Partnering Dealing With Clients Beyond Your Expertise

Partnering: Dealing with Clients Beyond Your Expertise

Summary: Partnering helps you become the virtual solution for your clients. Line up subcontractors before you need them so you can meet your clients' needs by partnering.

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Article Body: At some point youre going to need to develop partnering relationships with other non-competing complementary tech providers in your area for partnering and subcontracting type of work. That way you can meet the needs of your clients for many different types of projects.

Partnering- How To Be The Virtual Solution for Your Clients

Sometimes you may be asked to do some work that you don't have experience or skills in. For example, let's say youre a really good generalist and youre good at setting up simple LANs, but all of a sudden your client merged with a company who's got a sophisticated WAN infrastructure.

Help Your Client by Partnering

In order to be able to deliver the complete virtual IT solution, you need to have a Rolodex of people that can come in and fill in for things that are outside your expertise and beyond your comfort level.

How Can You Handle Customers Who Have Needs You Can't Meet?

If you dont yet have specialized partners or subcontractors that can assist in these areas, do you tell your future clients upfront you can't help them, or do you search for the partners first? This is the chicken or egg dilemma. Do you get the clients first or do you line up subcontracting and partnering relationships first?

Identify The Needs You Can Meet

You should be able to map out most of the typical types of services that youre going to provide to small businesses. Then, consider what your clients might need that you can't provide.

Start meeting with potential partners and interviewing subcontractors to try to fill in your gaps. Ideally, you should have a rolodex of anywhere from three to five people that you have ready to go as the clients needs arise.

The Bottom Line about Partnering

Always be upfront about this with your clients. If you have partners or subcontractors that can help deliver the full solution to your clients, tell them.

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