“Doing more with less” has become increasingly important as competition in the MSP space continues to grow, squeezing profit margins in the process. One of the most effective ways for MSPs to improve their operational and management efficiency is to introduce automation into their workflow. Automation enables an MSP’s technicians to spend less time handling routine tasks, thus significantly cutting the MSP’s costs for service delivery.

Equally important, automation enables MSPs to devote more time and resources to expanding and enhancing the quality of the services they provide to clients. This is key because delivering superior services is essential to ensuring customer satisfaction and the consequent long-term relationships that enable MSPs to lock in predictable, recurring revenue.

While automation can play a fundamental role in helping MSPs boost efficiency and enrich the quality and variety of their services, it can also deliver significant benefits in terms of enhancing sales and marketing effectiveness. And make no mistake, sales and marketing initiatives can significantly strengthen the enduring customer relationships (and resulting steady revenue stream) that powers every MSP’s profitability.

For example, to bolster customer relationships an MSP’s sales team can use automation to personalize its marketing and sales collateral for existing clients. Post-sales communications that target customers’ specific business challenges show the MSP is aware of—and actively engaged in solving—those challenges. Such customized marketing efforts help remind clients the MSP is committed to strengthening relationships long after the initial sale has been made.

These post-sales communications can take many forms: customer satisfaction surveys, requests for feedback on specific solutions the MSP offers, newsletters that offer useful tips and advice on IT challenges customers may face … All are techniques that can help MSPs stay top of mind with their clients and increase customer retention.

Not only does automation enable an MSP’s sales and marketing team to create more personalized and compelling content for existing clients, it helps them do it very quickly. This in turn frees up more time they can use to drive marketing and sales initiatives for new prospects. Automation is equally effective in this role, significantly streamlining processes such as lead generation, lead scoring, lead nurturing and lead routing.

Automation also simplifies the generation of executive reports that can be periodically submitted to clients. These reports to customers are particularly useful to remind them of specific services the MSP has provided (along with compelling statistics such as the total system uptime the client received), reinforcing the value of those services and helping to keep the benefits of partnering with the MSP top of mind for clients.

Learn More, and Enter for a Chance to Win!

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This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.