Schools Resellers: On your marks…..

It’s May half-term already, and as all those IT companies who provide services to schools will know, that means that in just a few weeks time the silly season will begin!

Because, naturally enough, to avoid disruption to lessons and school life, every school will want their network projects carried out during the 6-8 weeks of the school summer holidays.

If you’re a reseller who specialises in the schools sector, the pressure is really on during those weeks of the year, and often resources will be stretched to breaking point. In particular, there tend to be a lack of people with the combination of technical, commercial and project management skills that are needed to bring these types of projects to successful completion on time and on budget. 

Projects that over-run, under-deliver or cause disruption to school life in September can be costly for resellers, who risk not only reputational damage but significant loss of income if customers perceive that projects haven’t gone according to plan.

That is why Virtuoso Consultancy now provides resellers and MSPs with expert project management services. We can step in at times of peak workload and manage technically, commercially and politically complex IT projects, to time and budget, on your behalf.

Being from a reseller background, with extensive experience in successful project delivery to both schools and SMBs, we offer a safe pair of hands who understands the commercial, operational, political and technical complexities of delivering these projects, and as such we are up to speed almost immediately, minimising your time investment.

We are adept at dealing with and co-ordinating network engineers, in-house ICT Managers, the school’s senior leadership team, the sales and engineering departments at the reseller and numerous third parties to deliver IT projects successfully and on-time. We also offer the option to “white label” ourselves as a member of your team.

From relatively simple network upgrades, through to the complete replacement of all aspects of the IT infrastructure at one of the UK’s most prestigious Independent Schools, our team have extensive experience in planning, managing, mitigating risk and successfully delivering network projects in both schools and SMB’s.

For more information please contact me on janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk or call us on 07788 227654.

Project Management is just one of the tools on the “Swiss Army Knife” of services we offer to MSPs and VARs. To find out about our other services please see https://it-business-growth-strategies.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/the-business-swiss-army-knife-for-msps.html

MSPs: How does your website differentiate you from your competitors?

If you are typical of the MSPs and VARs we deal with day-in day-out, then you’ll probably say that your website reflects what you did a few years ago, but to be honest life moves on so fast in the IT industry that now it doesn’t accurately reflect a lot of what you do and how you’ve evolved.

That probably also means it isn’t very compelling to your target audience any more.

To give an example of how much difference this makes, let’s imagine I am a new prospect who’s searching for an IT provider. For the sake of this example let’s say I am the owner/office manager of an SMB in the pharmaceuticals industry. I’m looking for a new IT provider perhaps because I’ve had an incident (downtime, ransomware, data breach etc) that has demonstrated that my current IT supplier is not doing a great job, so now I’ve ended up looking at a few IT supplier’s websites, either because I’ve heard of them through their marketing, or because someone I know has recommended them or because I’ve done a google search.

Your company already has several clients in the pharmaceutical industry and has recently launched a range of services around data security and network resilience. But as it’s been a while since you last updated your website, there aren’t actually any testimonials or case studies from those pharma companies and nor is there a sector specific page for the pharma industry. And your product and services offerings page on the website looks fairly “vanilla”, talking about the normal offerings around IT support, installations and the like rather than your newly developed services.

The odds are the prospect, who has visited your website, won’t perceive that you are a good match or have a solution to their problems and is unlikely to call you. That’s a real shame because it actually sounds as though you would have been a perfect match to their needs.

But let’s remember nowadays (depending on which piece of research you read) buyers complete 40-70% of the buying journey online before they ever pick up the phone to a potential supplier. So if your online presence doesn’t reflect how you can solve your customer’s problems, then you will lose the business to a competitor.

Having been in your position running an MSP, I know how important projects like website content nearly always end up at the bottom of the “to do” list. There’s always a fire to fight (if not several!) somewhere else in the business that takes precedence.

And of course it’s not something you can easily outsource as a project. There are plenty of people who’ll build you a website that looks great, but writing the compelling content to go on it has got to be done by you the business owner, and that’s where the time-block occurs.

Luckily, this is one of the many scenarios where Virtuoso Consultancy can help. Because we come from an MSP background, and we specialise in marketing and business development, with just one briefing phone call with you, to understand your products and services and your target audience, we can go away and write the copy for your website for your approval. Because we’re technical we can understand your products and services without you having to spend lots of time explaining. Because we’re commercial professionals, we can take those products and services and deliver compelling content in language that will resonate with your target audience.

Website content creation is just one of the “swiss army knife” of tools that we offer to time-strapped owners of 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, then please do not hesitate to contact me on 07788 227654 or by email at janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk

For more information about our services please our website 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/