Make Your MSP Blog a IT Sales Tool
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?
You need to activate the EPSA campaign
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.
E is for Education
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.
Example by NSI
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.
Example by Casserly Consulting
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.
4 Disciplines of MSP Service Development
One of the most under-appreciated success factors of an MSP is its capacity to develop services. We’re the purveyors of Managed Services; there are hundreds in the repertoire of any given MSP. This keeps us busy - going from concept to a product that can be sold and delivered is a long road. While product based companies have a process for product development, we service companies too often overlook the value in this powerful business practice, where all our innovation, differentiation, profitability and growth can be formulated in advance.
The trend of fragmentation in services - into verticals, delivery tools, integrations - just multiplies the need for planned process.
The usual development process for managed services providers is to do a project - develop something that solves a problem for (and with) a specific client and standardize it later. This can lead to long term future revenue, but without a clear process mixing up service development and the real revenue generating activity of the company will not only kill our internal productivity, but likely our relationship with the client, if everything they see is always in beta testing.
Let’s identify some basics to ensure our process is better than the average and pull ahead of the competition.
1. Value Proposition
The first important aspect of the service development process is the proper Value Proposition. We’re always ready to sell gadgets, tools and things we can use to solve something. Finding the problem it can solve usually comes second - “Hey, we have a Mobile Device Management feature in the RMM tool! Great, let’s sell it to clients.”
This is the approach of the average and uninspired MSP. If we instead use the Value Proposition Canvas, we start by understanding the client’s problem before designing the service itself.
We seek to discover things the client wants to get done, the obstacles in their way, and the results or gains they hope to get. This is the right hand side of the canvas. Then we can design the service value proposition on the left to solve the problems and the deliver their requested results. We build a bridge connecting their issues with the benefits of our services. Lastly we craft the service description itself.
Let’s see a Value Proposition canvas for the Slack and vCIO services to see how it works in real life. We even have a complete blog post for that one.
In that sense we know in advance precisely the mission of the service - why the client needs that - so if we develop it further all marketing, sales and delivery efforts will be aligned.
Development will also be made more agile. For example we’ll be deploying different maturity versions of the service. The first instance of Mobile Device Management may only cover basic functions like wipe and remote deployment, but later will be covered with BYOD policies and internal compliance.
We may even find we cannot solve the problem, or the problem isn’t actually worth the effort and expense, and we can drop the service development fairly early, so we and the client can both invest our time in better pursuits.
2. Demand Generation
The second step is to create some Demand Generation materials. I know...how can anyone not want to pay for our obvious expertise? We have the skills, but the customer inevitably makes the buying decision. If we can’t explain the service and its benefits clearly, we can’t drive demand and there’s no reason to proceed or invest further.
We have to learn fast, and active materials are best at getting quick feedback on our thoughts. Sending a one pager is not interactive - it won’t have the specifics - which feature is the most important, for example. Graders are great tools for asking questions about the problems clients have with a particular issue and actually measuring our marketing effort, the copy, the delivered benefits and interest.
Demand Generation is part of the Service Development process, not something marketing folks do after we finish. It gives us real-time feedback and clear understanding of what really needs to be solved, a crucial objectivity to the process to make sure we develop the service for the client and not for the engineer.
3. Sales
Pricing and packaging is a big deal for services too.
- Is the service included in an MSP package or stand alone?
- Does the service have tiers, or should we scale it with GB, user, device?
- Does the service has a definitive process such that we can price based on the resources we put into it?
- Is it an open, listed price or customized per proposal?
- Do we sell it directly or through the account manager?
Again this is can’t wait until after the development process; it is part of it. We have to go out and test our assumptions. We can take a little advantage of our “early adopter” companies to go through experiments. We need the clearest understanding possible of all aspects before we scale.
Sell the service to the early adopters without a price tag. The goal is to find out whether they see the value without any price attached. Once we confirm the need we can find the price they will pay for the solution. In this case we can measure the value and the price independently. If the value isn’t compelling it won’t need to proceed to a price conversation. If it is a value, then we specify everything, and then create the perfect solution that both works and fits their actual budget.
To early adopters we can always offer a discount in exchange for their participation. We can get marketing contributions like testimonials, interviews etc. We can ask for contribution - content samples, real life data for presentations, and we for a flexible delivery schedule. We’ll only help ourselves if we state the discount clearly up front.
4. Delivery Processes
The last piece of the service development process is the Delivery Process definition. Usually we don’t consider this part from the beginning, but rather on an ad-hoc basis.
We start services sometimes as one time projects. A client needs something and we bring it to them as a project - making the common mistake of failing to look forward. We do so much to make one individual project come true, when we should treat every project as though it will become a repetitive service, so we generate service delivery process prototypes during our project work.
Therefore we’re going to need a quick service delivery prototyping tool. We’re going to use it to create service processes in real life and be able to reuse the materials later. Many people use Project Management or Process Management planning tools to create a project plan, or a process description. These are good for when we create documentation, but aren’t flexible enough and lack the feedback from real life as discussed above.
The best way is to fire up lightweight project management tools like Basecamp, Asana, Teamwork, etc. These have the flexibility for a prototyping situation (for instance your PSA’s project management is too robust, not flexible, lacks collaboration), and allow testing in the real world. You can open a workspace and quickly input the process deliverable items. Templates, Excels, Word docs, notes, todo lists, and everything else you think you need. As you start working on the project you’ll see a refinement of your efforts. Later of course, as we finish the project we can reverse the process, moving those todos and templates and deploying to a robust professional services automation when our goal is no longer flexibility but performance and efficiency.
Let’s put it together
To recap, create the Value Proposition, and test it internally first with broad (vague) definitions, then move forward with interactive Demand Generation materials to define the ideas more clearly, create Sales materials and scenarios of the Pricing and Packaging, then create agile Service Delivery processes.
We’re going to separate Production from Development. The development folks are going to hand hand off their work to the production team to deliver it. In the case of a small MSP we can at least separate the process virtually, if not physically.
As we need to be developing more and more services it will become harder to keep ahead of the curve without a solid Service Development process. Consider the services you’ve put together already, and how they’ve developed in terms of these four stages. It’s never too late to implement proven techniques.
12 mistakes most MSPs make with their Virtual CIO services
The Virtual CIO phenomenon is not new, yet the promises of the role have not been realized across the industry. Some mature MSPs who believe they have a functioning Virtual CIO practice, on closer inspection, still show challenges with delivery, scalability and profitability.
While we could go in depth to identify the root of these problems, instead here we'll highlight the twelve most common mistakes MSPs make with their vCIO. At the end of this article there is a questionnaire where you can measure yourself against other MSPs.
#update - We released this blog a year ago. This is an updated version covering the latest developments. It seems that the MSP 2.0 community was able to solve most of the issues during the last year. These mistakes now can be prevented. It has been a long year, for sure... :-)
Virtual CIO Strategy, Transformation Planning:
Mistake #1. Packaing the MSP and vCIO contracts together
Selling the vCIO built into the MSP contract makes you Virtual CIO of the IT Infrastructure. In this there are two pitfalls.
First, the vCIO capacity of the contract does not scale with the size of the organization like the other IT company related services do. It scales up with the complexity, changes and developments of the clients. That means ball-parking a user based price for a Virtual CIO is unlikely to be appropriate. This results in either the price being too much for the market (they don’t want to buy it), or the contract being more work than revenue supports (you don’t want to sell it).
Second, creating a solid offer on virtual CIO involves capacity time with a very expensive resource. That makes the MSP offering more expensive compared to the competition. For the client, the results and benefits of the "vCIO of the infrastructure" do not make much sense. Customers are apt to compare prices ‘apples-to-apples’ between competing IT managed services providers but rarely are the service offerings that comparable.
Virtual CIO can deliver a major competitive advantage. It needs a separate service offering with a distinct pricing strategy.
#update - Working with clients around the world, we have designed a smooth transition from vCIO Light to a real vCIO services. That means even if you packaged together, there is a way out.
Mistake #2. Not creating the necessary budget to get results
Let's say we have a 50 seat "sweet spot" client set up with the needed virtual CIO core services like: yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly cycles. This could eat up 70 - 170 hours easily with automation. (We refer to the virtual CIO here as a general one taking care of every IT-related business aspect: reporting, management systems, applications, budget, vendor management and so on.)
If you use a base $150 hourly rate it could reach $2.000 service price per month or $40/user. Your MSP contract simply does not have the space for that.
Further you do not have the necessary processes or approach for that, and you can’t afford that much time, so you under-deliver on your promise of virtual CIO. This damages the concept and the possible future of the service.
Again, if you are not able to create the viable budget for the monthly recurring service fee and communicate the value, either you do not profit or don’t sell the service.
#update - there is a formula now for calculating profitability regarding virtual CIO services, the services and service delivery processes, as well.
Mistake #3. Not using a framework to develop the system
The vast majority of the Managed Service Providers we’ve been able to talk to do not use any framework for their virtual-CIO-related activities, so they don't have a system in place to successfully deliver them. Instead they operate as "consultants" or arm’s length managerial resources for infrastructure-like projects.
This means they are not able to implement a standardized IT management structure with proper plans, documents or databases that align services across the IT ecosystem. Nor are they able to streamline communication of the duties, tasks, deliverables and responsibilities of the virtual CIO correctly. This makes it hard to achieve the expectations of the client for the role.
#update - a complete structure is ready for the various vCIO activities like Planning, Project Management, Education or Execution. The closed loop vCIO cycles have been completed with Annual, Quarterly, Monthly and Weekly cycles.
Demand Generation
Mistake #4. Not attracting the right audience
Demand generation needs to target the right audience. The virtual CIO job is best suited for companies with 50-150 office workers. If the MSP wants to target a 20-30 or even a ten-seat client, there will likely come a painful realization of the lack of interest and of financial background. Those in higher tiers are left to figure out some system for managing IT. We can go there, but with coaching and support, as a complement the CIO or the IT manager.
#update - content and tools to qualify visitors are now available, like graders, ebooks
Mistake #5. The wrong content
The partner of the virtual CIO is not an office manager, not the CFO or COO. The partner of the virtual CIO is the president/director/CEO - the top-level manager of the company. We know that placing this role that high is a challenge for the average technology-oriented service provider, like most Managed Service Providerss, but it needs to be there.
Most CEOs are not interested in backups, new MS Office versions or the cloud in general. They spend their time on increasing cash flow, boosting sales, organizing their companies, servicing their clients, and developing their management team. The MSP’s marketing content has to reflect those perspectives and turn those opportunities into solutions supported by IT.
This content has to be consistent across the website, emails, blogs, calls-to-action, in lead-nurturing drip email campaigns, in LinkedIn and other social media communications and in marketing collaterals: ebooks, guides and whitepapers.
#update - business related content is available in different formats like graders, ebooks, emails to quickly put business content to the MSP website. (even a complete Weebly based canned MSP 2.0 website is available now for early adopters)
Mistake #6. No clearly defined buyer’s journey
The buyer's journey covers the process that a prospect follows, from the first access of content to becoming and remaining a client. While a lot of MSPs have a decent website with a blog most of these blogs lack a call to action - no next-steps for the prospective customer, such as a downloadable e-book on the relevant topic.
These websites talk about available services instead of highlighting vision, possibilities and opportunities. The sales meetings are wired not to serve the clients and create instant value, but to "qualify" the techs - a focus on our opportunities instead of theirs.
The lack of a well designed buyer's journey will fail to attract the right prospect (the CEOs) to the website and assure them they will find the kind of service that will focus on their opportunities. The content needs to attract, engage and interest the right prospect with the wide scope on the business - make them eager to initiate contact and get a demo or have a meeting with the MSP.
#update - various lead magnets have been developed to convert visitors to leads
Sales
Mistake #7. Not using consultative sales
Consultative sales is all about selling solutions. In solution selling our approach is not geared toward what to sell to the client. Instead we have a process to ask the thought-provoking questions that reveal overlooked opportunities and potential benefits. It is a process of discovery, of business opportunities where the MSP's solutions can help achieve their vision.
Virtual CIO is not a boxed product so it doesn’t have a standard price. Deep understanding of a customer's business is required before the solutions can be presented. Selling without context and understanding will put the virtual CIO in a very ineffective position, making it difficult to manage expectations.
This method is slower and takes more time, but necessary for engaging the client and crafting the offering within their business context. However exploiting business opportunities, and supporting them with technology solutions will mean more and higher value sales.
#update - consultative sales questionnaires, scoring, reports, targets, benchmarks and help are available for making the consultative sales easier
Mistake #8. Not selling the vision with stories
The virtual CIO's purpose is to make the client’s business more competitive in its marketplace, with the use of technology, to drive more revenue, cut costs and maximize the business continuity.
These general terms have to be in the context of the client and industry; we cannot really engage the client without selling the vision of competitiveness: being a better company, producing more revenue, and surpassing their competitors.
To sell the vision we have to craft compelling stories that grab the imagination of the CEOs.
#update - storytelling process for the first meeting with presentation slides have been created to help telling stories
Mistake #9. Not confronting reality with numbers
The reality of the situation - the hard data on the current state of business maturity, people, systems and numbers - sets the tension of the proposition. This tension helps make the buying decision.
The “score” needs to be readily attained and easy to understand in order to be compelling. That is why a business IT questionnaire that measures a company’s competitiveness with IT is a must. Without this, even if the vision is clearly defined, there are no quantifiable parameters to achieving it.
Imagine having a vision to run a marathon: a good start would be a full physical assessment. Make clear how hard you have to train, the time frame and the resources you’ll need to accomplish your goal.
#update - graders & new questionnaires are ready to get real with prospects and clients
Delivery
Mistake #10. Not using vCIO tools like automation or collaboration
Most IT companies are trying to use their existing PSA solutions like Connectwise or Autotask to manage their virtual CIO activities. It just doesn’t work, period. Again, the MSP 2.0 virtual CIO does not just focus on infrastructure. The virtual CIO has to manage people, processes and systems while communicating with the team, vendors and customers.
Most virtual CIOs do not have an integrated approach to managing all their activities in one place, or a system in which they can store all the IT management-related documents, memos, projects, databases, plans, budgets, and so on. Missing an integrated platform wastes a lot of valuable time for the virtual CIO.
#update - Basecamp integration is ready to collaborate with clients & vendors
Mistake #11. No clear differentiation between onging and project activities
Just as maintenance teams are separate from project teams because of different utilizations, focus, experience, etc., so should be the virtual CIO team.
One virtual CIO needs to manage the core virtual CIO cycles, like yearly planning, quarterly activities, monthly follow-ups, reports, weekly meetings, and so on.
An average virtual CIO could manage 10-18 clients, depending on the complexity of that focus. Another virtual CIO has to manage the individual projects separately. It needs a different personality, different skills, tools and different daily and weekly routines.
#update - separated process for ongoing vCIO s ervices and Project based vCIO services are available with templates and Basecamp workspaces
Mistake #12. IT-related service instead of business-related service
In a quarterly session, discussion should include questions about the client's cash flow, marketing initiatives, sales performance, internal projects, and competitor's moves first.
Then it can become a session with reports on the execution of the IT strategy, the quarterly plan, and the plans for the next quarter. It should not be focused on the technology roadmap or IT-related issues, problems, and challenges. It has to be focused on the business, processes, numbers, and business terms.
This can be difficult - there are so many cool IT projects an MSP can propose to a customer - however the conversation needs to remain about the business benefits and business accomplishments.
A successful CRM project is a great example. It highlights the improvements on sales collaboration, alignment, processes and results, instead of talking about the features of the technology solution.
#update - application related services (like Implmenting Slack) are available and also Business Modeling and other cool business focused workshops
Summary
Please check for these possible flaws in your practices. To improve on those, we strongly suggest signing up for the MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Tools. It has the tools to market and deliver the virtual CIO role right. If you would like to know more about the modern vCIO approach, let’s check this page.
#update - thanks for the contributors, our team and all clients to put this all together. A year ago it was just the mistakes, now the MSP 2.0 community can prevent those mistakes! Thanks guys!
STRUCTURE, MANAGE AND AUTOMATE YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND VCIO PROCESESS
How to turn an unknown visitor into a lead easier than you thought
We’ve been talking about the 4+1 Website Sins Preventing MSPs from getting more MSP leads. Many of you are asking, "Okay. I know our MSP website doesn’t generate leads like we wish it did, but we don’t have the money and time to re-work it, so what do you suggest?"
Here we describe a process to add elements to your current MSP website in under 60 minutes and generate leads.
Before we start let's get perspective on the situation. If your current website does not have enough visitors, it’s hard to make any magic happen. If your current website attracts visitors, but they’re not qualified, then you’re still not generating the leads you need.
If you aren’t sure send me an email with your website URL. We’ll run an analysis on your website, and report how many leads you can expect by implementing this process.
The idea here is to create a lead-generation process that attracts the right visitors through social media, organic searches, and so on.
We are going to use our platform to demonstrate this method in practice. The process is general - you can use any marketing software to implement it. The difference among them will be the time, difficulty of implementation and the creation of the content.
Win new clients with it sales software
Step 1: Pick two Graders from the MSP marketing library
First, we need something interesting and relevant to the visitor so they can get engaged. We should use something on the main page or a landing page where they can do something interactively.
Graders are mini-surveys which can be implemented on any website. The visitor clicks on the Call to Action button and a javascript pop-up window appears. Here the visitor gets yes-or-no type questions on a particular topic. Based on their answers, it sends back a Grade - a score for the visitor (whoops...it's now a lead.) in a nicely packaged ebook format. It comprises their score, some suggestions, advice, next steps, and more information.
Although Graders can be modified and created from scratch, we have a bunch of them that can be implemented quickly. A Productivity Grader for example asks 7-8 questions about how a visitor leverages technology to become more productive - about emailing habits, meeting organization, personal task management, team project management and so on. At the end they get back a Productivity score. You as an IT managed services provider can influence their productivity, so you need to engage them in conversation about the value and benefit of your services. That's what we call "business communication."
These little Graders are great in social media as they spread quickly and also help us to qualify our leads. There are popular Graders such as measuring your current service provider. Whoever is evaluating the current or future provider will be highly likely to fill out our Grader, because they are already looking for the answers in the results.
The MSP 2.0 Marketing platform gives you quite a bit of flexibility on the content and function of Graders. It sends a white label pdf with your logo from your email, and also an email sequence to follow the lead after sign up.
We have not seen any other complete software for these things. Surely Wufoo, Surveymonkey or Google forms can get the answers, but would require a lot of manual processing to create the report, and won’t have the content and design.
Step 2. Pick Two MSP eBooks from the library
There are of course people who do not want to play with the tools, but do like to download valuable content. Based on our research, if content is business rather than IT oriented, the conversion rate from visitor to lead is higher. For example, if we write an MSP eBook entitled: "How smart executives boost their top line with sales intelligence," rather than: "Should you Implement Windows 10?", we get much better lead generation.
The eBook will highlight the benefits of applications and technology solutions that smart executives use and the visitor doesn’t yet. Since the eBook is written for executives, executives will and office managers will not download them. That helps you qualify the leads.
Our MSP marketing library has plenty of different eBooks you can implement quickly. The docx format is easily customizable with your logo and your name, and then ready to go.
A good eBook increases the conversion, but a great eBook increases visitors as well. Social media is ideal to promote such content.
Then again you may want to create your own content, which is great. As we see it, to create an eBook or Grader takes at least 1-2 months for a busy managed services provider. We usually suggest choosing generic eBooks and Graders first from the library. After swapping out the titles every one or two weeks and checking the statistics to see which works better, then you can add your content, but without losing the 1-2 months of lead generation opportunity.
Step 3. Implement Calls to Action
Now that we have some content to offer we should help the visitors to take action.
We use four types of call to actions (we call them Lead Magnets).
- Button - to place inside our current text with a javascript code
- Pop Over - to create more attention
- Scroll Box - to offer our material when they scroll down our page
- Smart Bar - to make a short offering on the top of the page
We then need to configure these Lead Magnets accordingly. We can modify the page they appear on, the type, whether it shows every visit or day or week, etc. Nobody can accurately predict what works best for everybody, so just set it up and tweak it based on the feedback reports.
These reports show you how many times the Lead Magnet appeared, on which pages, what the visitor did, etc. so you can best tweak the size, color and message on the magnets.
Most marketing software has some solution for the Calls to Action, but not the reports, statistics and easy implementation and adjustment.
Conclusion:
We do not need a IT marketing assistant, marketing team, or an outsourced marketing provider to get results. This is not a comprehensive marketing system, just a reliable system to turn people into leads likely interested in our products and services, and a real chance for them to engage comfortably. Let's get busy and make business happen.
What the heck is the MSP marketing funnel?
Denes and Myles discuss the top, middle and bottom of the MSP marketing funnel and how it relates to the buyer's journey through your marketing process. Understand what type of marketing works at the different levels. Follow these steps to learn how to define your buyer-personas so your marketing efforts directly target your ideal customers.
START GROWING WITH MSP MARKETING RELATED RESOURCES FOR FREE
Demand generation with funnel websites
BY DEREK MARIN AT SIMPLE SELLING
Watch this interview with our MSP inbound marketing guide, Derek Marin, to win over new prospective clients by finding best practices that will transform your website into a tool that shortens sales cycles and increases close rates.
4+1 Website Sins Preventing MSPs from getting more leads
After talking with dozens of IT managed services providers and analyzing more than 500 MSP websites, we have a pretty clear understanding why the online marketing of MSPs has been broken. If you are reliably and predictably generating the right leads then you can skip this - just check the short MSP website grader at the bottom. Otherwise stay tuned and read this short article.
Before we start, we need to establish one thing: "Clients we desire do not have IT problems anymore."
If they have visible IT problems, they are not good for us. Why? Well, if in 2015 a potential client has not been able to find someone who can take care of their basic IT needs we have to watch out. They either have not been able to or have not wanted to spend on IT.
Our best customers are the ones who understand IT and want more services because they think technology can deliver value to them.
The only way we’ll see qualifying prospects with visible IT problems in a given department is when the IT provider has been dropping the ball continually, and we all know this is happening less and less frequently.
Most potential clients have solved the MSP 1.0 problems: infrastructure, networks, devices, virtualization, and some cloud. We need those people because they want to move forward. These are our "best potential clients." Unfortunately, they have solved the traditional problems with someone else, but that does not dictate that they have to continue to solve their next challenges without us.
If we agree on this, we can now start analyzing why our current websites are not working.
First Sin: Tech content instead of business content
Tech content makes us service techs . It was great when people needed those tech people, but now they need more intelligent, trusted advisors, and IT consultants (even if they don’t know it). Now the client's problem is not that the server is slow, but how to integrate the whole ecosystem, how to get out better information out, and other non-technical issues.
Your current website is talking about technology if there is a visible support number, a dazzling picture of fancy servers, or your Microsoft Golden partnership.
It demonstrates the wrong value proposition. It shows that if they have an IT technical problem, you are the best candidate. Of course you are, but you should not limit the value proposition.
Your potential value proposition should be: my company will make you more competitive. Your clients hardly think a better server will help them beat their competition, so the content should focus on business, talking business lingo like cash flow, finance, sales enablement, collaboration, etc; If you think this way you may be surprised how much more effective your website and social media campaigns can be.
Remember, your prospect is not the office manager, but the CEO of a potential company. A CEO who has successfully solved the MSP 1.0 problem, and yet does not know anything about the new wave of services about IT management.
TODO: Change your value proposition to something more modern, better reflecting needs now and in the future.
REFERENCE: Check out the MSP 2.0 value proposition blogpost about ways of communication.
Second Sin: Talking about me instead of them
Most IT managed services providers are talking about themselves. Just look around, check your site. My services, me, our team, our skills, partnerships, certifications, our support hours, our 24/7...
Nobody understands MSP services better than the CEO of the MSP, whereas most of the support people do not understand the concepts, whys, and the service offering. Further most clients have only glanced through the services and signed the contract without understanding the details.
Our MSP website is not there to educate them; it is there first to create desire and engender action, and secondly to give them the necessary information to support the decision.
Problems and opportunities drive curiosity and desire.
Problems include the changing workforce, control of the workflow among people and in collaboration, communication breakdowns, too many emails in the inbox, broken processes, and lack of automation.
Opportunities include increasing better customer satisfaction with customer loyalty application, faster sales cycles with well implemented CRM, and better information distribution with online dashboards to name a few.
These topics can help you develop the stories about your clients you discuss, assuring them that they’re being understood. Through social media, you can get much better traction with that style of communication.
TODO: Change the conversation from us and our services to them and their goals, opportunities, and problems.
REFERENCE: Check the marketing library for infographics and ebooks you can use for engaging conversation.
Third Sin: There is no Call To Action
Most of those 500+ MSP websites we analyzed do not let the prospect go through a natural process. The site does not help them get to the right content, show them value, get some interest and then let them make the next step. 95% of the blog posts made by MSPs have no clear Call To Action.
The blog is an investment of time, skills, and commitment. It is created for a reason. Managed services providers run business blogs with business goals and, like the blog you are reading now, they serve a purpose. You read it to get the concepts that hopefully prepare you to move to the next step. The next step is to move forward by clicking one of the Calls to Action and to discover more about the topic. My duty is to create a text that you like, and give you that next step. Of course, that next step has to be followed by another next step.
Another issue is that IT companies are often driven to seal the deal as quickly as possible. They give the prospect 3 to 4 hours to evaluate a strategic relationship. They send a 2 to 20 page offering contract, assume the client understands everything and is immediately qualified to move forward. This process is not suitable for a trusted advisory relationship; only to evaluate a simple process.
Putting together the issues of the lacking next step and the rush to close we see are missing a natural process in a short sales cycle - it gives us the chance to change this practice at once.
The Calls to Action have to be relevant to where you are, what you see and to your prospect's persona. Most managed services providers have a Call to Action which is general to all. Free consultation or free network assessment is not compelling enough to somebody who is not ready to buy. We all know these are sales calls. We need some softer approach to nurture the prospects. From the prospect’s point of view there is no visible IT urgent pain right now. Our thoughtful leadership and our business content is the key to moving forward.
The process has to ensure we get to know each other and that they feel they want to try before they buy, but we do not need to give anything away for free. We have to give them a chance to slow down and work together before they commit themselves..
TODO: Plan a natural buying process as a prospect and implement the proper Call to Action to support it.
REFERENCE: Check lead magnets that are little tools you can implement onto your site for this reason.
Fourth Sin: Assuming they get the idea
No. They do not. They do not understand how unproductive they are, how much time they are spending in meetings without follow-ups, or proper documentation of the tasks. They do not know how much information there is in the system that could help them make better decisions or enable their people with the right collaboration tools to kickstart productivity. They do not understand how technology can make them a better, more profitable, cooler, more agile, valuable organization.
They think IT is infrastructure elements: their desktops, plug-ins, network devices and servers. Of course, these have nothing to do with the topics we’ve mentioned.
Your role is to enlighten them about the huge potential competitive advantage IT can be.
One way is to educate. It is good for the people who are interested and thoughtful to understand how IT can be more than just devices. They can access information like ebooks, blogs, articles, etc;
The other way is to challenge and involve them in a conversation. Make it interactive and present a current problem and let them measure how they are performing and how much they know about the topic. This is a more involving element needed to break away for the status-quo indoctrination of IT. We have to inspire them, but not necessarily convince them right off; just make them curious to learn more.
To learn more from us personally, join a webinar, workshop, or 1-1 session to meet with a thoughtful leader - the guru who knows what is next.
TODO: Create interactive discovery tools for the prospects to dig into the topics on their own and at their own pace.
REFERENCE: The little surveys called 'Graders' are designed to ask questions and let them "grade" themselves and get scores about different areas of their business.
Bonus Sin: No automation, no systems
Very few managed services providers are using marketing automation. One reason is that these are expensive tools, and it’s a fair amount of work to put together the necessary automation. However, these tools are necessary to engage the clients in the long run.
The prospect may come to our website for the first time because of a Pay Per Click ad, a reference, or more likely following some interesting content. They come and check things out, and sign up for something easy to get like an ebook, or to solve one specific problem, subscribe to our blog or just complete a little Grader, calculator, or download an infographic. Then they leave. Of each hundred visits only a small percentage will follow through to any higher engagement. Without automation none of the rest will ever come back.
If we want to have a more predictable sales funnel, we have to nurture leads. If we send back regular emails regarding where they;ve shown interest - not sales filled emails, but email courses, more ebook offerings, invites to webinars, lunch and learns, your LinkedIn group, and your community, they will respond more favourably.
The nurturing approach is a great tool once they are in our MSP sales process. Our MSP marketing communication can help our sales resources. They can send more relevant content to the prospects during the process, helping them solve some problems in a general way, showing the talent of the company and earning trust sooner.
TODO: Set up workflows and marketing automation that compellingly nurture the client.
REFERENCE: A couple of ideas about why marketing automation works for MSPs.
Conclusion:
These five sins stem from one root: how MSPs have traditionally sold services when flawless IT infrastructure was scarce. If IT infrastructure is the only commodity this model doesn’t work. Addressing this problem is not a daunting task or a large investment though: MSPs just need to reframe themselves first and then start reframing their clients so IT is not seen as a commodity but a great potential competitive advantage.
You can participate in the MSP website benchmark to see how your site is performing regarding traffic, social media, and rankings. Also, you can get insights into how your website compares to your competition locally. We need you and your competitors URL and we do the analysis for you. Sign up for the Private Workshop now!
12 mistakes most MSPs make with their vCIO services
The virtual CIO phenomenon is not new, yet the promises of the role have not been realized across the industry. Some mature IT managed services providers who believe they have a functioning vCIO practice, on closer inspection, still show challenges with delivery, scalability and profitability.
While we could go in depth to identify the root of these problems, instead here we'll highlight the twelve most common mistakes MSPs make with their vCIO. At the end of this article there is a questionnaire where you can measure yourself against other IT companies.
vCIO Strategy, Transformation Planning:
Mistake #1. Packaing the MSP and vCIO contracts together
Selling the vCIO built into the MSP contract makes you Virtual CIO of the IT Infrastructure. In this there are two pitfalls.
First, the vCIO capacity of the contract does not scale with the size of the organization like the other MSP related services do. It scales up with the complexity, changes and developments of the clients. That means ball-parking a user based price for a virtual CIO is unlikely to be appropriate. This results in either the price being too much for the market (they don’t want to buy it), or the contract being more work than revenue supports (you don’t want to sell it).
Second, creating a solid offer on virtual CIO involves capacity time with a very expensive resource. That makes the MSP offering more expensive compared to the competition. For the client, the results and benefits of the "vCIO of the infrastructure" do not make much sense. Customers are apt to compare prices ‘apples-to-apples’ between competing managed services providers but rarely are the service offerings that comparable.
Virtual CIO can deliver a major competitive advantage. It needs a separate service offering with a distinct pricing strategy.
Mistake #2. Not creating the necessary budget to get results
Let's say we have a 50 seat "sweet spot" client set up with the needed virtual CIO core services like: yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly cycles. This could eat up 70 - 170 hours easily with automation. (We refer to the virtual CIO here as a general one taking care of every IT-related business aspect: reporting, management systems, applications, budget, vendor management and so on.) If you use a base $150 hourly rate it could reach $2.000 service price per month or $40/user. Your MSP contract simply does not have the space for that.
Further you do not have the necessary processes or approach for that, and you can’t afford that much time, so you under-deliver on your promise of virtual CIO. This damages the concept and the possible future of the service.
Again, if you are not able to create the viable budget for the monthly recurring service fee and communicate the value, either you do not profit or don’t sell the service.
Mistake #3. Not using a framework to develop the system
The vast majority of the managed services providers we’ve been able to talk to do not use any framework for their virtual-CIO-related activities, so they don't have a system in place to successfully deliver them. Instead they operate as "consultants" or arm’s length managerial resources for infrastructure-like projects.
This means they are not able to implement a standardized IT management structure with proper plans, documents or databases that align services across the IT ecosystem. Nor are they able to streamline communication of the duties, tasks, deliverables and responsibilities of the virtual CIO correctly. This makes it hard to achieve the expectations of the client for the role.
Demand Generation
Mistake #4. Not attracting the right audience
Demand generation needs to target the right audience. The virtual CIO job is best suited for companies with 50-150 office workers. If the MSP wants to target a 20-30 or even a ten-seat client, there will likely come a painful realization of the lack of interest and of financial background. Those in higher tiers are left to figure out some system for managing IT. We can go there, but with coaching and support, as a complement the CIO or the IT manager.
Mistake #5. The wrong content
The partner of the virtual CIO is not an office manager, not the CFO or COO. The partner of the virtual CIO is the president/director/CEO - the top-level manager of the company. We know that placing this role that high is a challenge for the average technology-oriented service provider, like most MSPs, but it needs to be there.
Most CEOs are not interested in backups, new MS Office versions or the cloud in general. They spend their time on increasing cash flow, boosting sales, organizing their companies, servicing their clients, and developing their management team. The MSP’s marketing content has to reflect those perspectives and turn those opportunities into solutions supported by IT.
This content has to be consistent across the website, emails, blogs, calls-to-action, in lead-nurturing drip email campaigns, in LinkedIn and other social media communications and in marketing collaterals: ebooks, guides and whitepapers.
Mistake #6. No clearly defined buyer’s journey
The buyer's journey covers the process that a prospect follows, from the first access of content to becoming and remaining a client. While a lot of MSPs have a decent website with a blog most of these blogs lack a call to action - no next-steps for the prospective customer, such as a downloadable e-book on the relevant topic.
These websites talk about available services instead of highlighting vision, possibilities and opportunities. The sales meetings are wired not to serve the clients and create instant value, but to "qualify" the techs - a focus on our opportunities instead of theirs.
The lack of a well designed buyer's journey will fail to attract the right prospect (the CEOs) to the website and assure them they will find the kind of service that will focus on their opportunities. The content needs to attract, engage and interest the right prospect with the wide scope on the business - make them eager to initiate contact and get a demo or have a meeting with the MSP.
Sales
Mistake #7. Not using consultative sales
Consultative sales is all about selling solutions. In solution selling our approach is not geared toward what to sell to the client. Instead we have a process to ask the thought-provoking questions that reveal overlooked opportunities and potential benefits. It is a process of discovery, of business opportunities where the MSP's solutions can help achieve their vision.
Virtual CIO is not a boxed product so it doesn’t have a standard price. Deep understanding of a customer's business is required before the solutions can be presented. Selling without context and understanding will put the virtual CIO in a very ineffective position, making it difficult to manage expectations.
This method is slower and takes more time, but necessary for engaging the client and crafting the offering within their business context. However exploiting business opportunities, and supporting them with technology solutions will mean more and higher value sales.
Mistake #8. Not selling the vision with stories
The virtual CIO's purpose is to make the client’s business more competitive in its marketplace, with the use of technology, to drive more revenue, cut costs and maximize the business continuity.
These general terms have to be in the context of the client and industry; we cannot really engage the client without selling the vision of competitiveness: being a better company, producing more revenue, and surpassing their competitors.
To sell the vision we have to craft compelling stories that grab the imagination of the CEOs.
Mistake #9. Not confronting reality with numbers
The reality of the situation - the hard data on the current state of business maturity, people, systems and numbers - sets the tension of the proposition. This tension helps make the buying decision.
The “score” needs to be readily attained and easy to understand in order to be compelling. That is why a business IT questionnaire that measures a company’s competitiveness with IT is a must. Without this, even if the vision is clearly defined, there are no quantifiable parameters to achieving it.
Imagine having a vision to run a marathon: a good start would be a full physical assessment. Make clear how hard you have to train, the time frame and the resources you’ll need to accomplish your goal.
Delivery
Mistake #10. Not using vCIO tools like automation or collaboration
Most MSPs are trying to use their existing PSA solutions like Connectwise or Autotask to manage their virtual CIO activities. It just doesn’t work, period. Again, the MSP 2.0 virtual CIO does not just focus on infrastructure. The virtual CIO has to manage people, processes and systems while communicating with the team, vendors and customers.
Most virtual CIOs do not have an integrated approach to managing all their activities in one place, or a system in which they can store all the IT management-related documents, memos, projects, databases, plans, budgets, and so on. Missing an integrated platform wastes a lot of valuable time for the virtual CIO.
Mistake #11. No clear differentiation between onging and project activities
Just as maintenance teams are separate from project teams because of different utilizations, focus, experience, etc., so should be the virtual CIO team.
One virtual CIO needs to manage the core virtual CIO cycles, like yearly planning, quarterly activities, monthly follow-ups, reports, weekly meetings, and so on. An average virtual CIO could manage 10-18 clients, depending on the complexity of that focus.
Another virtual CIO has to manage the individual projects separately. It needs a different personality, different skills, tools and different daily and weekly routines.
Mistake #12. IT-related service instead of business-related service
In a quarterly session, discussion should include questions about the client's cash flow, marketing initiatives, sales performance, internal projects, and competitor's moves first.
Then it can become a session with reports on the execution of the IT strategy, the quarterly plan, and the plans for the next quarter. It should not be focused on the technology roadmap or IT-related issues, problems, and challenges. It has to be focused on the business, processes, numbers, and business terms.
This can be difficult - there are so many cool IT projects an MSP can propose to a customer - however the conversation needs to remain about the business benefits and business accomplishments.
A successful CRM project is a great example. It highlights the improvements on sales collaboration, alignment, processes and results, instead of talking about the features of the technology solution.
Summary
Please check for these possible flaws in your practices. To improve on those, we strongly suggest signing up for the MSP 2.0 Quickstarter Tool. It has the tools to market and deliver the virtual CIO role right. If you would like to know more about the modern vCIO approach, let’s check this page.
Why inbound marketing works for MSPs
Let’s begin with what makes inbound marketing great in general. It draws your target audience to you, so you don’t have to go to them. You become a trusted authority on your subject matter in your market. The concept is simple but there are some key points I see people often overlook.
First and most important to remember when you’re building your inbound marketing campaign is that you need to be continually adding to the content your audience is looking for. Your MSP’s clients are out there right now trying to find ways to make their businesses more efficient for less money.
If you’re not providing them the information they’re looking for, your competition will. Even if they aren’t actively shopping around for your services they are seeing articles, blog posting, and comments on their social media feeds. There’s a good chance you’re reading this right now because you saw it in your LinkedIn news feed. This is how inbound works..
We at Managed Services Platform feel that you should be speaking to the C-level executives who have the authority to buy your services. They probably care about virtualization about as much as they care what brand of light bulbs are in their office (not much). They only care how their business can make more money and expend less doing it.
Let’s make sure we construct our content with that in mind. We’ve ditched the sales pitch, now we’re ditching the tech talk. Here’s a great example: The MSP 2.0 Service Offering in the 7C IT Management Framework. See how that provides lots of great insight a CEO could be interested in? Did you notice the most important part at the end? The often overlooked Call To Action!
If consistent quality tailored content is the first thing to remember for inbound, having a great call to action is the last. Everything else fits in between. Always think “where is my reader going next?” This is known as the buyer’s journey. Let’s define our buyer, then provide them a road map to not only finding us, but to find out what’s distinct about us, and hence to buying our services.
Follow these steps to be sure your inbound campaign is working:
- Define your ideal client. Often your business will have several. Usually they are a CEO, CFO, CIO or COO. They have the purchasing authority to buy your services. Write content that speaks to them.
- Define how they will go from finding your to buying from you. A typical buyer journey goes something like this: they see and choose to read an interesting article you published on linkedIn, then follow your call to action and subscribe to your blog. A few blog posts down the road they follow another call to action and download a checklist. This generates an email from you offering a complimentary report on their IT competitiveness quotient. Now you get to show them how your MSP can give them a competitive advantage in their market. You just found a new customer.
- Create and distribute great content with blogs, emails, social posts, infographics, quality landing pages and a responsive website.
- Always have a call to action that moves the viewer along the journey as you defined it.