Selling Managed Services to Existing Clients

In most situations, having a relationship with a prospect makes it easier to “sell” something to them.  A relationship is the key to becoming a Trusted Advisor, and is necessary when you need to gain the prospect's trust in you and your services in order to make a sale.  When it comes to selling Managed Services to your existing clients; however, you may find it's actually more difficult than selling to a new client.

The ease with which you transition your current clients to the Managed Services model will rely greatly upon the perception they currently have of the service you offer.  If you have primarily been a “break-fix” provider generating solutions only after something has been broken, the client will have a difficult time relating to your new proactive Managed Services offering.  If you have already been establishing yourself as a Trusted Advisor offering proactive solutions; however, you will probably have an easier time with transitioning existing clients to Managed Services!

Marketing Process for Existing Client Transition

It doesn't matter how you perceive your company – it really only matters how your clients perceive your company.  Here is a 3-step process for helping your clients "reset" and gain the image of your company that will lead them to the transition to Managed Services:

1. Write your clients a letter, introducing your decision to transition to a proactive service delivery model
2. Call your clients a few days after sending the letter to set up an appointment do discuss your new service delivery model
3. Conduct a meeting with your clients and give them a short presentation extolling the benefits to them of proactively managing their infrastructure and vendors

It's important that you don't try to “sell” Managed Services by phone.  During the appointment you'll deliver a presentation about the benefits of Managed Services (there is an example PowerPoint presentation available to readers of our best-selling The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice).

During your client meeting and presentation, your goal is to show your client that you are no longer a “break-fix” company.  The new Managed Services model allows you to be a proactive IT service provider that will provide your Client better support and increased uptime, while saving on costs. 

Your presentation needs to stress the following 6 benefits of your new service delivery model to the client:

1. Increased operational efficiencies
2. Reduction and control of operating costs
3. Cost-effective access to enterprise-level support
4. Minimized downtime
5. Regain focus of running their business, not their IT or vendors
6. Peace of mind that comes with 24x7x365 monitoring

Schedule Another Meeting Right Away

Once you've gone over the initial presentation and explained the client's benefits of a Managed Services model, set up a second appointment to do perform a Managed Services Cost Analysis – in order to show the client what they save, or what additional services they'll receive for the same amount of money.  (There is a worksheet available on www.mspu.us to perform this analysis). Don't leave without scheduling the appointment to avoid losing momentum.

It is during the second appointment that you will reveal the true cost benefits to the client, overcome any oobjections and close your Managed Services opportunity.

Erick Simpson
MSP University
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Comments

[UK Software companies]

Cool,

Great advice aimed towards Selling Managed Services to Existing Clients,

Keep up the good work

[Managed Services]

However, anyone who has gone through an acquisition process–as I have more than once–knows that it can be a painful and often unsuccessful process. No matter how compatible the companies’ products and services may be, organizational and political processes can get in the way of success.