The Three Types of Sales Leads for MSPs

There Are Three Types of Sales Leads for MSPs:

Marketing generated sales leads for MSPs will have a different sales strategy than a referral, will almost certainly be paying for I.T. support already, and will fall into one of these three buckets:

1. A company with new owners/leaders who are evaluating their options through a transition period.
2. A company that has been presented with a cost increase from their current provider, triggering an evaluation.
3. A company that has experienced an incident in IT causing a loss of faith in service that triggers an evaluation.

As an MSP owner or sales leader, your goal should be identifying what the sales trigger might be for any lead when cold calling, and then understand how these cold leads are different from referrals.

How Are Marketing Generated Sales Leads for MSPs Different From Referrals?

Referrals are provided by friends, peers, clients and other business connections who already know, trust and like you.

In a referral based sale, you don’t need to win – you just need to not lose.   Referral based sales leads for MSPs are 80% of the way across the finish line before you even meet with them!

Marketing generated leads are only 20% of the way to the finish line – and it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Can You Close More Cold Sales Leads for MSPs?

Understanding why a company is considering changing I.T. providers is essential to winning more deals.

Most MSPs grew their companies through word-of-mouth only and they approach cold, or marketing generated, sales leads with the same approach they’ve been using successfully with referrals.

This results in lower conversation rates for marketing generated sales leads, leading many business owners to get frustrated and decide that “cold leads for MSPs don’t convert!”

However, there are far more realistic conclusions:

• “Cold leads for MSPs don’t convert quickly.”
• “Cold leads for MSPs don’t convert on my preferred timeline.”
• “I don’t know how to convert cold sales leads.”

How Do I Change My Sales Process To Win More Often?

To win more deals, you first must identify what part of your process isn’t working.

• If you’re not getting any marketing generated leads, you may have abdicated the responsibility of generating leads to an unqualified employee.  This happens often when a company is trying to save money and combines a “front desk” or “dispatch” role with a “social media” or “marketing intern” role.
• If you’re getting marketing generated leads, but you’re not getting appointments from the leads, your “unique client profile” or “target client profile” is not the profile your marketing is speaking to, and must be adjusted.  It’s possible you’re using a “one size fits all” marketing agency that doesn’t understand your services or who should buy from you.
• If you’re able to get to the appointment, but you can’t get to the close, you are either qualifying your leads incorrectly, or your follow through process isn’t taking into account the prospects buying cycle (or both).  Most MSP sales leads take more than a year to close – are your expectations and sales plan realistic?  Are you hearing “not now” when a prospect says “no?”

If any of the above statements resonate with you, Managed Sales Pros can help.

All Great Deals Begin As Conversations

I.T. is a trust based, relationship based sales process.  To win more deals you need to talk to more people.   You don’t get referrals without great relationships, and you don’t win cold deals without creating great relationships!

You can’t close deals faster – but you can use our outbound calling and content marketing solutions to help you close better deals, and build stronger pipelines that lead to more deals.

Interested in fixing a broken sales process, or handing off the stress to someone else?  We’re ready to go when you’re ready to grow.

Who Will Benefit Most From Marketing Generated Sales Leads for MSPs?

We don’t recommend that any company with under 1MM in annual revenue engage with a retainer-based marketing agency – including ours.   If you’ve passed that critical 1MM mark, you’re paying yourself an industry-standard salary, you can handle the up-and-down nature of marketing campaign performance, and you’ve got a budget of at least USD $4000/month for marketing, we’d love to be of assistance.

If you’re not quite there yet, we recommend only transactional (one-time) marketing expenses, like sales training or process development support. 

You can learn a ton about finding, nurturing and closing sales leads for MSPs on the Managed Sales Pros website – we have eight years of posts and videos to help you.

Email us at hello@managedsalespros.com to schedule time to chat, or find a time to meet with us! 

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