“Have you ever heard the phrase life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid?” One of my favorite talk show personalities, Bill Handle, asks listeners this often.
In my early days of selling, I earned the highest degree in D.U.M.B and discovered that cold prospecting and marketing without a plan is NOT fun or productive.
Today, I coach hundreds of managed services providers and computer consultants. The thoughts, habits, and behaviors of those who literally attract success is different from those who can’t seem to make anything positive happen. External factors such as circumstance, client type, market area, and finances have nothing to do with it.
Sales mistakes that could kill your managed IT services business
Here are the top six dumbest MSP sales mistakes I see computer consultants make, that consistently sabotage their success in marketing, attracting clients, and making money.
- They don’t see marketing and selling as top priorities.
The MSPs and computer consultants who struggle to get ahead and make mediocre progress always seem too busy to do any marketing. Sure, they know it’s important and admit they should invest time, but that’s where it ends.
They view marketing as an annoying, necessary evil of running a business and constantly put less important activities and projects above it.
Because they never spend time on mastering marketing or consistently delivering and implementing marketing plans, they’re always starting over. Marketing becomes more difficult and drawn-out than it needs to be.
- They waste time on trivial matters that get them nowhere fast.
This goes hand-in-hand with the first point. If MSPs eliminated even half the time-wasting activities they indulge in daily, they would have plenty of time to market their business.
You cannot manage time. Time is an intangible thing that cannot be touched or felt, much less managed. You can only manage YOURSELF. You get to choose where you spend every minute of your day, and most people consistently make bad choices.
In most cases, they’re unclear on their personal, financial, and business goals and have no clear plan or way of knowing what they should spend their time on.
- They aren’t crystal clear about their business goals.
Most computer consultants operate their business the exact same way they did the year before — and the year before that, and so on. Sure, they make some changes, but they make no REAL progress. They’re wandering through the growth of their business without a clear set of objectives.
- They don’t have written financial goals.
They have no idea what they want their business to produce in terms of revenue, profits, and clients. They’ve never thought about how they can extract themselves from the business to enjoy more time off by developing systems or hiring people. Naturally, they also lack a marketing plan because they don’t know the end goal.
- They don’t hold themselves accountable.
Do you know why most people never achieve their New Year’s resolutions? Once they’ve made them, they stop there. They don’t create plans, they don’t think through the steps to achieving them, and they don’t measure their progress until next year!
Top performers hold themselves accountable. They plan and organize every month, every week, every day, and every hour, and stick to those plans.
If you talk to people who have achieved success in marketing their business – or anything else for that matter – you’ll discover that they are consistent. They don’t start-stop, start-stop, start-stop. They get going and see their plans through to the end. They constantly build and refine their systems.
- They don’t study marketing, developing opportunities, and attracting money.
If you want to be great at anything, you must study it. Not occasionally, but ALWAYS. Vince Lombardi started every football training season by holding up a football and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”
Mastering the basics of MSP marketing and selling requires constant learning and constant practice. Not just when things get desperate or when you feel like it. Consistency is key.
How to stop the stupidity and master selling managed services
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It’s guaranteed to show you how to make more money, attract better-quality clients, and finally get a solid, reliable marketing plan in place. You’ll see actual case studies and examples of marketing systems used by other VARs, MSPs, and system integrators to dramatically increase sales. You’ll learn exactly what type of marketing works best for attracting new clients — and the type of marketing that will leave you frustrated and broke.
Photo: Gearstd / Shutterstock
