I have worked with over 100 service providers of all stripes – ISP, WISP, MSP, CLEC, ILEC, MSO, cableco, VoIP/UCaaS, CCaaS, cellco and fiber providers. Most come to me with Marketing concerns. They want Lead Generation or Sales. Here are some of the best practices to put in place marketing wise for your service provider business.
Marketing is not a silver bullet. You have to DO the marketing – continually – for a period of time – for it to work. It takes 20+ touches to get a prospect’s attention now. So if tried calling twice or marketing for a month or two — you wasted your time. That isn’t 20 different touches of the Prospect. There are many vehicles to get your message across to them. Make a plan, work the plan.
On the sales side there is Cadence. This is a good article about it. “The sales cadence is the sequence of sales activities or a series of activities a sales rep initiates to try and establish contact with a prospect or make a sale with potential clients.” How to get the 20 varying touches. [This is the best ebook on sales cadence examples.]
This post is from an IT provider explaining 3 things he learned from a RR workshop. Much of it is Marketing 101 – something that companies skip over sometimes.
Who is your Buyer? What is the target? What does your Buyer look like?
What pain can you solve?
Tell a story that resonates.
Marketing starts with your Value. What is your Value Proposition? Why should someone buy from YOU instead of the others that look just like you?
This MSP explains how he designed a Purple Cow in order to stand out from other MSPs. I’m not saying you need to build an app or anything, but you need to know what makes you different. It isn’t a feature or “your people”. It can be your culture (see Zappos; RIP Tony Hsieh) or a benefit that your customers derive from working with you.
If you are looking for Lead Gen, there are a number of MSP specific firms that can provide that for you. Robin Robins doesn’t do the work for you. She provides tools that you have to use (customize) for your business to then actually do the marketing.
One complaint for service providers is that although vendors provide collateral or marketing assistance, they don’t have the time or desire or know how to get it done. Help is available. Mojo Marketing, MindMatrix, Ulistic, MSPMarketing and others.
Besides Robin, there are other peer groups to join – CompTIA, IT Nation, Tech Tribe and ASCII. Peer groups help you network with other like minded people who understand your business and struggles. There is a lot to be gained from a MasterMind group, but you only get out of it what you put into it. You end up working ON your business as well as IN your business – but that’s how you get it to grow.
Other ideas to try yourself:
Build a Prospect List. Use a CRM and an email platform like MailChimp.
Write scripts for email, elevator pitches, voicemail, phone calls. Constantly tweak these. Share them with the whole company so every employee is on the same script.
Google Adwords! Understand the keyword that YOUR customers would search for, build landing pages around that keyword and offer. Track it!
Direct mail still works. It requires many touches.
For 2021, the marketing experts say that Influencers will be the key. So find out who your customers would listen to – and partner with them.
LinkedIn! You might try the strategy this MSP used. Daily habits equal sales.
Do you curate testimonials and reviews? I was just speaking with a company that automates that for you called NiceJob out of Vancouver.
Pick a program and work it to more sales in 2021. Need help? As always give the office a call at (813) 963-5884 for all of your sales and marketing needs!
Additional Resources!
Email or cold calls? The dilemma examined HERE.
Sales Cadence – what is it and how to by FreshWorks
How to Create a Sales Cadence That Doesn’t Annoy Prospects by Copper CRM.
Sales Cadence data in 2020 examined by YesWare
Pipedrive CRM has a sales academy.
The big book of sales plays by InsideOut.
