Learn to Sell IT Services Like Ben and Jerry

Three Tips to Sell More Professional Services to Management

by Paul DiModica

One of my favorite foods growing up as a kid outside of Boston was Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Later in life as a Vice President of Marketing for an IT firm, I had the opportunity to tour their famous manufacturing plant in Waterbury, Vermont (with cows outside). An interesting business fact I learned on the tour was that although Vanilla is their most popular ice cream, as soon as they started offering other flavors like Chunky Monkey, all of their sales went up including their Vanilla sales.

When selling IT or professional services, it's the same approach.

Do your IT marketing and sales team members tell prospects that they can develop any software application if the buyer just gives them a comprehensive specifications document?

Come on. In 30 years of marketing and selling IT offerings, I can count on one hand the number of prospects who have had a useable, detailed specification that development could implement. In IT, that just does not happen.

So telling an IT prospect that you can do anything -- just diminishes your ability to close the deal faster because often prospects really don't know what they want.

Instead, when selling IT and professional services you must prepackage some of your offerings so they are digestible and consumable . . . and be understood by the targeted buyer. When your IT offerings are vague, you force the buyer's decision process to slow down. But by offering  IT packages that are well defined, you allow your prospects to understand what your capabilities are . . . even when you do custom software applications.

3 Tips to Sell Professional Services

1. Always offer prepackaged software services -- never just custom apps . . . even when you sell primarily custom software development.
   
   
2. Always offer 2-3 packaged offerings so prospects compare you against you. If you only offer one package, they may shop elsewhere and compare you against a competitor.
   
   
3. When selling your IT services and development methodology, always create a name and package your installation, development model, or client Q&A process to help prospects see three dimensionally how you are different. Quality and management approaches like ISO9000, ISO14000, Just-In-Time (JIT) and Six Sigma methodologies strive to improve a business' return on investment but are programs that someone just made up a name to describe their uniqueness. This naming approach helps buyers to better "understand" what you sell -- because it subliminally tells them that your offerings are structured designs instead of a loose collection of action steps.

Do these named business models have value? Of course! But ask 10 people what they are and they will each give you 1 to 2 general paragraphs describing what these terms mean to them. That's because these services have been packaged and marketed to create an identity.

Selling IT services like managed services, training, IT staffing and project management is difficult. They are fluid intangibles without walls or density.  Like Ben and Jerry's, you should sell Vanilla ice cream but also offer Cherry Garcia, Fossil Fuel and Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. When you do, the prospect may still buy Vanilla ice cream because they see your capabilities through the other options you make available.

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." -- Sun Tzu

To your IT success,

Paul R. DiModica
CEO-Founder
Value Forward Group
IT Business Growth Acceleration Specialists
(770) 632-7647
www.valueforward.com

The following are trademarks of Paul DiModica: Value Forward, Value Forward Marketing, Value Forward Selling, Business Growth Acceleration Specialists, and Hunt now, or be eaten later! All other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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