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Why You Should Apply SPIN Selling Process in Your MSP Marketing

Bill Hogan , , , , ,

MSP marketingYou’ve got an uphill battle ahead of you in your MSP marketing. One of the most important things will involve identifying needs and showing you can fulfill them. However, it can be hard to determine what needs a client may or may not have from an outside perspective. One of your best tactics is going to be an inquiry, but for that to work, you have to know what to ask. A good tactic is to initiate a SPIN selling process. That’s not a laundry term; it is a mnemonic device standing for:

  • Situation Inquiries
  • Problem Questions
  • Implication Asks
  • Need-Payoff Queries

Situation Inquiries

Your MSP marketing can’t really choose a forward tack to take without knowing the situation. You need to ask questions pertaining to existing operations, existing technology solutions, forward goals, cost of operations, and everything necessary to give your team a reasoned picture of your prospective client’s situation. If you don’t know this vital information, you’re likely to find a wall when you make any sales pitches.

Think of this as the root of your presentation exposition. When you know the situation, you can then figure out whether or not your prospect has any problems that the IT organization you’re marketing for has the ability to solve. While those in marketing teams don’t always make a conversion, that being sales’ job, if you till the “land” right, you could see shoots from the seeds you’ve planted start reaching out from the soil. Also, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a conversion may take place in the marketing process. The idea here is to get enough information from the client that you can provide them with the necessary information to make an informed decision. This commonly takes time, but sometimes, you meet a prospect at just the right moment.

Problem Questions

Now, you’ve got to lead the witness based on the data you managed to acquire in the session of interrogation. You want them to admit they’ve got issues that require work, which is certainly something easier said than done. So, for example, if they don’t have cloud computing, they are looking to scale out and they do have onsite servers, you could lead them to tell you about the costs involved and the problems in maintaining, troubleshooting and securing their existing server array. Personnel alone are likely going to cost a minimum of $50k a year, if not $200k+. In terms of that, you can save the client $100k+ annually. Get them to admit they’re spending too much on operational exigency A or B and that what you do can solve the problem of their wasted resources. 

This is not the only tack to take in terms of problems, either. Additionally, you can focus on operations, competitiveness and a variety of other areas where your prospective clients are likely to fall short to some degree based on their extant situation.

Implication Asks

The previous segment of this writing combined a bit of this “implication” portion because this was necessary for fully defining strategy. Basically, once you’ve figured out the situation and made the clients to admit a problem, you want to imply that you’ve got a solution. Having numbers to back up your implications are key. You should show examples of other clients who have been helped by what you have to offer. 

Need-Payoff Queries

Once you’ve determined the situation, made clients admit they’ve got a problem that needs fixing, and implied that you’ve got the solution–likely using numbers to your advantage–you want to take it a step further and show the payoff. If your business fixes this client’s obvious need, then the payoff will be increased capital for them, which expedites scaling up while reducing risk and expanding profit.

Increased Conversion

An MSP marketing campaign that employs a strategic approach of this variety is likely to see the kind of results necessary for cohesive, reliable forward growth. When you put a positive SPIN on what you do, you’re likely to see an increase in prospect conversion.

Bill Hogan

Bill Hogan is President of Partners Plus. A fast growing IT Support firm based in the Philadelphia area. Bill has been helping make life with business computers easier since 1981. His education as an Electrical Engineer at Penn State started a dual approach toward gaining expertise in both programming and computer networks. In 1991 he formed Partners Plus, Inc., to provide managed IT services to companies in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, based on being a business operations ally and understanding the need to speak to company leaders in plain English rather than ‘techno-babble’. And while others tend to focus their attention on the mechanical components of a computer system, Bill and his staff take a more global approach - how a network can be best used as an integral, reliable asset to the business owner’s goals. In 2007, after years of frustration with the sub-standard services he saw during network audits, Bill published “Hassle Free Computer Support” to educate business owners with the information they need to get superior technical support for their businesses A firm believer in keeping current with advances in technology and processes, Bill lead Partners Plus to become a Microsoft Certified Partner in 1998 and a Gold Certified Partner in 2008. And, Partners Plus Inc. has been selected by Microsoft as being in the top 1% of Partners serving the Small and Medium Business Market on the East Coast. Bill is internationally certified in Network Operations and is certified by Microsoft in project management and multiple Microsoft technologies. He also held the position of representative for the Mid-Atlantic region on Microsoft’s Advisory Board which manages all Microsoft Small Business certified partners. Partners Plus provides managed it services to clients in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley and helps them choose, implement, and manage IT and cloud solutions that are cost effective and reliable. Partners Plus’ pro-active approach to IT support is ideally suited for companies in Wilmington, Delaware or Philadelphia who depend on reliable IT infrastructure, but don’t want to spend a lot of money to keep your IT services in Delaware that way. Partners Plus clients have come to appreciate the Partners Plus team focus on operations and the ability to get the core of problems quickly, and the knowledge of how to resolve issues as quickly as possible. With the institution of the Partners Plus Protection Program, the company can now monitor, identify and resolve many network issues in minutes without coming onsite.