Over the years, I’ve consulted with dozens of new start up MSPs. In some cases, they were break-fix companies looking for a better, more profitable way to deliver their services. In other cases, they were brand-new businesses starting from zero.
In either case, a solid marketing plan is needed if you want to get new customers profitably. While I can’t possibly cover everything you need to know to develop and launch a go-to-market strategy, I will share with you 5 things you need to think about, know or research when creating your marketing plan.
1. Never forget that customers don’t care about managed services. Too many MSPs forget that business owners aren’t interested in 24/7 monitoring, remote support, anti-virus, security, etc., so they make the mistake of talking about those techie terms in all their marketing communications, completely overlooking the importance of talking about what customers actually want: someone they can trust to just make everything work, period. They don’t want excuses, they want a service. They don’t want dropped balls, missed deadlines, failed promises or more work. They want convenience and simplification. They want someone to show them how to work smarter, save money, be more competitive or get more work done with less time, fewer employees and less cost. If you want your marketing to be effective, you HAVE to talk about how you can deliver these kinds of results, NOT talk about the technology or “how” you support computer networks.
2. Don’t be another “me too” business. Here’s a critical question: Why should business owners buy managed services? And why should they buy them from you? You better have compelling, specific answers to those questions or you’ll end up looking like “just another” IT services company – and that means you’ll get compared to everyone else by the lowest common denominator: price. Of course, these are not questions that are easy to answer. I spend months working with clients to try and get this right and spend the majority of my time in all training programs covering this “messaging” problem. Therefore, don’t get discouraged and give up searching for and perfecting powerful answers to these questions.
3. Figure out what you can afford to spend to get a customer. Figuring this out will take a bit of guesswork based on what you believe the average customer is going to be worth to you. I often get asked, “How much should I spend on marketing?” Most academics will say somewhere between 1% and 10% of gross revenue. I think that’s the dumbest formula I’ve ever heard. What if you’re getting ZERO return on a marketing campaign or plan – should you continue to do it because you need to spend X% on marketing? Here’s another question: If you’re getting a 5, 10, or 20 times return, why would you limit your marketing to X%? The correct way to figure out what to spend on marketing will be determined by what a customer is worth to you in profits over the short term and long term.
4. There’s no “one thing” you should be doing to promote your services, so stop looking for it. Another mistake many MSPs make is looking for the “one thing” they should be doing to market their business. Truth is, there is no one thing – and if you look for it, you’ll waste a lot of time and money with random attempts that don’t amount to anything significant. No one gets rich quick in this business, and anyone looking for that unicorn of marketing success will only distract you from getting serious about implementing a consistent, multi-media marketing approach.
5. Become a serious student of marketing and selling. Being able to attract new customers (marketing) and close sales are two critical skills all entrepreneurs must master – but you won’t get there by reading a book or two on marketing. You must make a serious commitment to learning what successful marketing is and how it should perform. Otherwise, you’ll forever be making expensive mistakes that cost you in lost sales and wasted marketing dollars. I realize that the vast majority of folks reading this won’t do this. They want to sit behind their desk all day doing the operational and technical work they enjoy and hire someone else to make it rain; however, in my whole life and in talking to thousands of MSPs, I have never seen this work. You, the CEO, are solely responsible for being the spokesperson and rainmaker for your organization – that is not a responsibility you should delegate. Certainly you can – and should – hire people to help you, but never lose sight of the fact that marketing (or revenue generation) is something you must master yourself in order to have a highly successful, highly profitable business.
