Im looking for some practical advice from any sales or marketing ppl/experts out there.
Ive jst setup a small company of 3 or 4 lads (website is still under construction).
We’re going to be working on web applications (note: its diff to website design) to help companies with their day to day business processes.
How can i go about finding clients ? we’re on a very low budget.
I know what u might be thinking “why didnt u find clients before setting up the company”. well its a long story, but any sensible/practical advice would be most appreciated.
good going eemo!
well, you can look into this site www.elance.com You can browse through the projects list and can also place your bid on those projects. I think its a good point to start for an independent consulting.
and also in UK i am sure you must be able to get some journals which carry classifieds for different projects. Subscribe to such journals.
and the most important is your personal contacts. Try to work out your contacts and use this internal network to get more work.
okay so they are custom apps and you are not doing some ackaged apps implementation work.
I suppose that the team that ou have has come from the industry and has some contacts at previous clients or companies which can be the first step.. essentially everyone dumps out the contents of their rolodez, filofax or palm and start contacting the people letting them knwo what you guys are doing and asking for advise, directions etc.
Take part in industry smposiums, seminars, expos..that would be a great place to make contacts with prospective customers and also competitors etc. You will not believe how many times I have sent projects to a different company because the project was too small for us, or did not fit the strategy of my group. Prior to that when i was with a smaller firm, we used to get such leads from larger companies which referred existing clients or prospects to us for the reaso that they knew we did good work so their terms with this client/prospect will be fine since they referred them to a good group for smaller or niche projects and were still well placed for projects at the same client that fit their sweet spot more.
whitepapers...write and share them with industry publications, post them on your site..get free publicity this way. take part in web seminars and round table discussions as subject matter experts.
for a small niche sort of company in the tech sector, general advertising is nto going to pay off unless you really identify a niche and go at it full force.
you can also buy lists of business/institutions that are investing their IT dollars in a particular type of app suite. You have to know how what you do relates to what diff institutions are doing and get thru to their decision makers. In some cases you may have to ask them to meet with you just to understand what they are doing and get a second opinion.
My advise would be that dont try to be everything to everyone. if I want soemone like that I will go to IBM.. what is your niche, why should I go for you and not someone else, do you have skills that others dont have, do you have industry experience which makes you better able to develop this sort of apps for my industry? do you have performance guarantees, do you have the lowest rates? I mean the sky is the limit to these sort of questions..but once you start asking and answering them..then you know who you are and where does your group fit in.
I am sitting out of consulting industry right now, but have worked on both service delivery and business development for a number of years.
guys thank u so much for ur replies. very helpful indeed.
Lahoreia i visited elance.com before but got confused, i didnt understand it. i shall look again and concentrate this time :)
im not sure of where to get journals though.
mr fraudia relating to ur advice and wanting some more; we're only a team of 4 at the moment. 1 part-time programmer and 1 full-time (he's in pak and his very hard to explain things to him :( ) .
Then theres me, im working on the system admin and general project management, and there another guy who is learning how to program.
So we're not able to take on huge projects (at this moment)
what is our niche and industry expertise ? well we're willing to discuss the clients requirement until we can provide a solution that is most suitable for them.
You talk about industry seminars and expos. i dont know where to get a list of these.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by eemo: *
guys thank u so much for ur replies. very helpful indeed.
**
So we're not able to take on huge projects (at this moment)
what is our niche and industry expertise ? well we're willing to discuss the clients requirement until we can provide a solution that is most suitable for them.
You talk about industry seminars and expos. i dont know where to get a list of these.
thanks to everyone for the advice though
[/QUOTE]
exactly, you cant take on huge projects, but what is your main differentiator. If I am the client, why should I pick you over someone else, what do you offer me that someone else does not. Price alone is not a deciding factor for a client.
As far as industry seminars and expos etc go, start by looking at gartner and forrester etc, There have to be local chapters of It industry personnel, get involved in them..do some basic research on the internet and browse through some industry publications.
I will emphasize again, IT is not the same industry we knew a few years ago, if you are a small group and are trying to break in you need to have a bullet proof idea of who you are and where you fit in. You will have to develop competencies in that area.
Everything else, prospecting, marketing, personal selling, comes way later. Start with the basics first.