MSP Leads: Get More Managed Services Clients

MSP Leads. If you’re planning on having any kind of success as a managed services provider, then you need to learn how to acquire those important MSP leads.

So do you want to learn how to acquire quality MSP leads so you can expand your client portfolio and build that business of yours? Then carry on reading as we guide you on the best ways to approach potential MSP clients and the different ways you can gain leads.

Okay, so this one’s going to be a fun one. We have a wealth of MSP knowledge to share with you that includes a few videos and a podcast. So just sit back and enjoy the ride!

Here are the topics you can expect from today’s guide on getting MSP leads:

• MSP Prospecting
• MSP Internet Marketing
• Win More Managed Service Clients
• Lesser-Known Strategies to Get MSP Leads
• Gain Clients Using Old School Networking
• Get Local MSP Clients in 5 Minutes

Now let’s get into it!

MSP Prospecting – Three Quick Questions to Qualify Leads

Prospecting for managed service clients is the first step in the sales process. This is the stage where sales leads are generated, either by traditional means or through your MSP Internet marketing. But not every lead is a good fit for your business. You’ll waste money chasing the wrong ones.

Pacific Crest Securities, an investment banking firm with a specific focus on Software-as-a-Service businesses (SaaS), found out in a survey that SaaS businesses spend an average of $1.15 to acquire every $1 of annual recurring revenue. This isn’t necessarily a bad number as some businesses choose to lose money in the first year with the home that they stay with them for multiple years. Ideally, you would want to make money much earlier than that.

To maximize the money you spend on your Managed Services marketing, you will want to pre-qualify your leads and find out if they have the potential to become customers.

So here are three questions to quickly qualify profitable leads.

Q1. Can The Clients Afford Your MSP Services?

Money in general can be a sensitive issue, but it’s at the heart of doing business. If you’re pitching to people who truly can’t afford your services, you’d be wasting time and finances. You can minimize this problem by taking the time to qualify your leads during your MSP prospecting stage. That is, before shifting the first gear into your sales presentation.

Often it may be challenging to outright discuss the budget with your prospects. Some may not be comfortable revealing this information at the onset of your conversation. You can work around this by using a non-threatening line of questioning. For example, you can ask for a budget range while you also let them know how much similar clients tend to spend with you.

So if a lead has reached out to you but failed to give any indication about the budget, you can use these follow-up questions.

• “Other clients of your size spend about $12,000 – $18,000/year for their IT solution. Does that range align with your budget?”
• “The investment for the right solution could be in the $6,000 to $12,000 range. How does that fit within your budget?”
• “Our services for your network size typically range between $800 and $1,500/month. How does that align with your current spending?”

It’s equally important to also understand how flexible or fixed your prospect’s budget is. Outside factors can easily affect how much they could spend on your services. And this is also an opportunity to know upfront if there are a lot of financial roadblocks up ahead. At this point, you’ll have a much better idea of whether your prospect meets the budget criteria.

Q2. Are You Dealing with the Decision Maker?

A sales lead reaching out to you can bring a lot of excitement and anticipation for a sale. You waste no time and immediately run your sales pitch. Everything went well, and now it’s time to do your final presentation and close the deal. But there’s just one hitch – your “prospect” must now turn you over to the decision-maker.

It’s too little, too late, to backtrack. You’re back to the first step, where you need to do everything all over again. And you may not even seal the contract after all.

So it’s important to know early on, even in your MSP prospecting stage if possible, that you are interacting with the decision-maker. Having direct exposure with decision-makers will help you craft the right solution for their business need.

Of course, you can’t just recklessly fire the question, “Are you the decision-maker?” That would sound rude to your point of contact. Or you might not get a truthful answer. Everyone wants to feel important and valued, even if that person is just the messenger. And the point of contact may have valuable insight and influence. With that, they can help you build a strong relationship with the decision-maker.

You can use the following questions to tactfully find out who has the authority to sign your contract.

• “I’d like to make sure that everyone involved in the decision process gets their questions answered. Could you tell me who will be involved in making a decision?”
• “In the past, my clients have asked (job title) to participate in making the decision. Does that make sense for your company?”
• “I’d like to get the full picture of what your needs are so we can work out the right solution. Is there anyone else that I should be meeting with?”

Answers to these questions most likely will reveal who really has the authority to make the decision. If you cannot get direct exposure and interaction with the decision-maker, it’s better to walk away. Not doing so sets you up for investing a lot of time and energy without getting much in return.

Q3. Do The Prospective Clients Have an Actual Need for Your MSP Services?

It’s also a good practice to determine early if your prospects need your services to solve their problem or enable growth for their business. If your prospect has a pressing need for your services, then go for it. Otherwise, you may gain a client who doesn’t really need you but was just pressured to hire you anyway. This is not the kind of business relationship you’d like to keep. It will not take long before your client will try to find something wrong in all you do to cancel the contract.

Sometimes your prospects already have a working system, and having your services wouldn’t be any kind of improvement. If they already have a managed service provider helping them, you can ask your prospects if they are happy with the response time and service. If they give a hint that they’re not satisfied with their MSP, this opens an opportunity to sell your own services or possibly take over.

One smart way to determine if your prospects have an actual need for your services is by asking their timeframe for making the decision. A reasonable date may indicate their need for you to provide a solution to a pressing concern, or if they are poised to scale up their business.

You can use the following questions.

• “We’d like to address your pressing concern promptly. Could you tell me when do you anticipate making a final decision?”
• “I’d like to make sure that our schedules are aligned. Do you have a deadline for implementing this type of solution?”
• “We have several projects in the pipeline, and I want to make sure we meet your timing. When will you want to get this solution in place?”

A quick and direct answer from your prospects may indicate their serious need for your services. Otherwise, it could be that they’re just on a fishing expedition for another MSP. You don’t want to waste your time and marketing resources on these kinds of prospects.

These three questions may not give you a complete and detailed picture of your prospects. But in the end, you’ll have a sales opportunity that can afford your services. This saves you from cash flow problems later on. You’ll also deal with a prospect who can sign the contract, making it worth barking at the right tree. And third, you’ll be dealing with a prospect who genuinely needs your services, which is fundamental to building a strong business relationship.

For more info about customer profiling, the MSP pricing model, and selling your managed services, you can download our free Transition to MSP: Getting Started Guide.

MSP Internet Marketing – The Best Way to Get Leads and Win New Clients

MSP internet marketing is not just having an impressive website. A nice-looking site isn’t going to get your prospects knocking eagerly on your business doors. The challenge is for your website to look at the part and convert traffic into sales. So your site’s visitors should have reasons to keep coming back. And make that phone call or send an email message asking for your business.

Of course, there’s no magic formula to make this happen overnight. There are, however, a few things that you can do to create attraction and draw potential clients in. But first, let’s talk about how your MSP internet marketing can be done on your site.

MSP Internet Marketing and Your Website

No doubt, having a website is practical for any business. It’s your digital front desk and allows you to “talk” to potential clients. Your site is available to virtually anyone 24/7, at very reasonable costs. All you need to do is set it up and your website will do its thing.

That said, your website shouldn’t just be a website. It’s also a free marketing tool where you have the opportunity to fill your customer’s needs. Your website has the power to convince your prospects that you are trustworthy and reliable as an MSP. Likewise, a poorly designed website can sow doubts in potential clients. And make them worry about the quality of your services. But with your MSP internet marketing strategy in place, you’ll have a higher chance of turning your site’s visitors into clients.

But how do you do it? Providing great content on your website is the first step.

Start an MSP Blog or Vlog

Blogging is a potent digital marketing tool. It gives you the flexibility to talk about almost anything related to your business and more. Not surprisingly, a website’s traffic and conversion depend greatly on its content. It’s a deciding factor on whether or not people will want to subscribe to your newsletter. Or more so, to invest in your managed services. If you are unsure about how to blog, then talking about what you do and the products you carry is a good place to start.

And although not all blog entries need to focus and relate to your services, it establishes you as an authority. The go-to resource for relevant and current information. For example, recent major ransomware attacks have scared many potential customers. As part of your MSP internet marketing, you could write a blog about how to prevent and survive a ransomware attack. This establishes your credibility as a managed service provider to those who are not yet familiar with your business.

Video blogs (vlogs) are now also essential to your MSP internet marketing. If you feel that writing is not for you, then a simple script and a camera can do the job. It doesn’t need to be a lengthy video, just a couple of minutes will do. For example, it can be a short video answering the question of whether or not Windows 10 needs an antivirus. It’s basic information, but it’s useful at this time.

Using videos has a more personal touch to it, and your viewers will feel that they already know you in person. This build-up of trust can potentially convert casual visitors into new clients.

But what will make your blogs and videos interesting? By talking about something current, and providing useful information.

Make Your MSP Website Current and Relevant

If your website is still talking about Windows Vista and its features, don’t expect anyone to be excited about it. In fact, don’t expect anyone to read it at all. Yes, it was a hot topic ten years ago. But it’s no longer relevant today.

On the other hand, keeping your website fresh and relevant will make people want to keep coming back. Technology is changing and growing at a rapid rate. And business owners would want to learn about innovations that could maximize productivity and profitability. Excellent blog content talks about what people are talking about. This way, you can increase traffic to your site.

Sure, it takes time and effort to write about a current and relevant topic. But bear in mind that this helps in your MSP internet marketing. It’s equally important as your commitment to ensuring total service satisfaction from your existing clients.

But what’s the key to converting your site’s visitors into potential clients?

Move Your Website Visitors to Action

The current and relevant content of your website will generally bring in more visitors. But your MSP internet marketing does not end there. Increased traffic is great, but it won’t mean anything if your site’s visitors just have a look around and then leave. That would be a waste of possible opportunity.

But you can turn this around. When prospects find what they are looking for on your website, it’s important to tell them what to do next – your “call to action”. There are many call-to-action formats currently in use. You can position it on top of a page. It can slide in the middle of an article while the reader is attentive. Or it can be at the end of the article. The goal is to raise your chance to convert passive visitors into active inquiries. Or to get sales lead that you can follow up later.

Some use a form of sales copy to tell what readers will get when they respond and follow your call to action. Aside from this, your website visitor should see an option.

Call to Action (CTA) Examples:

SIGN UP, READ MORE, DOWNLOAD, SUBSCRIBE, LEARN MORE, START A CONVERSATION, CHAT WITH US, WATCH NOW, GET STARTED.

So if you want a business client to sign up for your free monthly newsletter, your call to action could be something like this.

Don’t get left behind in tech.

Sign up for our newsletter, cancel anytime. It’s FREE.

In conclusion, your website should not be just a stagnant collection of web pages that talk about your business. It’s a powerful MSP internet marketing tool that could draw in more visitors. And eventually, these will convert into sales. Starting a blog, talking about current and relevant information, and providing a call to action element – these all work together to increase your chance to draw in more clients from your website. This MSP internet marketing game plan may not produce results overnight, but it will be all worth it in the long run.

If you need professionally written, punchy content, then check out our Technibble Marketing Membership. Not only will you get help with email and blog content, but also a huge resource of videos and e-books to help you find clients.

Bonus Video: Convert MSP Website Visitors into Leads into Customers

Like we’ve already stressed, having just a pretty MSP website is not enough. Here’s a quick video to give you insight into how to get your MSP website converting visitors into leads and ultimately, paying customers.

Can’t focus on video content right now? Then scroll down, past the video transcription to play a podcast version.

Video Transcription:

Bryce Whitty here from Technibble.com and in this video, I am going to share with you some tips to make sure your business website actually converts visitors into clients.

The problem is many businesses throw up a WordPress website, mention their services, have a contact page, and call it a day. But a business website needs to be set up to convert and here is how to go about it.

So first of all, make sure it’s mobile optimized. Many sites these days are seeing more mobile traffic than desktop traffic.

In your sales copy, make sure you sell benefits rather than features. Most people don’t even know what “Managed Services” even is. But they will understand if you say that you monitor their computers to prevent problems before they happen for example. Something like “Offsite cloud Backup” is a feature. The benefit is that their data is still safe even if their systems get stolen or the business burns down or gets taken out by a hurricane for example.

Make sure the sales copy is about how you can help THEM, and solve THEIR problems. They don’t care that you have been working in IT since 1996 and then started your own business in 2008. They only care about how are you going to solve THEIR problems.

What do you want your visitors to do?

Make sure all of your content pages have a call-to-action on them. What do you want your visitors to do?

If you have some copy about your managed services, ask for the sale saying something like “If you finally need your IT sorted, give us a call on whatever”.

Make sure your website loads in a reasonable time. You can punch your website URL into WebPageTest.org and it will let you know how fast your website loads and what’s slowing it down. A good loading time is about 3 seconds.

Make sure you have your contact details are visible without scrolling the page. Somewhere at the top is best but don’t make them hunt for a way to contact you.

Some people say that Facebook advertising and Google advertising don’t work, but they can often get the traffic to the website, but they don’t convert the customer.

With some simple changes, you can greatly increase the conversion rate of your website. If you boost your website’s conversion rate from ONE percent to TWO percent, you essentially double the income that your website generates so it’s well worth doing.

Bonus Podcast: Convert MSP Website Visitors into Leads into Customers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57 — 4.5MB)

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Turn More Managed Services Leads into Paying Clients

Next up, we have more video goodness for you. Here we talk about a method to increase the chance of your Managed Service prospects turning into paying clients. Just about all of your marketing materials should be doing this.

Video Transcription

As technically minded people, we tend to like looking at features and specifications when being marketed to. However, people generally not rational beings and usually make decisions based on emotion.

We may think our decisions are rational when we are checking out the latest Android or iPhone. But there is definitely an emotional part. It might be how great the phone looks, so maybe you enjoy that you having a better one than your friends for a while, or the joy of having a new device to tinker with.

We often justify it for rational reasons, like saying it’s a business tool. But there is definitely an emotional pull. When marketing YOUR Managed Services, you need to be targeting your prospects’ EMOTIONS.

You might, with your Cybersecurity services, mention that you monitor and patch their computers. Most people know that there are bad guys out there and they need to protect their network. But that’s not enough to get them to buy. That’s the rational reason. You should also say what happens if a data breach actually occurs. Financial damage, damage to their business’s reputation, and possible large fines. These evoke emotions.

You don’t have to just target fear emotions, of course, you can say that knowing their systems are secure they can sleep soundly at night, or they can spend more time with their family now that you are looking after their IT. These are positive emotions that get people to buy.

So have a look at your marketing materials, look at your website and see if it’s hard, you trying to target people rationally or emotionally. You will see a higher conversion rate when targeting emotionally.

Lesser-Known Strategies to Get MSP Leads

In this next section, we have the final video of the day. I share some lesser-known strategies to get managed service clients.

Video Transcription

Bryce Whitty here from Technibble.com and in this video I’ll share with you some lesser-known strategies to get managed service clients.

First of all, It sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but start establishing relationships with other managed service providers which are either larger or smaller than you. Or target different niches.

A prospect may reach out to a large MSP, and the prospect may be too small for them to take on. So they can refer them to you.

Or if YOU are the big MSP, a smaller MSP may be approached with a prospect or project that is too big for them to handle and can refer the prospect to you.

And of course, you go and refer the opposite to them.

Another benefit of having relationships with other manage service providers is that some of the smaller ones don’t have a lot of staff and often need help when they cannot get on site because they are on holiday or working elsewhere for the day.

Building Relations with Vendors

Another strategy is to establish relationships with vendors. Businesses who make things, like telecoms, security cameras. They often need “boots-on-the-ground” installers.

Even software vendors may need someone to physically go to their client’s location. For example, their software is not working properly on their client’s systems because their IT infrastructure is not up to scratch.

Or maybe even initial setups or reinstalls.

Another strategy is looking for project work. There are a lot of companies out there who need people for specific, often one-off projects.

This helps you get a foot in the door and (assuming it’s appropriate to do so), identify where managed services can help the client and educate them.

But again, the relationship has to be appropriate to do so, like you shouldn’t take a client away if it’s another MSP who contracted you. But if it was the telecom or software vendor, then it might be appropriate.

How to Gain Managed Service Clients using Old School Networking

We’re almost nearing the end of our guide. Thanks for sticking around! Soon you should be able to comfortably go out there and pick up those valuable MSP leads that will turn into your ideal paying clients.

If you’ve never lived the old-school networking life, then this one’s for you. However, even for those of you who started out where old-school networking was the only way for you—you’ll still want to keep reading.

A while ago I interviewed Senior Engineer of Dynamic Alliance, Brian Mayo about getting started as a managed service provider. Brian talked about how he gained his MSP skills, grew his profile of clients, the types of management software he used, and how he got his clients on to fixed contracts with recurring revenue. And the highlight of it all—he did through old-school networking.

So if you want to learn how to get more leads and build your client count, then check out the interview:

How to Gain Managed Service Clients with Old-School Networking

Get Local MSP Clients in 5 Minutes

Lastly, to wrap up our guide, I want to share with you a method to quickly and easily get more local MSP clients.

One of the big benefits is you don’t even need to leave the house to acquire these clients. It can even be done right now without spending a single penny on marketing or advertising.

But first, you’ll need to watch a short video where I share step-by-step instructions based on real-life examples on how to filter using Google Maps and LinkedIn.

I will also provide the email template I use to help you initiate the conversations with your prospective clients.

This is probably the best 6 minutes you’ll spend learning today. Yes, the heading did say that you can get local MSP clients in 5 minutes. It’s actually 5:54 to be exact. Close enough, right?

Get Local MSP Clients Now!