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 Channel Futures

MSP 501


Five Places to Find MSP Sales Talent

  • Written by Joe Panettieri 1
  • June 10, 2008

I hear it all the time: When VARs transition to a managed services business model, they often turn over some (or all) of their sales staff. So where can you find new sales talent that eagerly embraces change and new challenges? Here are five suggestions:

1. The Real Estate Industry: My dad has sold residential and commercial real estate in New York for about 45 years. In his words, he’s “never seen a real estate market this bad.” While he continues to do well in real estate, thousands of brokers and salespeople are leaving the market in search of greener pastures.

Check in with your local real estate brokers to see if they can recommend former salespeople who have great attitudes, strong client relationships and a commitment to face-to-face customer interactions.

2. The Auto Dealership Industry: As gasoline pushes beyond $4 per gallon, it’s safe to assume that sales of big 4x4s and Hummers are drying up. Visit auto dealers to see if they’ve lost any talented sales people in recent months, and try to get contact information for them.

3. The Travel Industry: Internet ticketing systems and high fuel prices have disrupted — or destroyed — traditional travel agencies. But agents who previously handled large group sales for cruises and other high-priced travel may have the organizational skills needed to coordinate multiple MSP sales engagements.

4. Your Own Web Site: Even if you don’t have any current openings, always advertise sales positions on your web site. And meet with at least one candidate per month, so that you stockpile contact information for qualified candidates.

5. Your Own Office: Why does John Doe fail in one company but thrive in another? Often, failure involves mismanagement or an organization that doesn’t properly evaluate its own talent.

As you shift to a managed services model, be sure to have clearly written and communicated job descriptions. How do the new sales quotas, commissions and customer engagements work? Host internal weekly workshops to describe how your transitioning to managed services, and make sure everyone in the room fully understands their responsibilities.

Try to minimize your own biases (“John’s only strength is X”) and remember that some employees will successfully reinvent themselves. But have clear deadlines and milestones in place, so that you’re measuring employees’ progress on a monthly basis.

If you need to make cuts or changes, you’ll have a paper trail containing missed milestones and missed sales quotas that may make parting ways easier.

Tags: MSPs MSP 501

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4 comments

  1. Avatar Lane Smith June 10, 2008 @ 1:37 pm
    Reply

    I was just talking with one of my resellers about this topic yesterday. He is having a very hard time finding sales people that can sell managed services.

    I told him to to stop looking for people in the tech industry. We have found that the more technical a sales person is the less likely they are to succeed at selling services. The last conversation you want your sales rep having with the CEO of a prospect is how cool the new server hardware is that you are proposing.

    You need to find somone that knows how to sell. That is the skill you are looking for not their knowledge of technology.

  2. Avatar Joe Panettieri June 10, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
    Reply

    I generally agree: If somebody is/was a rain maker in one market (say, auto sales or real estate), they can sell in the MSP industry. This isn’t about pitching tech. It’s about communicating business value, predictability and trust.

  3. Avatar Jim Van June 11, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
    Reply

    I’m surprised that there aren’t more postings here, as this is, from everyone I’ve spoken to, a common problem…

    We’ve found that people who have sold telephone services, whether LDC, tele-sales, or the like do very well selling managed services. I’d imagine, however, and plan to explore Joe’s suggestion regarding real estate sales and auto sales people for my next search.

    Definitely, techies are not the way to go. EMC is a fine example. During their heyday, they used to hire sales execs based on whether they played college football. The result: an aggressive sales force trained by EMC to go out and sell, sell, sell. Failure was not an option. Ugly, but profitable…

  4. Avatar Joe Panettieri June 12, 2008 @ 12:16 am
    Reply

    Jim: I love that last line about “ugly but profitable.”

    On the one hand, I admired EMC’s sales success. Winning big is fun. And I carried the pigskin in my day (though not very well…).

    But sometimes winning isn’t sustainable if your entire corporate culture is built around one image of success. EMC learned that lesson. As did Cabletron (the former networking giant), which had a high-octane sales team but stumbled at the hands of Cisco in the 1990s.

    As the economy continues to disrupt (to put it politely…) transportation, auto, real estate and other verticals, let’s hope MSPs evaluate that talent, and strive to bring a range of expertise into their organizations.

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