MSP Marketing Blog

The Secret To Positioning Your MSP

While there certainly IS a play for simply stating who you want as a client (as in the photo here), successful lead generation requires an irresistible offer and GREAT PROMISE to work.

Most businesses do NOT make such a promise in their marketing and selling activities and suffer from suppressed response rates and less-than-stellar results.

Such a promise puts your competition in a precarious position; they either have to ignore this type of claim and risk having their current clients and prospects assume they are inadequate or unable to deliver such promises, or they have to defend themselves and say, “Hey! We do too!” which comes across as a copycat and is a far weaker position, appearing as though they were forced to play catchup with the competition.

This is a BIG secret to positioning your MSP! Read full article and comment →

Create Your Own Luck By MSP Marketing With GREAT Client Testimonials And Success Stories

Here’s a question: When was the last time you added a fresh new case study or testimonial to your website? To your Google reviews? To your Shock-And-Awe box? One thing you ought to be constantly paying attention to is the quantity and quality of reviews and testimonials you’re getting.

Clients in B2B ventures often don’t think to give reviews. Home service businesses, restaurants and companies delivering retail services are more likely to get reviews unsolicited. In professional services, you HAVE to ask for and cultivate them – specifically, start measuring the impact you have on your clients.

One thing you can count on is that clients won’t. If you aren’t providing tangible metrics of productivity, security, uptime, speed and performance, you leave it entirely up to the client to arbitrarily determine if they are getting results – or not.

One of the things we have built into our Rapid Implementation Workshops is MEASUREMENT. We require this tracking and reporting of activities, leads and sales MOSTLY for the purpose of bringing awareness of critical metrics and leading indicators to our clients.

In doing so, we ensure they are far more likely to get results due to Pearson’s law: Anything measured improves. Anything measured and reported upon to someone else improves exponentially. Read full article and comment →

What Can An MSP Owner Learn About Marketing From George Foreman?

Two-time Heavyweight Champion and genius entrepreneur George Foreman will be ONE of the keynote speakers at our upcoming Boot Camp. Some have criticized the decision, saying, “We’re IT guys – not a room full of professional boxers or TV personalities, so why waste time listening to THIS guy?” So, please allow me to address that AND serve the dual purpose of delivering a solid “fundamental” in marketing that everyone needs to understand: personal brand.

For starters, many people think I’m against branding since I often say (and do believe) that spending money on branding ads and promotions for the sheer purpose of image advertising (not lead generation) IS wasteful. I prefer marketing that can be ruthlessly held accountable for a return that does the dual purpose of branding.

Further, I believe that building a personal brand IS a very smart, strategic approach to differentiation in a world where true differentiation is difficult to come by. George is a perfect example of this.

He took an ordinary kitchen appliance that could be gotten anywhere and turned it into one of the best-selling products in retail history – and he did it purely on his own personal brand.

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The Most Effective Lead Generation Formula

Problem. Agitate. Solve.

The above is the oldest and still one of the most effective lead generation formulas. More specifically, identify a highly irritating problem, anxiety, worry or frustration your clients have. Next, AGITATE it. Make them FEEL even more annoyed, frustrated and worried about it – and THEN offer the solution to the problem.

As I’ve long taught, effective marketing copy is about “bringing latent dissatisfaction to a boil.” But to do that, you have to know how your prospect thinks and feels. You also must know the specific problems they are dealing with on a day-to-day basis AND be able to articulate those problems to such a degree that they feel you’ve been following them around all day, reading their mind.

Only then can you be effective at writing a marketing communication that gets and holds their attention, triggering a “That’s right” response.

After you’ve effectively stirred up the emotional beehive and whipped them into a lather, you need to move them to action – but selling the solution outright is not the right idea. What WE want to do, particularly in selling advice and services, is to generate a lead.

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MSP Sales: What To Do With The First “No”

The first real sales training I ever received was when I was working for Tony Robbins as a rep selling his Personal Power and Power To Influence courses. It was a great experience, to say the least. Tony taught his reps to ignore the first “no,” saying that some prospects throw out an objection or a “no” just as a means of conversing. He’s right to a point.

Time and experience have taught me there’s other more important reasons to “ignore” the first objection you get.

To be clear, you don’t “ignore” it in the sense that you don’t hear them out or you brush it off – but what you DON’T want to do is immediately jump on it, defending your point of view.

Such actions are rookie mistakes. Instead, hear them out and ask questions to explain it. They say, “The price is too high.” You could mirror them, repeating back the objection with a curious, questioning tone: “The price is too high?” Or say, “Compared to…?” and then wait for them to fill in the blank.

Or get them to explain it by asking for specifics: “What do you feel is too high – the project or the monthly fee?” Or, “Okay, is that your only concern?” Read full article and comment →

How To PROFITABLY Show A Little Love To Break-Fix Clients

It’s the month of love! Every month I answer a couple of questions from new members in our monthly newsletter and was reflecting on one about what almost every MSP and IT services owner tries to avoid – the “cheap” break-fix client.  This client had gotten enough requests to begin questioning if he was overlooking an opportunity. Read on for my reply…

First, I don’t know of a SINGLE industry or client type that all MSPs would say have abundant and open pocketbooks for spending on IT. ALL would say their clients are “cheap” and unwilling to spend money on what it is they sell.

The simple truth is that YOU have to MAKE them want to buy what you sell.

Are you presenting price properly? Building value in the sales process? ARE you TRULY the most expensive? If yes, are you presenting solid, logical arguments as to why they should spend MORE money with you over anyone else? Are you properly screening out those who truly ARE too cheap, too broke? Read full article and comment →

How To Stand Out In A World Of Fake “Experts”

The other day a marketing publication featured an article titled “What To Do If Your E-mail’s Been Hacked.” These “experts” said that if your day was “disrupted” when you discovered you had infected all of your clients and friends with a virus due to them receiving an e-mail from you, you should “be proactive and send another e-mail to apologize to anyone who might have received a bogus message from you.”

They went on to say that “big-dog providers like Google and Yahoo know about it and will get rid of it on their end.” I can sense your underwear tightening up.

Another very well-known and in demand cyber security “expert” with a New York Times best-selling book, a TED Talk speaker with additional keynote engagements lined up at $50,000 a pop, with corporate clients paying BIG bucks for his advice, actually recommended that people turn off their computers at night to cut down on the chance of getting a virus by 50%. He DIDN’T advise them to install a firewall, spam filter, backup, etc., etc. Just turn it off. At night. When the bad guys come out. Read full article and comment →

The Quality You Need To Look For In Any Person You Hire

When MSP and IT services business owners open their business, it’s usually because of their love of the tech work. The aspects of running the business, including marketing and managing staff often come later…and at a price.

So this week, I wanted to share a good question about employees that comes with a direct answer. Hiring the wrong people is stressful and expensive, this advice can save you time and money.

Q: In what ways do you motivate employees to be like owners?

A: You don’t. They’re not the owner – you are. If an employee had “ownership” mentality, they wouldn’t work for you; they’d start their own business.

A better question: How do you get employees to “own” their job so they deliver excellent performance and results? Read full article and comment →