How to get that coveted appointment
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This whitepaper provides best practices for MSPs to effectively reach leads and secure appointments without cold calling. It emphasizes the importance of personalizing communication through platforms like LinkedIn and using various marketing assets, such as postcards and brochures, to stand out. The document also suggests investing in sales enablement tools for real-time lead engagement tracking and automated follow-ups.
How to get that coveted appointment
- 1. How to get that coveted appointment A MSP Advantage Program Whitepaper
- 2. So you have a list of leads that you want to contact for an appointment, but are afraid of losing them at this stage? Relax...while this fear is not unfounded, it is the case with every salesperson. After all, you have spent a lot of time researching your audience and your leads, in particular, learning about their IT challenges and issues. Losing them at this point in the sales cycle, even before you get a chance to explain how you can add value to them doesn’t seem fair, does it? This e-guide offers you the best practices that you can follow to make sure your interaction with an individual lead results in an appointment.
- 3. Instead of cold-calling your leads, try connecting with them on LinkedIn first. LinkedIn is an excellent platform for establishing business connections. Moreover, considering the vast reach of social media platforms, there’s always a good chance that you already have a connection at some level. Having your lead as a connection on LinkedIn opens new communication lines and boosts your chances of getting an appointment. Send your lead a request to connect on LinkedIn. Make sure you personalize your connection request. Remember that this is not a sales pitch. It is an invitation to network online, so choose your words carefully. If your request to connect on LinkedIn is accepted, then you can follow-up with an email that thanks your prospect for adding you to their connections. In the same email, you can talk about how you can add value to them through the services you offer and provide a link to your website or attach a brochure. If your prospect opens this email or responds positively to it by visiting your website or downloading your brochure, the next step would be to call them and request an appointment. However, if your LinkedIn request is not accepted, then it is advisable to wait for a couple of days, and then follow up with an email in which you make reference to your request to connect with them on LinkedIn. You can also mention how your connection can add value to them, but refrain from attaching any other marketing/sales collateral to the email. USE LINKEDIN WHENEVER YOU CAN HOW TO CONNECT USING LINKEDIN
- 4. Your prospects are more likely to respond to your communication efforts if they are personalized. The more relevant your message is to them, the greater are the chances of them getting back to you. Here’s how you can personalize your interaction with your prospects. Customize your emails, sales campaigns and all your other messages to suit your prospects. Talk about their specific challenges and offer testimonials and case studies on how you helped a client from the same industry resolve their IT issues. For example, if you are sending an email about your services to a doctor’s office, include a testimonial from a medical client of yours. At the micro level, you can personalize content for each prospect based on their attributes, including location, name, company name, etc. For example, when connecting with a prospect in Germantown, VA, you can talk about another business nearby whose IT infrastructure you manage. Other very obvious personalization techniques include addressing the prospect by name, making specific references to their company, etc. For example, “Mr. Kreiger, this is Dan from NetworkSolutions and here’s how I can help Krieger Associates save $1500 monthly” MAKE AN IMPACT WITH PERSONALIZATION PERSONALIZING YOUR SALES CAMPAIGNS here’s how I can help
- 5. To effectively engage in personalized communication, you will have to invest in a good sales enablement and marketing automation platform. For added impact, make sure your sales enablement platform is equipped with a powerful personalization engine that offers real-time personalization of text as well as visual design. Ideally, your sales enablement tool should allow you to personalize based on the following elements. Lead attributes These refer to lead characteristics such as name, location, title, industry, company or city. Lead behavior These refer to lead actions—the way the lead has interacted with you. Lead behavior variables include website visits, landing page visits, email opens, link clicks, downloads, etc. User variables This refers to personalizing each marketing and sales communication with your information such as your name and contact information. MAKING IT HAPPEN
- 6. The first step in making an impact through personalized marketing and sales requires that you stock up on personalized sales and marketing assets. Here’s a list of sales assets that are absolute must-haves for any MSP. No one likes cold calling, neither the caller nor the person at the receiving end. Hence, it is very important that you have the best cold calling script in place, one that helps you make the most of the first 10 seconds you get with your prospect. Make sure your calling scripts are not more than 5 sentences. Anything longer and you may be cut-off abruptly. Don’t confuse your call script for a sales pitch. Your call script should just introduce your company, check with your prospect if it’s a good time to connect with them and then tell them in just one sentence what you can do for them. Finally, include a line where you request an appointment or permission to send more information. Remember, your calls may be routed to voicemail or be answered by a secretary whose goal is to shield colleagues from sales calls. Have call scripts for such scenarios as well. While such conversations seem pretty simple, having a script at-the-ready ensures you won’t fumble. STOCK UP YOUR ARSENAL - PERSONALIZED SALES AND MARKETING ASSETS Call scripts
- 7. E-mail can be your friend when cold-calling doesn’t work. If you find yourself reaching voicemail several times or your prospect is too busy to talk, it’s time to shoot them an email. An email gives your prospect a chance to hear you out when their schedule permits. Plus, with a good marketing automation software, you will be able to track your email, so you know whether it was opened by your prospect and if they clicked your website link or downloaded the brochure you sent. You may be thinking that the old-fashioned postcard has no role to play in today’s tech savvy sales environment. But, sending a postcard when everyone else is just sending emails helps you stand out. It sends the signal that you invested time and money to get your message across to your prospects, so you are serious about what you are selling. Secondly, you dodge the spam filters! In fact, in a survey conducted by Marketingsherpa, 80% of participants listed postcards to be very or somewhat effective. Make sure you make your postcard attractive by adding riveting content such as interesting statistics and industry-specific testimonials. Also, try different postcard styles for the same prospect, so there’s some variety to your postcard marketing. Targeted sales emails - getting an appointment Postcards
- 8. You can send out cover letters to your prospects right before or after your first appointment. Cover letters offer you the opportunity to tell your prospects about your services in detail. If you are sending a letter out after a meeting or confirmation of the first appointment, make sure you include a line thanking your prospects for their time. A professional, a well-designed business card is a key sales asset. You can use customization to make the most of this asset by designing two or three different business card styles--one each for the key business verticals you serve. For example, if your top clients include lawyers and CPAs, create 2 different business card styles, where the same information is tweaked a bit for each client vertical. For example, the card for lawyers can say: NetworkSolutions--IT services provider for attorneys since 1998, whereas the card for CPA firms can say: NetworkSolutions--IT services provider for CPAs since 1998. And finally, have a generic business card that you can share with any prospect, irrespective of their industry. Some tips to follow when creating a business card--use quality paper and have only as much information as essential. Your name, company name, logo and contact information will suffice. The font style and size should be such that your card is easy to read and pleasant to see. Cover letters Business cards
- 9. Nothing tells your story the way a brochure does. Whether you share a print copy with your clients via snail mail or just email them a PDF version, a brochure allows you to talk about your business in-depth—something phone calls, postcards, business cards, e-mails and cover letters don’t. Make your sales brochures more effective by Brochures Personalizing them to suit your key audience persona. Consider having at least 2 different brochures—one generic brochure that talks about all your services and one that specifically talks about how you can assist your key audience. Adding relevant subheadings, so your prospects will know how you can add value to them even if they just skim through your brochure. Adding your contact details including your web address, e-mail, phone number, office address and links to all your social media pages. Including relevant images, thus adding some zing to the otherwise monotonous text-only brochure. Sticking to a clear font style and size so your readers don’t have to strain their eyes to see what you are offering them. Adding testimonials and referrals. Personalize Subheadings Contact details Testimonials Text Images
- 10. Ask any successful MSP about how they manage so many SLA sign-ups and they will tell you the secret lies in anticipating the next move of the prospect and being ready with the right response. What they may not tell you though, is, there are tools available in the market that can do it for you. Invest in a sales enablement tool, one that alerts you about all significant prospect activities in real-time. Such platforms send email or SMS alerts as soon as the prospect engages in an action that you perceive as important. Some of these platforms may even respond to that prospect action automatically such as by sending them a follow-up email or SMS. FINALLY, STAY ALERT AND RESPOND ON TIME
- 11. Mindmatrix Inc., 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 Phone: 412-381-0230 Fax: 412-235-0477 www.mindmatrix.net Learn more about Mindmatrix's MSP Advantage Program CONTACT US TODAY!