If you’re struggling to sell more managed services contracts – or if you want to get in the game and start promoting managed services to your clients – listen up. I’ve worked with thousands of computer consultants and routinely see them commit one major mistake in their MSP marketing plan.
This minor oversight kills any chance of convincing new (and existing!) customers to purchase managed services — and wastes their precious time and investment in the process.
It’s not an obvious mistake in their managed services marketing campaigns — like a missing headline, offer, or testimonials. It’s emotional logic and persistence.
Change The Conversation In Your MSP Marketing Plan
Too often, MSPs focus on what managed services is and what it does in their marketing messaging. That won’t convince anyone to do anything. Heck, most won’t take 3 seconds to read your flyer.
To connect with MSP leads, you have to understand where they’re coming from, and apply that emotional intelligence across your MSP marketing plan.
Use these proven tips for more targeted and effective MSP marketing messaging:
Tap Into Customer Motivations:
Successful sales boils down to understanding human motivations. People purchase for self-serving reasons. They don’t buy because they should, because it’s right, or because they need it. If that were the case, we’d all buy (and eat) healthy food, take our vitamins, invest for retirement, and kick bad habits that keep us sick, broke, and fat.
When selling managed IT services, you first have to ask: What would motivate someone to buy this type of service? There are two primary MSP personas you need to acknowledge in your plan:
Crisis Mode Customers
If a company experiences constant network problems, they’re more likely to buy. For this type of client, you have to demonstrate why they should trust you to solve their pain over all other available options.
This is why I strongly recommend a stay-in-touch marketing system for all unconverted MSP leads. You don’t know when their network will finally break, so you want to constantly stay in touch. That way, they’ll think of you when it eventually does OR when their current IT person has committed the “last straw.”
Complacent Customers
But what about the client who is NOT experiencing problems? Why would they buy managed services? What would motivate them to “fix” something that ain’t broke?
In a sense, these types of managed IT services leads need to be “scared straight.” They need to be educated about the devastating problems that can crop up when a network is not maintained, secured, and monitored. They must feel uneasy about their data security and network health and “see” how a fatal crash would affect their business. It’s your job to convince them YOU are the one to help them avoid these fatal outcomes.
Here are two example email marketing messages for this type of persona from my Million-Dollar Managed Services Marketing Blueprint:
Educate to Win in MSP Sales
The sales landscape has shifted. You can no longer feed people messages you want them to hear. Competition for managed IT services leads is fiercer than ever, and buyers now have the upper hand.
If you want prospects to read your marketing and act on it, you’ll need to take the time to educate the client in a powerful, convincing, and interesting way. You can accomplish this by incorporating seminars, teleseminars, thought leadership articles, audio recordings, long sales letters, or free reports in your MSP marketing plan.
If you do that and constantly hammer your message home, they will (eventually) reach the purchase tipping point. I don’t know when, and some MSP customers will take longer than others. But the key is to consistently do the right things, in the right way, long enough to have impact.
Break The Mold And Sell More Managed Services Contracts
Transitioning from a break-fix to managed services model is not easy. Without targeted, consistent messaging in place, you will likely lose out to another MSP who’s there when the need arises.
I’ve helped thousands of computer consultants and MSPs emerge from the trenches and build sustainable managed services revenue models.
Are you ready to do the same?
My Million-Dollar Managed Services Marketing Blueprint exposes actual campaigns and strategies that other small computer consultants have used to double or triple their annual revenue, launch a profitable managed services practice, and transform the way they do business.
In this program, you’ll also learn:
- How to avoid wasting thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns that don’t work. I’ll reveal the exact marketing media proven to work best when marketing IT services.
- How to position yourself as the most “in demand” IT consultant in your area with the highest fees and still get more business than cheaper competitors.
- The 3 critical characteristics you must develop to unlock a flood of new MSP sales and business opportunities. These have nothing to do with your marketing, the type of clients you serve, the way you price your services, or your competition.
- Auto-pilot marketing systems that will cut the time and effort of selling managed services in half while virtually eliminating cheap clients. This is price-shopper pest control for your business!
- How to get every ad, sales letter, brochure marketing campaign, website – and even your business card – to generate two to three times as many leads and sales.
- What type of marketing media is the BEST for promoting your computer consulting services, and which ones will waste your time, drain your bank account, and leave you disappointed and frustrated.
We provide you the necessary training, MSP marketing plan and managed services business model that works. You can implement these out-of-the-box resources on your own to increase monthly recurring revenue.
From a managed service business plan, to a proposal, and even managed services contracts, we have it all. Sign up today, and let Technology Marketing Toolkit help your managed services business succeed!