Recently, I was asked this question:
“I struggle a bit with how to explain to prospects who say they don’t need an MSP because they are ‘too small’ or ‘don’t require much help.’ Oftentimes I’ll get a referral from a customer or employee, and out of respect, I want to tell them we’ve changed our business model, etc. Has anyone found a good reason to inform the prospect to either open up the discussion for managed services or to let them down easily?”
I answered this for TMT’s Members but felt it was such a good question I’d share it here in the event some of you haven’t seen it. It’s a KEY lesson. I’ve also elaborated a bit more here than I did with our members.
For starters, this is why I teach and preach E.D.R. (educational direct response) marketing.
What you need is a “sales” letter – a well-crafted marketing piece – that explains why even small companies need managed services. By creating that piece, you could hand it to them (e-mail them, mail it to them, or ideally do both) and tell them to read that and get back to you if they want to engage. That does a couple of things for you.
Here are 4 reasons why you need a sales letter:
- It allows you to really think through and communicate your argument as to why even SMALL companies need a basic level of managed services. Writing is the process of thinking on paper, forcing you to organize your thoughts.
While you might not like it, doing so will help you get better at communication, selling, persuasion, and thinking through the argument from THEIR side (that’s what “handling” objections really is…working through a misunderstanding, incorrect way of thinking, etc.).
- It will automate this conversation so you don’t need to have it over and over again, hoping the day you deliver it verbally is a “good day” when you’re on your game. You can post it to your website for people to download, presell and prequalify them BEFORE you even talk to them. You can put it in any pre-meeting materials you send a potential client, and even just e-mail it in advance of a meeting.
- If you hire salespeople, they simply need to hand it to someone instead of depending on humans to do a good job.
- It’s a non-threatening, non-confrontational way to educate them on what they need, and do it in a way where you are providing educational, useful information, not a finger-wagging lecture or arguing with the prospect over why they are wrong. Let the report do the convincing, and you can offer to have a free consultation afterward to talk about their situation.
If you want them as clients (and I can make an argument either way), I suggest you find a solution that is “basic” to sell them. I just had a session with a long-term client who was simply selling managed firewall, backup and spam filtering (maybe a bit more, but that’s it) and then charging “break-fix” for everything else they needed.
In other words, it’s a perfect hybrid for someone who doesn’t “need all that much.” And this client was doing HUGE margins (over 20% net profit) using this model, so it’s legit.
If you are an MSP or IT service provider that needs help implementing a solid, PROVEN marketing system that can actually help you generate 1-2 new, high profit, managed service clients every month, then you can sign up for this FREE training and walk away discovering what you need to do to put your marketing on autopilot.
