Ring-Ring! Is There ANYBODY There Who Can Take My Money?
Posted by Robin Robins On July 3rd, 2018
At every Rapid Implementation Workshop (www.RapidImplementationWorkshop.com), I take attendees through an exercise of secret shopping each other’s businesses.
The scenario we give them is this: You are the Operations Manager of a company with 26 employees. Your server keeps rebooting, and your current IT company can’t come out to fix it until Tuesday of next week (three days from now). You’re fed up, and you’re calling to find another IT company who can help. The question is, “Is this something you can help me with and what do you charge?”
In the 22 classes I’ve run, each with 20+ business owners in the room, NOT ONE company has ever:
- Asked all the appropriate qualifying questions they should. The above scenario is NOT relayed to the person answering the phone UNLESS they ask specific questions, such as “How many employees are at your location? Do you have more than one location? Are you currently working with another IT firm? If yes, why are you calling us? Are you under contract with them?” You get the idea. We have it at the ready in case they ask. They never do.
- Ask for the order. In a rare few cases, and I do mean FEW, the person answering the phone said they could get someone out there that day and did quote a price. However, I’ve NEVER had someone ASK FOR THE ORDER. The instruction for the secret shopper is to play FULL OUT and let them take the order or book the appointment to come out IF they take it that far. Very, very few actually do, and even then, they often fail to take down the person’s name, address and contact information. They just quote a price and shut up.
The other day, as we were talking, a client shared with me an e-mail campaign sent out to close to 400 prospects WITH phone follow-up that generated a big fat ZERO. To be clear, not one of MY campaigns, but one they received from a vendor. After reviewing it, I saw that it violated almost every one of the “10 Commandments” of good IT services marketing. Unfortunately, I see this a lot; campaigns hastily slapped together without any strategy or understanding of what it takes to get a response. Time and money wasted. Therefore, I thought it would be beneficial to provide a slightly revised list of “MUSTS” for every campaign. 
Email marketing during the 1990’s was a gold mine.
“Have you ever heard the phrase life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid?” One of my favorite talk show personalities Bill Handle asks listeners this often.
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Direct mail isn’t dead. (And neither is email while we’re on the subject.) Sending a creative, well-executed direct mailer can still generate great marketing results. Here are ten creative, surefire ways to create a great direct mail campaign and attract more clients. 
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There is no doubt about it: Robin Robins has helped more MSPs and IT services businesses to double – even triple – sales, profits and MRR growth than any other marketing consultant in the IT services industry, period.As a trusted advisor to over 7,000 IT services business owners for over 12 years, Robin knows a thing or two about what it takes to grow sales, recurring revenue streams and a profitable client base for an IT services business.