Four Things your MSP May Be Doing that Turn Prospects Away
Four Things your MSP May Be Doing that Turn Prospects Away:
Look, I sincerely think that there are many, many talented sales people and owners/founders in the MSP space.
In particular I have met many talented closers, who have poker faces and can negotiate with the best of them. I've leaned on these people as a young business development rep countless times to help me get signatures.
But being a great closer or being able to communicate your value to a prospect are not the only factors necessary to having a open and full pipeline as an IT services company.
The goal and dream of so many MSP owners is how do I get sufficient inbound leads from marketing and lead generation efforts and have a competent sales team turning those into opportunities so that I can grow my practice.
I'm here to list out four things that I've seen that MSPs do that are detracting from that goal and moving them closer to dissolution than revolution.
Having a know-it-all complex or cold demeanor
Due to the nature of our field - engineering and technical - we tend to have a preponderance of talented people who don't understand how they should be relating with prospects and showing the company's value.
A great example of this is a sales call I was on with the CISO of an MSP I worked for:
Prospect asks, "Can you guys take care of xyz for me?"
CISO - "Nope, we can't do that." Then silence. Awkwardness.
Me, as the salesperson, know that "no's" turn a person off, what you want to give is acceptable "no's" and many more "yes's".
Correct answer: "No mr customer, we actually can't handle that, however what we can do is xyz".
Another example I've seen is a senior technical person coming onto a call and just bulldozing the prospect: "Why would you have things setup that way? You're data is a huge risk right now. If you are serious about your cybersecurity we can help you but that is something we would not allow."
Keep in mind this is a FIRST TIME call with a prospect. Even though the person may be right, that is not the way to handle the tentative interest of a person and turn that into a solid interest in your service.
Bottom line - IT and Cybersecurity is NOT the most important thing to that company - so don't act like it.
Zero Homework
The amount of AI tools we have that do incredible prospect research give zero excuse for a person coming onto a call and asking "What is it that you do? What type of company do you work for?" or even "Do you currently have an MSP in place?" if the SDR notes/CRM notes clearly indicate this company has an MSP.
Another common thing I see here is asking the same questions that a prior presales engineer/sales rep asked in a prior discovery call with the client. But because you did not read the CRM notes you create annoyance:
Sales Rep: "So Mr. Jones what are you guys doing for MDM today?"
Mr Jones: "Well as I said before we are using Intune but we aren't sure if we have it setup correctly."
Sales Rep: "Ok I see, so are you looking for help in getting that setup and additionally managed services after that or did you have another idea?"
Mr Jones: (Annoyance) "Yes... I am looking for a quote on that."
This can actually completely destroy a deal as people buy from people they like and people don't like to be treated like they aren't important enough to remember what they've said already.
Cookie Cutter Everything
Yes, MSP, I see you with that website and those buzzwords and I've heard them before many, many times.
You can almost feel the the boredom or disinterest that is produced on the part of a prospect when an MSP salesperson hits them with buzzwords - "We are not just an IT provider, we are a trusted partner", "Our clients matter the most to us, that is what makes us different," or "We offer a full suite of cybersecurity along with all of our packages - what are you using for antivirus Mr. Jones?".
It is my perception that people have long begun to view IT as commoditized, mostly mundane and as a cost center.
Efforts to be interesting and different are tricky - as there are 150,000 MSPs globally and many are saying the exact same things as you are.
What's the answer?
Focus on what you can competently deliver and speak to the truth of that with the prospect.
Win their trust and their business not with buzzwords, but with the reality of how you can help them.
Shallow Discovery
This one is rampant, has cost MSPs many lost RFPs or prospecting ghosting you and it can be hard to correct.
Many MSP discovery calls go as follows:
MSP Salesperson: "Hi Mr. Jones! Thanks so much for coming today. How's the weather over there in (insert state)"
Prospect: "Yeah, it's been good"
MSP Salesperson: "That's great! (more small talk)". Then, "So let me tell you about who we are and what we do - we are an IT services company that........."
Prospect: (halfway listening to long diatribe about IT).
MSP Salesperson "(insert tech words here), Mr. Prospect what are you doing for xyz for an EDR solution?"
Prospect: "(No idea what EDR is) Um I think we use some sort of antivirus."
MSP Salesperson: "Okay got you, and how many computers do you have?"
Prospect answers, etc.
At the end of the call, MSP Salesperson - "This sounds like a great fit, we could get you a fully managed iT solution and help you will everything. How about I put a proposal together for you?"
No asking about the prospect's business, their goals, their structure, what leadership cares about, their past experience with IT, their budget, their timeline, if they have an MSP already, etc.
And damn, it can be hard to correct people to do good discovery.
Final Word
I think there are fantastic, wonderful and competent people all over the IT space.
I think at times we need to have perspective, realize our roles, speak to our value and have the courage to communicate to the prospect in a vulnerable way about what they really care about.
And be ready if that answer is not IT technology solutions, becomes 9 times out of 10 it is not.
If you own an IT company or are in tech sales, you should know just as much about psychology and how humans work as you should technology.
If your firm is looking for a consultant to guide them towards better sales outcomes and fixing these bad habits, let's talk.
