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Companies looking to grow often need a managed service provider (MSP) to maintain their IT infrastructure and services. Helping prospective clients appreciate and understand the value of engaging with an MSP is one of the essential parts of the managed IT services sales cycle.
This begs the question: How do you sell managed services?
In several industries and verticals, the most common managed services include:
Several businesses can benefit from managed IT services. Still, to sell the right services to the right client, you must effectively communicate how your solutions add value and understand your prospective client’s needs.
Managed IT services provide a full array of support services that allow clients to focus on growing their businesses. Providing users with an easy-to-access portal and IT support are two ways MSPs support their partners. Managed IT services also offer technical support that keeps businesses out of a break-fix cycle.
Businesses sometimes find themselves in disaster recovery situations, whether it is client support through a help desk ticket or planned maintenance on critical systems and networks. The ability to quickly address critical systems failures or significant data loss is one reason many companies can survive after a disaster. Managed IT services give business owners peace of mind that their systems and networks are protected.
Managed IT services assist businesses by:
Knowing how to sell managed IT services to clients includes understanding how each phase of the sales cycle works. Stages of the managed IT services sales cycle include:
Download our e-book, “Selling Managed Services: 6 Tips to Reinvent Your Sales Pitch,” for a better understanding of the pros and cons of adding managed services to your repertoire.
Selling managed services requires understanding your client’s problems, expectations, and goals. Knowing this information will give insight into which solutions your business can use to best support the client. To get this information, it is essential to ask pertinent questions that can uncover gaps in how the business manages its IT services and tech infrastructure.
Knowing whether your potential clients have ever outsourced business operations or engaged with another MSP will give you a greater understanding of their familiarity with the outsourcing process. It will also help you understand the level of client education you’ll need to begin the sales process with.
When brainstorming how to sell managed services to prospective clients, it's critical that you know their past experiences with other MSPs and how you can exceed their expectations. Exceeding expectations is key, as it will provide an instant way to differentiate yourself based on customer experience. You’ll also be able to better understand what worked in their past relationships to adapt to their needs and preferences.
To shape the package of solutions you’ll present, it’s necessary to determine which apps and technology your business will be expected to support, and whether these make sense for your potential client.
Experience with disaster recovery planning and overseeing software data backups can be one of the most important reasons a business chooses one MSP over another. It’s a good idea to ask your potential client which vendor is responsible for most of their business’ IT software. Understanding and matching your solutions with your prospect’s data storage and maintenance expectations is also a good idea. Ask to see any disaster recovery plans they may have created.
It’s critical for a business to limit service outages for their clients as much as possible, and in the event that an outage does occur, the business should have plans to alert its users. This information can give you an idea of the business’ IT maintenance cycle and how you can best exceed your potential client’s expectations, given the solutions you’re able to provide. There also may be an opportunity for you to provide an immediate suggestion to help your client, which builds trust and opens the door to suggest other services.
Several challenges exist for MSPs engaged in selling managed IT services. To match the services you offer with your client’s needs, you’ll need to guide your customer in understanding which solutions will benefit them the most and why you’re the right provider to help them reach their goals.
Here are a few of the most common challenges when selling managed services:
Now that we’ve discussed how to sell managed services, it’s essential for you to know a few of the best practices when preparing to sell your solutions to prospective clients:
Pricing is top of mind during the latter part of the sales process. Selling managed IT services isn’t just about providing benefits to your users; it’s also necessary to provide these benefits and solutions at a price that aligns with your target market’s budget.
There are a few popular pricing models you can use to price managed services:
Ready to level up your sales processes to better connect with MSPs? Contact us today to learn more about ConnectWise’s portfolio of business management tools & software for MSPs.
Managed IT services typically include maintaining and monitoring a business’s IT infrastructure, disaster planning and recovery, and remote monitoring. A la carte services are also available depending on the size, specific client needs, and business.
Earning the trust and business of clients may take some time. Managed services providers (MSPs) employ advanced marketing techniques such as inbound marketing, email marketing, and performance marketing (Pay-Per-Click). MSPs also use relationship marketing to gain the business of new potential clients.
Services as a managed service provider (MSP) can be sold for as little as $1000 to upwards of tens of thousands of dollars or more. This depends on the industry targeted, the nature of service(s) offered, and the type and size of potential business the MSP is attempting to do business with. We have a burden rate calculator to help you determine all the costs of doing business this way.
It’s essential to begin by discovering what your potential clients’ needs are and which gaps are present within their technology infrastructure. Doing this can better position your offering to suit their needs. You can accomplish this by discovering and appealing to your client’s needs and sharing the benefits your services offer for your client.