WHY YOUR SALES/MARKETING AUTOMATION INVESTMENT WON’T BEAR RESULTS

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THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO MSP MARKETING & SALES ENABLEMENT THAN JUST SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTATION

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MSP sales and marketing enablement has gained a lot of popularity. More and more MSPs are looking to leverage sales and marketing automation platforms in a bid to improve their overall sales figures. The truth is, purchasing a sales or marketing automation platform alone will never help.
This blogpost talks about the groundwork you need to build for your sales and marketing enablement program to work for you.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS

The first step for any MSP, is to develop a solid understanding of its business. Sure, you know all about the IT services you are offering, but what about your business? As a MSP Sales and Marketing Enablement consultant, I am amazed at the number of MSPs who don’t have a formal business plan. Most MSPs know they NEED to have a solid game-plan in place for marketing and sales, but they are just not able to prepare one owing to one or more of the following:

  • Lack of sales and marketing experience
  • Lack of sales and marketing resources
  • The MSPs are too busy working in the business rather than on the business

However, it is very important to step back and invest some time and resources in generating a business plan. If you feel you lack the expertise, then you could bring a MSP sales or marketing consultant on board to help you with the process. But, under no circumstances can you skip this.

MARKET ANALYSIS

The next step is to analyze your market, your customer base. You need to identify your key customer segments, the market size of each of them and answer questions like—

  • Which generates the most revenue?
  • Which is the easiest to close?
  • Which is the easiest to service?
  • Who are the most satisfied customers?
  • What’s your positioning that separates you from your competitors in these markets?

ANALYZE YOUR SALES & MARKETING FUNNEL

The next step is to analyze your marketing and sales funnel. You need to understand the conversion rates at every level of your sales funnel. This is important so you know at which stage you are losing your leads. You need to closely examine the conversion rates from MQLs to SQLs to customers. Then, based on the conversion rates, you need to align your marketing and sales strategies to match your revenue goals. For example, if you are converting 25 leads out of the 100 you get every quarter, then in order to sign 50 SLAs a quarter, you need to generate 200 leads—and tweak your marketing plan to deliver that.