You need to find  a niche if you want to be an IT specialist.  How can you figure out this niche?

The Horizontal Niche

With a horizontal niche as an IT specialist, your ideal clients are not in the same industry (which is a vertical niche) but they have contacts in the same position.  For example, you might discover most of your clients’ main contacts are office managers.  The next step once you discover this is to take an informal survey and ask what their biggest IT problems are along with their biggest business problems and try to be a solution to these problems.  

Asking these questions will help you retain these clients and also inform you of their biggest business and IT issues.  You will then be able to create a great sales pitch as an IT specialist and find other clients just like the ones you have that are great.  Look at magazines, mailing lists, organizations and conferences where you can find office managers.   

An IT Specialist Should Know Things about Prospects

You need to know who your prospects are, what they read, which trade publications are out there and related to them (and which ezines), which newsletters they get, which local/regional conferences they might already be attending, which trade groups have local chapters they belong to, where they hang out, what they talk about and what they worry about.

Talk to your best clients if you want to be a real IT specialist!

You’ve probably already created personal relationships already.  Take clients out to breakfast, lunch and tell them you want to be an IT specialist and ask questions so you know how to look for clients just like them.

Created By:  Joshua Feinberg