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There’s Treasure Everywhere, We Just Need To Look.
Too often we try to get our customers to buy in to the latest and greatest applications and tools to help them address a concern they have or eliminate current or future issues. The most difficult sales are when one tries to get one’s customers to change and get out of their perceived comfort zone. At times, technology can be overwhelming and confusing. Sometimes it is best to bring things that are in your and your customer’s “background” to the “forefront”. Solutions for helping your customer are sometimes right in front of you.
For example, walk in to your office and look at how many desktops, laptops, printers, phones, etc…there are. Then think about all the IT assets you don’t see that exist within your organization such as PBX’s, routers, switches, servers and so forth. Stop and think for a moment who in your company actually knows what IT equipment exists… think about who knows about the maintenance service contracts associated with this equipment… think about what is sitting idle and what can be reallocated instead of buying new.
Now think about your customers. Most of your customers will claim they have a handle on it. Unfortunately, according to a recent Gartner report this month, many enterprises fail to properly manage and track their IT assets. If companies implemented a proper IT asset management (ITAM) program according to Gartner, they could, “reduce the cost per asset by 30% in the first year, and between 5% and 10% a year for the next five years…” This is bad news for companies who are blind to what IT assets they own, but a great conversation to have with your customers to help them implement a program to track their assets from procurement to end-of-life. Here’s the good news… with ITAM, we’ve just begun to scratch the surface. Imagine how many additional conversations about your customers other strategic systems can be opened up – like accounts payable/receivable, ERP, purchasing, IT service desk and so forth as they are all tied to the procurement and use of these IT assets. What started off as a conversation about one thing has now lead to multiple opportunities!
It is amazing how blind we are to so many things around us that we can turn in to opportunities. We just need to slow down and look around every now and then… which brings me back to where I started from… There’s treasure everywhere, we just need to look.