Why IT Consulting Firms Must Think Like a Marketer

I’ve been asked by an IT consulting firm to present ideas on marketing to their clients’ staff when it comes to new internal projects. Now, some of you might wonder what these folks need with marketing — in fact, some in their firm might wonder the same thing.

Here’s my take though. Every business that provides services to an organization has objectives to meet. Maybe in the case of a managed IT service it is increased productivity, lower costs, greater automation, security or better inventory management.

So, let’s say that the CEO charges the IT consulting firm with finding and installing a new Field Service Management system for sales and service to use. All of a sudden the IT firm’s objectives intersect squarely with two other business functions — two other teams that have been down this road before and may have no interest in playing.

This is where effective marketing comes into play. In almost every organization the scenario above is doomed to fail because there’s no alignment.

What if the IT consulting firm created a very marketing like process that was based on building the kind of trust required to get total buy-in, loyalty and even evangelism for their objectives?

What if the internal IT Consulting Firm built an internal marketing campaign based on the 5 stages of what I call The Customer Journey?

What if the marketing plan for the internal project addressed the logical stages of awareness, education, sample, and refer before any roll out meetings ever occurred?

So, going back to our fictional new FSM installation, the IT Consulting Firm’s road map might look more like this.

Internal IT Buy-In Journey Map

Awareness

Schedule interviews with users of the software from other companies to understand highs and lows of the process. Schedule interviews with potential internal users to understand what currently works and doesn’t work.

Educate

Put together peer 2 peer panel with sales and service folks from companies currently using the software and internal sales and service folks to discuss FSM and technology challenges as a whole.

Identify internal champions that are vocal about the needs for the new FSM tool and include them in vendor discussions and planning path.

Sample

Create beta user groups with exclusive access to the planning process and input in the building. Publicize this beta group’s activity and timeline.

Purchase

Let beta group train and evangelize on the functionality. Create orientation materials featuring tips and traps from the beta group.

Aggressively measure and report improvements in every key performance indicator and release new and more advanced feature to the beta and champion group. Fix what’s not working.

Refer

Gather testimonials from all users and allow beta and champion groups to promote others within the organization into the champion group. Hold champion user group events.

Certainly this takes far greater coordination, but it’s just a plan.

You see, meeting objectives in IT, Finance, Management, Marketing HR, every department, is just good marketing when it comes right down to it.

Contact Your Marketing Consultant at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small service based business that needs help with creating marketing alignment or your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO services. Contact us for more information.