In the business of marketing today, regardless of your industry, competition is fierce. The same is true for MSPs. You need to have a strong yet agile marketing strategy to measure and improve sales performance. There are all kinds of tips to follow and steps to take to improve your close ratio and increase MSP contracts, and it is important to follow these tips and take the appropriate steps. Yet, there is one tip that beats all other tips and steps. There is one tip that can place you above your competition. Indeed, there is one tip that will ensure your potential clients know who you are and are intrigued enough to close the deal. What is this tip? You are about to find out.
What is the one MSP Sales Success tip to help you win more MSP contracts… guaranteed?
The one MSP Sales Success tip that will help you win more MSP contracts is the strategic use of a marketing kit. We also commonly refer to it as a Shock-and-Awe box or a “Wow!” box because of the effect the marketing kit has on the recipient. This one thing can set you apart from your competition. It’s really a simple idea, and it goes something like this:
- You speak to a potential client and agree to meet on a specific date and time.
- Then, you immediately put together a thoughtful marketing kit and send it to the prospect with the intent for it to be received within a few hours, if at all possible.
The goal is to make a lasting impression before the competition has a chance to do the same. Science has informed us that first impressions are powerful, and the marketing kit is all about that first impression. It lays the groundwork for that first in-person meeting where the prospect will develop his or her first true impression of you and the company you represent.
That’s the tip in a nutshell: sending a marketing kit before other competitors have a chance to impress. There is, however, more to it than just that. How you execute it is just as important as executing it. In other words, what goes into the box and how it is delivered matters.
What should you include in your marketing kit?
Your marketing kit does not have to be large and/or expensive, but it does have to be meaningful and useful (both to you and the prospect). The kit should contain four elements:
- Quality
- Utility
- Personal
- Information.
Quality
Quality refers to quality products that represent you as a quality company. You want the items you send to the prospect not to be cheap. Cheap is a bad representation of you. You want the prospect to appreciate the quality of your gift. For example, if it is a pen, you want the pen to be high quality so that the prospect cares if he forgets it in the office or cares if someone throws it away by mistake.
Utility
Your quality items must also provide utility, whether or not it is to use (e.g., a pen or notebook) or to be informed (e.g., a book) or for some other purpose. You want your items to be useful for (1) practical reasons; and (2) branding reasons. First, no one wants to keep something if it doesn’t provide some value. Second, these items should have your logo and/or name clearly and aesthetically presented. That means every time your gift is used, it sends a constant, subliminal message to the prospect: your company means business.
Personal
Make it personal. This simply means share a bit about yourself or show you care enough to get to know them. For example, if you like barbecue, send a book on barbecue recipes -- one of your favorites on the subject. Alternatively, if the prospect mentioned something specific in the phone call, maybe find a book on the same topic and send -- this shows you were listening. Either way, making it personal means you are already extending and building a relationship with this prospect.
Information
Alongside high-quality, useful products, prospects should be informed about your company. This information should be intentional so that it provides immediate satisfaction for the prospect’s initial questions about your company, your services, your mission, and your successes. It also allows the prospect to review and develop questions for your one-on-one meeting. This is strategic because the hope is, the more questions the prospect has, the more time you get to spend with him or her answering those questions and developing a relationship.
Examples of Marketing Kit Content
- Leather-bound notebook with logo
- Fountain pens with the company name
- Books, like They Ask You Answer
- Business cards
- Information pages that provide:
- Testimonials
- Client Case Studies
- Technical Spotlights
- Company History
- Press Releases
- News Clipping
- Any other valuable information about your company
Be sure to tailor or personalize the marketing kit -- the one-size-fits-all is not the standard you with which want to associate yourself.
How should you deliver your marketing kit?
Having the right content is not the end of it. You must also package it nicely and send it off strategically.
Packing the kit nicely translates into not dumping the gift(s) in a box without care. If you took the time to put the kit together, then take the time to package it nicely. Presentation matters. It always has and always will.
Likewise, how soon it is delivered matters. We believe a key factor to the success of the marketing kit is how soon you send it. We suggest using a courier service and immediately sending the marketing kit to the prospect within a few hours after the telephone call. Local and nationwide couriers are competitively priced.
Nationwide Courier Options
- UPS
- FedEx
- Nationwide Courier Services
- American Expediting
- USA Couriers.
Remember: whether we should or should not do it, people judge books by their covers. A potential client will judge you. So, even if you send a marketing kit, a Wow! box, a Shock-and-Awe box, guess what: it won’t work if the content is cheap and noticeably so.
Why does this one tip produce guaranteed results?
If done right, the marketing kit tip should produce serious results for you. The psychology behind it is simple: a gift that gives back. You have heard that saying before. The New York Times has even written about it. Your Wow! box is meant to wow. If it does, it’ll leave an impression. And if it was crafted and sent as indicated above, then you have yourself a gift heavy with strategy and appreciation that will return to you more MSP contracts than you could have ever anticipated from any other MSP sales success tip. Grade your MSP website now at https://www.ulistic.com.
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