Are you offering the right Managed Service solutions?

As an MSP, your offerings are critical when offering the right Managed Service solutions. You should be more obsessive about the services you give to your potential clients. Do you know what offerings your clients are looking for? What services do you currently provide? Consider this on a broad scale rather than focusing exclusively on the details. Perhaps you've achieved platinum, gold, or silver status. Numerous MSPs employ a tiered strategy, which has several advantages. Our MSP, ARRC Technology, began with numerous products and included tiered break/fix services. According to Nick, Director of Sales at CharTec, ARRC’s Salespeople would do anything just to close a deal. It was the "Wild West," and no one knew how to sell Managed Services. And, while there is nothing wrong with giving consumers what they want, there are a few reasons why supplying customized packages and one-off services to individual clients will ultimately backfire against you. It’s a fine line between keeping things simple and easy to understand while showcasing the latest technology. Below are things to consider when offering the right Managed Service solutions

Confusion for Managed Service Providers and their Clients

One-off arrangements tend to multiply. Once your salesperson gets in the habit of piecing an offer together to make the sale, it'll be almost impossible to stop that behaviour. It may appear prudent to keep a customer happy by agreeing to handle anything as a one-off, expecting it to lead to something better in the future. However, after a few instances, you may find yourself juggling so many one-offs that your team will get overwhelmed. Internally, there will be considerable uncertainty and contention over what you include for each client. Along with being an unproductive use of your team's time, your clients will become irate due to delayed responses. If you don't have a solid offer, how can you expect new prospects to understand what they're signing up for? Another issue with this type of "adaptive" strategy, in which salespeople can modify their offering on the fly, is that it gives the salesman an appearance of insecurity. When a client asks about swapping services, and the salesperson responds with, "I believe we can do that, but let me check," it makes them appear as if they have no idea what they offer. When this happens, it's natural for the client to lose confidence. You do not need to be an expert in sales or marketing to spot the issue here. A salesperson must exude confidence. They must understand what they are offering and why it is beneficial to the customer. They also must communicate how it corresponds with the prospect's needs following the discovery process.

Managed Service solutions: Prevent many options.

Additionally, providing an excessive number of options will generate client confusion. After hearing your presentation, and examining the various possibilities, a prospect may declare they're going to think about it because they don't want to confess that they don't grasp their selections or are unsure which option is the best. Most clients do not know what they require; otherwise, they would not have come to you to examine their alternatives in the first place. They would have just requested it directly. If you confuse them, there's a significant possibility they'll search for someone who offers them a specific solution.

Don’t go for the Money!

Assume you've resolved never to sell one-off setups and will instead adhere to four levels. The more, the merrier, correct? Wrong. The disadvantage of offering different packages is that many prospective clients will choose the least expensive one. If you present three choices, platinum, gold, silver, and bronze, customers are likely to pick bronze, then negotiate for more services. Additionally, when there are too many possibilities, clients may develop “analysis paralysis.” They will spend so much time deciding on one offering that they never follow through or explore other solutions. This scenario is one of the worst your salesperson can find themselves in. ARRC offers two product lines, dubbed platinum and plastic. Points caution us against simply presenting the better one and then pulling out the cheaper one when they baulk at the price. To show that you’re professional, you must give the correct answer upfront to address the business's identified challenges. In other words, set the tone with the appropriate offering. In most cases, ARRC’s new clients choose the platinum offer. However, some clients will always want fewer services, such as those with in-house IT teams or those clients that only require a help desk or remote support. Another error to avoid is being primarily concerned with revenue. Don’t let your salesperson get distracted by big numbers. It is pointless to sign a client for $10,000 per month if their support costs are $11,000. Bundle pricing should be a deliberate procedure that incorporates an in-depth analysis of the estimated delivery charges and staff costs associated with each service included. This price gets divided by the number of clients to determine the service delivery expenses per client. Then you can work backwards from there.

Effectively Communicating your Worth

After you've developed a streamlined offering, you'll need to determine which components of the offering will appeal to different members of the business. For instance, the CFO may be more concerned with fixed flat rate pricing than the CEO is with security or employee training. How about the office manager, administrative support personnel, and frontline employees? Consider each reason why the employees at the organization will want your service and use that information to guide your presentation. If you’re confused by any of this, or if your sales team needs some fine-tuning, it’s time to attend our Sales Lab. We go over the entire sales process, from Discovery through the Presentation. And we'll show you how to create value for everyone you're presenting to! Contacts us or Email us here for more info: membership@chartec.net