The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling

The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling

In my work with IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), I regularly ask business owners what their biggest challenge is.

The answer they give me is typically “finding new clients”.

As a former MSP owner myself, I totally understand this challenge!

Doing consistent, quality marketing to prospective MSP clients is a time consuming and often frustrating process.

But what if I told you that instead of having to find new clients, you are sitting on a potential goldmine of revenue with your *existing* clients?

Lowering the Cost of Support and Increasing Revenue

How many services do you offer to your existing clients?

At a guess, there will be:-

  • Your core Managed Service offering
  • Cloud-based backup and Disaster Recovery solutions
  • Dark Web monitoring
  • Web Content Filtering
  • Email Hosting
  • Email Backup and Archiving
  • Network Management

... and probably a dozen other services and solutions you could offer your clients.

Now, how many of your clients take *all* the solutions and services you offer?

Probably not too many, right?

Yet if you were to educate all of your clients -- or even a good portion -- I’m betting that not only would your revenue increase substantially, but thanks to your clients being better protected, the cost of supporting those clients would drop thanks to fewer support tickets.

So, by upselling and cross-selling solutions, you’d lower your cost of support contracts and increase your revenue?

So why aren’t more MSPs doing this?

Upselling can feel like a Dirty Word

When you mention sales to most MSP owners, it comes with certain negative connotations.

Salesmen are seen as snake oil merchants, trying to persuade customers to buy something they don’t need.

Yet, the vast majority of MSPs I know came into the IT industry because they enjoy helping and serving people.

This reminded me of the time I had the opportunity to interview Bob Burg.

Bob is the renowned author of the best-selling book “The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea” and a globally respected sales coach (you can check out our conversation at How Being a Go-Giver Can Increase Your Sales).

Bob coined the phrase “up-serving” and I love this term, because it perfectly captures what we, as MSP owners, are looking to achieve with our clients.

That’s why I think we need to redefine the word “selling” to “serving,” and as a result, instead of looking to upsell or cross-sell to our clients, we learn the benefits of up-serving our MSP clients.

How Can I Begin Up-Serving My Clients?

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that you probably have dozens of solutions or services you *could* offer to your clients.

But just how do you keep track of which clients are taking which services?

Well, when I ran my own MSP business, we went old-school on this concept!

I put up a whiteboard in our office, and across the top axis, I wrote every client's name.

Then, across the left axis, I wrote every solution or service we offer.

Finally, in the grid I’d created, I went through and put a green tick where a client already took that solution or service from us, and a red cross where there was an opportunity to help that client with an up-served solution.

Thankfully, nowadays, you don’t have to use such basic solutions as tools like Zomentum allow you to build your own sales efficiency within their software!

(If you’re interested in seeing how, then check out my Video with Ben Spector of Zomentum on How to use the Zomentum solution to improve and streamline your sales and marketing process).

Get it for free | Download Zomentum’s up-serving & cross-selling template 

Focus On A Solution Per Month

Once you have your sales plan in place, then I’d recommend you focus your marketing efforts on promoting a single solution each month.

For instance, the first month you could focus your marketing on educating clients on the value of a Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution.

The next month, you could focus on why Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions provide better quality call management.

Each month, you’re trying to convert more of your existing clients to your solutions -- looking for opportunities to increase the revenue you generate from the client *and* lower your cost of supporting that client.

As a side note, one great side benefit to this process is that the same marketing can be used to promote your services and solutions to *new* clients, too! So, if you’re struggling to do consistent marketing, this methodology will help you too.

A double whammy!

Conclusion

The vast majority of MSP businesses are working hard to win new clients.

Yet the reality of their business is that they probably haven’t maximised the value of their existing client relationships!

By up-serving your clients, and educating them on the full range of services and solutions you could help them with, you’ll find that you increase your revenue.

And, as a result of your clients taking more of your services, you’ll notice that they are better protected and log fewer support tickets with you. So, you’ll increase the profit of your support contracts.

Upserving clients is a win-win. It increases your revenue, reduces your cost of supporting a client, and makes your client more “sticky” too.

So as you approach your business growth strategy, before pursuing new clients, consider the goldmine of revenue you’re already sitting on!

About The Author

Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts within the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. He launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard helps IT business owner’s take back control by freeing up their time and building a business that can run without them. He’s the author of the book “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” and writer of the award-winning blog www.tubblog.co.uk

SEO for MSPs PPC for MSPs
Definition Optimizing your website to rank organically in search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for clicks. Paying for advertisements that appear at the top of SERPs, and you're charged each time someone clicks on your ad.
Cost Generally, lower cost as it's based on time and effort to optimize your website. Can be expensive, as you pay for every click on your ads, and costs can add up quickly.
Time to Results Takes time to see significant results, often several months to gain visibility in organic listings. Provides immediate results; your ads can start generating traffic and leads as soon as your campaign is live.
Sustainability Sustainable over the long term if you consistently maintain your SEO efforts. Reliant on a continuous budget; traffic stops when you stop paying for ads.
Click Quality Usually, it has higher click quality as users find organic results more trustworthy and relevant. Click quality can vary, and not all clicks may lead to conversions, potentially leading to a wasted budget.
Competition Competing with other websites for organic rankings, but the playing field can be more level. Competing with other businesses for ad placements can be fierce, and costs can rise in competitive markets.
Targeting Options Limited control over specific keywords that drive traffic; relies on keyword optimization. Precise control over keywords, demographics, and location targeting, allowing for more precise audience reach.
Performance Tracking Tracking and measuring results can be challenging, but tools like Google Analytics can help. Easily track and measure performance with detailed metrics and conversion tracking tools.
Long-term Strategy Builds a strong online presence and brand authority over time. Effective for short-term goals and promotions but doesn't contribute to long-term organic growth.
Click Costs No direct click costs; traffic is "free" once you've optimized your site. Direct click costs are associated with each visitor who clicks on your ad.
Advertisements vs. Organic Results Focuses on achieving high rankings in organic search results. Focuses on paid ads displayed above organic results.
Keyword Research Important for optimizing content and targeting relevant keywords. Crucial for selecting the right keywords and managing bidding strategies for ad campaigns.
The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling
The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling

The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling

quarterly business reviews

In my work with IT Solution Providers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), I regularly ask business owners what their biggest challenge is.

The answer they give me is typically “finding new clients”.

As a former MSP owner myself, I totally understand this challenge!

Doing consistent, quality marketing to prospective MSP clients is a time consuming and often frustrating process.

But what if I told you that instead of having to find new clients, you are sitting on a potential goldmine of revenue with your *existing* clients?

Lowering the Cost of Support and Increasing Revenue

How many services do you offer to your existing clients?

At a guess, there will be:-

  • Your core Managed Service offering
  • Cloud-based backup and Disaster Recovery solutions
  • Dark Web monitoring
  • Web Content Filtering
  • Email Hosting
  • Email Backup and Archiving
  • Network Management

... and probably a dozen other services and solutions you could offer your clients.

Now, how many of your clients take *all* the solutions and services you offer?

Probably not too many, right?

Yet if you were to educate all of your clients -- or even a good portion -- I’m betting that not only would your revenue increase substantially, but thanks to your clients being better protected, the cost of supporting those clients would drop thanks to fewer support tickets.

So, by upselling and cross-selling solutions, you’d lower your cost of support contracts and increase your revenue?

So why aren’t more MSPs doing this?

Upselling can feel like a Dirty Word

When you mention sales to most MSP owners, it comes with certain negative connotations.

Salesmen are seen as snake oil merchants, trying to persuade customers to buy something they don’t need.

Yet, the vast majority of MSPs I know came into the IT industry because they enjoy helping and serving people.

This reminded me of the time I had the opportunity to interview Bob Burg.

Bob is the renowned author of the best-selling book “The Go-Giver: A Little Story About a Powerful Business Idea” and a globally respected sales coach (you can check out our conversation at How Being a Go-Giver Can Increase Your Sales).

Bob coined the phrase “up-serving” and I love this term, because it perfectly captures what we, as MSP owners, are looking to achieve with our clients.

That’s why I think we need to redefine the word “selling” to “serving,” and as a result, instead of looking to upsell or cross-sell to our clients, we learn the benefits of up-serving our MSP clients.

How Can I Begin Up-Serving My Clients?

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that you probably have dozens of solutions or services you *could* offer to your clients.

But just how do you keep track of which clients are taking which services?

Well, when I ran my own MSP business, we went old-school on this concept!

I put up a whiteboard in our office, and across the top axis, I wrote every client's name.

Then, across the left axis, I wrote every solution or service we offer.

Finally, in the grid I’d created, I went through and put a green tick where a client already took that solution or service from us, and a red cross where there was an opportunity to help that client with an up-served solution.

Thankfully, nowadays, you don’t have to use such basic solutions as tools like Zomentum allow you to build your own sales efficiency within their software!

(If you’re interested in seeing how, then check out my Video with Ben Spector of Zomentum on How to use the Zomentum solution to improve and streamline your sales and marketing process).

Get it for free | Download Zomentum’s up-serving & cross-selling template 

Focus On A Solution Per Month

Once you have your sales plan in place, then I’d recommend you focus your marketing efforts on promoting a single solution each month.

For instance, the first month you could focus your marketing on educating clients on the value of a Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) solution.

The next month, you could focus on why Voice-over-IP (VoIP) solutions provide better quality call management.

Each month, you’re trying to convert more of your existing clients to your solutions -- looking for opportunities to increase the revenue you generate from the client *and* lower your cost of supporting that client.

As a side note, one great side benefit to this process is that the same marketing can be used to promote your services and solutions to *new* clients, too! So, if you’re struggling to do consistent marketing, this methodology will help you too.

A double whammy!

Conclusion

The vast majority of MSP businesses are working hard to win new clients.

Yet the reality of their business is that they probably haven’t maximised the value of their existing client relationships!

By up-serving your clients, and educating them on the full range of services and solutions you could help them with, you’ll find that you increase your revenue.

And, as a result of your clients taking more of your services, you’ll notice that they are better protected and log fewer support tickets with you. So, you’ll increase the profit of your support contracts.

Upserving clients is a win-win. It increases your revenue, reduces your cost of supporting a client, and makes your client more “sticky” too.

So as you approach your business growth strategy, before pursuing new clients, consider the goldmine of revenue you’re already sitting on!

About The Author

Richard Tubb is one of the best-known experts within the global IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) community. He launched and sold his own MSP business before creating a leading MSP media and consultancy practice. Richard helps IT business owner’s take back control by freeing up their time and building a business that can run without them. He’s the author of the book “The IT Business Owner’s Survival Guide” and writer of the award-winning blog www.tubblog.co.uk

The MSP Opportunity in Up-Serving and Cross-Selling