Do you Want to Close More Deals?

by Marketopia US | Mar 1, 2024

How MSPs Can Master the Art of Selling

Are you a managed service provider (MSP) interested in learning how to close more deals? If you answered “yes,” you’re not alone. In fact, the large majority of managed service providers will admit they struggle with sales enablement and marketing. So, how can busy MSPs learn how to nurture leads all the way to signed contracts? Fortunately, there are numerous resources out there to help MSPs level up their sales game.

Why Sales Enablement Skills Are Important

Today’s MSPs are juggling a lot of roles. To be competitive in the industry, being a skilled technology professional is not enough to sell a new client. If you can’t effectively sell yourself, your products and your business, your potential for growth will surely stagnate. The good news is you can learn how to sell. With time, commitment, patience and the right coaching tools, MSPs can master the art of the sale. Let’s start with getting into the right mindset.

Get into the Right Mindset

As with any professional practice, it makes sense to follow best practices. Here are six tried and true sales coaching tips certain to help you close more deals:

Successful MSPs …

1- Know their audience

Do you make a habit of asking prospects questions and listening to the answers? It sounds simple, but when you stop talking, you can learn a lot. When you discover potential pain points or business challenges, you can show your value by positioning yourself as the perfect solution. Be sure to take the time to understand your prospects’ needs, pain points and priorities, and tailor your message and approach to address their specific concerns and how your business can add value to their businesses.

2- Attend

Peer groups with fellow (not competing) MSPs offer a unique competitive advantage to those who actively participate and candidly open up about successes and failures. Sharing wins and losses with like-minded professionals who speak the same language, face the same challenges and take advantage of the same opportunities can prove invaluable. Some of the most successful MSPs today regularly participate in peer groups for the insightful takeaways and connections.

3- Earn the right to get to the next step

Nurturing a prospect to a signed contract doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, patience and respect for the sales process to work. Think about the objective of each step in the typical buyer’s journey, and focus your efforts there. For example, you don’t want to do your elevator pitch in an initial meeting. This is the time to listen, build trust and position yourself as the prospect’s trusted tech advisor. We’ll get into more detail on why you should follow a sales process later.

4- Build trust and relationships

The large majority of business owners will tell you they only partner with businesses they trust. Any prospect that wasn’t generated from a referral essentially sees you as a stranger asking for the keys to their IT infrastructure. That’s why it’s so critical to listen. Stop talking and let the prospect tell you why they agreed to meet with you. Maybe they lost confidence in their current MSP’s cybersecurity abilities. Maybe they are shopping around for an MSP who can offer better customer service. There’s a reason a prospect agreed to take time out of their busy day to speak with you. Once you know that, you build a connection more likely to result in a sale.

5- Continuously learn

Success in life —and business — calls for continuous learning. Whether it’s expanding your ability to deal with common objections, learning how to boost your EQ or how to market solutions for maximum ROI, open yourself up to new ideas and perspectives. You can find live and on-demand small business sales training courses to learn new trends in sales training methods and time-tested best practices. Convenient, on-demand course options make incorporating training into today’s busy schedules easy. No excuses!

6- Evaluate and adapt 

Opening yourself up to new ideas and perspectives includes taking a candid look at wins and losses. Both successes and failures are worthy of examination. Make an effort to celebrate your wins and analyze your losses. An honest look at what went well (and what didn’t go so well) can translate into an invaluable opportunity to improve. 

Lean on Tools and Resources for Learning How to Sell

Now that we’ve covered how to get into the right mindset, let’s get into specific tools and resources you can leverage to up your sales game.

1- Branded Sales Collateral

When you’re courting a new prospect, you want to put your best foot forward. Professional sell sheets, business cards, presentations, proposals and contracts create a lasting impression and communicate your business’s brand and values. Take the opportunity to further establish your business as a credible, trustworthy technology partner with high-quality, professionally branded and well-written sales materials.

2- Customer relationship management systems

Many leads are successfully nurtured to close, thanks to a customer relationship management or CRM. CRMs are essentially centralized marketing and sales enablement platforms that provide holistic visibility into every lead’s flow through the buyer’s journey. The technology makes it easy to organize, track and manage prospect interactions and relationships more effectively. Look for features like multiple sales pipeline management, tracking communication history, forecasting sales opportunities and analytics.

3- Email automation tools

Email campaign tools automate the process of reaching out to prospects, nurturing leads and following up on opportunities. Look for features like email tracking, email sequencing and personalized email templates that allow you to customize emails with your business logo and seasonal promotions.

4- One-on-one sales strategy consultation

Many MSPs offer private consultations to their clients, so it’s no surprise that many MSPs seek out professional consultative services of their own. After all, who can’t benefit from objective advice from a trusted professional? Working with an outside, objective consultant can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses and target learning opportunities to fill in the gaps.

5- Professional lead generation

You can’t close deals without a steady stream of quality leads. If you’re still relying on referrals and word of mouth to grow your business, you’ll need to expand your horizons. You can generate new leads through social media platforms like LinkedIn. Get in front of your ideal prospects by hosting a can’t-miss lunch and learn. Or, step up your marketing efforts through email campaigns, landing pages, social media, press releases and a high-ranking website.

6- Preconfigured marketing and sales assets

Ready-to-go sales and marketing assets lessen your lift with professional branding and consistent messaging. Marketing assets like email campaigns, sell sheets, social media ads, blogs and press releases convey your business value and generate brand awareness. Sales enablement assets such as contracts, proposals and presentation decks go one step further in building the trust that closes deals.

7- Sales process methodology

As we stated earlier, unless your prospect originated from a word-of-mouth lead, you are essentially a stranger. Closing a deal demands patience and respect for the process. To become that trusted IT advisor a prospect can trust, rely on a methodical sales process like the following:

Initial conversation
Business technology assessment
Technical assessment
Proposal & presentation
Contract agreement

You don’t necessarily need to follow these steps. Do some research and find a sales process that’s proven to work and one you and your team feel comfortable following.