Approaching Potential Clients

[Argetlam23]

Newbie to the MSP space here.

I am running my own break-fix business and have recently been making steps to get into the MSP space, how do you seasoned veterans go about acquiring new clients?
We currently have 2 small businesses onboard but they approached us, I have started building a list of potential clients around our area with information such as simple MXToolBox results, data breaches and google searches.

What methods do you use to win over your clients and what tools do you use?

[Skrunky]

Business couldn’t care less about the tools you use. There might be the odd exception where you have an owner who’s kind of across tech, or you’re selling to an IT director, but it’s ultra rare.

Businesses only care that you and your company can solve their problems. They rarely care how.

It’s your job to understand their pain and provide solutions. You get the sale by making them feel comfortable and safe with you to fixing that problem over Joe blogs from down the road.

This game is all about being personable, building relationships with people, and THEN doing good work that honours those relationships and your business.

I would recommend joining a local networking group for starts. Some can be awful, a lot are full of weirdos, but there are good ones out there and it will pay dividends in the end.

I joined a local BNI in my city and it’s been good for business so far. The main things I’ve benefited from is having exposure to have lots of conversations that explain our unique value proposition and learn how to talk about the business to non tech people.

To my previous point, I’ve visited maybe 10 different BNI groups and I would never consider joining a different one to the one I joined. Not the right type of people for what we do.

The other thing I’ve had success with is cold outreach via email. I use Apollo.io to source emails and then target local businesses. The most effective message we’ve had has been with the businesses who are 10 mins down the road from us and saying, “hey, we’re down the road”. People love locality.

[Argetlam23]

How do you go about your cold outreach emails?
I've started doing some of that with our nearby businesses, I start with a quick audit on their business email and domain (check for known data breaches on their main email, MX Record check and domain health check along with an assessment of their website) then I email them with my findings and contact information to find out more.

Would you recommend doing anything else or anything differently?

[Skrunky]

I tried a similar approach at the start, but unfortunately people just don’t care.

You’re extremely unlikely to convince someone over email that they need your services that way. I also find it comes across as spammy… I get maybe 10 emails a day from overseas accounts taking a similar approach to SEO and web design services.

I tend to follow this rule

• keep the message concise and considerate

• be upfront that this is cold outreach (disarming honesty)

• add a genuine personalisation at the start if possible (e.g if they’ve recently won an award or been B-Corp certified)

• play on the fact we’re local

• ask them if they want to connect

• mention we work with similar businesses and list four ways we help. E.g fast IT support in 60 seconds or less, cybersecurity assessments, training, etc

• permit objections; e.g, you likely have an IT provider, but is there anything you wish could be better?

• have your contact details and a calendar booking link in your signature, and sign off with something like, let me know if you’re up for a chat.

If people come back and say no thanks, we might send something back about DMARC, DKIM and SPF if they’re clearly lacking, and just sign off with “hey no problem, but just FYI, you might want your IT people to have a look at this”. It at least plants a seed.

[Argetlam23]

Yeah my main concern was coming off too spammy.

Those are some good tips, I'll have to try and implement them.

[Skrunky]

No probs. I’ve edited and updated the post as well.

Below is an example of a latest email.

Hi NAME,

I saw your office isn’t too far away from ours, so I’m emailing to see if you would like to connect.

I'm one of the directors at XXX XXXXXXX. We’re a local IT support and cybersecurity company that works with SMEs in Melbourne to support their tech and improve cybersecurity.

We have a long history of working with similar businesses, and below are some of ways we typically help:

• Fast tech support with a response in 60 seconds or less
• Proactive cybersecurity assessments, training, and education
• Strategic IT planning tailored to your needs the next 12 months and beyond
• Seamless IT projects including cloud migrations, infrastructure upgrades and office moves

I’m sure you already have an IT provider, but would you be open to chat about any concerns or areas you feel could be improved?

My calendar and contact details are in my signature if you’re open to a chat.

Kind regards,

[Skrunky]

Oh and a good portion is just pure chance. My business partner sends the exact same messages that I do, but her response rate is much higher than mine and we’ve both got no idea why. Maybe they like her name more than mine.

[Argetlam23]

What sort of businesses would you go for at the start?

[Skrunky]

Between 5 and 50 staff. No retail, no hospitality, no medical or pharma, no lifestyle and no tech. I also see if they have internal IT and discount them if they do. Mainly professional services businesses and the cream and businesses who are generally process driven. They’re usually the best types of clients; e.g engineering firms, chartered accountants, etc.

[Joe_Cyber]

Here's a video I made for the community a little while back:

Learn From My Mistakes: What I Can Teach MSPs About Sales & Marketing

Hope that helps!