How IT Companies Maintain Contact With Their Clients

Information technologies have become an integral part of every person’s life, and they are used not only for entertainment or education but are also an essential tool for doing business. Demand, as we know, creates supply; this is why the modern IT services market is constantly evolving. In these circumstances, each software development company aims to build such relationships with their clients, which would allow upholding the fruitful and long-lasting cooperation.

To achieve this, our software development company strives not only to fulfill all the tasks set by the customer but also to satisfy them with our services in a way that would lead them to choose us as their prime vendor and recommend us to their friends or business partners.

Over the years that our software development company spent at the IT services market, our sales representatives have accumulated considerable experience of effective interaction with partners, including foreign ones. We developed certain rules and formulated principles, which, in our opinion, might be interesting and advantageous to those who are just starting their sales career in IT.

Principles of software development company trade agents

• Communicative competence. Ability to communicate with people is important for any professional career; however, for those who work in the field of selling goods and services, it is absolutely necessary. Sales representative should be able to listen carefully and find a common language with different people, to be able to convince and defend their point of view, while avoiding conflicts as much as possible. And, in case if such a situation actually arises, be able to resolve it to mutual benefit, defending the interests of not only the software development company they work for but also the customer.
• Job competence. Software development company sales representative position requires a high level of competence in technical and functional details of the development process and finances. This knowledge is necessary to be able to calculate the preliminary cost and order execution time, as well as to consult the client on how the level of difficulty or increased urgency would affect the price of the work.
• Accuracy. For effective and fruitful cooperation a clear understanding of the results that customer wishes to reach, by turning to your software development company, is extremely important. Communicating with business partners, it is necessary to take into account that they more often than not will not be experts in the IT field. It is possible that at first, the sales manager will have to act as a consultant to help the client to formulate their wishes into a particular task. Listen carefully, ask clarifying questions, demonstrate the possible samples of work performed, and in the end be sure to summarize and wait for the client’s approval.
• Simplicity. In a conversation with the buyer, it makes no sense to delve into the technical details of the process, if they do not ask relevant questions, of course. As a rule, for the majority of customers of the software development company more important are the final result and timeframe of the work, and these are the questions that should be clarified first and foremost.
• Responsibility. Having undertaken certain commitments, follow them to the letter. Promptly inform the client about the progress of their order, demonstrate and discuss the interim results, if possible. Taking into account the entirety of customer’s requirements and correcting any inaccuracies would be much easier in the preparatory phase than when the software development company work is underway.

Language in communication with software development company foreign partners

When working with foreign clients, one should always bear in mind that local English language peculiarities can vary greatly depending on the country of residence. Additional complexity can also be brought by an unfamiliar dialect or abbreviations, so it is better to clarify the precise meaning of all the words and sentences, the sense of which you are not sure you understood, in order to avoid possible errors in the software development company work.

Time differences in communication with software development company foreign partners

Modern communications allow for the software development company and their customers to reside in different parts of the globe, meaning different time zones, which creates certain difficulties for contact, so the most appropriate for both partners interaction time should be coordinated in advance.

Attention to details in communication with software development company foreign partners

The experienced software development company sales agent, while dealing with a representative of another culture, would make sure to ascertain whether they have any special requests for the order relating their cultural or religious affiliations. Note that tiny details such as the color scheme or the presence of certain image elements can be of great value for some clients.

Final thoughts

And finally – a “little trick”: think of each partner as your best friend and communicate with them accordingly, suppressing, of course, the undue familiarity and maintaining the respectful attitude. Sincere willingness to help, attention to the wishes and needs, the desire to find the most suitable options for the customer are mandatory features of the successful software development company sales representative.