Written By
Lori Richardson
What do companies such as managed services providers (MSPs) need to help them grow business? Process, systems, and metrics - you can't improve what you don't measure. But how to do it?
Benchmarking against your peers is a great way to see where you stand within your industry. Assessing performance of your company ecosystem and the individuals on your team gives you a road map to performance improvement when done correctly.
How do you grow profitably?
Profitability metrics are critical. The Autotask 2015 Managed Services Market Study, just released a couple of months ago, finds that "53% of MSPs produce less than ½ of their revenue from managed services."
For most MSPs, the rest of the revenue comes from IT project work and what we call “break and fix”
MSP Alliance, which is the International Alliance of Cloud and Managed Service Providers created a structure to help MSPs grow revenues with less “break and fix” (less profitable and highly unpredictable work) to more managed services. They suggest these four steps:
1) Establish your goals
2) Skills profiling
3) Equip for the task (infrastructure)
4) Program execution
The road to higher revenues is out there, and there are partners to help that happen.
If you are an MSP, how are you improving your infrastructure and service delivery capabilities? How strong are you in each of the areas Service Leadership mentioned: strategy, finance, sales, service, and compensation?
As you solve this issue for your own company, it ripples to your entire community and all the companies yours touches.
My favorite sales manager used to say, “It takes work to be mediocre.” Why not work to be top in your geographic area or niche? What one action will you do first?
Sales Force Grader
While we're talking about improvements on your team, I encourage you to answer the 22 questions (mostly yes's and no's) for OMG's Sales Force Grader and get a score for your sales force!
This post was brought to you by IBM for MSPs and opinions are my own. To read more on this topic, visit IBM’s PivotPoint. Dedicated to providing valuable insight from industry thought leaders, PivotPoint offers expertise to help you develop, differentiate and scale your business.
Lori Richardson is recognized on Forbes as one of the "Top 30 Social Sales Influencers" worldwide and is a Top process Systems and Mwtrics g25 Innovative Sales Blogger. Lori speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside sales teams in mid-sized companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog for sales strategies, tactics, and tips.
Increase Opportunities. Expand Your Pipeline. Close More Deals. Leadership Development.
email lori@scoremoresales.com | My LinkedIn Profile | twitter | Visit us on google+