MSP Marketing 101 | Managed Service Providers Dos and Donts

Kicking off the year 2021 in this series of MSP Marketing Pillars is a quick pitstop at the Basic Dos and Dont's for every MSP this year when it comes to marketing your business.

INTRO

Firstly - Hi my name is Pete, and I've started an MSP from scratch, grown that MSP, and gone on to exit that MSP a decade later. So if you want more content from someone who has been there and done that, recently - then consider heading over to my YouTube channel and subscribing for more.

There are a lot of great MSPs and IT Companies around doing some really great things. But there are still far more who are making so many mistakes when it comes to marketing their business.

Therefore, in this post I'm going to run through some basic do's and dont's for every MSP, to help you market your business in the very best way.

SAME TECHNOLOGY, DIFFERENT RESULTS 

Your customers don't really care about the tech that they are using, they care about the results which that solution or service as a whole will deliver.

I saw this with my own MSP, and now with my clients who I work with. Most MSPs use the same technology - but it's how you deliver that technology, what results it delivers, and ultimately how productive they as a customer will be, with you working as their IT provider.

It’s about the solutions you offer them which will help SMBs be even more efficient and secure - especially if you are looking at fresh opportunities. Before they give you all their keys to their kingdom you need to demonstrate that you can be trusted as their trusted advisor, with their best interests at heart. Ensuring that you provide them with solutions which will help SMBs keep running 24/7, no matter what.

SHOW YOUR VALUE

In a competitive market from people who are most likely selling the same underlying tech, the value is the difference. It's your job to communicate how much value you provide, because once you have educated them on your value, then that becomes the focus of the discussion and price becomes less important to them. This can be through showing them how, for example, expensive downtime can be, or show them the ROI on the monthly service vs the older break/fix model. Or legitimately just showing them how much value you will deliver with say, free monthly training workshops or other additional but zero-cost services that you can deliver.

LISTEN

Listen. The number of times where I have seen first hand where the customer is talking and the other party or parties will jump straight in with 'you need this' before actually listening to their full story and fully understanding the customers needs and wants. This is the exact same process you likely take when hiring staff and you ask them to answer a specific question when applying, and they then don't answer that question.

Chances are, they haven't read the application properly, they obviously haven't understood it - so what are you likely to do? 

TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS 

Talk to your customers. Communicate to the point where you possibly verge on over-communicating, but definitely don't spam. If you have an on-site visit booked in, how about calling them just before you leave to check they're still OK for the visit and to provide them a rough time for when you'll arrive. Or when an engineer starts working on a ticket, email them to let them know that someone is actually working on their issue right now, maybe even provide contact information for it in case they want to talk with that person. With everyone working remotely, over-communication is more critical than ever!

It doesn't have to be much, but it also doesn't take much to go that little step further that many companies just won't bother with.

IS GOOD, GOOD ENOUGH?

Lastly, Number 5 and this one is perhaps a little out there, but it's not OK anymore to just deliver basic support for say, all of the Microsoft suite. With features constantly being launched like PowerApps, PowerAutomate, PowerBI, many businesses are looking to specialists who can help use tech that they already have within their existing subscriptions. Look at developing expertise in house which can help to work closer with customers to understand their needs, and again, use the tools already available to them to help them get the information they need. If in-house isn't a possibility, then partner with a specialist development company which I see popping up all over the place now, to make sure you can at least offer and deliver this service to the customer, even if you yourselves can't.

IN SUMMARY 

#1: Same Technology - different results. Show them how your results are different to others.

#2: Show the value you provide like no other

#3: Listen to your customer, don't cut them short and deliver a solution before they've finished explaining the problem. Yes it can be frustrating when you know where they are going, but even the slighted detail can change the outcome.

#4: Talk to your customers. Communicate More.

#5: Is good ‘good enough’?! Aim for greatness!

That is all in this episode of MSP Marketing Pillars, in the next post we're going to delve into the world of MDF funding - and look at the opportunities you have to spend other peoples money. So stick around for that, and I'll see you soon.