Each small business client that signs on for your services will have differing levels of technology in place. Often we find that basic technology necessities like firewalls and up to date antivirus are not in place when we take a new client on.
The challenge you face is that this is a brand new relationship and if you do not walk the client through why these technologies are important to their business they will feel you believe they are a blank check book and are trying to just “sell” them something.
You need to create standards that your business adheres to and a process to walk all new clients through comparing their technology to these small businesses best practices. All recommendations should be in the best interest of your client while increasing the ease with which you can manage their network.
At Everon we have the added advantage when speaking with the client that we are not a project organization (we give all our field project work to partners) so there is no financial incentive for us to put a big project on the table for a clients unless it is truly the best thing for their business.
Now I understand you are not going to dump your project services business as you transition to managed services but you need to create the conversations and the assessment processes that allow your clients to truly believe you are looking out for their business interests. In an ideal world your compensation packages would also revolve around service metrics and not sales numbers. Even though your relationship people are selling in an advisory capacity you want them to be known as the trusted advisor to the client not the sales engineer – this is when the relationship becomes powerful and it all starts with getting the initial technology assessment and feedback conversation right.
JC
