by Ben Bradley (benbradley@bwmginc.com)

In the sales process, help your customers and embrace the FUD

Step inside the mind of your prospective customer – the buyer of IT services and products- and you’ll see every possible flavor of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).

You’ll see fear of switching from the evil they know (their existing VAR) to your business. You’ll see the natural doubt any buyer has against a new (and untested) sales person. You’ll see uncertainty from the misinformation your competitors use to cloud the buyer’s mind and get a foot in the door. Spend enough time inside your prospective customer’s brain and you’ll see that FUD is the direct result of not having enough information to make an informed buying decision.

So how do you overcome the FUD? How do you remove FUD from the transaction? We spoke to VARs and buyers of IT services about these questions and we’re delighted by the overwhelming response we received.

According to Tiffani Bova, Research Director at Gartner (www.gartner.com), Worldwide IT Channel Sales, Programs & Alliances, “one way to remove the FUD factor in the sales process is showing prospects that you understand their business better than your competition, have done similar work for other companies like theirs, use the technologies internally yourself, and build a strong reputation around ’service after the sale’. These activities go a long way especially in the SMB space.”

Michael Davis, CEO of Chicago-based Savid Technologies (www.savidtech.com), removes FUD by offering a pilot program for all projects. “If it doesn’t work, we will take it out and charge them nothing. This forces us to test products internally before we sell them, that’s why we don’t have 500 products partners. They don’t all work and we only want to sell what will work.”

But FUD also exists beyond the sales call. Any new engagement has elements of FUD in installation, integration, support and service. Towner Blackstock, software services manager for CIS Consulting (www.cisinfo.com), a Charlotte, North Carolina VAR of Sage Software, reduces installation and integration FUD by emphasizing the importance of training. “Classroom instruction is essential to a successful implementation and rapid ROI. When clients neglect training on new software, frustration builds, confidence lags, and they spend more money on onsite support,” said Blackstock.

Blackstock also believes operations software can’t succeed without good hardware and networks. “That’s why we started our own IT group that specializes in software installation. This eliminates a lot of finger-pointing between vendors and allows our application consultants to focus on implementation. Even if a client doesn’t purchase our hardware, we have the in-house expertise to troubleshoot system issues.”

In the support role, having someone who is always available can minimize problems. Although it seems overly simple, Savid’s Michael Davis provides clients a contact list containing complete contact information for all employees. “Everyone in our company understands they must be available to all clients whenever they need them. All of our clients understand that not only are we available to them whenever they need, but we have an open door policy. You don’t like the way something is heading/running, call me or meet with me and let’s figure it out. In the end, the client is not always right but they are always right about what they want and how they want it.”

From a buyer’s perspective, Fred Held, a Los Angeles, California buyer of IT services in his role as principle of a private equity and management company, believes the VARs who focus most on overcoming relationship FUD are the ones most likely to succeed. “As someone who has hired many VARs in his career, I’m looking for the little things such as VARs that cost slightly more per day but the number of days they work is much lower. VARs that are available by telephone any time of day any day of the week and they are happy to hear from you. VARs that check to make sure what they installed is working well and the front line is happy.”

While removing FUD from the transaction is a good strategy for getting in the door, it remains a viable sales tool once you have established a relationship with the customer. Coley Perry, sales manager for Solution Partners (www.solpart.com), a Naperville, Illinois-based technology staffing and consulting firm, wants his customers to have just the right amount of FUD. “I want our customers to be so happy that the thought of switching to a new vendor causes fear, uncertainty and doubt.”