Joshua Feinberg is the author and editorial director of the Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course, which helps computer consultants, VARs, integrators, solution providers, and managed services providers get more of the best, steady, high-paying small business (SMB) clients.
Are you in the software consulting business? Would you like to go beyond just selling products and services, and move towards selling real solutions that can give your firm long-term profitability?
Many involved in software consulting don’t fully understand why you need to go beyond selling software and products and establish real relationships with clients that involve sophisticated end-to-end IT solutions. And even if installing networks and finding the right software for your small business clients is a part of your job description, you really need to move beyond just basic server and network installation, and find profitable ways to continue adding value to your installations.
The following 8 tips can help you go beyond basic software consulting, so you can profit from mutually-beneficial, on-going relationships with steady, high-paying clients.
1. The Best Opportunities Come from Being a Virtual CIO/Project Manager. As you start to develop long-term relationships with small business clients and go beyond just installing and customizing software, you want to become each client’s virtual CIO and project manager. As you take on this role, you will have the ultimate responsibility for delivering the completed project on time and on budget. You are commanding high rates because you are managing complex projects with a lot of variables. Smooth upgrades and on-going maintenance don’t just happen. As a true project manager and virtual CIO, you have to be diligent with advanced planning and attention to many details.
2. Build a Testing Center in Your Office. Building a test bed in your office can help you become more comfortable with supported software and product recommendations. Know the major product features inside-out and backwards before you install the software at a client site. You don’t want your clients to be your guinea pigs.
3. Plan and Coordinate Carefully. A lot of the work for any major software consulting project is advance planning and coordination. As a virtual CIO, make sure everything you do for clients is rigorously planned, so you don’t compromise important client relationships by failing to deliver on your promises.
4. Schedule Major Upgrades and Other Disruptive Work for After Hours. Plan to do major software upgrades and network installations when your clients aren’t in the middle of a busy work day. Start planning downtime weeks in advance so everyone knows what to expect.
5. Be Totally Prepared for Emergencies. As part of your software consulting, you have to have your proverbial “fire extinguisher” ready for every client. Know who to call, including vendor tech support phone numbers, passwords, hours, and newsgroups, when you run into a problem that stumps you before you are in the middle of it and completely stressed out.
6. Review Your Clients' IT Asset Inventories and Site Survey Notes. Get familiar with any shortcomings your clients might have in terms of their IT assets or any other systems that might get in the way of a successful installation. You shouldn’t consider taking on a client that refuses to pay for a few hours of your time to do an updated site survey or create an asset inventory.
7. Set Up Clear Testing Criteria for Each Client. As part of your software consulting, you need to define success with each client when it comes to installations. Figure out how to test systems and applications to make sure you have successfully completed a project. To do this, you need to have very set criteria for determining a job well done.
8. Have Back-Ups. If you really want to be a virtual CIO for your valued clients, you shouldn’t undertake any major installation until you are totally sure that your client has multiple, verified and tested back-ups in case something goes wrong.
In this article, we talked about 8 important tips that help you run a successful software consulting firm. Learn more about how you can attract great, steady, high-paying clients for your software consulting business now at http://www.SoftwareConsultingSecrets.com
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