Managed services refer to outsourcing specific tasks, with the goal of establishing ongoing, contract-based support relationships with customers. This is different from other types of channel sales, such as project-based transactions, where a value-added reseller will develop and implement an IT platform on behalf of a customer. Selling managed services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is a mutually beneficial proposition. New customers gain support from trained IT professionals who can design, purchase, implement and support business-critical systems and solutions, while managed service providers (MSPs) add monthly recurring revenue (MRR) to their balance sheets.
These relationships also allow suppliers to leverage their resources in a greater number of vertical industries, maximizing employee productivity and optimizing multiple skill sets. Selling managed services to SMBs requires MSPs to engage in meaningful conversations with business owners, accountants, lawyers, and others who are not trained in the complexities of computer programming, network installation, or systems administration. However, many small business owners also have limited IT experience, and outsourcing their managed IT services can be a huge benefit to their enterprise. In sales, this is typically a customer relationship management (CRM), incentive compensation management (ICM), price quote setup (CPQ), or other software solution.
While the managed services industry is in a phase of steady growth, most MSPs continue to struggle to sell their services. Selling managed services to small businesses can take time, and MSPs often focus much of their efforts on education, informing decision makers of the business benefit that comes from proactive IT management. Selling managed services is not a natural talent; many IT professionals struggle when it comes time to negotiate and close new businesses. When it comes to pricing structures for managed services, a fixed or near-fixed monthly fee is often used, giving customers a predictable amount of support each month to manage their solution.
This is why it's essential to explain everything that goes into Backup as a Service (BaaS) and why consuming backup as a managed service is more reliable and cost-effective than trying to do it internally. While there are numerous challenges in selling managed services to businesses, it is not difficult to overcome these challenges and succeed in this industry. For this reason, you can offer individual platforms as a managed service and, at the same time, offer other managed services that are built from a range of different technologies. Locknet Managed IT Services invests in a range of training to develop its sales talent; however, many organizations are still unfamiliar with the concept of managed services and are therefore unsure if they should work with an MSP.
