The opportunity for MSPs to grow new logo sales has never been better. Our target markets have improved in every way. The sweet spots for the number of users in our target customers are rising. (Even our seat prices are increasing!) More targets willing to pay more for our services is an excellent market to be in — but how do we capitalize?
The first thing you will probably think is, “Oh, I’ll hire a salesperson.” We love problems we think we can outsource, don’t we? We hire a salesperson. We tell them to sell. Then we go back to running our business. Wouldn’t it be great if that worked? Unfortunately, you must get to the hard part. So, what should you do? I like to work backward to solve challenges.
Let’s start with the amount of new monthly recurring revenue (MRR) you want in a year. For example, let’s say your target is $40,000. Well, how many customers would you need to hit your goal? If my average customers are $3,500 a month, that’s 11 customers I would need, so about 1 customer a month. Then determine how many leads or first-time appointments (FTAs) you would need to close 11 deals. You should base this on your close ratio. If you have sold $10,000 of MRR in the past 12 months, or if your average deal size is $2,000 versus $3,500, then your goal of $40,000 may be out of reach. Your lead generation process doesn’t currently support the goal.
Here’s why this is important. If you have no process to generate FTAs today, specifically warm leads, hiring a salesperson may not fix your problem. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire a salesperson; you just need to be sure you have the right expectations and set the right priorities.
It would help if you decided on the qualifications of the salesperson, too. I like young salespeople who have had success in high-activity sales jobs. You need a high-revving motor in MSP sales! I want salespeople who have gone through activity reluctance. But I don’t want them to have so much experience that they can’t change if they’re too stuck in their ways to adapt to the sales process for MSPs.
Then, think about this: How would you train these salespeople? What activity metrics would you judge them on? What quota would you assign, and how would it ramp?
Salespeople, just like any technical role, need to be put in a position to be successful. This means defining the role and process, the key metrics, the accountability process, and putting people in a place to be successful.