The art of acquiring new customers and maintaining the growth curve.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have been offering their service for more than two decades now. The global growth is expected to increase exponentially. It has been a tough road for some MSPs to find their path towards consistent business growth. More light will be shed to the ways MSPs can work towards their growth in this 3 part series. Each series is dedicated to a specific and essential component:
- In the First part, we will discuss the jumpstart method to growing and acquiring new customers as an early stage MSP.
- In the second part, we will discuss in-depth the techniques to maximize the profit margins as well as optimizing the process.
- In the last part, we would shed light on tried and tested ways to protect the revenue, retain existing customers, and increase profits.
Let’s begin by understanding the journey of an MSP in its early stage. It happens in one of the two ways:
- Transition – The hallmark of an MSP business are the monthly recurring revenue better known as MRR. Once the setup is ready with a team of technicians and cash flow, the next step is to lock in some reliable MRR contracts. This brings in a regular stream of cash flow.
- A Jack of all trades starts to swing solo with his own IT management service provider firm. He takes it upon himself to handle each task personally from tackling finances to handling the business management services.
Everyone wants to know the secret to scaling high in the business. It is simple, find more customers interested in the services offered by you. MSPs have found their way to solve the trouble with capacity issues, sales, or even support organization with automation and outsourcing.
Salesperson who has the right knowledge and expertise can help with growth which means bringing in more clients. With more clients and cash flow it becomes difficult to maintain and manage the investment. Similarly, more technically sound people would be required to serve the customers. Which means high-demand for support staff. If you fall short at bringing experienced staff, chances are you will be down in no time.
Do not get sales and marketing confused, the two are very different. In order for a salesperson to sell, there must be incoming leads. All businesses need a mechanism in place that will feed your sales funnel. How do you get people interested in your business? A strategic marketing plan. We will dive deeper in other segments, but marketing will be the key component that will put your group on the map.
The Role of Automation and Foundational Tools
The first tool is Remote Monitoring & Management (RMM), it is a software that is designed to remotely and proactively monitor the networks, computers, and client endpoints. The technicians can very well remotely install the updates, handle software, and also administer, patches etc. This empowers MSPs to deploy the effective staff and also elevate the customer experience. Early stage MSPs are focused on doing more and achieving more with the tool.
- Professional Service Automation (PSA), it is a software application suite which handles the core business processes inclusive of resource management, time, project, and expense management, all wrapped in one. The RMM and PSA tools are usually integrated and used for better efficiency.
- Customer relationship management tool, it tracks the sales opportunity as well as ticketing for the service desk.
The tech savvy or even the less-techie MSP staffers can work well with these tools. In order to work well with automation and also meet the objectives that make MSPs great. Outsourcing is another strategy that is suggested to be implemented by MSPs. Business outsourcing has an array of tasks including accounting, sales, and marketing that usually is out of the area of competency of MSPs. The automation and outsourcing task gives elasticity to the growth of MSP, which is not constrained by the staff length. Automation and outsourcing, can dramatically alter the course of business from being the reactive one to becoming the proactive one, that leads to greater efficiency and also cost saving. MSPs implement every possible technique and tool to proficiently run their business. Strong foundation and adopting the best practice has helped businesses prosper.
At Single Point of Contact, we strive to be an extension of your business so your customers always receive the quality service they have come to expect. Whether you need additional 24/7 computer support or have a new client that needs new support you aren’t equipped to handle at this time, we can help you out. Feel free to contact us at any time to schedule a consultation to go over all of your important needs.
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