Talk Track

Center of Influence Process

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 13:47:00 +0000

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Episode 7 | Overview of the technology steering process

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 06:04:00 +0000

Technology Business Planning and the 4 Cs is a key differentiator

Most companies in the outsourced IT space talk about strategy, but few have a repeatable process that they can demonstrate for the prospect. The 4 Cs are at the core of our process for delivering IT strategy.

In this episode I talk about:

The 4 Cs Consolidation, Continuity, Collaboration and Content
The All Covered, Konica Minolta customer appreciation campaign running till the end of December
A killer synergy win in Walnut Creek

Technology steering and strategy with the 4 Cs

The 4Cs methodology is the foundation on which we build strategies to help clients achieve their goals through better management of information and more effective collaboration. It is the core of our Technology Business Plan process and can be a framework for client development, as well as a differentiator with prospects.

Email your ITSC if you’d like to review a sample Technology Business Plan (TBP)

Brady Bower brings a big check to Walnut Creek!

Congratulations to Brady Bower on his synergy win with Beyond Emancipation. Brady used the procurement promotion to begin the conversation about IT services.

A week later, the client signed on as a new ACC client.Beyond Emancipation (B:E) provides housing, crisis informed coaching and a myriad of workforce development and education supports to youth with experience in foster care or probation placements.

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 6 | Service Portfolio Overview

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Sun, 22 Nov 2015 17:51:00 +0000

We do a lot of stuff. So much in fact, that it can be difficult to talk about. That ‘s why for the last few episodes we’ve been talking about creating space in our conversations to deliver our core message: We have a unique perspective around technology and we want to meet with you to share that perspective.

That in turn begs the question, “what is our unique perspective?” The answer varies depending on the client’s specific situation, but in this episode I wanted to talk about some of All Covered’s core service deliver areas and share more questions that we can ask to get deeper with our clients and prospects.

In this episode I talk about:

Help desk services
Project services
Cloud services
Application services

Show Notes:

Help desk related questions:

How is your IT supported?
Are your computer systems and network reliable?
Are they monitored 24/7?
Do you have system downtime, viruses or slow performance?
Do you find it challenging to staff appropriate engineering and technical resources for you internal help desk?

Project services related questions:

Do you have a long-term plan for IT?
Are you due for an upgrade of desktop hardware or Windows operating system?
Are there other IT technologies such as server visualization or remote desktop that you need to assess?
Are there IT projects that you are delaying?

Cloud services related questions:

Are you worried about the security of your data?
Are you protected from physical disasters?
Do you have a plan in place to keep your data available when you need it?
Are you looking to leverage cloud computing but would benefit from the experience of a full-service provider?

Applications services related questions:

Are you looking for ways to share information with employees, vendors, partners and customers?
Do you have older applications that you’d like to make available via the web?
Do you have data in different systems that you’d like to be able to consolidate for reporting?

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 5 | Telemarketing for IT Services Part 2

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Sat, 21 Nov 2015 18:29:00 +0000

Most of the time they’re telling us they are fine…..

So I propose we just make “I’m fine” our starting point. Let’s not accept that as a legitimate reason not to meet and let’s go to work. Let’s hone a process that allows us to flex with with the “I’m Fine” response, create a little room to deliver our core logic and ask for an appointment.

Don’t forget our Customer Appreciation promotion: 10% of your best competitive quote for IT hardware and software from now till the end of December.

In this episode I talk about:

We recap our discussion from part 1:
- The list is most important thing | bad list = bad results
- Your list can and should be gold
- We have an entirely different definition of what “Fine” means
The Customer Appreciation promotion
Key dates for the Customer Appreciation marketing campaign
CRM and putting together the puzzle pieces
The call framework
- Opening
- Result nuggets
- Redirects
- The Message
- Close
Belief in our irrefutable logic
How you can hear a smile
Link to the message
Episode 4 | Telemarketing for IT Services Part 1
Result nugget examples

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

The post Episode 5 | Telemarketing for IT Services Part 2 appeared first on Jason Clause | Microsoft 365 Consultant.

Episode 4 | Telesales Process Part 1

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:31:00 +0000

Using the phone to generate new business is a process

I’ve been using this process for a decade to uncover new business opportunities for IT managed services and I’m 100% sure that this process works. I believe in it and I’m excited to share it with you. As hard as I know this process is, I know that if you embrace it, you will build the kind of business pipeline that will yield success for years to come.

We’ll cover the process in a few episodes.

In this episode I talk about:

A few success stories from around the Bay
All Covered’s mobility management webinar and ebook
Believing in the process and how that’s a key to success
Building your prospect pipeline (Top 200 or Warm 250)
Target prospect profile
Who should we reach out to inside of these target companies
How to avoid blunt force trauma
What does “I’m fine” really mean

Show Notes:

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 3 | Conversation Starters

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 22:47:00 +0000

Sometimes I ask questions some times I make a quick statement.

In each instance, I’m trying to create a little space for myself to deliver my core message. The logical reason why a busy business decision maker would make some time for me.

“I have a unique perspective on technology. Specifically, what you spend, what kind of experience you get from your technology based on that level of spending and what kind of risks you take on-board based on the first two elements.

Taking a meeting with me doesn’t mean that we will do business together. But everyone that takes this meeting says it was a good use of time.”

In this episode I talk about:

Using result statements or “Sales Nuggets” as they were taught to me to create a little interest in talking with you.
Questions aimed to creating interest / space in the conversation that will allow you to deliver your core message and ask for an appointment for further discussion

Show Notes:

30 second elevator statement: We are the part time IT department for more than 3000 companies across the country. We provide predictable results at a predictable fee.

Results Nuggets

We help companies who are looking for predictable results from technology for a predictable fee.
Do you ever wonder how your technology, what you spend and what you get, compares to other companies of similar size and complexity?
When decision makers like you meet with us it is usually for one of three reasons:
They want to compare their technology, support and spending to the industry standard.
They want to get predictable results at a predictable fee
They want to know what they don’t know. (in other words, they can only evaluate their technology situation based on their current knowledge.)

Do any of these hit home?

Prospect: “I don’t think we need to meet, everything is working fine for us at the moment.”

We don’t want to meet with companies when the house is on fire. Our approach is to meet with business people who are happy with their current approach to technology. We show them how to look at things in a different way. For example we look at 4 key areas:

Performance
Functionality
Risk
Cost

Many times we find that you may be out of alignment in one or more of these areas. Customers don’t always make changes immediately but they all tell us that the knowledge and perspective were extremely valuable.

Prospect: “So how would you work with us?”

I am not exactly sure. How would you like my job, I call people up to meet and I can’t guaranty we would even recommend working together. Our job is to educate business people on what technology results and spending should look like. I am not the person to tell you what we do or how we do it, I do know this, that thousands of companies similar to yours use Konica Minolta.

Prospect: “Look, I don’t want to waste either of our time. We are fine”

We don’t do business with most companies we meet with right away. The timing is not right or we are not the right fit. But every company we meet with tells me they were glad they could compare their technology support results against the leader in the industry.

Follow up Results bullets

When things don’t run properly, do you ever feel that nobody understands how it impacts your business?
Are you frustrated that when your IT company helps with technology decisions, they never get all the information that they need?
Do you feel like computer projects always cost more than planned…and you never get what was really expected?
Are you frustrated that whenever there is a problem, you always get a technical reason for an answer?
Are you annoyed when nobody takes responsibility for the technology?
Are you discouraged with the change and cost involved with technology?

Getting more…

Can you tell me more about that?
Could you be more specific about…
How long has this been a problem?
Have you tried to solve it before?
Did you give up trying to solve it?
How much would you say it cost you moneywise?
Does it affect your business?
How does that make you feel?

The appointment

I don’t suppose any of these hit home with you?
I don’t suppose inviting us in to talk about it would make sense at this time?
Would you be comfortable with telling me “no” if you don’t think we can help you?
Does a meeting like this make sense for you?
Would a meeting based on the this agenda work for you?

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 2 | Questions & Questioning Part 2

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 19:53:00 +0000

We ran out of time last episode so we’re continuing our conversation on qualifying questions.

There are tons and tons of questions that we can and should be asking our customers and prospects when it comes to IT services. But the 1st and most important question is, “Who is my ITCS and can that person make my meeting?”

I don’t want anyone to think that they should be headed into a meeting to talk about IT services on your own. No only are you not expected to, it’s not a very good idea. If you need help getting into contact with your ITSC, feel free to reach out to me directly and I’ll get you in contact with the correct person.

In this episode I talk about:

Technical questions aimed at uncovering technical issues / pain
Decision questions aimed at uncovering what the decision is

Show Notes:

Technical Questions:

What would happen if you lost data on a server?
Do you feel like there is any functionality missing from your current technology?
What happens when people have mobility issues?
- How do they get support?
What happens when someone runs into virus problems or SPAM issues
Tell me about the last time that you had a performance problem
- Were you sluggish or were you really down?

Decision Questions:

Who in your organization is responsible for the end result?
Do you feel like you have to cover for your provider when things don’t go right?
Does your boss / business partners know how hard you have to work on this?
If they did, do you think that would change anything?
Would you be willing to pay more and switch vendors if you could get closer to a 9 or a 10 experience with you technology?
- Would you boss / partner agree?
What is the time scale for making a decision?
What are the key criteria for deciding?
If you had to choose right now what would you decide? / What is your gut telling you?

*I found a few references to the Gartner statistic, but I couldn’t find the actual report. I did however find another interesting piece of research that I thought I’d share instead.

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 1 | Questions and Questioning Part 1

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 22:39:00 +0000

I’m often asked what the “killer questions” are for uncovering IT services opportunities.

In fact, I was asked that question several times this past week during the new employee sales training that was held in the Walnut Creek Office. The unfortunate truth is that there is no such thing as a true killer question. Nothing that will work the same way every time no matter the situation. There’s only conversation starters that will hopefully lead to high quality business discussions that eventually lead to new business relationships.

That said, I have a list of questions that I use consistently and I thought I’d spend an episode or two sharing them with you. This is part one of a series about questions and questioning. I’m also including a list of the questions I discuss in the show notes. This isn’t the definitive list, I’m sure there are tons of other great questions to consider adding to your tool box. If you have a really good one that you’d like to share, please add it to the comments section, I’d love to give it a try!

In this episode we talk about:

My process for qualifying prospective clients with lots and lots of questions:

Pain / issue focused questions and going three levels deep
Report building questions
General technology questions
Money / cost questions

Show Notes:

Business / report building questions:

What is your role in the business?
How long have you been in business?
What is your role in the marketplace?
- Cost leader?
- Cost about the same as most?
- Value leader?
Who are your competitors?
Why do your customers buy from you?
If a prospect told you that they could get the same thing that you provide at a 20% discount, what would you tell them?
What are the key priorities for the business?
What are your key priorities personally?

General technology / calibration questions:

Why did you take the meeting?
- Are you wrestling with a specific issue that you’d like to talk about?
If you could wave a magic wand over your technology, what would you want?
On a scale of 1 -10, how reliant is your business on technology?
- Why would you grade it that way?
Same scale, how would you grade the experience you have with your technology?
- Why would you grade it that way?
- What would a 9 or 10 look like?
How would your employees grade their experience?
- Why do you think they would they grade it that way?

Money / spending questions:

Do you have a IT plan?
- If so, how many years is it? (1, 2, 3 years?)
How do you view your IT costs?
- Operational costs vs. Capital Expenditures
How often do you refresh your technology?
When was the last time you upgraded your technology?
How is support provided?
- How are you billed for this?
- (Fixed fee, Hourly)
Are there other soft costs that you include in cost of support?
Relative to other companies your size, do you spend more or less than you think you should on IT?

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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Episode 8 | The Sales Presentation

podcast@jasonclause.com (Jason Clause) — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 05:40:00 +0000

How to use that leave behind asset to guide your sales presentation

Happy New Year! We had a fantastic end of 2015 closing several ACC opportunities as well as several more projects and procurement opportunities.

Way to Go Jeremy!

Congratulations Jeremy Redman on your ACC win in December! Jeremy introduced us to one of his printing customers in early July. It took us some time, but it was time well spent. Thank you for all your hard work on this Jeremy!

In this episode I talk around the All Covered leave behind and share how I would use the tool with a prospective client.

In this episode I talk about:

Jeremy Redman’s ACC win in the East Bay
Konica Minolta customer appreciation promotion has been extended to the end of January
- 10% off the best competitive quote
- 10% off project labor
- 1st month free for managed services
- Free security and network assessment
The core prospecting message
The All Covered Leave Behind and how I use it in my sales conversations

Show Notes:

All Covered Leave Behind Flyer

Acknowledgements – I didn’t come up with any of this on my own. I’ve learned from others. Click here to meet my teachers.

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