Every company has some unique facet that makes them different from the rest of their competition. In order to effectively reach your clientele, you need to figure out what your unique offering is. For example, if you're within walking distance of many businesses, then your proximity is your best benefit - you can do things faster and cheaper than anyone else.
Back Up Your Benefits
When you give benefits you want to back them up with examples and guarantees. For instance, given the above example, you might guarantee to arrive within 60 minutes of a server down emergency during regular business hours. You could offer $100 off their monthly bill if you're even a minute late - now, that's a guarantee! And, you'll probably never lose money on it because you're right there.
Survey Your Customers
You also want to survey these local companies to see which ones are interested in IT services and what areas they need help in. In order to get the survey back, you may want to offer a free gift like a gift card for a dozen bagels from the coffee shop across the street or a free needs analysis if they return it.
Your survey should ask basic questions like the following:
How many PCs do you have?
How many employees do you have?
How do you get your IT support today?
What do you like and dislike about it?
What's your number one business challenge today?
What's your number one IT challenge?
Network
Using people like the UPS or FedEx guy or the pizza delivery guy even, you can effectively network into a community. You can learn about the other companies and they can learn about you through these familiar faces. They can often give you great advice about who may need help.
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