Author: Howard M. Cohen
How do managed service providers (MSP) grow their business fastest? Here’s the simple, basic truth about the business and how to excel in it.
We’re going to start by telling you something you already know, and have already heard more times than you could ever want to…
“It’s five times easier to sell something else to an existing customer than it is to create a new one.”
What very few seem to want to focus on is what you need to do to sell more to your existing customers!
To Sell More You Need More to Sell
Most clients come to you with a specific need, and you create an outstanding solution for that specific need. You may later have the opportunity to improve upon your solution, but it will likely be some time before that customer has another major initiative for you.
And, hopefully, some customers saturate! They buy basically everything you sell. And then what?
When it was all about products this was an easy problem to solve. You simply went to your distributor’s catalog or website and looked to see what other ‘stuff’ was out there that your customers might need.
But when it’s not about products, and rather about your much-more-profitable services, it’s simply not that easy to add something new:
- You must identify a definable, quantifiable need.
- You must create a solution to meet that need.
- You must create a methodology for building that solution.
- You must create messaging around why your new solution is ideal to answer that need.
- You must develop messaging to attract customers.
- You must perform account mapping to identify those customers most likely to have this need.
Only then do you get to go out and sell this new solution. So how long might that all take? Yeah. That’s the challenge.
Your other choice is to seek services adjacent to yours that you could broker or buy and sell to your customers. Preferably, you’ll want to find services that still provide a reasonable proportion of the profit you could generate if you delivered the service yourself.
Enablers
Or you could seek out enablers!
Enablers produce specific services that MSPs, CSPs, and other ITSPs can use to deliver new services. This is similar to finding a toolsmith. Carpenters don’t fashion their own hammers and saws. They buy them from what was originally referred to as a toolsmith.
What were once software companies whose products you would resell are now finding success furnishing tools that you can use to solve customer problems while building more revenue and profit for yourself.
Idenxt: Your Ideal Azure Enabler
If you’ve enjoyed success selling Azure services to your customers, the next thing you should want to do is to sell more services onto those Azure implementations.
Idenxt was created by a group of long-term Microsoft MVPs and other experts who saw the need for a comprehensive management suite to help ITSPs run, manage, and secure their customers’ Azure environments.
Rather than having to develop your own network operations center (NOC) or set up your own security operations center (SOC), Idenxt has already handled all that heavy lifting. You simply connect your Azure customers to the Idenxt service, and you are now ready to handle their CloudOps, their SecOps, Application Management, Configuration Management, Patch Management, Business Continuity, and Disaster Recovery, and all as AIOps!
Your customer doesn’t have to know that you haven’t built a NOC or a SOC. They only know you keep things running for them, and that’s what makes you their hero and worthy of continued engagement.
And should you encounter any technical challenges that daunt you, Idenxt has experienced hands at the ready to assist you!
If I Had a Hammer
That’s how the old song goes. They could also have sung “if I had a screwdriver,” or “if I had a tablesaw.” Each of those tools enables the carpenter to do more and build more for their customer.
The same is true of today’s generation of IT Enablers, like Idenxt. Turn to Idenxt for the tools you need to build the high-profit services you want to offer your clients.
For more information about putting Idenxt to work for you and your customers, contact us here.