Selling Your Managed Services – When is the Best Time?

Business customers who still rely on break-fix can be the most difficult to convince to switch onto managed services. Some may still live with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy. And sometimes, your customers may not see that the real value of managed services is in monitoring and maintenance. This can be the reason why your several attempts to sell them your business only met a dead end. But there’s an appropriate time for everything. When you keep your door open, the best time to sell your managed services will come sooner or later.

A Win Under Your Belt

Managed service providers have different opinions if they should also service break-fix business customers.  There are advantages in going exclusive. But giving break-fix customers a shot can also be a good business opportunity. For new customers, it’s a chance to show them the value of your skills and services. Even for your old break-fix customers, this can be a last attempt to show them what they are missing out.

When their business operation is disrupted by an IT issue, break-fix customers would want to find someone to resolve it as fast as possible. Even if you are the last resort, this can be the best time to sell your managed services. That’s after resolving their IT issue, of course. So don’t be quick to dismiss business customers who refused to sign a Managed Services contract with you earlier. They will most likely listen eagerly to someone who came to save the day.

But even so, it’s better if you make the right preparations before you throw in your sales pitch.

Focus on Your Customer’s Need

Your business customers may not care much about individual features that you carry. Whether it is patch management, anti-spyware, backup solution, system monitoring, or cloud computing. What they care about is how your IT support translates into a necessary business tool. For example, a 1TB backup solution may not mean much. But if you tell them it can save 6 months worth of data and files, then it would be easier for them to see its importance.

So selling the idea of managed services to your customers takes more than just the latest technology that you carry. Shift the focus on how your managed service could foresee their current IT problem through monitoring and maintenance. Show them that being proactive saves them money. Downtime can be expensive for small and medium businesses. Adjust your presentation and include how your managed services could have avoided their current IT issue. This way, it will be easier for them to understand why your managed services will work for them.

You can also sell them the idea that IT systems need maintenance too, just as much as a car needs regular maintenance. If your car neglects regular visits to the mechanic, then there’s a bigger chance that very serious and more expensive problems will happen. It’s also the same with IT systems. It needs software and hardware maintenance. Serious and more expensive issues can occur if there’s no regular monitoring from an IT specialist like you. So signing up for your managed services can really save money for business users.

Another good reason to sign up for your managed services is that their IT issue can happen again. Machines can work well for a long time, but wear and tear prevents it from working forever. Just like in car maintenance, components such as battery, oil, or tires, have performance expiration. These components wear down through use. It’s the same with IT systems and its components. At one point, a network drive could die. Or some RAM could fail. Even ransomware can deal real damage. This could halt business operations or by at least hinder productivity. Monitoring and maintenance can either foresee or prevent this. And this is where your managed services gives an advantage.

But if these sales points fail, there’s one more thing that you can do.

Offer a Trial Period to Help Sell Your Managed Services

Some business users are reluctant in signing a contract right away. It could be because of the long-term commitment. A two-year contract could be a big leap from relying on break-fix service. But you can answer their misgivings by offering a trial period for a month or two. Or it depends on the terms they are comfortable with, and you agree with. This will give you the chance you need to let them experience your IT support, even if it’s just monitoring service. At the same time, this will also give your business users a chance to cancel the service if they change their mind.

Now some MSPs may think that it’s a great time to offer discounted pricing on trial periods. The purpose is to attract customers to sign up. While this is a great opportunity for your customers, it hurts your business right from the beginning. First, there’s your onboarding cost. Setting up and documenting your client’s computer network is already a cost to your own business. A one month trial period may not even recoup this expense for you, so avoid offering a discounted price. Some MSPs even implement a separate installation charge for this, but it completely depends if it will work in your own market.

Second, a discounted trial period devalues your skills and expertise. The trial period in itself is already a big discount. Indeed, being able to walk away without any consequences from what should have been a long-term contract is already a privilege. You will be sending the wrong message to your business customers by offering a discounted price for trial. If they were able to have your services at a lower price, why pay for the higher regular price? And at the end of the trial period, your higher regular pricing may not even convince your business customers to sign a contract. A discounted price for trial not only hurts your own value but also hurts your chance to seal a long-term commitment.

So offering a trial period can lead to a perfect time to sell your managed services. You only need to be balanced in doing it so it can be a win for both sides.