Sales is an issue which keeps coming up in surveys of managed services providers. As they reach a certain stage it seems to get harder to build that pipeline beyond the initial customer base. Often the MSP will look to employ an expensive sales specialist, but there are ways to avoind this until absolutely necessary. Building that sales pipeline will be a theme at DattoCon, and it is certainly a chance to discover what others are doing.
As Sr. Director, EMEA Strategy Christian Nagele says, “you're basically in a room with hundreds of entrepreneurs or senior management in small businesses who feel the same pressures”. So the whole point of exchanging ideas is to make life easier for everyone. And customer relations will be a key message. It's far easier to win business from an existing customer and make money out of retention that it is winning new business. So a real focus on good customer experience will pay dividends.
And it is not hard, but one of the effects of the growing market is that, as he says, some of the housekeeping things have fallen by the wayside. “I think far more value will lie in the nature of your customer base contracts you so and your retention rates and the quality of your staff and your operation efficiency rather than the quality of your salary will be the key to future success.”
And that does not necessarily mean employing more salespeople. When the organization is not geared up to maximize conversion rates it could be squandering scarce financial resources. Christian Nagele: “So one of the tracks is specifically aimed at the what I call the pre-sales MSP.” We suspect there will be plenty in that category."
To register for DattoCon please visit: https://www.dattocon.com/
