3 Tips on How to Sell IT Solutions that Didn’t Exist Last Week

When technology providers are learning how to sell IT solutions, their first inclination is often to turn to established channel partner programs in the hope of finding an effective “canned” sales pitch.

When you take this kind of shortcut, you run the huge risk of your marketing looking just like every other solution provider in town…a surefire way to degrade your business into that of a commodity broker.

However, if you have a basic plan of attack on how to sell IT solutions that positions your company authoritatively, you shorten your sales cycle, eliminate many potential objections, and close sales faster and with better margins.

How can you achieve these goals, without a large marketing or sales budget?

Two words: case studies.

Why? Because case studies silently and rapidly eliminate sales anxiety and plow down sales resistance.

If you’ve been struggling with how to sell IT solutions, here’s how you can put case studies to work:

1. Arm your salespeople with undeniable proof that the IT solution already works. These case studies can either be in-print articles or video interviews. Generally, the more you apply a journalistic style as opposed to a sales pitch, the more objective your message seems and the better the results.

2. Keep the case studies short and simple. Explain (a) what the featured company does, (b) the huge problem the company faced before implementing this solution, (c) how the new IT solution lessened or eliminated that problem, and (d) how different the business is today after investing in this solution. For this purpose, a 300-to-500-word case study article is more than enough. If you go the video route, shoot for three to five minutes.

3. Sacrifice early profits, if necessary, to get documented case studies. These case studies are so important, to successfully launch an IT solution that your company should be willing to literally give away the solution initially, until you have compiled enough case studies to feel comfortable launching the new product or service.

While you can, of course, attempt to sell IT solutions without case studies, doing so is actually far more shortsighted than being a commodity broker. Selling without proof is like forcing your salespeople to work with both of their hands tied behind their backs.

In this short post, we looked at how to sell IT solutions that didn’t exist last week by building up a portfolio of indisputable case studies.

And if you don’t yet have case studies, don’t procrastinate. There’s no need for award-winning journalism. It’s the message and authenticity that count. And if you’re really stuck, dangling $50 in front of a local college student who is majoring in communications or journalism should get these assets built in no time.

How do you sell IT solutions that are totally new? Please share your tips, hints, and war stories in the comments below.  

And if you need to level up on selling IT solutions, especially for B2B SaaS and IaaS, enroll now in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.