As a managed service provider, are you facing trouble generating quality leads? Let’s rephrase this question. Are you facing trouble closing the leads you have? No matter which question you answer yes to, the solution is the same–to understand your leads and build a clear lead profile, so you focus your MSP sales and marketing efforts where it matters the most, and consequently close more leads, faster. Here’s how to do it.  

Figure out who your prospects are

First, try to understand who your prospects are. Answer questions like

• Where are they located?
• Which industry do they belong to?
• What are their key challenges in terms of IT?

Who are your current customers?

Looking at your current client base will help you refine your prospect profile. What does your ideal customer look like?

• Draw up a detailed persona of each customer type in your target market. Document their title, role, position in the decision-making hierarchy, etc.
• Target Industry: Find out which industry verticals they belong to. Then find out your success rates with each of them. This exercise will help you understand the industry that’s most suitable for your services.
• Buying Process: Document the typical sales process that you go through when converting leads into clients. How much time does it take to convert a lead? What are the key milestones in the process?

Now it’s time to put the information you collected to use! Utilize the data you collected to enhance your marketing efforts in multiple ways such as to

• Develop personalized marketing programs: You can customize your marketing and sales campaigns to suit the ideal prospect profile.
• Generate sales and marketing collateral specific to the target industries: If you were using unfocused, generic sales and marketing materials, you can use the data you collected about your target industry to engage in more focused marketing campaigns by developing sales and marketing assets that address the specific issues of each core target industry vertical.
• Documented sales and marketing best practices: Once you have a clear view of the buyer’s journey and the key milestones in the sales process, you can use that information to chalk out a successful sales process. Use the information to streamline your marketing and sales processes to speed up the buyer’s journey and shorten the sales cycle. Identify marketing and sales best practices to be followed at each step of the sales cycle. Create and use MSP sales and marketing assets that are relevant to your prospect’s milestones in the sales cycle and see them warm up sooner to you. 

Seems like a lot of work? We can help!

Designed especially for the busy MSP by Mindmatrix, a company with 23+ years of sales and marketing enablement experience, the MSP Advantage Program offers a unique blend of sales and marketing support, content and technology to help MSPs truly succeed. The MSP Advantage Program lets MSPs like you focus on what you do best: Providing Managed IT Services without worrying about sales and marketing, while still enabling you to attract new business. Please visit www.mspadvantageprogram.com to learn more!