IT Sales: It's about Relationships and Benefits

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 28th, 2010

IT Sales aren't automatic--you have to put in the time and effort to make the sale. In this article you will learn that showing your clients the benefit of your services and developing a relationship with them will help your IT sales.

What Benefit Can You Give Them?

If your prospect has an IT problem you can't solve, then to get IT sales you need to focus more on the problems that you know you can solve and the things that you can do that are really going to cause them to say, "Wow, that sounds really good!"

Know Your Pitch for IT Sales

If you can talk about things that you?ve done in the past with other customers, and the benefits that your clients have achieved from the type of solutions that you?ve recommended, designed, set up, supported and serviced for them, the more your pitch will resonate with them.

Let the Relationship Evolve

Sometimes it takes a couple weeks or months to be able to get a commitment from your prospect. Be patient and persistent. Send email, faxes, postcards, and make phone calls.

Don?t be obnoxious. You don?t want to get to the point that you?re calling them every day, but if they told you it?s something they want to do over the next couple of months, it?s perfectly appropriate for you to call them once or twice a month just to see where they are.

Answer Any Additional Questions

See if they had any other questions or issues that have come up. Ask if they need anything revised in the initial quote or bid that you sent them. The key thing to remember is, if they?re saying great idea, I?ll get back to you, that?s not the end of this discussion. The only way it?s the end of the discussion is if you let it be.

You haven?t given them a good enough reason that they need to do it today, or no matter what you say to them, they?re not going to agree to IT sales today. You need to be able to get to the bottom of that by asking the basic questions like:

oHow important is this?
oWhen do you want to get started?
oIs there a sense of urgency to this?
oWhere are you in the decision process?
oWhere are you in the research process?
oIs this a good time of year for this kind of project?
oHave you budgeted for it yet?

There?s a lot of different ways that you can ask those questions. For IT sales, don?t let ?later? turn into ?no? by inaction on your part!

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