By AVG Guest Blog

Small businesses today increasingly depend on an ever greater variety of IT platforms and software to help support their core functions. Their infrastructure often comprises a hybrid mix of traditional office-based PCs and servers combined with multiple mobile devices and cloud-based applications. To maintain optimal efficiency these systems need continuous monitoring and management.

With so many different options available no two customers are likely to share the same IT needs or have the same dependency on their network. The old “cookie-cutter” days when you could offer customers a choice between two or three types of service package are gone. Now if you want to stand out from the crowd you need to understand not just your prospective customers’ IT but their business objectives too. 

Planning for your clients’ future

Understanding your clients’ needs plays an instrumental role in any business or industry. As a services provider you not only have to study your prospects’ needs you must also be able to demonstrate that your services offering is fully aligned. Your clients will want to know that you will work with them to plan additional services for the future as they grow.

By offering both flexible and scalable services to match different profile types, you’ll be able to align your company’s services to the challenges of your prospects. Whether you choose to focus on specific industries, or simply create a target prospect profile – being able to address varied business needs is a key ingredient for success. 

Selling intangible benefits

Solution-based selling differs considerably from a product-based sales process.  When selling a product, the prospect generally has an understanding of what the product is. They have a perception of what the product looks like or how it functions – it’s a tangible item, a commodity. 

Often in service or solution sales, the prospect often does not fully understand what the service or its delivery involves. The reason for this gap is simple – a product allows the prospect to perform a specific task that may or may not generate revenue; for example, a server, firewall, copier or even a stapler. On the other hand a managed service solution provides the prospect with more intangible benefits such as peace of mind, cost savings and ROI. 

Highlighting costs, inefficiencies and value

To overcome the challenges facing solution-based sales, Managed Services Providers (MSPs) must match their services to the prospects’ core business functions and needs. The best way to win over any doubts is to highlight to the prospect their current IT costs, the inefficiencies within their network and how much staff and business productivity is affected by staying with a fee-for-service or break-fix support model. 

Arrange a consulting session for your sales team to conduct a full audit of their systems.  This will give you detailed information that will help you recommend solutions that help customers achieve their business objectives as opposed to simply selling products.

Helping your prospect to identify their IT issues in this way – and to see what they are costing them – allows you to easily demonstrate the dollar savings between conventional break-fix services or even a basic managed service solution. When selling managed services, ‘mean time to resolution’ is often a very effective tool. 

Getting an edge

Differentiating your services and sales tactics and offering solutions customized for individual prospects will give your managed service business an edge. Technology is evolving quickly and by offering solutions, you’ll have the flexibility to adapt alongside the industry.

Mike Byrne is Director of Partner Enablement, SMB at AVG Technologies. A veteran of the MSP market, Mike has previously held senior SMB Channel positions at PacketTrap (Dell), Quest Software, GFI Software and N-able Technologies (SolarWinds).