Want to crush it in your MSP this year with your prospecting? Want some ideas you can implement right away? Want them to be fast, easy and cheap?
Yes?
You do?
Whoops.
This may not be the blog post you want. But it is the blog post you need!
And I am pretty sure you’ll thank me later when I do give you some ideas you can implement right away.
But first, MSPs should start right here
You need to answer a few questions. You need to answer them honestly, and openly.
1: How much money per month can you afford to invest in prospecting?
2: How many months can you afford to invest this much into prospecting?
3: How much of your own time per month can you afford to invest in prospecting?
4: How will you invest time and money once prospecting takes off and fills your calendar?
Don’t even think about telling me it depends on how many appointments you set in the first month. This is an investment and ROI will take time.
Prospecting does pay big dividends but only when you give it the appropriate amount of dollars and time. If you don’t have both of those two essential things that you’re willing and able to invest, don’t bother. Seriously.
Prospecting is an investment
Notice I didn’t say cost? I said investment.
This is not a cost. This is not an expense.
Prospecting does and will pay off. But only if you invest your time and money right. This is why those questions are so important.
If you think you can start prospecting today and have new customers tomorrow, you’re drinking some bad cool aide. You’re listening to some bad advice from someone likely just trying to sell you something.
You can start today and perhaps get some appointments starting next month. But more likely, it will take some time to get to the point where prospecting turns into appointments.
From there, maybe it takes another month to get a contract signed. The more you feed the pipeline, the more sales you will close… down the road.
Building a sales pipeline can grow your MSP
So maybe it’s two months until some type of ROI comes. But maybe all that work in those two months get you just one customer. Maybe it costed you 5 hours per week of your own time and $5,000 per month to get a $1,500 contract. Do you give up because the ROI is upside down?
Because the magic really may happen after month six when prospecting from month one turns into 4 appointments and prospecting from month two turns into 6 appointments, and so on.
And from all those appointments you’re booked solid with sales presentations. And from all those sales presentations you close 5 deals each worth $1,500 of MRR.
That’s $7,500 of MRR in month six. Took you six months to get a positive ROI.
But now month seven, eight, nine… all look like month six. This is when you start crushing it and growing your MsP like crazy. But it took you six months of investment in time, money and a lot of faith that it would work.
How to tell which prospecting plan is right for your MSP
This is why you must honestly and carefully answer those questions. Because you first need to understand what it takes so you can go into this with your eyes wide open. But more importantly, these answers will tell you what you can afford to do in order to get there.
For example, if your answer to question 1 is you can afford to spend $5k per month and your answer to question 2 is for over one year, you have a lot more options than if your answers were you can afford $100 per month for only 3 months.
So, what path you choose to get there will be far different depending upon the answers. Your answer may tell you that you should just hire a person and be done with it. Or to hire a company that specializes in prospecting. Or to spend a little money on paid ads. Or to pick up the phone yourself and make some calls.
It's not just about money
Question three is equally important: How much of your time can you invest? And not just your time now. But your time if prospecting takes off and in month three, you’re slammed with appointments.
If you have to stop prospecting in month three to personally take all of those appointments, in month four, you may find yourself with no more appointments. So, question four may be the most important. It requires you to pull out a spreadsheet and start budgeting a bit.
How will you re-allocate time and money once prospecting is pulling you away from prospecting?
The strategy you choose should be one that is dictated by the answers to those questions. They should not be dictated by what tactic me or some guru tells you that you should do.
These questions require you to think about what strain may be caused now and later by time and money. And how to start budgeting for now and in the future to support these efforts.
Now go fourth and prospect. The answer will never be not to. This is all about finding the right 'how to' that will work in your unique business depending upon where you are on the journey.
Prospecting resource
There's more prospecting tips to come so check back here often. My goal is to help you flood your MSP with new business!
If you want to dig deeper, I highly recommend the book Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount. There's lots of great books out there but I really love Jeb's approach. Nothing fancy... just tried and true techniques that work.