The Value Conversation Part 3: What Does Value Look Like to SMBs?
BY IT GLUE | May 07, 2019
Is the value you offer the same as the value your clients are looking for? At first you might think, of course it is, but let’s break this down a bit.
You can have the best service offering of all time, but if it doesn’t solve specific problems for your clients, they’re not going to see the value in it. So before you get caught up in what value looks like to you, make sure you’re paying attention to what value looks like for your clients. There are several ways you can accomplish this.
Get to know your clients
The only way you’re truly going to understand what value looks like to your clients, is by understanding who those clients are. This means identifying any verticals you’re targeting, and knowing how to speak to that group of businesses. Value is going to look different to a small healthcare clinic than it is to a law firm, even just on the basis of compliance requirements.
Talk to your clients, and your prospects. Whether it’s in quarterly business reviews (QBRs), regular pulse checks, or your sales calls, those are key opportunities for you to figure out what kind of value they’re looking for, and then how you can offer it.
Get customer specific, not feature specific
When you’re having those conversations with your clients or prospects, and trying to get to know them better while simultaneously discussing your service offering, make sure you’re getting customer specific. By that I mean, it’s one thing to discuss all the advantages of what you offer, such as what your services include and what they will accomplish. It’s another to discuss how your services will benefit the specific customer you’re talking to. So not only do you have to pay attention to the value your customers are looking for, but you have to cater your conversations to showcase how you can provide that same value.
The feature specific points you want to make should be tied to customer specific points. For example, saying “We document all our processes and that saves our techs time” is great, but the client doesn’t actually care about your techs. A customer-centric way of saying this would be more like “Because we document all our processes, we are able to resolve 99% of tickets within the guidelines that are written into your SLA.”
Educate your clients
While your clients are the experts on their own business, you’re the expert on things like their IT infrastructure and security. When you begin to educate your clients, you effectively take your relationship with them to an entirely new level. As you step into the role of their strategic advisor, the value won’t be hard to see for either of you. Take passwords for instance. It’s no secret that poor password hygiene is the cause of far too many breaches, and far too often your clients are unknowingly the culprits.
When you’re educating your clients, you’re naturally going to be showing them ways that you provide value that might even go beyond what they initially thought they needed. This might tie back to some of the things we talked about in our previous post in this series, on how to convince your clients that you add value.
Maintain transparency
The more transparent you can be, the better. Every company has bills to pay, and money is always going to be a big factor. If you can break down for them how your service offering will actually help them save money and improve their business, you’re already shifting the price talk to one on value – and it’s the kind of value any business can understand. When there’s a gap between what you know is necessary, such as a specific security requirement, and what they might only recognize as an added expense, use your documentation to show them how you’re going to protect their IT infrastructure, the steps you will take, and how crucial they are.
Essentially, you can understand all the ways your MSP provides value, and you should. But it’s not going to make for a productive conversation unless you can understand the value your clients are looking for, too.
To learn how IT Glue can help enhance your productivity and in turn strengthen your relationships with clients, sign up for a demo.
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.
