Generating Sales Leads: a Challenge for MSPs
As a managed services provider, you likely face the daunting task of generating leads for your business. In order to generate leads, MSP marketing tools should be a be a focus. Also, to succeed you have to build a reliable and solid client base. For that you need to learn how to generate inbound leads and convert them into sales. But you don’t have the time, the resources and training for that complicated process. You are an IT specialist, not a marketing specialist. And it is a very unsettling realization that without leads your technicians will just sit idly by.
But there are reasons to smile even though there are some uphill tasks. In this ever expanding universe of technology and innovation, many ways of generating leads could be at your fingertips. There is no lack of sources of raw leads. But it is how you cultivate these leads is how you generate sales.
Here are those sources
- Email campaigns
- Websites with customized SEO
- Direct mailing
Telemarketing
- Networking, using social media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc.)
- Trade shows can generate some very useful leads in B2B marketing
- Lists of leads sold by direct marketing companies
All these sources sit on the top of sales funnel. When potential buyers respond the leads begin to come in. It is like an ocean full of fish. But identifying and converting specific leads for your business is like trying to catch fish with your bare hands. The real work begins when an MSP has to generate sales from the flood of raw leads that these sources produce. It is almost impossible without some help. The challenge is to identify those leads that have the potential of becoming prospects and then convert them into sales.
There are three ways to identify potential customers
- In conventional modes of advertising (print and broadcast media, direct mailings interested lead will initiate the contact with you to purchase your services.
- In areas such as telemarketing, trade shows and lead lists, you will initiate the contact with a prospective buyer.
- In the cyber age a lead can be identified by its behavior on line (websites, emails, social media
usage). Here either you or your prospect may initiate the contact.
Now you know who your possible leads are. The next step will be to separate the hot leads from the cold leads. Then start nurturing the hot leads until they convert into buyers..