The Big List Of Prospecting Mistakes MSPs Make

The Big List Of Prospecting Mistakes MSPs Make

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In my 20 plus years as a sales professional, I have kept a list of prospecting mistakes to avoid at all costs. The list started small many years ago. And I have added to it as I learn from both experience and my continual study of sales and prospecting specifically.

Over the past 5 years working directly with MSPs to help them sell IT services, I’ve learned a ton. This led me to update this list of prospecting mistakes for MSPs.

Recently, we kicked off a multi-part training covering prospecting called: Prospecting Success. The training covers everything MSPs need to generate a flood of appointments.The training includes templates and worksheets to help make everything super easy. Click here to register and get instant access now.

You can also watch this recent video of me sharing these live on the Weekly Sales Wrap show (live every Friday at 2pm EST on Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn)

 

And now... here's the list:

Not knowing your own value

It’s really hard to sell something you don’t believe in. Take the time to remind yourself just how vital and important what you do is for your clients.

Without you, the MSP, their business will come to a grinding, and potentially business-ending, stop.

Not feeding your mind - mindset, skill building, emptying your cup

Prospecting is not fun. It’s hard work. It’s riddled with potential rejection which we’re hard-wired to dread. There’s no escaping that fact and anyone who tells you otherwise is either psychotic or lying.

But it doesn’t have to be miserable. It can become easier and even fulfilling.

Because it is something that people tend to fear and dislike, it’s critically important to keep a positive attitude. And you do that be realizing you have a lot to learn and feeding your mind with knowledge and inspiration…

Like registering for the Prospecting Success course above… hint hint!

Not knowing who your ideal customer is

Sell to the right customer. Take the time to understand who you should be selling to.

Not every small, medium or large business is right for you.

Not knowing the value of your ideal customer / not knowing the value you bring them

Once you know who they are, what value do they bring to your business? And what value do you bring to theirs?

Not focusing on value / features instead

No one cares what you’re selling. They don’t care about BDR, Cybersecurity, Cloud or any of it.

What they do care about is that you understand and can solve their problems. That you can help them grow their business.

Not focusing on solving problems/pains and building their business

Identify these and talk to how you solve them.

Not researching your leads/preparing

Spend some time preparing. Whittle your list down to the right prospect. Then research them.

With search and social, it's never been easier to quickly learn about your prospects.

Not talking to THAT person

Everyone loves spray and pray. And there is a time for it. But, if you want to cut through the noise, be different than everyone else. Use your research when reaching out.

Speak directly to the person you're trying to reach. The more "personalized" you can make it (without being stalker creepy) the better.

Not setting, measuring goals

If you don’t know where you want to go, it’s hard to get there. How many sales do you want this year, quarter, month? How many actions should you be taking to hit it?

Not being a good communicator: Crafting great emails and openings on calls or messages

You have all of 2 seconds to grab their attention no matter what method you use. Get yourself good at those two seconds.

And I said good. You don't have to be the greatest most gifted communicator. But you should put in some time to get good.

Not building your professional and personal brand

Today, your potential prospects look to social media and search more than ever. The more content you put out into the world, the more opportunity your prospect has to see you as an authority.

Who would you rather talk to from a cold outreach? Some invisible salesperson? Or the authority on that thing you were looking to buy anyway?

Not networking

Your network is your net worth. It’s the place to start when you're new.

When you do it right, it makes everything down the sales process easier. Nothing is easier to close than a referral.

Not being consistent

You can’t stop. This is the biggest killer of effective prospecting.

Not being persistent

Prospecting takes time. If you give up because you didn’t get appointments the first week, you’re making a huge mistake. Stick to it.

And, being persistent also means not taking "no" for an answer. I look at “no” as “not yet”.

Not being prepared for objections

Spend some time preparing for what you’ll say when people tell you no. Practice it and keep adding to the list as you get new objections.

Not crafting a sales process than can be repeated

If it can’t be repeated by others, it’s hard to grow a team. Systemize as much as you can even if you don’t yet have a team. If you prospect consistently, you will have one soon enough.

Not keeping it simple

There’s two dangerous ways MSPs overcomplicate it. The first is how they speak to their prospects. The more confusing and technical you speak to them, the lower your conversions will be. There is absolutely a correlation between simplicity in the presentation and prospecting/sales success.

The second way is overcomplicating the process. This is a big list. But that does not mean you should spend all your time preparing to call. Procrastination is your enemy.

Keep it simple. Sometimes you just have to run with it, pick up the phone, and make some calls/send some emails/private message on social/etc.

Not getting over the hatred and fear of prospecting

We all do stuff we hate doing. But the things we know are important, we do them. Get over it and do this like you would anything difficult but worth the effort!

The good news is that the training will help make this much easier. Hope you're registered!

Not getting started because they are waiting to be perfect

Perfect time, perfect offer, perfect day. Usually, it’s just an excuse because of the previous point that they dread the rejection and pain. No one likes prospecting. get over it and east your veggies. And make sure to get your free instant access to the training and all the templates to take it your prospecting to the next level!

Not taking the Prospecting Success training on-demand now

Ok, I might have slipped this one in. But it’s going to be a great training that will help with all these mistakes. You'll walk away with a solid plan and training to make things easy. This will take your prospecting to the next level. And it’s free! Register here to get instant access now!