I’m consistently seeing one big mistake being made over and over again by computer consultants trying to sell managed services that is killing any chance they have of successfully convincing new (and existing!) customers to sign on the dotted line.
Plus, it’s not a mistake that is obvious to most like the omission of a headline, offer, urgency, or testimonials. I suppose that is why so many people are omitting it from their marketing campaigns.
What is it? Talking about the actual service (features) INSTEAD of the results (benefits). Yes, I know you've been told this a million times...sell benefits not features. So why are the vast majority violating this rule?
Let me shed some light...
First off, the only reason people buy anything is purely for self-serving reasons. They don’t buy stuff because they should, because it’s the right thing to do, the smart thing to do, or because they really need it. If that were the case, we’d all buy (and eat) healthy food, take our vitamins, adequately invest our money for retirement, and kick a very long list of bad habits that keep us sick, broke, and fat.
Do you know why most people go to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned? The primary motivator is NOT to be healthy or to prevent tooth decay. Those are the logical reasons. People are primarily motivated to go to the dentist for a cleaning because they’re afraid of having a nasty, stinky mouth. Toothpaste marketers figured this out years ago. If you market toothpaste as a way of preventing cavities, you’ll sell a bit; but if you market toothpaste as a cosmetic that will whiten your teeth and freshen your breath, you’ll sell the product like hotcakes.
So what does this have to do with selling managed services?
First, you have to ask yourself, what would motivate someone to buy? Obviously if someone is experiencing constant problems with their network, they are more likely to buy because they are in pain. For this type of client, you have to demonstrate why they should trust you to solve their pain over all the other options they have available. By the way, this is why I strongly recommend a stay-in-touch marketing system for all unconverted leads. Since you don’t know when their network is finally going to break, you want to constantly stay in touch with them so they think of you when it eventually does OR when their current IT person has finally committed the “last straw” and they are fed up with the lousy service they are getting.
But what about the client who is NOT experiencing problems? Why would they buy? What would motivate them to “fix” something that ain’t broke?
In a sense, they need to be “scared straight.” They need to be educated about the devastating problems that can crop up when a network is not maintained, secured, and monitored. They must feel uneasy about the security of their data and the health of their network and actually “see” how a fatal crash would affect their business. Next, they have to be convinced that YOU are the one who can actually help them avoid all of this.
Yet the managed services marketing I see is all about what managed services is and what it does - 25-7 support, everything's covered, spam filtering, network security, etc. That is not going to convince anyone to do anything. Heck, most won’t take 3 seconds to read your flyer. If you want them to read your marketing and actually act on it, you’ll need to take the time in your marketing – either through seminars, teleseminars, audio recordings, long sales letters, or free reports – to educate the client in a powerful, convincing, and interesting way.
If you do that and constantly hammer your message home over a period of time, they will (eventually) reach the tipping point when they will buy. I don’t know when that is and some will take much longer than others, but the key is to consistently do the right things, in the right way, long enough to have impact.
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