Part 2: Client Enrollment, AKA How to Package & Price Your Service
Let’s keep the ball rolling on our Jack of all Trades series with the next installment of how to become a super successful MSP. You’ve already learned how to create awesome content that attracts rather than sells to your potential customers. You should now have a line around the block of eager businesses excited to sign on the dotted line. So, what’s next?
We’ll tell you! Next, you need to be confident about sealing the deal in a way that works for your business and doesn’t make you feel like you’re compromising on your talent or bottom line.
The Hidden Psychology of Parts Vs. Package
First, let’s look at why it’s vital to create a package, rather than simply sell parts to your clients. Imagine the sale of a car. Are you interested in being sold wheels, a carburettor, windshield wipers, headlights and upholstery one by one, each with their own price tag? Or would you rather be given a whole shiny package of a car, even if the cost ended up being more money upfront, or even on a monthly basis?
This is exactly the mentality you need to think about when creating your prices and pitching to a new client. The brain doesn’t understand the value of parts, and searches for the package offer that it can understand and appreciate. When it comes to standing out as an MSP, your competition will certainly be offering many of the same service options and support items. This leaves you selling commodities and fighting against dozens of other MSPs that seem exactly the same to the client, rather than pitching what’s unique, your own packaged creation, which is something only you can offer.
Figure out your own unique value and sell a package that includes all of the standard commodities that your client expects, but altogether is so much more than the sum of its parts.
5 Principles to Create an Irresistible Package Your Clients Can’t Say No To
Now let’s take a look at the 5 principles that are going to help you build a package that simply can’t be turned down.
1. The Principle of Package
The truth is, no one cares how the product gets made. You don’t walk into Starbucks and ask for the cost of every single bean. You want the coffee, and you’re happy to pay more for the package, whether that’s the cup, the ambience, or the perfect blend of toffee nut syrup. Create a package that’s truly excellent, and your customers won’t stop to wonder whether each individual part is worth the price tag, because they’re being given so much more than that.
2. The Principle of Positioning
Talk about your results, both the growth you’ve provided for other clients and the preventative measures you’ve put in place. This is how you position yourself as the most attractive service provider. You already know that you’re the best choice, but how are you going to position yourself this way in their eyes?
Tell the story of your business, and provide social proof and testimonials that act as references. This creates an emotional connection and helps to show your unique methodology, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt how you can be strategically valuable.
3. The Principle of Choice
Work backward to reverse engineer the way to make the offer. What is it that the client wants, and what is their long-term strategy? Start with that, and then work backward to explain what you’re going to offer and provide.
Here it’s important to remember not to confuse the client with too many choices. Your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for the client, not to bog them down with options and packages, or endless specifics.
You’ve already put yourself in the position of strategic advisor and expert in the topic. Use that trust to explain how you’re going to get them to their goals in X simple steps. Remember, stick to your packages, whether that’s 3, 5, or more. Everyone fits into your limited package options, or they’re simply not the client for you. Having the confidence to turn down a customer that won’t keep life simple for you is a sign of strength, and shows that you have a strong place in the market.
4. The Principle of Margin
Hey, how much do you want to be making, anyway? Sounds like a simple question, but you’ll be amazed how many MSPs have no idea how much their costs are and what they need to do to get from there to a profit.
Starting with these vital numbers in mind means you know how you can thrive, and how you are going to make the money you want at the end of each month. A simple formula is this. Take all your revenue, and then divide it by total seats, and that’s your total cost per seat. Establishing this ahead of time is the only smart way to do business.
5. The Principle of Testing
You can only know if something works by continually testing and tweaking your model. This is an ongoing process.
Top tip: You can’t make decisions on how much your clients are going to pay. You’re not in their minds! Going back to the car analogy, there is a wide range of what people will pay for cars, from a Nissan to a Rolls Royce. These options suit different markets and different types of customers, and there is no answer on ‘how much someone will pay for a car’. Testing and tweaking continuously will show you how to find the right market for your package. Stay away from definitive statements that turn into negative beliefs like ‘clients will always X’ or ‘clients will never Y’. The world is your oyster, and the right clients are out there for the taking!
Have I Hit the Jackpot?
This process is an ongoing journey, so you want to be able to keep making changes and growing your service model as technology and business change around you. How to know if you’re doing it right? A strategic package will be seen as irresistible and highly valuable, showing long-term value to your client even before they onboard your MSP solution.
For practical ideas on how to build out your own MSP package, check out the full webinar from the one and only Ari Sherbill, and make sure to subscribe to our channel so you never miss an update.
This guest blog is courtesy of Atera. Read more guest blogs from Atera here. Regularly contributed guest blogs are part of ChannelE2E’s sponsorship program.
