Build a Better MSP - Blog

Smart Shoppers Won’t Buy What They Think They Already Have

Written by Myles Olson | May 29, 2019

There are collectors, like Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay with exotic cars, Imelda Marcos with shoes and Donald Trump with golf courses, but most of us try to economize, and don’t go shopping for something we already own.

This scenario comes up often in the MSP world: someone in your team (maybe even you) goes to an event and comes back raving about a new product, solution or service they can deliver to all of your clients. It’s shiny and new and can solve all kinds of problems. The one problem left, of course, is getting someone to pay for it.

The obvious course is to sell it to your client and make a profit from the sale or from implementing and supporting it. This is how businesses work, right?

 

But wait, didn’t you tell your clients that everything is included for a flat fee? If everything is included, how do you make money while offering new solutions?

It’s really quite simple, you just have to show them what they’re missing, and let them decide that they want to adopt these new technologies that weren’t a part of your stack before.
 

Most reports for MSPs look back trying to validate what you’ve already sold and delivered. How many tickets were closed, viruses were thwarted, patches were patched, backups were backed up….boring. Smart shoppers won’t buy what they think they already have. Why not show them how stagnant technology adoption means their business loses a competitive edge and accumulates technical debt over time.

 

Differentiate yourself from other MSPs and their status-quo offerings using forward looking reports and conversations focused on their competitive edge through technology and how you can enhance it.

 

By highlighting the gaps and risks, they’re a lot more likely to bite on something like multi-factor authentication, password management or team collaboration tools - any emerging technology that can help their business applies. Since all of these start as implementation projects, and turn into managed services, you’ve just won some new one-time revenue and increased your MRR. All you did was help your clients understand where they could reduce risk and create a win for their business. That’s client success beyond IT!

 

Check out this video where Denes & Myles discuss this and let us know how you pre-qualify new solutions to your clients, or if you’d like some help. Happy MSPing!