How to tool up your MSP sales team – key takeaways

In our recent webinar, How to tool up your sales team to drive and convert leads, we identified a number of common marketing pitfalls as well as sharing our process of getting started. Here are the key points discussed.  

 

Five common marketing and sales pitfalls 

There are actually many more pitfalls that we come across regularly, but these are the ones we most commonly encounter when talking to MSPs.  

 

#1: Unique value propositions that are not unique  

Creating a clear value proposition can be hard but avoid succumbing to just describing your strengths. Customers expect you to have the best people, the necessary certification and skills and a fleet of happy customers. These are really just the starting points to having a successful business.  

To really uncover your true unique value proposition, think about your core values, what you do, who you do it for, your methodology and why your customers value you. This goes a long way to coming up with a truly unique value proposition. 

 

#2: Lack of productised offerings  

It’s really hard to sell Managed Services without any “lead in” products/solutions. Unless your prospect is actively seeking out an MSP right in that moment, you are better off finding something smaller to sell in, like a security package or something topical or in high demand. 

 

#3: Being unclear on who you are selling to 

In order for your product or services to have cut through, you need to be very clear on who you are talking to and what their needs are. Ask yourself, is your database segmented by target market and buyer persona?  

It’s key that you know your target market (and it’s not “everyone who wants Office 365”). What specific industry, or what specific business function/ problem does your solution solve?  

You also need to clearly understand your buyer personas and the pains and challenges they face. Is there a clear value proposition for each buyer persona to ensure personalisation and relevance?  

This is crucial to be able to articulate your solution in a language they understand. Focus on the value and benefit of what you bring rather than on the tech! 

 

#4: No sales & marketing alignment  

 

Remember, sales is the other customer of marketing – not just the end user. If your marketing activities do not enable the sales team to generate and convert leads, there is likely a silo or lack of sales and marketing alignment.  

Your marketing team needs to work with the sales team to draw on customer knowledge in order to create collateral that a) the sales team will actually use; and b) resonates with your target market.  

To help unify your sales and marketing team, make sure they are working to the same goals and, where possible, using the same tools. This will ensure you are collecting the right data and insights to know what is and isn’t working. Having a sales and marketing automation platform is a great way for both sides to track progress, as well as highlighting which marketing assets are actually helping the sales team to convert leads.  

 

#5: Prospects not being nurtured  

 

Keeping your MSP top of mind is key, especially in this economic climate. Your prospects may not be ready to buy right now but that’s not to say they won’t be in one, two, three or six months.  

Research shows that customer expectations have shifted in recent years. According to a survey conducted by Salesforce, 84% of business buyers are more likely to buy from a company that demonstrates an understanding of their business goals. 

Providing proof points and demonstrating a deeper understanding takes time. This is where nurturing prospective customers plays a pivotal role.   

Drip feeding relevant and thoughtful assets to prospects over time will help push them through the funnel. Again, using a sales and marketing automation platform is helpful here. By setting up workflows specific to buyer personas, you can nurture contacts over a set timeframe and see how and what they interact with. This visibility enables sales team members to pick up the phone at the right time and have a more meaningful conversation.  

 

Get started with the lowest hanging fruit 

 

At Mogrify, we have created and follow a clear and repeatable process, the MAPR™ process. Follow these stages to tool up your sales team and get cracking on those leads!  

 

Stage 1: Create a clear strategy 

 

With creating a strategy, these can take time and lots of thinking! The lowest hanging fruit with developing your strategy is to at least define your goal, target market(s) and buyer persona(s) for the next six months.  

Make sure this is very clearly communicated with your sales and marketing team. Everyone needs to be on the same page with who your target markets are to have the focus required to succeed.  

 

Stage 2: Create assets 

 

First things first, you need to invest in a sales and marketing automation platform, ConnectWise will not cut it! If you have any questions around why it won’t cut it, or just automation in general, check out our free eBook. 

Once you have your platform, the lowest hanging fruit is building your database.  

Treat your database with a little love and care, it is incredibly valuable to the success of your sales and marketing efforts. No matter how tempting, don’t over communicate or blast out communications willynilly. You need to find a balance of how often you communicate and who with to ensure you don’t let good data decay.  

So what should you send out? We recommend creating offers. Give your salesperson reasons to get in touch with prospects by providing them something to “sell” without having to do the hard sell. Webinars, eBooks, or even an attractive discount offer are all viable options.  

Remember, you also need assets for ongoing nurture to stay top of mind. Think case studies, best practice guides, and thought-provoking articles.  

 

Stage 3: Manage promotion 

 

Assets ready, platform in place, it’s time to move to the promotion and distribution stage. For quick wins, get an offer email out using your automation platform and gain insights into what your database is interacting with via trackable links. 

Consumer what else you can do to strengthen your promotion and drive more traffic to your offer. Think SEO, PPC, LinkedIn networking and even telemarketing.  

 

Stage 4: Recap & adjust 

 

To make sure your approach is effective, you need to review your data and adjust your plan accordingly. The easiest option here is to use out-of-the-box automation platform reporting to track effectiveness as a starting point.  

Explore lead scoring data inside your platform and configure your scoring settings to align with your qualification process. This will then allow you to monitor the leads that matter the most and maximise the effectiveness of the out-of-the-box reporting. 

 

And last but far from least, a note on ROI 

 

When it comes to calculating your ROI, you must include both marketing and sales activity. Asset creation often has a much longer shelf life and so your investment will see returns over multiple years.  

However you can include promotion and distribution costs to calculate the ROI of specific activity within a certain timeframe. Essentially, to calculate your true ROI, you need to consider the longevity of your investments and factor this into your ROI rather than just saying ‘we spent X this year and got Y in return’.  

If you are ready to address more than just your marketing low hanging fruit, or just need help with marketing strategy or execution, Mogrify can help. Book a discovery call today.  

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