Ready to Play Quarterback?

For Ian Pennell, one of the highest compliments a solution provider can receive from a small business client is, “I don’t know how you did it, but everything… just works.”

“That’s like the Holy Grail,” he said. “In the end, the small business just wants it to work.”

Pennell, senior vice president of Cisco’s small business technology group, talked to CompTIA Breakaway attendees about how to sell IT solutions to small businesses in a keynote speech on Tuesday.

An increasing number of small business owners are looking to utilize the technology they use in their home life in their businesses, he said. In that case, the sale isn’t about convincing the client that investing in IT solutions is a smart move, but rather which solutions will work best for that client.

The opportunity for solution providers is to listen and learn about the client’s business, make sense of different IT technologies and create individualized, “purpose-built” solutions for clients, Pennell said.

A trusted partner who can “play quarterback” -- advise on which equipment to use, how to backup data, which applications to get from the cloud, and troubleshoot -- will be successful, he said.

“It’s much more important for them to know somebody’s with them to help when things go wrong as opposed to picking the right application,” he said.

Equipping small businesses with smart technology solutions will ultimately strengthen those businesses and allow them to add jobs and strengthen the economy, he said.

“We have to deliver on the promise of being a trusted adviser, and being there,” Pennell closed.