MSPmentor

Normally, I like to keep my blogs to advice and tips on how to market and sell managed services. This month, I am going in a different direction. I want to ask you a question that I am unsettled on. I want to hear your opinion and get your thoughts on this. After making the switch to a managed services business model, what do you do with customers who refuse to give up your break-fix services?

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A lack of focus on sales is a common error I see a lot of small MSPs make. Heck, most have no dedicated sales staff or sales plan whatsoever. The standard way of doing business is to wait for the phone to ring and hope for new business. This is a mistake. All great businesses are built with a strong sales attack.

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Do you want a few quick and easy ways to upgrade your customer satisfaction now? The answer lies in your phone — and the following four tips. They’re simple tips. But will you actually embrace them?

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Running a managed services practice is all about generating recurring revenue. Too many small IT providers get so hung up on the service part of Managed Services that they forget about the other ways to make recurring revenue. Here is my top ten list of ways to generate recurring revenue.

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Marketing seems to perplex some small VARs and managed service providers (MSPs). Despite the misconceptions, there are tons of easy, low-cost, and even free ways to market your business. To help out, I have organized a list of 10 easy marketing ideas…

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Recently, a friend of mine who owns a small business told me “Paul, I tried marketing and it didn’t work.”  I asked “What kind of marketing did you try?” His reply, which I’ll share in a few sentences, mortified me. And it offers some important lessons to managed service providers.

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Recently, our company was brainstorming new and creative ways to get a foot in the door with SMBs to sell Managed Services. Times are tight, so it takes a little ingenuity to nail down an initial chat with business owners. You need something that will get them excited, and Managed Services doesn’t always do that by itself.

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Our VirtualAdministrator partners often ask us how to package and price their managed services offerings. Structuring your offering correctly can be vital to the success of your business. If you charge too much, you risk scaring customers away — charge too little, and you cheat yourself. Too many plan options confuse customers, while too few limits your market. A great method to use is a tiered offering. The Silver, Gold, and Platinum approach as we call it. Here’s how to get started.

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From time to time we hear about “zero-day” or other critical viruses that garner national interest, and require immediate action. The most recent example was the Conficker virus. Naturally, business owners started asking “am I protected?” As we looked at the steps necessary to resolve this issue for our own customers, we were again reminded why being a Managed Service provider is so critical.

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Making the switch from the traditional “Break-Fix” model to a “Managed Services” way of doing business can be a frightening prospect. One of the most common questions we hear from our partners is “How do I sell this to my clients?”  Most VARs feel hesitant to present an MSP way of doing business to their already existing break-fix customers, and understandably so. Here’s how to overcome that issue.

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