Is Managed Services Your Saving Grace In This Tough Economy?

While many of the MSPs out there are suffering in this down economy, a handful of my clients are looking at this with excited anticipation for closing more business. Let me explain…

In a "down" economy, businesses desperately look for ways to cut costs. Stupidly, marketing is one of the first things cut…but so is IT. That's because most business owners look at IT as a "necessary evil" of running a business. So if you think about it, managed services is something that can SAVE businesses with 'bloated' IT departments a TON of money. For one, outsourcing IT support to a managed services provider is MUCH cheaper than hiring a junior IT manager to do it all for you. That's a cost savings that anyone who can add and subtract can figure out. Plus, it can free up an IT manager to work on more strategic projects so the company doesn't need to increase staff. Or it can replace a junior network administrator or IT person saving the company thousands of dollars and often providing better support (sorry folks, I know it's Christmas and I don't wish that on anyone, but looking for ways to improve operations while saving money is a constant in any business).

If you're a managed services provider struggling to generate new sales, take a look at the way you are promoting yourself. What's the key message you are delivering? What is your value proposition? What is the net-net-net benefits of your services? If your answer is "24-7" monitoring, you're completely missing the boat. The fact everyone is cutting back is an excellent time to talk about how you can help them do just that! I would suggest you drastically change your message to how you can save businesses money - but in very clear and specific terms. Saying "we'll save you a lot of money" is vague and is said by every other vendor out there. Talk SPECIFICS, then back that up with testimonials, case studies and guarantees.

And of course, if you want to see exactly how to do this, join me at one of my upcoming 1/2 day workshops: http://budurl.com/marketingseminar

 

Posted via email from Robin Robin's Managed IT Services Sales Training