Businesses of all kinds have been faced with new challenges due to the unique circumstances that 2020 has presented so far. Luckily, most MSPs have positioned themselves well – demonstrating the value of and the average SMB customer’s need for – their solutions and services due to the sudden shift to remote work.
To learn more about how MSPs can take advantage of their market position, and clearly demonstrate their value, in order to win new business, SmarterMSP spoke with several MSPs who have focused on helping clients recognize the value in the offerings they bring to their business. These MSPs shared how they have dedicated themselves to showcasing their value to customers and the lessons they have learned during 2020 that have helped them prepare for other sudden shifts that could affect their customers in the future.
Demonstrating value to prospective customers
When asked how their MSP is specifically demonstrating the value and other benefits of its services and solutions, new or otherwise, to prospective customers in the current economic climate, one MSP noted that they are highlighting the backup and continuity services that they make available for customers. This MSP stresses how their services can help set up the customer’s employees remotely to reduce any downtime that may occur.
Another MSP commented on how their customers are appreciative of the fact that the MSP can enable them to continuously monitor work devices, even without the normal on-site resources. A key customer of a third MSP focuses on the non-profit sector, specifically churches. This MSP has demonstrated its value by focusing on network security and efficiency, as these customers are doing more streaming services, which has required investment in modern networking hardware.
Another way MSPs can demonstrate their value is to provide customer-friendly reporting, which can provide valuable insights for the customer on what services the MSP has provided in a given time frame. The level of detail included in, and contents of the reports can vary widely, but for example, can show cyberthreats detected and remediated, number of patches successfully deployed, or help desk tickets responded to.
Lessons learned
We next asked the MSPs what they found to be the most important parts of building an emergency work from home strategy, in order to better prepare themselves and other MSPs for another shift to remote working. Some provided simple, yet crucial reminders, that internet connectivity for employees must always be monitored and never taken for granted, stressing that, “redundancy is a must.” Another MSP warned that others should, “anticipate the unexpected and have a contingency plan for all situations and scenarios.”
One MSP offered a highly proactive way to be ready for any and all future shifts to remote working. They detailed how a “cloud-first mentality” led to customers having fewer bumps in the road to worry about during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“We are a newer MSP, so we started with a cloud-first mentality. Our clients were already setup to work remotely before COVID hit, so thankfully our clients did not have to development a new work from home strategy.”
If there is any silver lining to the recent difficult times, it is that MSPs everywhere have found ways to prove their worth and adapt to new conditions. Many SMB businesses will be slow to return to their “old ways,” while some may stick with their new operations and business models that they adopted during this timeframe. That makes the advice from MSPs who have learned to prove their value and prepare themselves for change at a quick pace, even more vital to follow.
Photo: Akarawut / Shutterstock
