I've worked in IT consulting for over 10 years in various roles. My current job includes meeting with prospects and discussing our IT services and how they fit into their business. This has been the first position I've held where I deal with a lot more of the business side and sales of IT Consulting.

One thing has become very apparent in meetings with prospects. You have to treat every meeting as if this is your only shot. You cannot assume that this is just merely an introduction and later on in subsequent meetings you will be able to present more in-depth information. If you have a visual presentation or any type of hard copy documentation you want to present, you have to present it in this meeting.

A good example of this- A while ago a former colleague reached out to me and we discussed how my current employer and I could help them. Everything sounded great and initially, we discussed a quick meeting to go over some of the very basics of how my firm is structured and our support options. I thought of this meeting as merely an introduction and the first step in the process of winning them over as a client. We had the meeting and I answered all their questions. A couple of weeks went by and I hadn’t heard anything so I followed up with my former colleague. He informed me that they decided to go with another provider.

At first, I was a bit surprised because It seemed like a really good fit. There were a couple of outside forces that ultimately made them choose the other firm but one thing that he did mention is that the other provider delivered an entire presentation about their services and how they operate. This is when the alarm bells really went off and I ultimately felt like I squandered this opportunity. I have a presentation however I was planning on presenting that in a second meeting with my management team.

After going through this and losing out on this potential client I have learned to treat every opportunity as if it’s my last and I have much better results with this mindset. There have been times when I have had an initial introduction however we are going into it with the proper mindset and treating it as if it’s my only opportunity, It’s led into second and possibly even additional meetings with other management and or teams in the organization.

Consulting sales and MSP sales can be a treacherous endeavor. Hope this helps give you some perspective or insight and helps someone along the way.