What Motivates MSP Customers To Buy? [3 Important Things You Need To Know]

Understanding what motivates an MSP customer to buy can be a challenge for Managed Service Providers.  Many businesses don’t know what an MSP is, let alone why they should buy from one.  But by understanding what motivates them to buy and meeting them where they are in the buyer’s journey, you can start to build a steady stream of customers.

In this article we’ll cover:

1. What motivates MSP customers to buy
2. Why it’s important to create regular content for your customers
3. The need for ongoing customer education

Ignorance Is Bliss…

They say ignorance is bliss.  And for most of your MSP customers, this is probably the case when it comes to IT issues. Many business owners live their lives like they’re plugged into The Matrix.

Often, they’re completely oblivious to things like the Dark Web or Cybersecurity threats. Even worse, some of them are aware of the risks but take zero action because it’s not an issue for them right now.

But as a Managed Service Provider, we have to think differently…

Knowledge is power.  And with that power, MSPs have a responsibility to make your customers aware of the benefits you can offer, as well as the dangers you can protect them from.

1.  Understanding What Motivates Your Customers

It can be difficult to know what makes your prospects tick right? Not necessarily…

At the end of the day, business owners are just like you and me.  They have problems they need solving, they have goals they want to achieve and they have things that keep them awake at night.

These are some common goals shared by business owners:

1. Increasing sales
2. Acquiring new customers
3. Reducing costs
4. Simplifying processes  

What Does This Mean For Your MSP?

MSPs can help them with all of these goals.  Not only can you save them time, but you can also improve things for them and help to reduce their costs.

Start by putting yourself in the mind of your customer: what are their daily living pains as a small or medium business owner?

Fear Is A Powerful Motivator

Ransomware attacks and Dark Web activity are all too common occurrences these days. We wrote extensively about this in Technibble’s July’s monthly membership, which you can find out more about here.

These attacks can often knock out businesses for days, weeks, or even months. This leads to a loss of income, reputation, and in many cases lawsuits.

So by dialing in on these pain points while it’s top of mind for your prospects, you’re creating ‘an itch’. Then you can offer your product or service as calamine lotion to soothe that itch…

2. Content is King

More often than not, MSPs have to DEFINE the problem as well as SOLVE it for their customers.  And this presents a big opportunity…

Creating Content helps your prospects to understand their problem and how you can solve it for them.  Your goal should be to meet them at whichever stage of the buyer’s journey they’re at.

What Sort of Content Should I Create?

Start by creating content to educate them about their problems and potential solutions you can help them with.

There are three stages of the buyer’s journey:

1. In the Awareness stage customers are typically experiencing or expressing symptoms of a problem.  So they do research to clearly understand their problem.  Things like social media content, blog posts, or ebooks are perfect at this stage.
2. The Consideration stage is where they have a clear definition of their problem and are now actively looking for all solutions.  The materials you want here are to show you as an expert in your industry.  Like case studies or testimonials, FAQs, or even product and service demos.
3. The Decision stage is where they’re ready to make a decision and it’s a matter of choosing between you and someone else.  Here you want to be offering consultations, articles with details about your product or services, maybe even a free trial or sample of your product or service.

An example of how you could educate them could be “Did you know that with Microsoft 365 you can collaborate remotely”, like the one we posted here on the Technibble blog.

You’ll want to make sure you have a way for them to subscribe to your content and capture their email address.  This way you can build your list to retarget your prospects or to communicate with your customers.  One way to do this is by offering a lead magnet to offer value upfront and get them to subscribe to your mail list.

Here are some lead magnet examples you could create:

• Email Newsletters
• Blog articles
• Social Media posts
• Ebook guides

Where should you put the content?

The best place to start is on social media platforms like:

• Linkedin
• Facebook
• Twitter

You also want to post this on your website, mainly in the form of a blog article.

Another tip is to attract followers by ‘Friending’ your prospects on LinkedIn and Facebook.  This is a great way for them to regularly see your updates in social media groups.

This is why it’s so important that at whatever stage they’re at, you have information available to them.

3. Education, Education, Education

Like the ever-evolving world of technology, the job of educating your customers never stops.  Your customers need to be fed content on a regular basis to keep them up to date with the latest trends and threats.

This is a long term investment and the education journey doesn’t happen overnight.  Trust me, it takes a lot of time and hard work to produce regular meaningful content.

Many of the services MSPs offer are complex and difficult for the average business owner to understand. So with more exposure over a longer period of time, things are more likely to sink in.

Use Your Content to Free Your Customer’s Mind

Remember when Morpheus showed Neo the real world for the first time in the movie “The Matrix”?

The sky was blackened with thick clouds of smoke. The ground was scorched and all life ceased to exist. Neo quickly realized he’d been living in a false sense of security and was now aware of the true nature of reality.

Your content has the power to do this with your prospects.  The more exposure you give them to the harsh reality their business operates in, the more likely they will be to do something about it.

Having regular content on topics like Cyber Security, The Dark Web, Ransomware, or even the benefits of remote working will start to sink in.

But the reality is, we can’t force them to buy from us. It’s their business at the end of the day and they’ve got to want to take action.

Morpheus said it best:

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door.  You’re the one that has to walk through it”

There’s only so much you can do to persuade them.   Our job as Managed Service Providers is to show our customers the Matrix i.e. what their world is truly like without your services.

And here’s the thing…

Once they see the Matrix, they can never go back.

Because once they realize how much time, money, and stress your MSP can save them, they’ll wonder how they ever lived without you.

Yes, some customers will want to continue a life of ignorant bliss.  And that’s ok because these aren’t the customers you should be targeting anyway.

But most of them will take action once they understand the need.

Summary

If you want to motivate your customers to buy, here are the 3 main points you need to follow:

1. Understand what motivates them and their pain points
2. Create content that helps them understand and address their problems
3. Send regular, ongoing, timely content to update and educate your customers

This is by far the best way to build trust, credibility, and ultimately a steady pipeline of customers.   Not everyone will be ready to buy but by being top of mind, when the inevitable happens, you’ll be the first one they call.

If you need help creating content to educate your customers, or more information and training prospecting for LinkedIn or Facebook, then check out the Technibble Membership.