Want to sell more managed services? Start with a focus

Imagine this: You’re about to talk to a new prospect. You have your pitch prepared. It’s your normal pitch deck, and it covers the full gamut of managed services—you tackle every device, maintain everything, and highlight the value of your services. You have charts, facts, and figures, and you pump yourself up with your favorite music before entering the room.

They politely listen to the pitch and decide they want some time to think about it. You feel like you did a great job, but a few days later, they say they’ve chosen another provider.

What happened?

You’re at a ten, when they may need you at a four.

There could be a couple of problems with this approach.

First, pitching fully managed services may potentially scare off some prospects; I’m not saying this is always the case. Some people will want you to come in, take care of everything, so they don’t have to think about IT—they’ll often even pay a premium for the convenience. You’ll likely want to qualify your prospects up front to figure out if this pitch will work.

With other prospects, they’re not looking to buy everything immediately. Coming in with a full-fledged pitch to handle everything can overwhelm them. They may simply want someone to handle portions of their tech needs or small project work—that’s a good way to get started, as you don’t want to scare them off.

Second, you may not be speaking their language. Prospects have a need in their minds they want met—it might be to reduce costs by going to the cloud or protecting their data from loss. If that’s what they need, going all-in on managed services immediately is the wrong approach.

OK. So, managed services are dead then, right?

Wrong. It’s just that often, you should have a fresh angle or niche before you start selling managed services.

Your prospects likely aren’t at conferences discussing managed services agreements. But they may be discussing their move to a new SaaS platform, or recent data privacy regulations affecting their industry. Since these conversations are already happening, you want your name coming up in them as much as possible. If you’re already known for having this niche, you’ll start gaining referrals to help you garner even more business.

A specialty can set you apart. Instead of swimming in a sea of other managed services providers, you can start by talking about their cloud services problems. Once you get your foot in the door, you can then pitch more services. If you’re already handling some of their security, for example, it makes sense for you to start handling more of their IT. They trust you already, so expanding and strengthening that relationship can only benefit you.

Here are a few things to consider

• Find the intersection of high-value and comfortable
  Before you start tackling a new niche, it’s important to strategize. You want to find something high-value, but also within reach for your company—without taking months to either skill up or staff up. If you already have an interest in security, good choice; the same goes for switching into cloud services. Attending one of our trainings with a Head Nerd can help you discover a potential fit to help you position your company for the future. Even if you have to stretch a little, it’s worth it for the additional revenue. It’s also worth finding something you enjoy. If you have an interest in a particular service or technology, you’ll have more success learning about it and delivering on it.
• Qualify customers first
  Before you start pitching someone, try to gather intel on what they’re looking for. Typically, you’ll want to get a sense of what the next projects will be. If it’s in your niche—or one of them—that’s the direction you should steer the conversation. This goes back to the point I was making earlier—if they’re ready to buy fully managed services and don’t want to think about any portion of their IT, you shouldn’t sell yourself short. It’s a better bet to get to know their needs by asking questions before you make a pitch.
• Your first pitch isn’t your only pitch
  Finally, don’t think of this as one and done. You have multiple opportunities to sell to your customers. Don’t neglect account management—you can easily expand within your current accounts to cover more of their services. You can do this fairly smoothly as part of your quarterly business reviews. Show the progress you’ve made on your existing work and projects; once you do, you can start noting areas for improvement. This is where you can start showing how handling more of their IT and services can help them achieve new goals. Since you already have the existing relationship, and hopefully they are happy with it, you’re doing them a favor and it should be a natural fit.

Selling from a specialty

These days, it helps to have something to set your company apart from the competition as an MSP. Specializing in a specific service—and being known for it—lets you really get your foot in the door. From there, you can establish a sales beachhead and expand your service footprint within the account. Establish the relationship, then you can go further as needed. Don’t be another MSP in a sea of MSPs—take a bold step forward with your own niche today.

David Weeks is senior director of partner experience at N‑able

Follow David on Twitter @WhatWeeksSays or connect via LinkedIn

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