As worldwide competition pushes its way into every industry, your go-to-market strategy must adapt to the future. But how? Most leaders in our industry say that selling managed services is the way to go.
Many folks say they are selling managed services, yet they are not. To compound the issue, IDC studies indicate a decline of worldwide widget (i.e. MFP) sales.
As widget sales (MFPs) become commoditized at mature lifecycle where the need for your product base is shrinking, you’ll have to find your future somewhere. I used to laugh at the dealers who took on things like, water cooler sales and service. I thought it was weird and the farthest thing from the copier business. But sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and admit it: water is always going to be in demand and it fits well with a copier dealer’s sales and service model.
So where does the future lie for your business? The key question is: “What’s the most important thing to the majority of customers and prospects in your marketplace?”
I’m sure you’ll agree that one of today’s critical concerns is cyber security. As many companies do all their business online, security remains THE problem to address head-on. While I wouldn’t say anyone entering the network security space today would be an early pioneer, I think its accurate to say that the opportunity is real as no one has developed a sure fire way to protect business data and dealings on the Internet. There’s never been any “one topic” more important to online businesses today.
Have you seen the movie The Founder? It covers the birth and development of the McDonalds Corporation. In the movie the founder, played by Michael Keaton, struggles until he realizes he isn’t in the restaurant business, he’s in the real estate business! He worked through some challenging beginnings to finally discover the truth about his company.
What if you had a similar game-changing insight about your company? Imagine the possibilities as things become more mobile. What if your company transformed into a developer of mobile apps or a web services company? What will the future office environment require?
A Massachusetts-based writer, Pedro Pereira, tracks, analyzes, and reports on the MSP community. In an article dated December 22, 2016, Pedro lists the top five managed service trends that are sure to be relevant for the next 12 months. I’ve tried to offer my own thoughts on these points, but all credit goes to Pedro for the original ideas.
- Commoditization Pressure – As commoditization continues to drive service fees lower, it’s the creative packaging of value that keeps your service revenues higher. In your product strategies put an enormous amount of thought into bundling high-value solutions that really meet your client’s requirements.
- Cloud Opportunities – Pedro is convinced that within three years 80 percent of businesses will function in the cloud. What if every single part of a business could function in the cloud? That’s not such a reach if you understand today’s capabilities. But this possibility just screams “integration”—the old and new must work together. Everything must talk and function with everything else. Integration capabilities BUNDLED into your managed services create a HIGH VALUE product.
- Cyber security – I once saw a video where a cyber security firm identified 13 billion hack attempts each day. As long as there are “good guys,” there will be “bad guys.” I believe cyber security services will be trending for far longer than the next 12 months. If your company moved to an expert position, your cyber security credentials could be the driver for selling all your other services.
- RMM Evolution- As everything becomes mobile and integrated with other systems, every business will need remote monitoring and management more and more. As the speed of business increases, there will be no time for delay. Any pertinent business will need preventative systems in play and an instant access to support when things malfunction. Instant gratification is a topic of conversation; however, it is also a market demand and thus a condition you must be prepared to meet.
Accounting and HR are other areas where managed services prevail. To successfully sell these managed services, you should make sure your services “product” has not been commoditized and your offerings have a value wrapper around them, that your competition doesn’t. What does that mean? Imagine your basic copier maintenance agreement included a support piece for taking care of the client’s network. You could be more profitable while laying out a value that other companies don’t offer.
But first, you have to realize the complexity of managed services and its perceived value to the client. Immense thought and preparation should go into your go-to-market plan and the implementation of the services delivered. Just because you can repair a hole in your jeans doesn’t mean you can weave denim. Selling managed services isn’t easy, and the wrong account could take up to 80 percent of your company’s resources.
Remember, when selling managed services, you’re not in widget-land anymore. Most sales reps can seldom tell you a model number or the speed of a device, because their value statements surround the success of their client’s communication and how productive their company will become. It has nothing to do with any one particular component of the deliverable.
Managed services aren’t a separate department whose reps overlay widget reps while both pursue the same prospects, each trying to squeak out business from the marketplace. That can be confusing to clients and can dissolve a solid go-to-market strategy. Your company should be known for no more than a few rock-solid competencies.
As technology begins to come together and meld into one big blob in the cloud, your value to the client is going to be what you know about running a successful business and how to out perform the competition and all that entails. Examining your go-to-market strategy and taking the time to carefully choose which services your company will sell may change everything you do. In the long run, you’ll be glad you did!
