Do you provide small business IT services?

One of the best way to be successful in small business IT is to survey your prospects, customers and clients to find out about their true needs. This way, you can propose IT projects that will solve their biggest problems.

But how do you convince your customers and clients that they need the major projects you're proposing?  And how do you get them to agree to enter into long-term relationships with your firm?

The following 3 tips can help you understand why getting buy-in from customers -- and building consensus -- is so important to the success of major small business IT projects.

1. Know the Dangers of Not Getting 100% Buy-In.  If a small business owner is totally gung ho about a planned project, but every other staff member is bitterly resistant, your life will be a complete nightmare.  If not everyone is on board from the beginning, you also run the risk of having the owner pull the plug mid-project.  Then you'll have to either eat some non-billable hours or risk alienating a client with aggressive collection efforts.  Either way, you're much better off investing the time to ask the right questions, so you can uncover their true needs and build consensus right from the outset.
2. Take Precautions Up-Front with New Customers and Clients.  You can avoid major aggravation if you work hard at talking to all important people at a client site before starting any major small business IT projects.  You want to make sure you talk to the owners/partners, internal gurus, mid-level managers/supervisors, power users and novice/beginner users.  These talks will be your last chance to probe newly-discovered topics that need to be addressed and to ask for additional clarification.  Make sure you completely understand their expectations and that they understand yours before proceeding.  Remember, building consensus if crucial to your success as the project manager.
3. Keep the Small Business Owner Involved in the Project.  Make sure every client stays actively involved with any project you do.  If the problem you are tackling is not urgent or important enough to demand the small business owner's attention, or if the small business owner becomes disengaged, these are red flags that you may be headed for trouble.  With small business IT projects, your clients can't completely outsource decision-making, oversight and responsibility.  You need periodic feedback and guidance at certain key decision intervals.  Projects typically fail when the owner wants the project done immediately, but has no time to explain what is needed.  You need to make sure your client is delegating responsibility to someone within the company that is authorized to make decisions.