Moving from a Packaged to a Consultative Sales Process

Shannon Murphy

Few would argue with the idea that your managed service provider business needs a sales process, but opinions diverge on what sort of sales process you should adopt.

Packaged sales offerings have been popular among MSPs because they make it easier to deliver consistent services at set prices instead of one-offs for every client. Removing customizations from the equation and having all customers buy from a small catalog of predetermined offerings sounds like an administrative dream. Taken too far, however, packaged sales practices can alienate customers, making them feel like a number.

To be a genuine solution provider, you must offer consultation and customization — that is the true value add. You provide your customers with much more than managed services; they also benefit from your advice, knowledge and expertise. Or, at least, they should.

Middle Ground on Customization

Is there a middle ground between the efficiencies of a packaged approach and the value of a consultative one? Here are five ways to modify your sales process to do just that.

1. Start with the problem, not the package. A consultative sale starts with a lot of listening. Uncovering your client’s pain points and understanding their needs will help you be more prescriptive. Often customers don’t know exactly what they need, so what they ask for may be too general (e.g., “We need cybersecurity.”) or too specific (e.g., “I want antivirus software.”) and not the best-fit solution. It’s important to ask why they think they need that solution to uncover the root problem.

Based on what you learn, you may recommend a preset package. (After all, your packages were built to meet the needs of most businesses.) The key is articulating how that offering supports their business requirements. Plus, an extensive review of your prospect’s business and, especially, their goals usually uncovers cross-selling or upselling opportunities.

2. Research the customer and tailor your approach. While listening to your customer is vital, you should also do your research – before, during and after the sale. Go beyond basic demographic information so you can tailor your proposal. Here are a few questions to guide your research:

• Who are its primary competitors?
• From the outside, what appears to differentiate your customer from its competitors?
• What can you learn about the space in which the company operates? Are there statistics or news articles about growth and challenges that could guide your conversation?
• What can you uncover about the customer’s past activities? Were there any acquisitions? Expansions? Major product or service changes? Researching these things could trigger some quality questions about their tech infrastructure.

You will gain a lot of knowledge about their customers, day-to-day challenges and goals for the future when you sit down with them, but these questions can help you better prepare for a truly consultative interaction.

3. Create packages tailored for verticals.

Specializing in serving the needs of companies in a vertical industry is inherently consultative when done right. You can even build offerings that solve pain points for those vertical prospects for the best of both worlds – consultation and packaging.

The key is to get specific. So, instead of specializing in health care, you’ll want to narrow the company profile. There’s a huge difference in needs between a solo dentist office and a regional medical center with multiple branches.

How do you choose? There are a few approaches:

• One is to follow the money. A little market research will shed light on which types of companies are spending on digital transformation or your specific solution set.
• Another, more organic approach is to look at your existing customer base and find clusters of similar businesses. The beauty of this strategy is that you already understand and have solved problems in your expert area. You also have a ready referral network that you can activate and testimonials for that all-important social proof, which makes selling that much easier.

4. Personalize proposal materials. This seems like a no-brainer, but one way to assure customers they are buying from you for a reason – that they are getting the added value of your experience, expertise and relationships – is to personalize your sales materials with your brand. This advice applies especially to …