IT Companies: How to Avoid Coming Second in a Pitch

We’ve all been there. We’ve met with a new prospective customer, listened to their requirements, then spent hours or days putting together a perfect solution for them and technically verifying that everything we’re proposing will work.

Then we’re invited to meet with the customer to present our proposal – which is more work, more prep, but that’s all part of the sales process for IT infrastructure companies, and it is the accepted norm in our industry that all this will be provided to the customer for free.

Then the customer informs you that they have given the business to your competitor. And at that, perhaps it’s a competitor who you believe can’t deliver a technical solution or support service that’s half as good as yours.

It’s galling to lose out to a competitor, especially one you suspect cannot technically deliver the standard of service that you can.

But the fact that you didn’t win the pitch means that you didn’t manage to communicate to the prospective customer that you would be the best organisation to meet their needs. Someone else stepped in with the glossy brochure, the slick presentation and an ability to convince the customer that they could meet their needs, such that the customer signed on the dotted line with them not you. 

Whether or not your rival can technically deliver is a moot point. Because they won the business, not you. And yes you have the consolation that if that supplier doesn’t deliver, then perhaps in a year or 2 years time you’ll get the opportunity to re-pitch to the customer.

But wouldn’t you have rather won the business now?

Virtuoso Consultancy work with IT companies to help them achieve new business success by:

• Writing/re-writing your sales materials to be compelling to your target customer
• Qualifying and understanding customer outcomes
• Putting together compelling pitches
• Strategising leads to maximise the opportunity
• Understanding the politics at play
• Proposal writing
• Mentoring business owners and/or sales teams
• Presentation writing and/or delivery
• Effective sales follow-up processes

Being from a reseller background, with extensive experience in how to strategise leads and design winning sales pitches, including a conversion ratio of 70-80% of first meetings into customers, we bring a wealth of commercial experience to MSPs and VARs.

Whether you need us for a few days a week, a few days a month or for a one-off project, we can help you win more business.

If this post has resonated with you and you would like to explore how we can help you win more business, then please do not hesitate to contact me on 07788 227654, or email janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk

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/

MSP/VAR Owners: Feeling Overwhelmed by your To-Do List?

Having been an owner of a VAR/MSP myself, I know all too well the constant demands and stresses that fall on the shoulders of IT company owners to constantly keep all the plates spinning. Whether it’s service delivery, customer issues, managing staff, technology that doesn’t quite “do what it says on the tin”, delivering complex IT projects, ensuring the sales pipeline is on-track, keeping up with ever-changing technology and evolving the business accordingly…. the “to do” list is endless for the owners of MSPs and VARs and can often seem overwhelming or even insurmountable.

It’s little wonder then that there is little, if any, consistent time to develop the business and many projects fall by the wayside, or spend months on the backburner, as there’s just not enough hours in the day or headspace to move them forward.

Trying to remedy the overload can be complicated …….. finding people with both commercial and technical skills, not to mention the organisational ability, to take on some of the owner’s “to do” list, is not easy. And even if you do find that rare skills mix, getting people up to speed with your business still needs significant amounts of time before you can start to divest some of your to-do list to them. Then there’s the financial investment in that individual, which will inevitably be significant, coupled with the question of whether you need that particular skillset on an ongoing basis, or whether it is just needed to cover a temporary peak in workload.

So wouldn’t it be great if there was a way time-poor IT company owners could push forward with all the projects and business development work that is on their “to do” list, and actually really move the business forward at a rate of knots? Well this is where Virtuoso Consultancy comes in.

We are a safe and experienced pair of hands into which you can place one or more of the items on your “to do” list – safe in the knowledge that within our organisation we have the commercial, technical and project management expertise to deliver that piece of work, on time and to brief, with only minimal input from you in the form of an initial briefing.

Here are some examples of projects MSP’s and VAR’s have outsourced to Virtuoso over the last 12 months:-

• Business Development and marketing campaigns – building and running from the ground floor up. Content writing – website content, blogs, sales pitches, proposal documents, tenders, service catalogues, case studies, marketing collateral, data sheets etc. 
• Development of lucrative relationships and co-selling campaigns with vendors. 
• Market research/due diligence on a new product, new target market, acquisition or new idea. Financial modelling around transitioning to a managed services or cloud provider model. 
• Efficiency and profitability studies. 
• Coaching and mentoring of sales teams to maximise performance. 
• Running that elusive in-house project that has never reached the top of the to-do list because there’s been so much chargeable customer work that has taken precedence. 
• Project Management of technically and politically complex customer projects at times there are not enough in-house resources available with the right skillsets. 

These are just some of the services Virtuoso Consultancy offer to time-poor MSPs and VARs, who need a resource who is immediately up to speed and will just get on with the job and get it done with minimal input needed.

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. Whether you need us for a few days a week, a few days a month or for a one-off project, we can help take the strain and get your “to do” list back on track.

If this post has resonated with you and you would like to explore how we can help you get your to-do list back under control and 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 me on 07788 227654, or via email at janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk.

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.