I’ll conduct a free security audit for you by asking just two questions.
One, what is your average seat price? Two, do you have at least one person in your service delivery organization who’s 100 percent proactive? In other words, they don’t bill professional services, and they don’t do any support tickets. They’re purely proactive.
Based on your answers to these two questions, I have a pretty good idea of your security posture. Did you notice that I didn’t ask about certifications, tools, or services? There’s a reason for that.
Security is about process and discipline. If you don’t charge enough and don’t have dedicated roles, process, and accountability, your customers are not as secure as they should be. They would be more secure if they had a truly proactive MSP at the right price.
Once you understand this, you will not only mature your business and your security posture, but you’ll be able to right-size your current agreements and win new customers at the right price. You will have learned how to weaponize your competitor’s low price. When you achieve this, you’re ready to fulfill your true potential. This logic applies as you speak to every new potential client.
I recently listened to a podcast where the MSP featured performs a full security audit they charge for as the first step of their sales process. If this is your process, and you’re having unbelievable success, stick to it. But I think you can ask eight to ten questions of a decision maker and have a great idea of their IT and security posture — at least enough to talk through pain, money, and decision. In some cases, you may end up doing some type of audit, but they’ll be fully qualified first, and most deals, in my experience, get closed without having to do that.
Here are the two takeaways. First, your business and security posture can be measured greatly by the two questions I asked. Next, you can use the same logic with every prospect you talk with to close more deals at a higher price.
