Okay, you just exchanged business cards with the owner of an accounting firm during a chamber event.
He said, “Sure, let’s plan on meeting some time over the next 2 weeks.”
Awesome! You left the event with a qualified lead! Plus, he agreed to meet and he already shook your hand.
The problem, because we all know it’s never that easy, is that there’s a delay. You couldn’t ask him much of anything, and nevermind describing what makes your MSP unique.
There’s no set date for the appointment, and who knows, he may bump into a competitor or research online in the next 10 days!
So, what do we do now?
EPSA is an acronym for education, professionalism, story-telling and authenticity, and together, these are the qualities you want your prospect to understand, because if they grasp what makes you and your company unique, your chances of winning will go up.
The full implementation of EPSA is what I’ll cover in the seminar, but for this blog, I’ll share just two examples of how MSPs are doing the “E for education” part of the EPSA methodology.
Let’s get back to the story above.
The CEO of that accounting firm may have asked you a question about security, or maybe they told you they were using O365 but not getting much out of it, or perhaps he didn’t say a thing aside from “we need help with IT.”
The goal with the E part, or “education,” is to teach your qualified opportunity two things. First, to teach him something he didn’t know, and second, to show him that your company is a thought-leader.
NSI is an MSP in Naugatuck, CT, that my agency helps with sales and marketing. A blog called, “In the Trenches of a Real Breach” is an audio interview we did with Tom McDonald, the CEO, about some ransomware attacks. It goes into what a SOC is and the importance of having an incident response plan. By having Tom’s voice and real story, we are showing his unique expertise.
Casserly Consulting is an MSP in Boston. A blog called, “The State of Cyber Security in the Commonwealth” we took the publicly available breach data from Mass.gov and we analyzed it. By doing a deep dive into the nature of breaches in Massachusetts, we’re making Peter’s MSP a thought-leader.