Are You Running Your Sales Program or is it Running You?

MSP’s face a large number of sales and marketing challenges.

First, do you communicate your technical expertise, or the value of the results that you produce?

Secondly, do you wait for the phone to ring with prospective customers? Or do you have a pro-active outreach program to find prospective customers.

A Few Problems

Many MSP’s that fail to achieve their level of success have encountered the problem of working in an environment where their sales program actually runs the business. Reactive selling is the hallmark of an organization which will sub-perform financially.

The founders of that organization frequently become personally frustrated and or just plain out right angry as a result of their company not achieving their goals.

If you are the founder of your business and your business is not producing the results that you want, you should pay careful attention to the following ideas.

First and foremost, how much time can you take off from your business? If the answer is none or next to none, then you have a sales program that’s running you.

I fervently believe that very few if any MSP’s started their business in hopes of having 24 hours per day 7 days a week 365 days per year job. Yeah you heard me it’s a job if you have to work for your income.

A business, should be defined as an entity that creates wealth for its owner without the owner working 24/7, 365. This wealth is created as a result of the valuable results that your sales program produces for you.

If you aren’t focusing on finding the next new customer, then you are hoping that your sales results will be proactive. So take a look at the success check list I’ve listed below.

  • How many sales ready leads does your team need to have monthly?

  • Does your advertising (websites, brochures, proposals, etc.) speak to the value of the results that your organization produces?

  • How many names are in your marketing database?

  • Compared to all of the demographically desirable names within your geographic market, what percent are in your database?

  • How many of those names have a scheduled next event (phone call, meeting, lunch and learn, etc.)?

  • How do you inspect the activity level of your sales program?

  • In the event that you have sale people working for you, how do you audit their activities?

The MSP’s who run his or hers sales program is the MSP who builds wealth through his business.

They are the MSP’s who achieve the highest level of personal satisfaction as delivered by an entrepreneurial activity. Make sure that you’re running your sales program.

Hold Weekly Sales Meetings

Even if you are a one person band, meet once a week with yourself (I’m not joking) to understand how you’re doing against your sales program activity objectives. The activity objectives must include the number of names added to your marketing database, weekly.

In addition, it must include the number of deals and dollars in your prospective sales funnel. It must include a review of your marketing calendar.

Win Loss Postpone Evaluation

You should also take a hard look at those customers that have declined the opportunity to work with you, recently.

This is called a win loss postpone evaluation.

All too often MSP’s tell me that they lose based on price. I don’t even begin to believe that. Prices are rarely if ever too high.

Rather, the prospects perception of value is too low. If your quotes, proposals and presentations are given to non-technical people, but they present high levels of technical jargon, then it is impossible and I repeat impossible for a customer to perceive value.

So ask yourself this question, are your prices too high or is your customer’s perception of value too low? And remember value is always in the eye of the beholder.

What is valuable to prospect “A” may have no value to prospect “B” and so on and so forth.

Your job is to be a true consultative sales person, run a true consultative sales program, solve business problems. Don’t paddle technology.

When you’re a business problem solver and improving on a permanent basis the operating conditions of your clients’ businesses, you will be in the unique position of owning a business that is creating wealth for you.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. As always, I wish you…….Good Luck and Good Selling