Month: October 2011

From time to time I get into a discussion with a tech who is starting up a computer store and is searching for banners, posters and other promotional items from product manufactures to add some prestige or credibility to his or her store. My advice is simple. Visit the manufacturers’ web sites and join their partner programs.

I am a big proponent of utilizing partner and reseller programs. Although they are commonly considered a source for product discounts and sales spiffs for resellers who join, partner programs can have great returns in other ways as well. Sales tools, training programs and free collateral are all great incentives to buy their products from channel distributors instead of a web or after market retailer. Just because it doesn’t translate into immediate profit on the sale doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it. The value of some of the perks offered in these programs are worth a lot more than just saving a buck or two on shipping.

For instance, it is no secret that large IT companies may qualify for co-ops, actual cash from vendors to finance or subsidize a co-branded marketing campaign for their products.  Small operations may not qualify for this perk because they don’t do enough business to get ad money from the vendors. But wait, how much would it cost you to print slick four color brochures and line cards to distribute to your customers with your company name on them? There is no way some of us could afford to produce our own marketing collateral.

Yet, most vendors will send this stuff to you for FREE. All you need to do is send a request and they will ship posters, banners, flyers, cards, pens, rat mats and even T-shirts for you to mail or pass out to your customers – much of it you can slap your company information on with a stamp or sticker or – depending on the item and your resources – run it through your own printer.

Most vendors also allow you access to logos, sales kits and collateral you can use and post on your web sites. All FREE. This is all every bit as valuable as actual Co-op money and in some cases even better – if you know how to use it.

You also have better support on the back end when it comes to supporting the products. This can be a huge selling point to customers because your support to them is backed up by back-end support from the vendor as opposed to the guy who sold a router and can’t help the customer when it breaks or has a hardware problem.

But that’s not all. There is often FREE training and vendor certification available as well.

When you think training and certification, the first things that probably come to mind as a tech are technical training and technical certification. While this is important to consider, there is another aspect of training that most of us completely overlook and may be even more important to us, especially if we are selling these products.

You can be a great tech and you can be somewhat business savvy, but it is common knowledge that great techs are seldom also great salespeople. Some of the best techs I’ve known are terrible sales reps. While I wouldn’t call myself a great tech, I do know was a lot more comfortable doing bench work than closing sales.

One of the best perks of partner and reseller programs isn’t necessarily the discounts, co-op money or marketing collateral. It’s the training. The free sales training.

Your vendor partners want you to sell their products, the more the better. Many partner and reseller programs provide FREE sales training and certification programs to help you learn how to sell their products like a pro. If you are in business for yourself and rely on the sale of IT products for even a fraction of your income, sales training should be a prerequisite to starting up your business. Free sales training is even better. You can’t beat free.

This is what really sets you apart from the other techs who sell stuff out of their truck. You aren’t just selling a computer, router or hard drive, you’re an authorized reseller for those companies. You are an official source for that product and you are perceived as the authoratative expert on that product as well as the direct line to the manufacturer. I will tell you from personal experience that, from a marketing and sales perspective, the term authorized <insert manufacturer name here> reseller raises your personal and business profile and professional credibility up a few notches with the average customer which, in turn, helps increase sales.

Here is a real world example: When I joined the Linksys Partner Program they sent me a huge box full of hats, posters, pens, line cards and even about a half dozen very nice 25 ft measuring tapes with the Linksys logo on them for distribution to employees and clients. They impressed customers and made my operation seem more prestigious as a Linksys Partner. It gave customers the perception I was a trusted expert on the products and had an exclusive relationship with the vendor as opposed to the other guy who just carried a couple of routers in his van.

To recap, here is a brief overview of what some of these programs offer. You can usually sign up for them at no cost.
1. Collateral (posters, banners, promotional items)
2. Sales rebates and spiffs
3. New product demos (often discounted, sometimes free)
4. Sales and Marketing Training and Tools (Free sales training!)
5. Co-branding Opportunities

6. Marketing Co-Op funds (usually top-tier sellers, but sometimes smaller companies qualify as well)

There is a list of vendor partner programs in the Resource Directory at theforcefield.net as well as other articles and blogs with tips on using vendor and partner programs. Some of them are not in the public areas, however, for obvious reasons. Do a search under Resources and you will find them.

If you haven’t heard it, check out The Force Field Episode 35 – Partner With Your Vendors. I interviewed Frank Raimondi, former Executive Director of NASBA and we discussed how the little guys can use distributors and vendor partner programs to sell and market themselves like the big guys, without paying a dime.

At some point in your IT service career, you will be faced with the prospect or necessity of raising the prices on one or more of your services. If you are just starting out and find it necessary to adjust your charges as you gain a better understanding of your business goals and the overall marketplace that’s not so bad. We’ve all had to do that. a few price adjustments when starting out is just part learning the business and isn’t such a big deal, provided your still establishing yourself, your customer base and your business reputation.

However, if you are well established already and your prices haven’t changed much in the last couple of years, the thought of raising them on your customers is one that may make you hesitate, and rightly so. It’s a tough decision to make, especially in these troubled economic times when money is tight for many customers and competition is fierce for every dollar.

The decision to raise prices on your services should be considered carefully. The first step is to ask yourself why you need to do this. Did you set your prices too low to sustain your business and keep it profitable? Are your competitors offering the same services in your area much higher rates? Did you have recent increases in overhead (higher rent, fuel prices, materials, etc.) that necessitate a price hike to your customers to maintain profitability?

If so, the decision is inevitable. At this point, it isn’t a matter of if, but how.

The best approach, in my experience, is to first determine what your price adjustment needs to be to pay the bills and maintain profitability without pricing yourself out of your local market, create a rollout plan, and stick to it.

Before doing anything, careful planning is in order. First, you need to do some basic math and determine just how much you need to raise prices. Then you need to research colleagues and competitors in your area and find out how and what they charge for the same services you provide. Factor in the economy in your local area and what the local market can bear. Consider your established customers and what you think they can afford to pay. Also, consider what you think is fair to charge your customers based on your own experience and abilities, and the value of the service you provide. Put it all on paper and work the numbers. Then comes the hard part: raising your prices.

I’ve been there as well and although you may have a little push back from customers in the beginning, in the long run you will be better off and your customer base may actually grow.

Of course, it all depends on how you approach it. There are a couple of ways to do this. You could try raising prices incrementally, a little here or there over a period of time. The other option is to do it all at once.

You must also know your customers and their expectations. Incremental price hikes only work if you can do it over the course of a long period of time. Otherwise, raising the price $5 every few weeks or so will actually hurt, as your customers will get annoyed with the constant increases and you will get annoyed with the constant management of it.

A better way to roll it out may be to change the pricing on individual items and services over a short period of time. Change the bench fees one week, change the onsite fees another, and offer daily or weekly discounts or specials on other items or services to offset the hikes.

Whatever you decide to do, the most important thing to remember is to communicate the price hike to your customers honestly and well in advance. Communication is actually the key to the success of your price changes.

Customers don’t like surprises, especially when it comes to costs. If you quietly raise your prices and your customers are hit with the new fees out of the blue, they will not be happy. Send out a snail mail or e-mail blast to your customers (snail mail is better) and post a notice in your storefront to notify everyone of the price changes at least 30 days in advance. Be upfront about why the prices are changing and answer any questions or concerns your customers may have without spin. There will always be a few who will bail on you but most of them will understand, especially given the current state of the economy.

If you keep your customers in the loop from day one, you will find they will appreciate your situation more than you think and are more likely to accept the price changes with few complaints. You may even experience a surge in business before the price hikes, as some customers will want to take advantage of the current prices before they go up.

Recently someone in The Force Field Forums posted a comment about a rise in the level of “platform bashing” taking place in various discussion threads. The concern is that the forums have become an “anti-platform” soap box with which to rant about bad Buyers, ridiculously low-ball work orders, horribly written contracts, payment issues and general distrust of the platforms themselves, and have become so negative that it is driving members away.

I would certainly hope that is not the case, but the reason I wrote this article is because I sense it too.

I know there are issues with techs and the platforms. I also understand that everyone has their own values and ideals. While I know the frustrations and appreciate the concerns voiced by techs about the general disruption these web-based service platforms bring to the industry, I also believe that issues are resolved through positive, constructive ideas and collaborative action and not negative bashing.

I didn’t build The Force Field to be an “<Insert Web Based Service Platform Name Here> Sucks” crusade. Simply put, it isn’t taking the high road; it’s not the way to do business. It promotes negativity instead of positive action. It isn’t productive.

On the other hand, the issues aren’t going to go away, so some of these posts are expected. After all, it is a space to vent. Frankly, I’d rather they vent in a members only area of The Force Field Forums than out there in front of their contractors, vendors, or worse, their customers. If venting frustration in the private forums will prevent a public melt down in the field, then I guess it does serve a purpose.

But, yes, it gets to me, too, because that isn’t what I built the forums for. I built them to create a neutral place where the techs, contractors and vendors could meet and work it out instead of duke it out and collaborate instead of compete. It’s supposed to be neutral territory, not a venue skewed in the opposite direction of the other venues or an anti-platform platform. It’s a safe place to negotiate the differences, connect the vendors from the disconnect and put everyone on equal ground. It is supposed to be a repository or a portal of resources to locate and connect with these companies on the other side. It’s supposed to be a place to network with everyone – peers, competitors, contractors, vendors and outsources.

Unfortunately, I find that some techs don’t really want to talk with the contractors and platforms to sort it all out. They just want to use the forums as a place from which to shoot at them instead.

Perhaps this is really my fault. That was not what I was going for when I built the forums, but perhaps my own reputation did this. I was quite outspoken in the OnForce forums, and I still archive some of my posts here, mostly to demonstrate the lessons learned (or not learned) by both sides. But my posts were not intended to bash the platforms. Sure, there were times when I was frustrated with the OnForce platform system. But I didn’t hate it, and, even when I was fed up with the way I was treated as both a Buyer and Provider, I never said I did. In fact, up until the very end of my relationship with OnForce I said I would not bash them and left the door of communication open. They shut the door, not me.

My posts in the OnForce forums were not written to bash them. I posted that many times. They were intended to be a wake up call from a perspective they did not really understand and stress the need for balance in the web based platform business. Instead, I was labeled as a dissident or troublemaker and my concerns dismissed as rebellious rants.

As for the other IT service platforms, I simply wrote them off. Although I do still have accounts with ServiceLive and Field Nation and still receive work orders from them, I never accepted work from either one, primarily for the same reasons many other techs don’t. However, there are a lot of laments from other techs in our forums who have worked for them, and the negativity has become counterproductive.

There is absolutely no doubt that the last seven years have seen a lot of upheaval for techs who perform contract work in field services. It has frustrated and angered some. It has caused a few to change the way they do business and for others, it has become unprofitable.

So, yes, there has been some kicking and screaming. And yes, it gives some folks a headache. I’m tired of hearing it myself, even though I understand what’s happening and why.

Okay, before I finish this, I don’t want anyone to think that I am taking sides about the negative posts. I am not. Do I agree with those who complain about the negativity? Yes, to a point, because they make a valid one. Does it mean I disagree with the techs who are wielding clubs at the platforms? No, because I understand their frustration first hand. I’ve been frustrated with them too and I certainly appreciate the gravity it.

But here’s the thing. It doesn’t change any thing. It’s all rhetoric. It only stirs up emotion and polarize opinion to one side or another. It doesn’t solve the problem.

A few years ago, when I was still posting in the OnForce forums, I made several references to a “shakeup” in the industry, particularly in the area of field service in relation to contract work. At one point, former OnForce alumni Jack Barcroft even invited me on his internet radio show to discuss it.

Well, it’s happening now. It’s been happening. There is an upheaval in progress that will change field service work as we know it. You’re experiencing it now, and this is only the beginning. What you are experiencing is not a temporary shift in pricing and policy that will rebound in our favor. I’ve read some posts with the thought that, once the Buyers find out low balling doesn’t work, pizza techs are worthless and the platforms “suck”, all of these bad dreams will go away and the field work in this industry will be as before.

It is not going to happen.

It’s all going to morph into something new and it will never be the same again.

We can blame OnForce and all these other service platforms for this change, and we can reminisce all day about how much better it was before these platforms showed up. But the truth is, OnForce didn’t create this dilemma. Yes, they blazed the trail to be the one of the first to capitalize on it, but they didn’t create it. Technology did. More precisely, Information Technology.

That’s right, folks. The very thing we embraced as nerds and geeks and that provided us with our livelihoods as field service techs is also the same Jabberwock that has chewed it all up into what seems to be a confusing mess.

 

During the last decade or two we’ve watched as the Internet has completely morphed the entire landscape. The banking industry, the music industry, the retail industry, Hollywood, TV and radio, telephone communications, publishing, advertising and marketing, shipping, every one of these industries has seen a dramatic upheaval due to IT that forced them to either adapt or completely change their business models or risk going under. Newspapers are dying. Borders Books just closed its doors. The next institution to shut its doors may to be the US Postal Service.

Now it is our turn to adapt or die.

What, you didn’t think it would happen to us – the ones who set up and maintain the infrastructure to deliver all this upheaval to the world? Think again, because it’s happening now. We just didn’t happen to be the first industry on the list.

You may think I’m nuts to say this, but we are actually very fortunate to be in this position, all things considered. Why? Because we weren’t the first. We won’t be the last, but we’re not the first. This gives us a bit of an advantage over the other industries that didn’t take change well and are still struggling with it to survive, because we can learn from their mistakes.

Look what happened to them. Almost every one of them did not embrace the change. In fact, many of them were dragged into it kicking and screaming. A couple of them, notably the RIAA and the MPAA, are still in denial and are fighting it tooth and nail. How do we perceive the RIAA? It is, perhaps, one of the most hated organizations in the world, right up there with Al Qaeda. The MPAA? The public regards their threats with fear and loathing.

What happened to newspapers? Instead of changing, they simply tried to move their old world business model from print to web. Many have already folded. Madison Avenue still doesn’t really get Internet advertising and is still trying to come to grips with Web 2.0 marketing and social media because they aren’t used to not having control of the message.

And the telephone? Who still has a land line anymore? I haven’t one. I haven’t had a land line in years.

Borders is a prime example of a store that was left behind. Instead of staying ahead of the curve and going digital like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, Borders stuck it out with print alone and only got into the e-book business late in the game. Too late, because the others already cornered the market.

On the other hand, many other major brick and mortar stores in the retail industry embraced it with open arms. Some of them found ways to integrate the real and virtual businesses and kept them profitable. Look at the web today. Internet retail is big business. It may even have saved a brick and mortar store or two.

We were in a very good position because we could see the train coming from miles away. Only thing is, we were on the wrong track. We didn’t think it was coming for us.

We have seen what technology is capable of. It’s disruptive. It destroys entire business models. We already know what happens to companies that fight change in their industry. They essentially destroy themselves. However, in the wake of destruction rises the birth of new business models and new industries. The good news? The first to embrace, adopt and adapt are usually the ones who thrive and become the new leaders in it.

Now it’s our turn. We have an advantage and a choice. The advantage? We have history to learn from so we can adapt to the changes. We can learn from the mistakes of others before us and use that knowledge to invent new ways of doing business as IT service providers and ways of mastering – not surviving – but mastering the field.

The choice? Whether we decide to do it – or not. If we choose to fight it, as our predecessors have, we will most surely lose. We can’t prevent change, but we can decide whether or not to invent a new way of doing business in the field that can be just as profitable (or more so) than before and be a leader in it.

Whether we like it or not, the industry is changing. If we want to survive and prosper in this business during the coming years, we must adapt to this change – and not just adapt, but to lead.