The term, marketing, and sales enablement for managed service providers (MSP Sales Enablement) is currently very loosely defined in the market. There are very few MSP marketing sales enablement service providers in the true sense. In fact, a lot of them package basic marketing automation programs as MSP marketing and sales enablement tools. The truth is, the sales and marketing challenges faced by managed service providers are so specific to their industry that a one-size-fits-all marketing automation software won’t help them. In our blog this week, we discuss what MSP sales enablement must really cover.
Deployment-ready, relevant sales, and marketing content
Most MSPs don’t have a dedicated marketing team or even a dedicated marketing content person. Our research shows that over 85% of MSPs rely on freelance content writers to create marketing and sales content for them. This presents 2 challenges. First, Not many freelance content writers have experience in creating MSP-specific content, so getting quality content to share with their prospects is a challenge for most MSPs; and secondly, it is expensive, so they don’t purchase new content often, which means, there is a dearth of fresh marketing content to keep prospects interested. For any MSP marketing and sales enablement program to work, it needs to offer MSPs, ready-to-use, relevant sales, and marketing content that resonates with their target audience and do so consistently at regular intervals.
Sales and marketing coaching and guidance from industry experts
As discussed above, most MSPs don’t have dedicated marketing resources. They also don’t have marketing and sales expertise. True MSP marketing and sales enablement entail offering the managed service providers regular sales and marketing coaching and training so they can make the most of their investment in the MSP marketing and sales enablement tools. For example, providing email marketing content and an email marketing program is not enough. MSPs need to be told how often to engage in email marketing campaigns with their prospects. They also need mechanisms such as dedicated MSP-specific playbooks that offer step-by-step guidance on what to say to their prospects, when to say and how to say it. Any MSP marketing and sales enablement provider must remember, MSPs are great at what they do–manage their client’s IT infrastructure, but are often clueless when it comes to marketing and selling, because that’s simply not their core strength.
Powerful sales and marketing automation tools that help them accomplish a lot more than before in relatively lesser time
Then comes the sales and marketing tools. MSPs need more than just email and social media automation to market and sell their services effectively. They need end-to-end marketing and sales support that covers the entire buyer’s journey. This includes email marketing, social media marketing, print marketing support, powerful MSP websites, prospect activity tracking and scoring, and lead nurturing. In short, the MSP sales and marketing automation software should cover every aspect of the MSP sales cycle–from lead generation to closure.
Concierge support
Many MSPs invest in a sales and marketing automation platform that lets them run marketing and sales campaigns. However, they often have far too much going on to bother to learn to use it effectively. MSP marketing concierge services that cover sales and marketing campaigns or platform setup, ensure MSPs and IT service providers don’t have to worry about the details. Examples include creating a complete partner profile in the system, setting up marketing and sales campaigns for them, etc. MSP marketing and sales concierge services are a great mechanism to increase MSP sales and marketing ROI.