Communicate to Grow Your IT Business

One of the great dividers between growing and stagnant IT consulting & service providers (MSP, integrators, developers, etc) is communication. In part this is due to the fact that the majority of smaller technology companies are run by technology people that are generally not all that interested in, or good at, communicating. Whether that be written or spoken. That’s not a knock, just a fact gathered from working with many service providers over the years.

That can readily be seen by how hard it is to get a tech to fill out a ticket or timesheet correctly and timely. Many technology driven people take that from their tech days right into the operation of their company, even after they see the light of day that they need documentation and verbal communication within their business to do something as simple and necessary as billing a client.




The need for technology utilization is growing and will continue to grow. Even the simplest and smallest of business rely more and more on technology to get things done, cut costs, and automate. The good news is it’s not going away so you’re in a good business, albeit a constantly changing one. The bad news is that as more technology comes into play with fewer barriers to entry to use it, more things become a commodity in terms of buying, implementing and maintaining that technology. That means more and more of what an IT service company used to do is becoming obsolete or cheapening to the point of being a commodity. And the commodity game is not one you want to be in.

Gaining clients and the money the follows are in the delivery and supply of knowledge and management. NOCs and help desks can be outsourced by a client or your business for your client. Onsite break fix and installation techs can be readily found by a client and by you without even hiring one as an employee. Monitoring can be heavily scripted and automated and then shoveled over to the previously mentioned NOC/help desk to take care of and escalated to the cheap techs that can be hired at will. Maintenance related items are a commodity.

What can’t be outsourced easily are the relationships that come from consulting, planning/design work and managing all of the pieces of technology and people that come together to operate a business. You can’t deliver this stuff hiding behind a workstation. It requires higher level skills and actually interacting with people.

This is where the real value comes from inside of a managed services program. Vendor management, disaster recovery planning, monthly reports, quarterly business reviews, annual technology planning, network/process design and implementation, etc. Without these items and the people with communication skills to make it happen… you are selling a commodity… you are selling on price. That’s one of the reasons why communication is a big separator of companies.

But there’s more…

We just scratched the surface with service delivery and some client management mixed in (reports, QBR, annual plans), but there’s also communication needed in positioning, lead generation, and some more client management.

Blogs, articles, newsletters, special reports, whitepapers, videos, speaking, networking and possibly even social media are important to positioning your business as a knowledge leader and the go to people in your specializations. Nobody will know what you do if you don’t actually tell them via speaking to them or published (web or physical) writing. I’m not saying YOU have to do all of this, but your business needs to. Either someone internally to your company or an outsource service has to be positioning your company and attaching a way to capture leads generated.

That’s positioning and lead generation, but then there’s some more client management to be had that involves communication. I find that a lot of IT companies do not do a good job of letting their clients know up front via a meeting, and better yet a letter or agreement to back it up, as to
•how the client is involved in service delivery (what are the client responsibilities for you to do your job on a project, break fix deal or MSP plan),
•when you will do it and the associated price tag (normal business hours, OT etc),
•how to properly contact you for service,
•what priority the client falls under (high priority, etc),
•how payment is invoiced and when it’s expected to be paid,
•what happens when payment doesn’t come as expected,
•and the fact that, yes, prices will not stay the same forever

I can’t tell you how many people I cross that don’t charge more for out of normal business hours, weekend and holiday work. Many also have not raised prices in two plus years. And it’s all due to a lack of communication, which is much more difficult to do after the fact versus putting it in place up front.

The last piece of communication that seems to be lackluster for most is a mix of marketing and client management. I actually categorize this as client management as it's all about keeping your existing clients, but using your written communication such as newsletters and blogs as well as setting up meetings or lunch dates is crucial to marketing to your existing clients. The QBRs and annual technology meetings are terrific for setting up necessary projects and getting insights to possible new technology that may be needed. Taking that a step further, you also need to also be proactive on what you can offer and not wait for these set meetings.

You have a new service, a new LOB app comes out, alternative methods of the same service you are providing are developed (like a cloud-based services), good things/bad things happening in technology, etc. These things need to be communicated to your client base for a number of reasons.

First, to let them know you are thinking about them and what is best for their use of technology. Second, so that you become, and stay, the main source of anything IT (or anything that plugs into a network for that matter) related to them. For example, even if a particular cloud service is not relevant to your client in your eyes, it doesn’t mean they see it the same way...yet. If they don’t know you know about it or would know about it, they just don’t think it’s something they should ask your opinion on. Hence, the door is open to a competitor that can answer their questions. Not a good thing for you.

This is what the pool of solid, well paying clients wants from a company like yours. Not just good techs to outsource to, but also being their IT manager and CIO all wrapped up into one. Communication in all the forms described above is the way to do that and be part of the group of IT consulting & service companies that are steadily growing, maximizing profitability and building business value. So pick out something from this post and start working on it one at a time. If you want to talk about it, you know where to find me.


To Your Business Success-

George Sierchio
The Consultant’s Coach