MSP Sales: Get to Know Your Customers

How well do you know your customers? Whether your services extend to just a few clients, or if you have clients on a much larger scale, it’s important to really understand who you’re working with. After all, you can’t effectively sell your services without truly knowing what it is that your prospects need.

National Get to Know Your Customer Day takes place on the third Thursday of every quarter. Getting to know your customer isn’t just about sales, it’s about how you develop and position your offering – sales is made easier when your product meets your customers’ needs. We have to follow this rule, too. In fact, our app is entirely based upon what we know about you, your MSP, and what we can do to help enhance your business’ overall productivity. In order to really sell your own services, you should be thinking about your customers in the same way.

But how can you, the MSP, know your customer? To gain some valuable insight, we sat down with our VP of Sales, Mike Savard, to discuss some really important sales tactics that every MSP should know. What it comes down to is this: it’s time to get to know your customers better. To do so is actually quite simple: ask questions.

Priorities

First and foremost, understand your customers’ top priorities. What are their specific company goals, and even, what would they like to do if they had extra time? Having a good understanding of these will allow you to clearly outline how your services are in line with their priorities.

Consider starting with these.

• What is your top priority in 2019?
• Do you have specific company goals?
• Do you have published revenue goals for this upcoming year?

Actions

Priorities mean nothing without actions. Naturally, the next step is to understand what actions your client is willing to make to match certain requirements or meet specific goals. The actions your prospect is willing to take is exactly where your services come in. Start by asking:

• Do you have the right resources in place to achieve this plan?
• Are you open to thinking differently this year about how to reach your goals?

Roadblocks

Selling is all about finding a solution to your customers’ or prospects’ problems. So what issues are they running into, or rather, what roadblocks are preventing them from reaching their goals? Find out by asking:

• What are any specific hurdles you think may stop you from achieving high standards?
• How are you currently addressing these challenges?

They might not know exactly how to overcome their hurdles (otherwise they would have done so), which means you might be able to recommend something they haven’t yet thought about.

Timeline

The logistics matter too. How quickly do these results need to be achieved? Where does this priority fall along their timeline? When are they willing to start implementing a plan? Asking these questions will give you information on how the sale is going to move forward.

Budget/Price

You’re not the only service your client is spending money on. And just like you, your client has budgets in place that help them decide what avenue they’re going to go down. Understanding the specifics of what your client is willing to spend on your services will help narrow down the opportunity, and give you something to work with.

More than that, take the time to find out what else they’re spending money on. If they’re investing in a solution already, but it’s not solving the problems they’re having or isn’t as cost-effective as your solution is, you have a great opportunity to step in and help.

Authority

You might not always be in direct contact with a decision maker, but that doesn’t lessen the role that they play. In fact, you know all about the difficulty of getting buy-in from the decision makers. Make sure to address the following,

• Are the plans we’ve discussed important to the decision makers?
• Amongst their priorities, where does this fall?

Your MSP’s strengths may not always be in sales, but by getting to know your customers better you’ll know exactly how you can sell your services to them.

To learn more about how IT Glue and documentation can give you a competitive edge with your clients, sign up for a demo.

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Documentation is a source of competitive advantage. When your processes are well-documented, they move from being individual knowledge to team knowledge. You execute consistently, and do not waste time looking for information, because it’s always at your fingertips. Companies with a high level of documentation maturity enjoy higher revenue growth, increased cost savings and superior valuations. IT Glue can help you get there.