MSPs are increasingly using a wide variety of marketing tactics to engage prospects and attempt to speed up what can be a long and challenging sales cycle. One tactic that we’ve used successfully is holding managed services marketing seminars. Seminars are a great way to engage your prospects in a format that help you sell while also positioning you as a valuable educational resource.

Marketing seminars are live events at which you meet with prospects to:

• Educate – Share useful information about something related to one or more of your services/products
• Sell – Pitch your services/products

I think the most important lesson we learned about using seminars is that you have to be aggressive about getting “butts in seats”! Most people are way too passive in their approach to this – often times quitting after one postcard mailing or round of calls.

You have to keep after it! When we are holding a seminar, we’ll send three pieces of direct mail, make three rounds of phone calls, and do several email blasts if we have their address. That’s how you put butts in seats!

Holding live marketing seminar events can be daunting for first-timers and there are lots of pitfalls to avoid, so we put together a guide to help MSPs plan for and hold successful marketing seminars. Click here for this free guide from MSP Coach. This guide consolidates our experiences along with research we’ve done on seminar marketing best practices.

Good luck!

MRC

The best teachers are able to boil down sometimes difficult concepts into simple, easily understood “nuggets” of wisdom for the rest of us to understand.

Dan Kennedy, famous entrepreneur and marketing guru, boiled down the fundamentals of advertising and marketing into just five points that I think every managed service provider could benefit from when marketing their MSP business.

Here they are:

1. Construct a relevant, irresistible offer
2. Require immediate action
3. Present it to the right prospect
4. In a way that the prospect must pay attention
5. Then establish safety for the buyer

According to Dan, if you succeed at doing these five things, you’ll succeed in any market.  If you fail at these five things, you’ll most likely fail in any market.

Now, it’s easy to look at this list and think, “Duh”, and then go about your merry way.  But I’d encourage you to stop and take a hard look at your current marketing to see if you are really doing each of these five things.  In most cases, I believe that you’ll find that you are not.

I’m taking a look at our marketing right now and I see TONS of room for improvement.  Might bet is that you’ll find the same.

MRC

Ha! Catchy title, eh? I’ve been asked a ton over the last few weeks what a managed service provider can do to get better search rankings.  Here’s the answer!

Kutenda’s director of online marketing – James Omdahl – is holding a webinar series starting on December 2nd to teach Kutenda’s search engine optimization process. Here are the details:

Want to generate more leads for your business? Kutenda suggests you S.L.E.E.P. on it!

Join the Kutenda team on Dec 2nd for the first of our webinar series: S.L.E.E.P. Your Way to the Top of Google’s Search Results.

http://kutenda.com/webinar_seo_sleep.html

Intended for small-business owners and marketers, the series will cover best practices, tips and tricks for driving qualified consumer traffic to your web site.

Throughout the three sessions, Kutenda’s very own director of online marketing, James Omdahl, will discuss keyword research, on-page optimization and link-building strategies with a focus on generating inbound leads online.

Attendees will receive checklists created by Kutenda online marketing specialists to help you begin optimizing for your business immediately.

The first session is Dec 2nd at 2pm EST so reserve your spot today.

Check out http://kutenda.com/webinar_seo_sleep.html for info on all 3 session.

Everyone’s invited – pass on the word!

MRC

First, let me start by saying that I’m a huge fan of Robin Robins and what she teaches – every MSP should be a client of hers.

Second, I agree with what she has to say about 95% of the time.

But in Robin’s November issue of her Marketing Strategy Brief – her monthly newsletter to members – I think she has led
her members astray.

Let me clarify.

In this issue, she has an article titled “Expensive Lessons and Unfiltered Facts Every Small Business Owner Ought to
Know BEFORE Spending a Dime on Google AdWords” that she apparently wrote for the Wall Street Journal.  In it, she had this to say about Google AdWords:

“Google AdWords is simply another form of media, just like direct mail, Yellow Pages ads, or radio advertising.  There’s no magic in it.”

The rest of the article is filled with great advice, but I think this statement is dead wrong.

Why?

My reasons are simple yet powerful.  The most important reason is summed up in one word:

SEARCH.

AdWords is of course part of the Google SEARCH Engine.  SEARCH is the operative word here.  Every day, depeding on the products or services you are selling, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people are SEARCHING for your products and services!

SEARCHING!  THEY ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!

Please don’t let the power of this simple statement go in one ear and out the other.  This is the simple reason that Google has exploded onto the business scene, becoming a goliath in only 11 years.

It’s the reason why online marketing is now surpassing television, radio, and many forms of print advertising
in many of the major markets of the world.

It’s the reason why small businesses are rapidly moving their advertising dollars online.

It’s the reason why Everon has been able to average 50 inbound managed services leads per month for years now, enough to give our business a growth turbo-boost.

And it’s the main reason why Google AdWords and other forms of search marketing are more powerful than other media.

With the exception of the Yellow Pages, every other form of media is an interruption.  This is why the Yellow Pages has traditionally been the most successful form of advertising for many businesses for years.  The only reason someone opens the Yellow Pages is to search for something.

So then is it fair to compare search engines to the Yellow Pages – it’s just another media, right? Ask the executives at the Yellow Pages companies if Google is “just another media”.  They’ll try to answer you through their tears as they look at their rapidly declining Yellow Pages revenue!

Which brings me to the second reason why online marketing is not just another media:

ADAPTABILITY.

There is no other form of advertising where you can place an ad, get results, modify the ad, get more results, decide to include a video in your ad, then change your mind and take it down – all in a 24 hour period!

If something isn’t working online, change it that day and test your new results!  Can you do that with a
newspaper ad, direct mail, or the Yellow Pages?  No!

And all of this can now be done by a non-technical person, like me.  I manage all of Everon’s online advertising and I don’t have a technical bone in my body.  The result is that small businesses are now truly empowered to take marketing into their own hands.

And finally, the third reason:

PAY FOR PERFORMANCE.

No other media lets you advertise to millions and millions of people without spending a penny until somebody responds to your ad.  This single innovation has opened up marketing to an audience of advertising buyers that would probably have never advertised otherwise because they saw the risk of spending money on traditional media as too high.

Now…hear me loud and clear.  I’m not saying this is the only media that should be used.  I’m a big believer in the value of direct mail, radio, and television advertising when used properly.  They are still very effective in many cases.  But online advertising is hot for a reason, and it’s not just because there are a lot of people out pitching online marketing services, as Robin suggests.

Online marketing is hot for one reason: IT WORKS.

AdWords and online marketing just another media?  That’s like saying a Ferrari is just another car.

Sorry Robin, but I have to disagree with you on this one, and I have to strongly encourage ALL small businesses – including managed services providers trying to find more powerful and effective ways to market their business – to explore the incredible online marketing opportunities that are available to them.

Mike

I had a phone call with a person in our industry the other week that touched a nerve.

The call was from a person that I really respect and trust, so I really pondered it for a bit before coming to any conclusions.

He expressed to me that he thought I should be very careful about not letting our blog posts and our references to our membership site, MSP Coach, get too “salesy”; that I don’t want to be perceived as selling to our industry.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand his point entirely and I know he had good intentions.  If you are offering a professional service of any sort,  you want your marketing to come across as “value-added” and educational to establish credibility.  I get it – and I practice it – both at Everon and with content on the SMBITPros blog.

The reason it touched a nerve with me is that I could hear the negativity in his voice when he mentioned that I may come across as selling.  In fact, what really gets me fired up about this whole thing, is that, for a moment, I even got negative on myself for thinking I was selling too aggressively. It was as if by selling I had done something dirty, and I needed to take a hot shower to clean myself up.

Then I came to my senses.

Negative on selling?  Not me!  I am ashamed of myself for considering for even one moment that I should have any hesitation about selling myself, my ideas, or my services.  Why?  Because I know that everything I sell comes from a good place.  I only sell something if I really believe in it, believe in its value, and will stand behind it 100%.  When  you feel that way about something, you have an obligation to sell it to anyone you think it can add value to.

Do you feel that way about your managed services?  If you don’t, you need to ask yourself why and do whatever it takes to fix it.  You should be so fired up about the services that you offer that you can’t stand it when a prospect doesn’t see the value and decides not to work with you.

Tony Robbins teaches that the person in any sales situation with the most certainty and commitment will eventually influence the other people.  That’s what sales is…having so much certainty and commitment about your products and services that your prospects “inherit” your feelings and decide to work with you over your less certain and less committed competitors.

If you believe in what you have to offer, you should be shouting about it from the rooftops.  What this world needs more than anything right now is more really good, really committed salespeople that believe in what they have to offer.

Think about it.  When was the last time you went to a retail store and had someone really try to sell you?  For the most part, you’ll find young, unmotivated salespeople (if you can call them that) that won’t even give you the time of day.  Often times you’ll find them hovering around in packs talking about what other jobs they are applying for or how bad the economy is.

When was the last time you got a follow up call or a hand-written note from a salesperson to thank you after making a purchase?

The lack of strong sales skills and salespeople that are really interested in doing their best every day is probably the #1 killer of economic productivity in this country.  What would happen if everyone that was responsible for selling every day actually tried to sell?!   We wouldn’t need the $1 trillion + stimulus package we are getting (and will eventually have to pay for).

Selling makes our economy flourish.

Selling feeds your kids.

Selling creates jobs at your company.

Nothing happens until somebody sells something, as the saying goes.

So please take notice: I will be trying to sell whenever I think it makes sense for me and for my prospect; whenever I think I can add value.  And so should you.  Let’s consider it our national duty to do our part to lift the economy by selling at every opportunity.

Mike Cooch

PS – I have found some great examples of very professional salespeople recently and will share those in my next post.

PSS – We cover sales strategies and techniques in our membership site – MSP Coach.  You can join here.