IT Support Business Advice for Lincoln: Do You Give Salespeople Enough Time to Produce Results?

The IT Sales Arc

One advisement IT support in Lincoln is apt to make concerns a given company’s salespeople. There’s a lot of “easier said than done” ahead, but if you can nip certain things in the bud, you’ll experience better, more prolonged success in operations.

Firstly, understand that hiring salespeople and properly managing them can be one of the largest challenges in the IT world. Salespeople must be managed after they’ve been hired, but oftentimes, those who hire them go “a bridge too far,” as the saying goes. They push it too hard, too long, and in the wrong direction.

The temptation is to be very “results-oriented,” but this gives the salesperson a short rope to hang themselves into. Basically, they’ve either got to immediately close deals or they don’t have a place with your company. The thing is sales isn’t always something that flows at the behest of a manager; especially with IT, there is often a long sales cycle which must be strategically approached. So while some new salespeople may be able to make a few “home runs” right out of the gate, even the best ones are going to tread water eventually. You can’t liquidate them the moment their numbers drop— that invalidates your initial investment in the employee.

Obtaining Leads

A better way to manage salespeople is through lead determination. What any group providing IT support in Lincoln will tell you is that having a bevy of actionable leads is a very positive, worthwhile state of affairs.

When you’re thinking cloud computing, managed services, or implementation of IoT tech, you’re looking at an increasingly expansive sales cycle. Someone making the cloud jump could be facing a complete revolution of on-site data solutions. They may be getting rid of half a department and several thousand dollars’ worth of tech equipment— that kind of thing takes time.

As a result, many clients making changes specifically so they can adopt the services your company provides won’t be able to sign on the dotted line for several months. Meanwhile, if your salespeople have categorized such prospects in a leads list already amenable to your organization, you can capitalize when the time is right. A qualified lead will have been given three things by your salespeople:

• An audit
• A presentation
• A final proposal

Once the lead has this data, you can monitor them and check in every now and then. Gift baskets and mail-outs which include useful content can be instrumental in ensuring your business is in the back of your prospective client’s mind. Drip marketing is key in the IT industry, precisely because selling cycles are long.

Effectiveness

So with new sales people, extend your own managerial incubation period in order that a proper pipeline of actionable sales leads can be built up. Actual closing on a given prospect is outstanding, but with IT, you shouldn’t expect that with the same kind of frequency seen on, say, a used car lot. So push your salespeople to fill their pipeline with prospective leads and ensure they continue following up.

Noverus Innovations, Inc. provides IT support in Lincoln designed not just to help you upgrade your business, but to help you more effectively go about increasing your margins. Contact us for consultation, tech solutions, data security, and much more.