required, how to approach them and to get their attention, so you can then go on to gain their interest and then to build trust with your target audiences; all of which will be required if you expect to ask them for their money!
If you would like to know more about our business development and consultancy services in this regard, please do not hesitate to contact either Andrew Banning at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk or Jane Gatfield at janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk alternatively please feel free to call us on 0118 947 1010.
For more information about our services please visit http://www.virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk/IT_Companies
To read more posts covering all aspects of sales, marketing and business development for MSP’s and VAR’s, please visit our blog; https://it-business-growth-strategies.blogspot.co.uk/
DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER
This post forms a small portion of a white paper we 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 at janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
