In IT marketing, personal referrals you're going to find are by far the most powerful way to get great prospects. Personal referrals are already in a lot of ways pre-sold and they already trust you. In the IT services business, unlike just selling a product, trust carries a tremendous amount of weight. In this article, you'll learn how to get more personal referrals for your IT marketing.
IT Marketing: The Trust Factor
People look for an IT consultant the same way if you were looking for a good dentist or a good internist or a good attorney or a good accountant. Yes, some people go to the Yellow Pages for that. Some people even look in coupon packs or billboards, but for the most part, especially when it's something that's really critical to your personal health or personal well-being or your business, personal word of mouth referrals carry a lot of weight.
Become Well-Known in Your Community
One of the best ways for you to tap into and reach these decision makers that own these companies is to raise your personal and your business profile in your local community within that target market. There are a couple ways that you can do that, but they do take a little bit of time.
One strategy is networking. This is a huge thing that can make or break the success of any kind of solution provider firm - it's all about relationships. It's a people business. Anyone that tells you it's a tech business is dead wrong. It's about your interpersonal skills. It's about trust.
IT Marketing: How To Get More Recommendations
How do you get more personal recommendations? You have to know more people. How do you do that? Join organizations and attend events on a regular basis. That doesn't mean you have to go to every single breakfast, networking luncheon, business after-hours function under the sun, but if you join organizations and you go to a big part of those functions over the course of the year, you're going to get to know a lot of people. Over time you're going to get better at identifying the kinds of people who are better at leading you to opportunities.
The Bottom Line on IT Marketing
Personal referrals are great for your IT marketing efforts. To get more referrals, you need to know more people. So join organizations and attend regularly to show people you are trustworthy and get more referrals.
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Joshua Feinberg helps small business computer consulting firms get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for your free access to a one-hour audio training program on Small Business Computer Consulting Tips.