As a company that specializes in setting appointments for MSPs, we’re on the road quite a bit, attending industry events and meeting new professionals in our arena.
Outside of a recent conference in Las Vegas, we met a fascinating Uber driver with some interests most MSPs would appreciate. This gentleman had built up his own thriving business by running cables and internet lines, right when the demand for that service started to blossom. After years of success, he brought his sons into the business to help out. He grew older and stepped down to let his sons take control.
Now, the company is performing better than ever — even without its founder. His sons are seizing on modern marketing techniques — something he never understood or tested — to bring in new customers.
While he’s happy about his sons’ success, we noticed his disappointment that he hadn’t been the one to lead that charge into unprecedented company growth. He’d missed multiple opportunities to grow and develop professionally, and his sons are now reaping the benefits.
This businessman thought he knew better. After all, he’d been the one to strike on a great idea before anyone else, and he’d built his company up without using any modern marketing techniques. He thought everything was running as smoothly as possible, so it wouldn’t make sense to invest the time or effort.
Here’s the truth: he thought his business was perfect, so he rested on his laurels. This gave the market a chance to grow up around him, developing in ways that were leaving him behind.
(Related: World Class Growth Checklist)
Inactivity is dangerous
We should always be looking for incremental improvements, even if they are small and imperfect. With each step, we should be capable of analyzing the development, and see where we have future opportunities for growth. Once the analysis is complete, we can seize upon additional means to expand operations.
For example, we often talk about sales pipelines and how they should contain the following:
- Appointments with potential prospects
- Referrals from existing clients
- Relationships with key centers of influence
- Repeatable methodology integrated into a back-end system that allows you to:
- Build a well-organized and consistent drip marketing system that implements personal one-on-one follow-ups with prospects that go beyond sending emails and flyers
- Host quarterly seminars designed to engage prospects and current clients
- Achieve consistent outbound activity, in good times and bad
- Greater consistency of activity and pipeline building efforts designed to lead to new business opportunities and sales.
Go beyond just the pipeline
As our Uber driver learned the hard way, broader marketing efforts might also include digital advertising, social media, and direct mail.
The most successful MSPs build and improve their pipelines over time. Not only do they start an appointment setting program, but they also layer in new activities and adjustments to bolster their strategy.
Once one stage is successful, they move on to the next. When the pipeline is running smoothly, they increase their marketing budget to capitalize on the opportunity.
It’s not an easy route. The process takes hundreds of adjustments and course-corrections along the way. To find success, we need an incremental mindset. Without it, we’ll find ourselves lost with no map between where we currently are and where we picture our business thriving.