The best phone system for IT services firms and managed service providers

Placing a consultant and opening an account run on the same lever: the number of useful conversations.

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Hundreds of companies use to make every call pay off

The situation

What holds you back today

01

IT directors are almost impossible to reach

02

Consultants on the bench need placing quickly

03

Delivery work eats the prospecting time

The answer

What Skipcall changes

Parallel calls across target accounts

The parallel dialer →

Short, intense sessions between assignments

The parallel dialer →

Two-way sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce

CRM integrations →

Specific to your industry

Who to call inside an IT department, and in what order

Aiming at the IT director and stopping there is the surest way never to move. In a mid-sized account, several people each hold part of the subject: the one who lives with the problem, the one who holds the budget, the one who decides whether a new supplier is allowed to sign at all. None of them can conclude alone.

The manager who lives with the gap

Head of Infrastructure, IT Operations Manager, Service Delivery Manager or Head of Information Security, depending on the subject. This is the person who describes the requirement in terms you can use, and who knows whether your call has landed at the right moment. It is almost always the right first call, because they have a direct interest in the subject moving.

The IT director arbitrates, they do not discover

A CIO or IT director rarely agrees to discover a supplier on the phone, but they do decide between cases their teams have already worked up. Calling one usefully means being able to name the person on their team who has seen the subject, and talking scope, timescale and commitment rather than technology.

Procurement decides who is allowed to sign

In larger organisations, professional services go through a preferred supplier list and a master services agreement. Without being on the list, the IT department cannot give you work even when it wants to. In the public sector the same barrier is a Crown Commercial Service framework: a buyer running a compliant procurement cannot award to a supplier who is not on the lot. Ask about the supplier list and the next refresh window by the second conversation, and you avoid working a case for months that could never have closed.

Business units fund, IT governs

Extra capacity on a finance, logistics or HR project is often paid out of that department's budget, with IT only signing off on the rules. Those budgets free up on a different rhythm from the annual IT plan, which opens a door precisely when the plan is already committed.

The incumbent prime when you are subcontracting

On accounts covered by a framework or a master agreement, your real client is not the IT department but the incumbent supplier. The useful contact becomes the resourcing manager at that prime, and your calling rhythm follows their team gaps rather than the end account's.

One account therefore takes three or four conversations with different people before a decision exists at all. That is what makes the number of useful conversations matter more than the number of calls made.

The script

Opening an IT account and placing a consultant

Two calls in one script, because an IT services firm makes both in the same day: the manager living with the gap at an end client, and the resourcing manager at a prime holding the lot. You are not calling to introduce your company, you are calling to find out whether a team is short right now.

The opening to a head of infrastructure or operations

“[First name], [name] from [company]. I am not going to introduce the company. We work on [scope or technology], and I am trying to find out one thing: have you got a team that is short at the moment, or a piece of work that is dragging for lack of hands?”

The manager living with the gap has a direct interest in the subject moving, unlike the IT director, who decides between cases already worked up by their teams.

If they say it has to go through procurement

“That is exactly what I want to know. Who owns the professional services supplier list, and when does the next window to get on it open? If we are not on the list I would rather find out now than in six months.”

Asking about the supplier list, or about the framework and lot in the public sector, by the second conversation saves you working a case for months that could never have been awarded.

If they say they already have a supplier

“Good, that means the subject is covered. My question is about the peaks: when your incumbent cannot produce the profile in time, what do you do?”

On an account covered by a framework, the useful contact is not the IT department but the prime's resourcing team. This answer tells you which of the two to call next.

The call to a prime's resourcing manager, for a consultant on the bench

“[First name], I have a [profile] free from [date], on [technologies], already delivered in [type of client]. Have you got an open role they fit? If not I will not take any more of your time.”

Present the consultant by the gap they fill, in two sentences, not by their CV. A resourcing manager sorts on the open role.

If they ask the rate before looking at the CV

“[Amount] a day on site in [city]. I am giving you that before you open the CV so we do not lose the day if it is outside budget.”

Closing when there is nothing

“Agreed, this is not the moment. Two questions and I will leave you: when does your support contract come up for renewal, and who else on your side owns [subject]?”

A renewal date and the name of a second person are worth more than a courtesy meeting: they are what drives the next follow-up.

At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.

Avoid this

Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone

The mistake

Going for the IT director first and reading them the company catalogue.

Do this instead

Start with the head of infrastructure, operations or support who lives with the gap, then call the IT director naming the person on their team who has seen the subject, and talk scope, timescale and commitment rather than technology.

The mistake

Prospecting in bursts, whenever a consultant lands on the bench, and stopping the moment they are placed.

Do this instead

Hold a short, regular calling session even when delivery is busy. Accounts do not reopen on the rhythm of your bench, and every stop restarts the prospecting from a cold list.

The mistake

Finding out an assignment is ending on the day the consultant comes back to the office.

Do this instead

Call the client's manager several weeks before the end date. An extension of scope gets decided faster than a first engagement with a new client, and the bench period never starts.

A calendar full of meetings starts with a call.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions, IT services & managed services

Rarely by adding one more call to the same number. The shortest route runs through their team: a head of infrastructure, an operations manager or a security lead who has seen the subject can name you, and a call that opens with that name is no longer a cold call. If you do go for the direct line, aim outside meeting hours, early morning or end of day, and set yourself a realistic objective for that first contact: identify the right person, not book a meeting.
Start with the accounts where an assignment is already running: an extension of scope gets decided far faster than a first engagement with a new client. Call the managers with an incomplete team rather than the buyers, and present the consultant by the gap they fill in two sentences, not by their career history. In parallel, work the primes holding lots on your target accounts, since they are looking for profiles continuously. While someone is on the bench the cadence is daily and short, one calling session is enough.
The constraint specific to this business is that prospecting is done between assignments by people who are not full-time salespeople. The tool therefore has to cut the surrounding work: several lines dialled in parallel, voicemail detection, an automatic summary of the call, and writing to the CRM without re-keying. Skipcall covers those and integrates natively with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Attio, with other tools connecting through the API. Above all, check that an account's history stays readable for whoever picks the case up next.
Yes, live business-to-business calls are lawful, but there is a screening step. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations you must screen corporate numbers against the Corporate Telephone Preference Service, screen sole traders and unincorporated partnerships against the Telephone Preference Service, and stop calling anyone who has told you directly not to. The UK GDPR still applies to named business contacts: a documented lawful basis, usually legitimate interests with an assessment behind it, privacy information given to the person, the right to object honoured, and a notice at the start of the call if you are recording it.
Set the follow-ups against events in the account rather than a day counter: an application support contract coming up for renewal, a new head of department arriving, job ads appearing on a technology, an announced migration, the budget year. In the UK that last one is worth knowing: public bodies and a large share of private companies run to 31 March, so the January to March window decides what gets bought. Between two events, an occasional contact with no meeting request is enough to stay present. Note on every call the date on which the subject becomes live again, because that date drives the next follow-up.

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