MSP Marketing – 4 Unmistakable Signs Of A Bad Lead

When you gain a new lead from your managed services marketing, there’s always that spark of excitement to have a potential client. Some leads turn out to be good finds. Some leads turn out to be a mismatch for your business. To save precious time and resources, the first thing to do when you receive new leads is to learn a little more about the company. This is the pre-discovery process. A lead’s website is the best first step to check, and see what type of business they have. This will give you some insight into what size the business is and what solutions they might be interested in.

But not all businesses are destined to be a good fit. So how do you spot a bad lead early on? Here are four distinct signs.

The Comatose Patient

The first thing that you might do to new leads is send an email asking if they’re interested about your services. And despite your high hopes, they may never respond. This is nothing new to marketing. It happens. Leads not responding may mean that you’re making contact at a wrong time, they’re too busy, or they simply aren’t interested.

But it wouldn’t be wise to dismiss a lead after your first attempt to make contact. We have to accept that everybody is busy nowadays, and most people don’t really make any decisions during the initial contact. So you may need to have follow up sequences where your leads are emailed regularly. This is something our White-Label Newsletter service is helping many businesses with.

Of course, you can’t spend all of your time trying to reach just a single lead. You can save time if you automate this process by using automated follow-ups like Mailchimp. It may take up to ten attempts before your leads could respond, but after this you may want to consider the lead a dead lead. If this is the case, it’s time to move on to the next one.

Mr and Mrs Price

If your lead’s first question is about price, then brace yourself for a long ride. Issue about price is also nothing new to doing business. There will always be people who focus on cost, and cost alone. They may not see the value of your services. That doesn’t necessarily make them bad. But if you’re a premium player, you probably would want to think twice before getting them onboard.

As a managed service provider, you have the responsibility to educate your prospects about the value of your solution. Help them understand why they need your support, and how it help them increase productivity and achieve growth. You may need to reframe your value proposition, and provide case studies from your existing clients. Testimonials from your happiest clients can also help them focus on your solution, and not on your price.

When your repeated attempts failed to convince them of the value of your solution, it’s time to call it quits. You’ll simply waste your time if you keep trying. Even if they end up buying, you’ll have a difficult time dealing with a client who only sees you as a commodity and not as an IT solutions provider.

Popular-By-Demand

It may be unexpected for a new lead to respond right away. But what if it’s not just an ordinary ‘hello’ – it’s a demand for you to craft a proposal for them. They may send you a list of what they think their problem is and what solution they need. This might look like an easy sell, and you might instinctively comply and offer them your services. But take a few minutes to think what this means for you and your business.

You are the industry expert. While the final decision lies on your clients, the task of diagnosing the problem and forming a solution is your sole jurisdiction. So if your new lead tells you what solution they need, they may be undermining your expertise and seeing you as a monkey with a computer. The worst thing that could happen is for you to give a solution and getting blamed for it later.

Listen to their suggestion and take the time to determine whether it’s the right solution for them. They may have just heard about it from a friend and it doesn’t apply to their business, or it may be exactly what they need. Doing this shows your client you are being through and only recommending the right solutions.

The Doubting Thomas

Some leads may defer commitments because they may need time to think about working with you, while others may need to find the necessary funding. These kind of people will agree to a follow-up action and will gladly tell you about their decision process. But there are also leads who will just string you along without any plans to sign a contract anytime soon.

Some leads who are just there for the ride can have you pretty much convinced that you are the right managed service provider for them. They may even sound like they are ready to commit over the phone. Or their email responses may keep your hopes high that you’ll be sealing the deal soon. But when you move in to close the sale – they suddenly have “doubts” about the deal. And a never-ending list of excuses comes forth. Simply put, they can’t commit. Or they don’t want to.

So to prevent this from happening, make sure that you are dealing with the decision maker from the start. Even so, decision makers may turn out to be “doubting thomases” in the end. Even so, it’s worth asking them what’s holding them back, and see if you can help solve it. Great clients are action takers, they are ambitious. They’re not afraid to take you along for the ride. And these are the ones you’d want to deal with.