According to BCC Research, the global managed IT services market could be worth more than $250 billion by the year 2021. This sector in thriving, and the capacity for value-added resellers (VARs), break/fix providers, or emerging MSPs to achieve scalable, successful growth in IT is significant.
Capitalizing on this proactive, preventative approach to IT services is more effective than running around putting out fires. Additionally, this model can lead to higher margins, scalability and recurring income, while enhancing customer service. To get there, however, you will require the ideal organisation plan, innovation and partnerships.
So, what’s the key to unrivaled success in managed IT services?
Executive Buy-In
This may seem apparent, though numerous business fail at developing out a managed services practice due to lack of executive buy-in. To prosper in this market, you need to completely embrace handled services, indicating your whole company (from the top down) must be bought into this model. To do so, some locations to focus on consist of:
Sales Compensation
Producing sales compensation packages and quota requirements will assist incentivize sales groups to offer managed services. Your sales reps are most likely used to getting large commission checks based upon large item or job sales. Therefore, paying the sales group a portion of handled services income on an ongoing basis will likely not incentivize them to sell handled services, as this is a completely brand-new way of earning money for them. Rather, you will want to develop a compensation plan comparable to what they are utilized to. For instance, you may pay out a full month of handled services earnings in advance as part of their commission, instead of a percentage monthly.
Prioritize Managed Services Over Competing Service Offerings
Lots of companies sell blocks of their techs’ time in advance, so that their consumers can then use it for support requirements as required. Nevertheless, after shifting to managed services, the sales team might wish to fall back to offering these blocks as quickly as they get pushback on the managed services option. It is up to the executive team to put rules in place that avoid this from occurring. While removing time blocks might not be an option– as too many consumers may be leveraging this service to remove it totally– limiting them to be only offered for task work will assist keep the support choices focused on managed services.
Fuel Managed Solutions Profits
At the end of the quarter, handled services still require to be a sales concern, even if other products or service lines have not hit their goals. I see this all the time with office devices dealerships and VARs. The mindset is that selling hardware is what pays the bills, so if hardware sales are down, the executive team redirects all sales resources to focus on hardware– forgeting managed services. This sends a clear message to the sales team that the executive group is not really bought into managed services as an income motorist, and will kill any enjoyment they might have had around offering it. This sets up a negative cycle of anticipating earnings from handled services while not devoting the time necessary to offer it to secure recurring profits contracts.
Create Solid Procedures
Having procedures for both operations and sales is vital to success when selling and providing managed services.
At a minimum, many business have an informal sales procedure, and numerous have an official one, even if they might not follow it on all opportunities. Lots of sales experts can look back at lost offers and pinpoint where they strayed from their sales process, and ultimately lost the offer because of it. Selling managed services is a value-based sell, so having a process that walks through the entire sales cycle is critical to success. Sales associates that followed that procedure are generally more successful than those that did not.
Construct the Right Group
When you are first introducing your MSP practice, it’s important to identify a couple of “champions” to help you develop out the program. You will require an agent from sales as well as from service. These champions will be accountable for assisting build out your item, develop procedures and ultimately, be the subject matter experts that the rest of your group will rely on as you start selling your services.
By partnering with a Master MSP like Continuum, you’ll be spared from the obstacles associated with working with the talent needed to provide managed services to your customers. This makes it possible for existing service technicians who are trying to find career improvement or growth chance to be redeployed as managers or supervisors of outsourced Aid Desk or Network Operations Center (NOC) groups.
Paying the sales team a percentage of managed services earnings on a continuous basis will likely not incentivize them to offer managed services, as this is a completely brand-new way of earning money for them. After shifting to managed services, the sales team might want to fall back to offering these blocks as quickly as they get pushback on the managed services option. While getting rid of time blocks may not be an alternative– as too numerous clients may be leveraging this service to remove it totally– restricting them to be just available for job work will help keep the support choices focused on handled services.
At the end of the quarter, managed services still need to be a sales concern, even if other items or service lines have not strike their objectives. The state of mind is that selling hardware is what pays the costs, so if hardware sales are down, the executive group redirects all sales resources to focus on hardware– forgetting about handled services.
