Last week, Marketopia CEO Terry Hedden (@thedden03) appeared at ITEXPO in Fort Lauderdale. This is the only event dedicated to communication solutions for the enterprise mid-market, resellers and managed service providers.

While there, he spoke as part of an interactive panel discussion and lead a session for MSPs entitled “Sales & Marketing: Lessons Learned from the Trenches.” Terry’s presentation focused on what it takes to close more deals and find more opportunities for MSP businesses.

In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown of the key points to help you improve your sales and marketing efforts in order to grow your business.

Strong Teams Drive Your Sales Process

Your sales team gets the gears turning by working together – but separately – to make your machine hum. Each team member knows his or her role and understands the importance of that role within the sales process. Whether they are the one focusing on qualifying passive leads, the closer, the cross-seller or the one responsible for a smooth transition to the account manager, they each have a distinctive part to play.

Here are three key steps to the selling process:

Prospecting: Defines specific targets based on ideal customer profiles,
as well as leverages advanced prospecting techniques and enables technologies to produce a steady flow of leads.
Sales Team: Finds the right connections and perfect-fitting clients. Then, they close the sale and start clients on a continued process of upselling and cross-selling.

Sell to Success: The circle continues, starting with the team finding the right fits, focusing past the close and finally, pulling, not pushing the sale.

Get Physical with Your Professionalism

There’s a reason that “dress to impress” is such a common phrase. This is because not all communication is strictly verbal. How you are perceived needs to be the reality. You have to be able to communicate that you can be trusted, that you are knowledgeable, and that you will create a path to success.

When it comes to your proposals and sales quotes, you want them to also really shine and look professional. Proposals and quotes should:

• Remind them you are a trustworthy partner.
• Convey a solutions description in a way that’s easy for them to understand.
• Convey project tasks.
• Present solution components.
• Look perfect; remember, perception is reality and professionalism makes a difference.

Measure Results. Learn from Mistakes. Constantly Improve.

Unfortunately, clients rarely come knocking at your front door looking for services and support. Instead, it’s a process that takes a lot marketing efforts to find those leads and turn them into clients. In order to be successful, you have to create a marketing plan that is best for your business.

Formulating the perfect marketing plan requires:

• Strong Commitment
• Repeated Messages
• Multiple Mediums
• Consistency
• Diligence

When it comes to marketing, you must remember that this is not an expenditure. It’s an investment for your business. You must be committed to your plan and stay patient. Create a budget you can stick to; we recommend 3% or more of revenue. Your return on investment (ROI) should be measured quarterly or semi-annually, because it takes time to make a close.

Final Note to Consider

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to successfully marketing your business. It’s not something that can be put on the back burner. You can’t just send out one email every now and then. That’s throwing away your money.

You might want to look at outsourcing if you are not a marketing guru or don’t have the resources for a dedicated marketing professional. Marketopia is an MSP and IT services marketing agency uniquely positioned with expertise throughout the entire IT channel and dedicated to helping businesses just like yours.

At the end of the day, however you go about it, you need a solid sales team, professional proposals and a diligent marketing plan. With these gears in place, your business will be growing faster in no time.

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