Managed services refer to outsourcing specific tasks. When selling managed services, the goal is often to establish ongoing, contract-based support relationships with customers. This differs markedly from other types of channel sales, such as project-based transactions, where, for example, a value-added reseller will develop and implement an IT platform on behalf of a customer. The sale of managed services to SMEs is a symbiotic proposition.
New customers gain support from trained IT professionals who can design, purchase, implement and support business-critical systems and solutions, while MSPs add MRR (monthly recurring revenue) to their balance sheets. Those relationships also allow suppliers to leverage their resources in a greater number of vertical industries, maximizing employee productivity and optimizing multiple skill sets. Selling managed services to SMBs requires MSPs to engage in meaningful conversations with business owners, accountants, lawyers, and others who are not trained in the complexities of computer programming, network installation, or systems administration. However, many small business owners also have limited IT experience, and outsourcing their managed IT services can be a huge benefit to your business enterprise.
In sales, this is typically a customer relationship management (CRM), incentive compensation management (ICM), price quote setup (CPQ), or other software solution. While the managed services industry is in a phase of steady growth, most managed service providers (MSPs) continue to struggle to sell their services. Selling managed services to small businesses can take time, and MSPs often focus much of their efforts on education, informing decision makers of the business benefit that comes from proactive IT management. Selling managed services is not a natural talent, as many of those who live and breathe IT struggle when it comes time to negotiate and close new businesses.
While there are several pricing structures for a managed service, a fixed or near-fixed monthly fee is often used, giving customers a predictable amount of support each month to manage their solution. That's why it's essential to explain everything that goes into BaaS and why consuming backup as a managed service is more reliable and cost-effective than trying to do it internally. While there are numerous challenges in selling managed services to businesses, it is not difficult to overcome these challenges and succeed in this industry. For this reason, you can offer individual platforms as a managed service and, at the same time, offer other managed services that are built from a range of different technologies.
Kujawa noted that Locknet Managed IT Services invests in a range of training to develop its sales talent. However, many organizations are still unfamiliar with the concept of managed services and are therefore unsure if they should work with a managed service provider (MSP).
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