When you are developing an IT marketing strategy, referrals can be a really great way to get great clients for your computer consulting business.  The way to get great referrals is to partner up with other professionals such as accountants and develop a strong relationship.  The following tips can help you get great referrals.

IT Marketing Tip 1:  Create a Revenue Sharing Arrangement

When you make teaming up with people providing professional services – like accounting – part of your plan, you may be able to develop a formal revenue-sharing arrangement.  Your accountant can have a financial interest in connecting you with existing clients.  You can reward your partner with a finder’s fee, a referral fee, the chance to subcontract you out to clients or a trade of services.

If you’re feeling informal, you can also give a gift basket, sporting events tickets or take them out for lunch or dinner and work these things into your IT marketing budget.

IT Marketing Tip 2:  Find Out if Your Partner’s Clients Need You

See if your accountant gets requests from clients occasionally for computer help and see how this request is handled.  If your partner says he/she doesn’t really know where to send these requests, this is your opportunity to propose a real IT marketing event.  

Talk with the accountant about what IT investments can do for their business.  You can hold an educational seminar in your accountant’s office at a time that works for the accountant and his/her clients.  For example, you probably don’[t want to suggest this during tax season, but the fall or late spring is a great time for a seminar.  

IT Marketing Tip 3:  Plan Out Your IT Marketing Seminar

You and your accountant can co-sponsor the seminar and invite your customers and the accountant’s to talk about how small businesses can better use accounting systems or how they can protect their accounting systems by putting better controls in place.  Your accountant can take care of all the technical accounting things and you can handle IT issues.  The main idea is to start talking about computer-related issues to a new set of people.   

The Main Idea about IT Marketing

Personal referrals make very strong parts of your IT marketing plan.  If you want to get more referrals, partner with accountants and other professional services people that can get you connected to others that might make great clients and then make sure to provide rewards.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit