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The Importance of Honesty in MSP Sales

Bill Hogan , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MSP salesThere is a lot of information available about how to improve your MSP sales. There are always new and better techniques on how to open and close sales in the IT industry. In order to succeed in selling, it is important that your team is equipped with the right skills and training to be effective. Nevertheless, it’s always important to remember that the interaction between a salesman and a potential customer is above all else a human interaction. The values of honesty, respect, and integrity must be upheld in order to connect with customers and close sales.

Building a Brand with Honesty

Some find it tempting to be dishonest in sales. If you have sales targets and are trying hard to reach them, you may want to exaggerate the merits of the product you are selling. Leaving out the limitations or providing vague answers about your product is also a form of dishonesty. Salesmen may also be swayed to give white lies if they just need a final push to close the sale.

Customers are looking for value. They want quality IT services and products and are often very skeptical when the seller appears to be overselling something. Many businesses have had experiences with dishonest salesmen who either exaggerated the qualities of their service or product or lied altogether. If these businesses went on to make the purchase, they were later disappointed and unhappy about what they actually received versus what was promised.

If you’re trying to build up your client base and establish a name for your company, delivering on your promises pays off. Your customers are more likely to be satisfied and fulfilled and may then play an important role in referring your business to other companies in need of IT services. People remember how you treat them, and being honest in sales shows that you value your customers and you are trustworthy.

In order to succeed in sales, you must understand your customer and offer a solution to their problem. Communicating how well your business can solve a customer’s issue is a great way to reach out to them. Customers with a real problem to be addressed need and require the truth about what your services can do for them. Not only will they be happy to accept help, it will likely help you gain a new customer.

Future Benefits of Honesty

If your business has always emphasized being honest in MSP sales and your sales team is on board, the benefits are felt both in the short run and the long run. For your business, you would have established a reputation for delivering what you say you are going to deliver. Your employees also benefit because they gain the trust and respect of your clients. They also need a good reputation and foundation if they ever want to change jobs or careers. They may run into the people they sell to in the future. How they conducted themselves in the past may mean the difference between being referred and recommended for a new position and being snubbed altogether.

As an IT company, it’s important to establish a culture of honesty. As a business, you have the ability to determine the culture of your company from the top. Sales training for your team must emphasize honesty and discourage questionable exaggeration and manipulative sales strategies. You need to make sure that your sales team has the required knowledge to answer your clients question honestly and in depth. It’s always good to have ambitious sales goals, but ultimately being honest with you MSP sales is the best way to connect with customers and develop long-term relationships.

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.