MSP Outbound Is About Illuminating Business Problems

By Derek Marin, Simple Selling

As an MSP, your success in prospecting can make or break your business. You've likely heard stories of triumph and failure in this arena and may have experienced them firsthand.

Perhaps your business is even looking to expand its sales team.

Well, here's the thing: there's no magic bullet or secret formula for successful outbound prospecting.

Rather, think of it like a line of dominoes. Success hinges on how well these pieces are aligned. And one crucial domino is identifying and addressing business problems that your competitors can't or won't handle. This article will explore why this is so important and how to make it work for your MSP.

Think About Strategy Before Tactics

When it comes to outbound prospecting for MSPs, much advice out there focuses on tactics like call volume and prospect lists.

While these factors certainly matter, they're further down the line of dominoes that leads to successful prospecting.

To really excel, MSPs must take a step back and think critically about their prospecting strategy as a whole.

Imagine if your prospect received the following letter?

Dear MSP Salesperson,

Why are you leaving me another voicemail?

I am responsible for a 34-person organization with millions in Opex and Capex per year. Why should I give you a chance? Is your solution really worth the hassle and pain of switching?

What's the quantifiable gain? What makes your MSP better and why should we pay a penny more?

Your website says you are "proactive" and my MSP’s website uses that same word a lot, too. And to be fair, our IT provider does a decent job resolving tickets – in fact, I rarely hear complaints from my colleagues.

Look, I know you’re just doing your job as a salesperson – I get it. Really. But do you see where I’m coming from?

For example, do you really understand our biggest business threats (not talking about hackers)? I mean, can you help us build our product cheaper? Can you help us make better decisions with data? Can you make our factory more productive? Do you have an “easy button” for compliance? Do you know which LOB apps are causing the most headaches? Is revenue something you can influence at all?

I'm willing to listen but I’m tired of talking about cybersecurity. Stop asking for money and tell me first how you will help me make more money.

Being A Big Problem Finder

Why do so many MSPs focus so much on tactics and activity volume and so little on strategy when it comes to outbound prospecting?

I think you know the answer.

It’s because many of your peers fear they have nothing unique to bring to the table.

Some of you believe deep down that the only reason someone would switch to your MSP is that they are fed up with the incumbent and the timing is right.

Storytime.

When I lived in Costa Rica in 2010, a Presidential election was just underway. I’ll never forget the platform one candidate, Luis Fishman, was running on. His slogan was “El Menos Malo,” which roughly translates to “The Lesser Evil.” He believed that enough voters would go for him because the other candidates were more corrupt.

Now, was his strategy all that different from an MSP that believes outbound “is all about timing”?

Look, Luis did not become the next president of Costa Rica, he came in last place, and while it’s true that timing is important for managed services, timing alone is not something I’d bet money on.

Instead, for MSP outbound prospecting to work, we ought to find big problems that customers need to fix. Problems that go beyond solving support tickets and cybersecurity. Problems that help customers cut costs of goods sold, increase productivity, increase revenue, and minimize other headaches they lose sleep over.

You may be losing sleep over cybersecurity threats, and for good reason, but your prospect doesn’t live in the channel, you do.

About The Author

Derek Marin is the founder of Simple Selling, a sales and marketing agency for MSPs.