Tomicide Solutions December 2009: Are You an IT Consultant or A Computer Technician?

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

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Most people know the difference between a builder and an architect, a bookkeeper and a chartered accountant and an line cook and an executive chef. But there seems to be some confusion about the difference between computer technicians and IT consultants.

For some reason there is a preponderance of computer technicians who love calling themselves IT consultants.

And probably there are some computer technicians out there who'd like to migrate to the area of IT consulting. And this is what I'd like to discuss this month. This magic migration from being a computer technician to becoming an IT consultant.

And don't get me wrong, one is not better than the other, but they have different mandates, so it's vital that we understand the difference and how companies differentiate, position and package their services accordingly. There is nothing more pitiful than a bunch of computer technicians posing as IT consultants.

The market also perceives them differently.

Clarifying Conceptual Differences

At this point many IT people may say that computer technicians just don't have the technical expertise to be IT consultants.

But is it really just more technical knowledge that differentiates computer technicians from IT consultants? I doubt it. At least, I think there should be more than technical skills.

I believe the main difference is that computer technicians think within the narrow scope of information technology, whereas IT consultants think within the broad scope of business.

Computer technicians solve technical problems, whereas IT consultants solve business problems through technology. This difference in perspective is enough to see the difference between the two professions.

It is both sad and misleading that so many firms out there try to sell their services as IT consultants, but really and truly all they are doing is fixing dead computers and peddling their partners' products. This confusion often comes from the confusion between contractors and consultants. So, let's just quickly put an end to this confusion.

As a contractor, you work FOR your customers (not clients) on issues they have neither time nor inclination to do themselves. Customers clearly define their problems and the solutions they want, and they are just looking for someone to do the work as per the customer's instructions.

There is no exploration and discovery for higher level of performance, only fixing problems and reinstating the status quo.

Customers are usually not involved in the work itself, only in the evaluation of the work.

Considering the skills required, this type of work is usually considered as a commodity, and these contractors are compensated accordingly, usually in the form of a competitive(ly low) hourly fee.

As a consultant, you collaborate WITH clients (not customers) on solving their problems that are unclear. Jointly with clients you diagnose the problem, and together you develop a solution. Clients are involved in the whole process, and they do some of the work with your guidance. This is a relationship between equals.

According to the - Canadian Oxford - dictionary, the verb "consult" means to seek out information or advice from a person and refer to a person for advice and opinion. It mentions nothing about performing pre-defined manual labour FOR customers. Consultants are collaborated with and provide additional value-added that represents something clients did not possess before.

This is an important distinction, because without the clear understanding between computer servicing and IT consulting, you can grossly ill-position your firm.

While as a computer technician contractor, you focus on technical issues only, there are some other factors to consider in IT consulting.

One big difference is that while "geeks" make good contractors, most of them make poor IT consultants. Geeks are called geeks because they have a very strong technical focus, thus they possess amazing technical skills.

In IT consulting you need three key competencies: technical skills, business skills and people skills. While computer technicians fix clearly defined problems, that is, they take contingent action, IT consultants must be able to think of their clients' big pictures and take preventive or innovative action to advance their clients' businesses.

Read again. While fixing computers is all about reinstating the status quo, IT consulting is all about improving the client's condition by raising the bar to a new level of excellence. It's about giving clients business advantages they didn't have before.

Technology skills: The necessary technology skills.

Business skills: A solid understanding of how to run a profitable business, and how a profitable business makes money.

People skills: The skills that are required to interact with various professionals in a collaborative manner.

1. You have technical skills and business skills, but missing people skills. In this case you can do the technical work that supports business processes and is in alignment with the client's vision, but can't effectively interact with others to make sure they actually use your new technology. Look out because you can lose the client's trust


2. You have people skills and business skills, but you are technically lagging behind. This situation doesn't happen too often, but every now and then we've all seen it. But it is important to note here that - even when it happens - it is probably the smallest problem. Why? Because in the worst case as you assemble the implementation team, you can draw some people from other firms which have the needed competency


3. You have technical skills and people skills, but do not understand how they tie into business processes, and you may end up recommending technical solutions that are totally counterproductive when integrated into the business


4. As an IT consultant, you must operate in such a way that you have technical knowledge to accurately diagnose problems and develop solutions, business skills to analyse business processes and people skills to make sure people are willing to use your new technology which supports your clients' businesses

So, when it comes to skill-building for your people, just keep in mind that technical knowledge is just one part of the game. In my experience it is about 80% personal development and 20% of professional development.

The Differences In Client Acquisition And Business Development

Now, on the ground scale of things, business development can be boiled down to the simple equation of...

This is a biggie, but many companies totally overlook it. Many IT companies don't have clearly defined target markets, hence no prospect lists or web traffic. Their offers are about as sexy as the pile of corpses at a plane crash scene. And their copies are basically mixtures of technical features and unsubstantiated claims, like "world-class", "robust, "cutting edge" and similar bullshit.

We all know that most computer servicing companies are regarded as commodities. And it's up to their marketing whether or not they can break out of the vicious vendor trap.

We also know that cold prospecting grunt work like knocking on more doors and dialling dollars can only sink these companies into the fungible vendor category. Yes, they can get results, but the approach undermines the market positioning they're seeking.

And let's stop here for a moment.

Over the years I've attended several seminars with the so-called Internet marketing gurus, and have studied their business models back and forth.

These gurus have achieved the kind of productivity (revenue per person) that most IT companies would kill for, but do you also know what one attribute these gurus' companies have in common?

None of them employs even one single traditional salesperson, that is, a person who is roaming the land, knocking on doors dialling for dollars, hustling the marketplace to drum up the next purchase order.

Instead, these gurus employ people who can create kick-arse content, put it out to the market, and in doing so creating, what consulting ace Alan Weiss calls, marketing gravity.

So, as a result of the high-quality free content, qualified prospects come to these gurus' websites and buy their pretty pricey products and seminars. And they don't haggle over price and terms.

And I find it hard to believe that IT executive have never studied these gurus' business models. Because if they had, they would stop relying on armies of commissioned peddlers to bring in revenue.

And while they are high-tech executives, when it comes to client acquisition, they're just stuck in the dark ages of selling, and don't seem to have the faintest idea how to use technology to acquire clients.

However, just because most IT businesses are currently engaged in vendor-type business development (i.e. chasing after the market using manual labour), as opposed to expert-type business development (i.e. attracting the cream of the market using systems), they can change it at any time they make up their minds to migrate from the corner of the fungible vendor to corner of the respected and recognised expert.

So, let's see some of the differences...

Most computer technician companies do transactional selling, but IT consulting firms do transformational selling. In the case of the former, the emphasis is on the transaction...

"You give me money and I give you some widget or fix something."

That's a transaction. The latter is exchanging money for thin air, that is, for a concept of improved business in the future. That's a transformation.

Transactional sellers can use more push type marketing, that is, hunting down prospects and hammering them with sales pitches. At least, this is the typical approach.

So, how come that IT consulting has been commoditised over the years? Well, because most IT companies have been using push marketing. They are chasing after the market and pounding purchasing agents with manipulative sales pitches using armies of aggressive, smooth-talking street peddlers.

So, over the years buyers have become more and more sceptical about sellers' offers.

One distinction between vendors and experts is the way they generate sales leads and the way they qualify those sales leads.

And here we see a drastic difference in mindset too. Vendors, focusing on quick sales, use the well-established BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Timeline) formula to generate sales leads.

But these leads are pretty costly. Due to the type of information sellers asked for on their registration sites, the number of registrations has dropped. But the remaining leads seemed to be of higher quality at the sales end. Yet, lots of leads that marketing has turned over to sales have landed in marketing's lap again because those leads were not sales-ready.

And during every lead handover between marketing and sales, leads go missing. Actually, according to a November 2004 CMO Council report, "Gauging the Cost of What's Lost: Improve the Return on Resource Burn", some 80% of all sales leads vanish in a thin air.

Over the years respected experts have done something amazing to differentiate themselves both from vendors and their own competitors: They've embraced and an approach to lead generation that is better than BANT and started taking lead nurturing very seriously.

In its research study, entitled "B2B Marketers: Don't Wait Another Minute To Get Started with Lead Nurturing Programs", Newton, MA, based Neolane, Inc. takes a closer look at the increasing popularity of lead nurturing. The graph below is from their study on lead nurturing.

There is also need for better lead qualification criteria, so bit by bit, respected experts have been replacing the traditional BANT system with APNRP (attributes, position, need, readiness and preferences). I'm not sure who's invented APNRP, but I attribute it to Russell Kern because I've first heard it from him.

And while lead nurturing introduces a little delay in gratification, according to SiriusDecisions, some 80% of nurtured leads eventually buy something.

Many of these leads get disqualified because they seem to be of low probability to buy.

But this is only a problem if your follow-up is based on manual labour not an automated system. When using a system, who cares when people buy. If they hate your guts they can unsubscribe from your list and buzz off to greener pastures. No one forces them to stay.

Do you also see that APNRP is a more client-friendly approach than the overly eager-to-sell BANT?

The BANT is a bit like the financial planner's asking a stranger at a networking event...

"So, where is all your money now and how much is it?"

No one will reveal budgets on an online form. That piece of information is a bit too pushy for such an early interaction.

But APNRP (attributes, position, need, readiness and preferences) has no pushy information. Let's see the ingredients...

Attributes: This is a collection is information on demographics and psychographics, so they can be matched against the company's Ideal Client Profile.

Position: This is the position of prospects. This is vital if you want to interact with decision-makers and want to avoid purchasing agents.

Needs: Prospects must be able to articulate the symptoms they suffer from and how they see their ideal situations with the problems solved. This section also includes prospects' interest in your company's solutions.

Readiness: Prospects are ready for the required change either with your company or other companies. We're not talking about buying or selling per se. We're talking about a change initiative.

Preferences: This area deals with preferred contact methods with prospects.

The Role of Social Media

PR expert, David Meerman Scott has made an interesting observation at the 2009 Business Marketing Association "Unlearn" conference.

Scott asked the question...

"In the last 1-2 months, personally or professionally, raise your hand if you've answered a direct mail advertisement?"

Response: 3%

"In the last 1-2 months, in order to research something you wanted to buy, have you gone to mainstream media, TV or newspapers?"

Response: 22%.

"In the last 1-2 months, in order to research something you wanted to buy, have you gone to the printed Yellow Pages?"

Response: 3%.

"In the last 1-2 months, in order to research something you wanted to buy, have you gone to Google or other search engines?"

"In the last 1-2 months, in order to research something you wanted to buy, have you tapped your peer-to-peer network through some electronic media, like Twitter or Facebook?"

The message is that no matter how hard vendors are pushing to connect with the market, the market is pushing even harder to avoid these vendors' salespeople.

The kind of people buyers want to meet is subject matter experts who are also great educators.

And education reminds me...

The other day, on my way home from the gym, I hopped in to Staples to buy an office chair. I like Staples because salespeople are on salary not commission, so they don't try to flog off stuff that makes great commission for them.

The simple purchase turned into a great education session on office ergonomics. Laurence, the ergonomics consultant (NOT salesperson) taught me about how body temperature changes with the sitting position, the meanings of different chair features and a lot more.

It was obvious to me that he was passionate about his work and proud of his expertise. But not the peddler-type rah-rah passionate. He objectively explained the pros and cons of different chairs and then, instead of "closing the sale", he actually allowed me to decide what I wanted to do.

I know in peddlerville and hucksterland, letting prospects decide what they want to do without manipulation is an absolute no-no, but we have to realise that between value-seeking savvy buyers and respected experts this is the only way to conduct business.

Instead of pushing their wares, sellers have to create marketing gravity, so buyers can come to them to acquire about how they can help and support buyers to improve their businesses.

On Summary

For computer technicians, there may still be a couple of years when they can get away with traditional vendor-type peddling, but even now it's getting pretty hard to initiate contact with real buyers using old fashioned cold-prospecting grunt work.

But life is becoming harder and harder for them unless they reposition themselves as respected industrial experts.

Laurence, consultant at Staples. didn't try to flog me the most expensive chair. He didn't even talk so much about chairs in general. He educated me about comfort, back pain, neck pain, carpal tunnel and other interesting bits and bobs in my body to which I can relate to and care about. He knew that the chair was merely a means to achieve an end: Doing long hours of computer work without developing various body aches and pains.

But there is a problem. IT companies that use vendor type "chase, hunt, hound and pound" type client acquisition have a history of doing it that way to varying degree of success. So, the approach is pretty entrenched, and it's hard or even impossible to change.

Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen is in prison again for domestic violence on his third wife, Brooke Mueller. They got married sometimes in mid-2008, after his previous wife, Denise Richards, divorced him in 2006 for domestic violence.

It seems Sheen, with a lifetime achievement of violence, booze- and drug-abuse, just can't change his basic approach to life.

He tries to overcome his vices, but somehow keeps falling off the wagon and his rap sheet is getting longer and longer.

And while the world keeps changing, many IT companies will find hard to change their approaches to client acquisition.

As an old-fashioned sales trainer has recently said to me...

"It's easier to sell to those who don't want to buy our stuff than finding those who want to buy it."

I believe this attitude will soon change or lots of IT companies go tits-up.

Charles Revson, the co-founder of Revlon knew very well what his sales strategy was...

"In our factory we make cosmetics. In the store we sell hope."

Similarly, inside your company you may be fixing computers, but outside your company make sure you sell improved performance, higher sales, better client retention and other bits and bobs your clients track in their boardrooms.

You can read some more on 2010 sales predictions on big company sales expert, Jill Konrath's blog.

Actually, I'd like to close this newsletter issue with Jill's poem, entitled...

And with this little poem, I'd like to wish you a happy and prosperous 2010.

Discuss this newsletter issue with me on my blog...

Attribution: "This article was written by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan who helps privately held information technology companies to develop high leverage client acquisition systems and business development teams in order to sell their products and services to premium clients at premium fees and prices. Visit Tom's website at http://www.varjan.com.