If it’s not already obvious when you’re selling IT Support Services, you’ve got a sea of competitors ALL around you competing for the same deal. If you want to scale you need to figure out how to differentiate your services.
Understanding the Purple Cow Concept
The first concept to understand is that from a customers perspective most MSPs look exactly the same. We are all selling the fact we have the best experience, the best people, the best systems, the best experience with Office365, Azure, IaaS, Desktop, Server & Network Management etc etc.
Imagine the poor old client sitting there listening to these sales pitches. They ALL sound very similar. Guess what happens? Because they sound similar they end up picking based on price.
You need to be a ‘Purple Cow’ which Seth Godin writes about in his book. You need to stand out in the crowd and be remarkable to differentiate yourself so the client can make an easier buying decision.
How our MSP decided to solve the problem
Once our MSP understood this concept we realized we needed to differentiate. At around the same time we also realized that email support was causing a lot of issues for our MSP increasing phone calls, delivering a poor customer experience, wasting our Engineers time etc – so we decided to replace email support with an App.
That’s why we invented ITSupportPanel.
We soon realized that this powerful Windows/Mac/iOS/Android App would be our ‘purple cow’. We could use it to completely differentiate our services in a sea of competitors. It was memorable. It was remarkable AND it added a lot of value to the customer.
How we grew monthly support to $220,000
The Definition of Monthly Support
Firstly, let’s be clear on the definition. When I talk about Monthly Support I’m talking about the amount of money you charge to manage a clients infrastructure. This does not include reselling O365, Storagecraft, Datto, Symantec etc or any other Managed Service. It’s by far the most profitable service that an MSP can build their business around.
STEP #1 – We Updated our Sales Proposal
What we realized with ITSupportPanel is that the App actually reduced calls. It reduced calls because ITSupportPanel was easy to find and easy to use AND because end users already loved using Apps. If it reduced calls it meant the clients staff were on the phone less for support which in turn increased their productivity. We also realized that since we could customize the App per client, we could add more value by making it easier and faster for clients to access their internal systems.
So we updated our proposal to reflect what we learnt by watching Simon Sinek speak about selling the WHY first. He says you should sell the WHY, then the HOW, then the WHAT.
We realized ITSupportPanel was definitely HOW we delivered a better customer experience and so we talk about that in great detail when we’re selling.
STEP #2 – We Updated our Website
We then updated our website to include information about how we differentiate ourselves which helped get more leads from Google Adwords.
STEP #3 – We Included it in our Pricing Matrix
One of the things we did well is sell ‘Good, Better, Best’ with our support options. Read Monetizing Innovation if you want more information about how to do this.
ITSupportPanel became one of the inclusions in our support packages which made it very clear the value they would get when selecting our MSP.
STEP #4 – We Customized it Per Client and Reduced Churn
When we on-boarded a new client we ensured we slowly customized it for their needs. This meant our product became very sticky because it became part of their business processes.
Remember when you reduce churn you grow faster, it’s not just about signing up new clients to grow your monthly support revenue – reducing churn is vital! Read more about churn here.
STEP #5- We Made an On-boarding Video
We spent the time and effort to create an on-boarding video which explained how to access our services and how to use ITSupportPanel. When we sell our services we show them how we will train their staff. It’s a very powerful visual sales tool and enables a customer to think further than the sales meeting and imagine what it would be like to work with us.
The Result
The result was outstanding. We stood out in the crowd. We offered a better experience and we converted more monthly support deals than ever before. Slowly but surely we built our support revenue from around $80,000 per month to $220,000 per month AND we’re still growing. It feels great!
I hope you found this article helpful. If your MSP is ready to grow support revenue by differentiating yourself with ITSupportPanel – let us know. Happy to help you achieve the same results we did.
