https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

Sales & Marketing


The Art of Managed Services Sales – From The Olive Garden?

  • Written by Joe Panettieri 1
  • January 19, 2011

I had dinner last night with a few MSP industry insiders. One of them is a business intelligence expert. She spends her days focused on Google Analytics, lead generation and sales pipelines. Somehow, we started discussing early career moves. She mentioned her early experiences at the Olive Garden restaurant chain. To my surprise, she described how the Olive Garden measures employee performance (i.e., sales) and other daily business metrics. It made me think: If restaurant chains with college employees have mastered the art of the upsell, why haven’t MSPs?

Let me give you a few upsell and sales management examples:

  • Freemium: The BI expert told me how freemium actually has a role within the Olive Garden — unlimited bread, salad and pasta all at a fixed cost. Clientele think they’re getting a lot of “free” value for their dollar, but she had never seen someone consume more than three servings of pasta. Translation: Olive Garden’s profit margins were doing just fine, thank you very much, and customers were getting a lot of bang for their buck.
  • Sample this, pay for that: Also, she explained how restaurants leave a house bottle of wine on the table for guests to sample. The product placement generated massive upsells for wine and then coffee and dessert.
  • Measure Everything: At the end of each evening, restaurant employees were measured on their ability to upsell and cross sell appetizers, drinks and dessert with main courses. Simple financial math revealed which employees knew how to generate the most revenue per customer over the long-haul.

This is really basic stuff, of course. And the strategies are proven. Olive Garden, owned by Darden, has more than 700 restaurants, more than 87,000 employees and $3.3 billion in annual sales. Is it time for MSPs to emulate that cross-selling and up-selling recipe for success?

Note: I’m double-checking to see if my Business Intelligence source is willing to share her name and company affiliation with readers. I wasn’t taking notes during our conversation, though I hope I captured the essence of the discussion. Update, 11:09 a.m. eastern, Jan. 19 2011: The source for the article was Erica Santo, a business intelligence expert at ConnectWise. I received the green light to publish her name a few minutes ago.

Sign up for MSPmentor’s Weekly Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow us via RSS, Facebook, Identi.ca and Twitter. Check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com. Read our editorial disclosure here.

Tags: Cloud Service Providers Digital Service Providers MSPs VARs/SIs MSP 501 Sales & Marketing

Related


  • 501 Somewhere Logo
    It’s 501 Somewhere: Janet Schijns on Transformational Leadership
    Schijns talks about what it takes to be a true leader, transformational technology, and her three steps for success.
  • Woman Thumbs Up
    HPE, Synnex Channel Execs Look Forward to Former Intel CTO Returning as CEO
    One Intel partner calls Gelsinger an industry veteran and visionary.
  • Managed migration
    D&H Extends Financing Terms to Help Partners Amid COVID-19
    Sales through this program increased approximately 85% in the past year to date, year over year.
  • Hornet
    Hornetsecurity Acquires Altaro for Expanded Security Services
    Hornetsecurity is the leading email security provider in Europe.

5 comments

  1. Avatar Britt January 19, 2011 @ 3:19 pm
    Reply

    I would love to hear some examples on how MSP are successfully up-selling. What services are most commonly and successfully cross-sold for which services?
    I love this article, I always thought the Olive Garden were geniuses for putting the bottle of wine on the table, gets me every time.

  2. Avatar Stuart Selbst January 19, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
    Reply

    Joe,

    Thanks for sharing. I would like to address Britt’s comment.

    Britt, I would recommend to you to come up with your version of the question “Would you like fries with that”. We have all answered yes to that question in a drive through or at the counter.

    Services that I am seeing MSPs up-sell successfully are business continuity, email filtering and encryption and hardware as a service. I literally just had a partner tell me that he has sold 12 new computers this month alone.

    I believe that the key to up-selling is showing the business justification of the services. For instance, if you pitch business continuity and they say, what will that do for me and my business? You now have an open forum to tell the customer everything that it can do; they haven’t said no, they are letting you “sell” them on the solution.

    Again, Joe, thank you for sharing and I look forward to more great posts.

    Stuart
    Stuart Selbst Consulting
    http://www.stuartselbst.com

  3. Avatar Joe Panettieri January 19, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
    Reply

    Update: The source for the article was Erica Santo, a business intelligence expert at ConnectWise.

    Britt@1: The biggest upsell I keep hearing about involves VoIP — handsets, soft phones, hosted VoIP, unified communications apps.

    Stuart@2: On the HaaS front, I’m starting to hear from MSPs who want to become Google HaaS promoters — forthcoming Chrome OS networks and Android tablets. Watching closely to see if HaaS business models emerge around Google’s OS platforms…
    -jp

  4. Avatar Tim Brewer January 20, 2011 @ 5:05 pm
    Reply

    I was able to make Erica’s session at the ITNation. She had a great understanding and application of data in the sales and marketing areas. It was inspiring like the story above…..Tim Brewer

  5. Avatar Joe Panettieri January 21, 2011 @ 10:23 pm
    Reply

    Tim: She’s sharp. I spend about an hour a day in Google Analytics but I felt like a novice while we were talking. That’s why I switched the topic to Olive Garden… I’m good at following food conversations.
    -jp

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Pax8 Follows Wirehive Acquisition with $96 Million in New Equity Capital
  • Alteryx Chooses Palo Alto Networks Vet to Lead Go-to-Market Plan
  • 2020 MSP 501 Full Report
  • MSP 501 Profile: Monroy IT Services with a Minority's Perspective on the Channel

Galleries

View all

New, Changing Partner Programs: AWS, Tech Data, Avaya, Verizon

January 11, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

The Importance of Being Security-Centric

January 22, 2021

Cyberattacks: Threat Hunters Conquer Unpredictability with 3 Measures

January 21, 2021

The Right Data Migration Tool Helps Schools Move to Cloud During COVID Crisis

January 19, 2021

Webinars

View all

Who’s Behind the Mask? Hacker Personas Explained

January 26, 2021

Your Network Perimeter Has Changed

February 18, 2021

How Managed Hosting Providers Thrive with the Alternative Cloud

February 24, 2021

White Papers

View all

Why Subscription Business Model

January 15, 2021

The Ultimate MSP Guide to Sales Efficiency

January 14, 2021

Eight Reasons Why MSPs Need IT Industry-Specific Sales Tools

January 14, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Virtual

March 2, 2021 - March 4, 2021

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@exabeam, @VulcanCyber, @ntti3, @Vectra_AI, @Lookout and @valtixinc give high marks to @POTUS' federal… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

Judge sides with @AWScloud against #Parler; @SADAsystems gets AI-centric board member; @EnsonoIT, @navisite get… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

2021 may be the year of the #security-centric #MSP @BarracudaMSP #remoteworking #ITsecurity #dataprotection #RMM… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

Adding #AIOps and #AI-driven WANs will help IT administrators move forward, says @MistSystems.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

Microsoft taps @tybryson as corporate VP @msuspartner group @julwhite heading to SAP, @anderson to @Qualtrics.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

#MSPs can inject predictability into #threathunting @Sophos #cybersecurity #ransomware dlvr.it/Rr4ffV https://t.co/Bztc2Yxwvc

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@RiskBased report shows decrease in #databreaches, jump in exposed records in 2020. dlvr.it/Rr4fcW https://t.co/PYiDMiJFbt

January 22, 2021
ChannelFutures

Legal experts say @VMware's #lawsuit against @nutanix's new CEO holds little weight. dlvr.it/Rr48FJ https://t.co/oLxPhgvgAt

January 21, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X