Commonly, inexperienced sales representatives of managed services providers commit mistakes that contribute a lot on new customer acquisition failures. To give them a refresher on how to avoid those mistakes, here is a simple guideline for them.

Primarily, a sales rep must look for a target company. The target company should have issues and needs the managed service provider he represents can solve and provide. After that, the sales rep must look for the right senior decision maker to deal with. The senior decision maker that he must target should have a say on hiring services providers. Those decision makers might come from the Finance, Operations, or IT department. Usually, CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) are the best person to target when selling managed services, but most sales representatives make the mistake of always contacting the IT managers, who normally do not have a final say on hiring MSPs.

It is important that a sales rep must ask the appropriate questions and tell the right propositions to the right person. Most neophyte representatives make a mistake regarding this aspect. As an example, new sales representatives usually make the mistake of telling the technical stuff to the CFO, and then make the mistake of telling financial stuff to the IT managers. Presenting the right propositions to the wrong people will only result to a failed business deal.

The most important phase of the deal is the first call with the senior decision maker. In this call, the sales rep must take control. Letting the prospect take over and wait for him to decide on his own might result into rejection. While the sales rep talks with the prospect, he must establish the credibility of the MSP he is representing. He must let the prospect know that the MSP qualifies on what they need and want. After that, he must immediately propose a meeting to seal the deal.

To lure the prospect to say yes during the deal, the sales rep must not only tell what the MSP can do, but he must also tell the prospect what the MSP can do for the prospect’s issues. In addition, he must always proactively open up and tell all the things the prospect might want and need.

Even if the sales rep was able to meet somebody from the prospect company’s financial department, he should not only focus on cost savings. He must take note that managed services is not all about cost savings, and cost savings alone can’t convince a decision maker to accept the service. The sales rep must consider other criteria like service, security, and availability that the prospect analyzes first before the prospect decides.