Just Who are You? Do Your Customers Know?

With so much talk on the economy as of late I think that we all agree that this is a good time to be an MSP. We know that companies can turn to our services to lower their costs of supporting their IT support requirements. I think that the big question that many MSPs are asking is not just "how" do we find these opportunities but once they are found, how do we close them? This is a place where Do IT Smarter can help.

I recently read an article in Inc. Magazine (if you don't read this magazine already start now) that cautioned businesses looking to save money by outsourcing. This was not a negative article, but rather one that gave three solid recommendations, 1. Research the vendor, 2. Get a solid contract and 3. Keep tabs on the vendor. As I read this article I agreed with everything that was said and was happy to see that we have addressed all of these issues with how we do business with our customers. I thought I would take a look at this first topic today.

Who are you? This is a question that any prospect is going to need to know before they sign on the dotted line.

I think that to answer this question you need to start with your outward marketing which in these times generally starts with your website. Make sure that you include a page on your site that talks about your company and not just a quick blurb on your philosophy. Our site has our mission statement, a history and a bio of our executive team. I can tell you the first thing that I do when I look at a new site is to read the bios of the executive team, this can tell you a lot about a company. In addition to telling the customer who you are, let them know who some of your customers are by including some testimonials, or case studies. You might also look into a third party certification such as the MSP Alliance MSP Accreditation program.

The next area you need to focus on is your sales process. We have found that telling a customer what they need and giving them pricing for it, as many do with their Bronze, Silver and Gold plans, is not very effective. Rather we have developed a sales process that includes three customer touches before any pricing or plan is presented. This consists of a FREE Best Practice Assessment, a Best Practice Recommendations meeting and finally a meeting to discuss a detailed proposal. By following this process you accomplish many things; first you start to create a relationship with the prospect and position yourself as an advisor rather than an adversary, second you really get to know their environment and most importantly their pain points. This allows you to provide a proposal that not only fits their needs but is likely to lead to a closed opportunity without any haggling over price or service levels.

This leads to my final recommendation - give the customer a proposal NOT a quote. At a most basic level you want a proposal that is easy to read and clearly states the services you are offering and the costs associated with these services. I recommend that you take it a step further though and include some detailed information about not only these services but your company and your customers as well. Some items that could be included (often as an appendix) would be; an executive team overview, information about your support team and hiring practices, customer references, not just names but what you do for these customers, sample report data, customer satisfaction information, even a sample SLA.

I think that the clear message here is communication. If you open up to your customers about who you are, understand who they are and what they need and clearly lay out how you hope to help them as you have other companies you will find that many more opportunities can be closed.