1. Start Your Own Consulting Practice
Juan Soto

2. ITIMPACT.COM ACCESSEXPERTS.COM
About Me
President of IT Impact, Inc. based in Chicago MS Access MVP Expert in Access with SQL Server Access MVP: Expert in Access with SQL Server Optimization LinkedIn: Blog: AccessExperts.com/blog I LOVE selling

3. I wish I was at Juan’s presentation today at SQL Saturday Iowa
I wish I was at Juan’s presentation today at SQL Saturday Iowa! I have a feeling that I’ll be looking for a new job soon and I’m thinking about the greatest and best consultant out there! It’s going to be YUGE!

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Quick Survey
Who is thinking about starting a consulting practice?

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The Consulting Life
How rewarding can it be?
Great pay (if you can find customers)
Flexible hours (working nights, weekends and holidays, pretty much all the time)
Be your own boss (unless you have bossy clients)

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What is your focus?
SQL Server DBA?
SQL Server Programmer?
Find your niche

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Are you a good candidate for this?
Can you work from home?
Do you have Internet access?
Wife and kids out of the house?
Do you have a home office area?
Can you avoid making dinner?
Can you handle the swings of income? Does your wife work, too?
Are you Igor?

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What are you really?
When you are a consultant, why are people people paying you top dollar?
Is it because you are at the top of your field?
Are you great at listening and formulating a plan?
Do you deliver on time and on budget?
Are you great at responding to your client’s needs?

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You’re a business consultant
We solve business problems using Computer Technologies

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Great website is essential!
Pay a professional to create your website, (hint, we do websites)
Apply basic SEO (see next slide)
Design your site for potential leads
Put them at ease: certs, recognition, etc.
Provide examples of how you’ve helped clients
Use customer testimonials

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Getting People to Call
We use Google AdWords and SEO to drive traffic to AccessExperts.com

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CRM Automation
Lead fills out website form
Data goes direct into Dynamics CRM
Lead gets personalized immediately
Task gets created in Outlook for sales department to contact lead
No need to enter data into CRM
Tools Used
WordPress
Zapier
Dynamics 365

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Dynamics CRM 365
Best tool for managing leads
Free for Microsoft Partners
Tight integration with Outlook
Customized Fields
Leads automatically pegged as Hot with $5k potential
Custom workflows
Create merged s and word documents

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Dashboard

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Types of People Calling
Price Hunters
Talkers
People with immediate needs

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One hour to get them to…
Qualify you as you qualify them
Understand their needs
Demo them a solution
Get their budget and give them an estimate
Agree to a proposal

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One Hour To:
Qualify
Pain Analysis
Demo
Budget Analysis
Get them to YES

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Qualifing your lead over phone
Are they a business?
Are they serious?
Are they price shopping?

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Pain Analysis
We use WebEx and ask them to record, almost all say yes
What, where, why and how they need a solution?

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Flip the screen share and show
Demo a generic solution with great features
Many have never seen a professionaly done database
Amaze them with features that will increase their productivity

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Ask them about the budget
In “round” numbers
Don’t despair if they are off
Give them your gross estimate

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Overcoming Price Objections
“It’s too expensive”
It’s about doing more with the same amount of people
You could pay us X or hire another person as you grow

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They said YES
Create a proposal with terms and conditions
Give them a commitment for delivery in three business days or less

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They said NO
Continue to follow up afterwards, months and years later

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They said MAYBE
“We will think about it…”
“We are looking at other vendors…”

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We are hiring!
Looking for Microsoft Access Developers!
Apply at

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