If
you want to attract great, steady, high-paying clients to your IT
consulting business, you need to develop a very solid IT marketing plan.
Many in IT consulting naively believe that marketing is only something
that merits attention when business slows down. The problem however is
that because of the length of your sales cycle, most can't afford to
back-burner their IT marketing plan.
An important marketing element many IT professionals
neglect to fully develop is the elevator speech. The elevator speech is
a short little description of your business, and is necessary to reach
prospective clients in networking situations. You need to really
practice it and make it a reflex as you are meeting prospective clients
and partners that will be essential to the growth of your business.
An elevator speech, named for the amount of time you
have to deliver your message between getting on and getting off the
elevator, must be very concise -- 30 seconds tops, though 10 seconds is
more ideal. Remember, if you're still blabbering away when the person
you're sharing the elevator ride with exits, you're talking way too
much.
If you have a well thought-out compelling business plan
and unique problem-solution-benefit value proposition, writing your
elevator speech is a piece of cake.
The following 3 IT marketing plan tips can help you
fine-tune your elevator speech.
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A Fine-Tuned Elevator Speech Helps You Compete
with Other IT Professionals. If you go to an organizational
meeting, like a Chamber of Commerce breakfast or Rotary Club
luncheon, you will probably not be the only IT professional giving a
30-second commercial as you mingle around and meet others. If there
are two or three other computer service companies there at the same
event, you need to make sure your elevator speech resonates with
those you meet that might be great candidates for your services. A
huge part of success in IT marketing is showing how you are
different from your competitors, and how only your unique solution
can fully solve the problems of your target business prospects. An
effective problem-solution-benefit elevator speech can often get
your foot in the door, which is key to your success in your IT
marketing plan.
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Focus on Benefits and Problems Solved … Not
Features. The key thing with an elevator speech is that you need
to focus on the benefits you provide for a particular business as
well as the problems you can solve. For example, “Hi, my name is
Bob Johnson from Johnson Computer Solutions. We help small
businesses make better use of their computer systems to grow their
revenue, lower their costs and raise their overall productivity and
bottom-line profits.” Your elevator speech needs to focus on what
you can do specifically for small businesses in actual business
language. It cannot just talk about how great you are, your laundry
list of certifications or the technology services you provide.
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Make Sure Your Elevator Speech is Sincere.
Any IT marketing activities you do need to be 100% sincere.
Therefore, as you are delivering your elevator speech, you have to
come across as someone that can help business owners and has a
genuine interest in hearing more about them and their most important
issues. The general rule of thumb with networking is to try to let
the person that you’re talking to do most of the talking. Make
sure to use active listening and find the opportunity for you to
help the business owner. Networking as part of an IT marketing plan
is learning about prospects … not about hearing yourself talk.
In this article we discussed 3 quick tips to help you
fine-tune your elevator speech to use effectively in networking
situations. To learn more
about how to develop an effective, results-oriented IT marketing plan
that will get you great, steady, high-paying clients, go sign-up now for the free
Sample Tips and Excerpts below
from the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course.
Sample Tips and
Excerpts
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