Tips for Better Prospecting – ITPN-021

Get Out of Your Head and Get More Prospects
In this episode of the IT Provider Network Podcast, I want to share with you some ways to do a better job prospecting,  get more first appointments and land more MSP contracts.   However, I just want to clear the air right away, if you're looking for a silver bullet you ain't going to find it here. I am going to share with you some of what we've done to get over 15,000 contacts in our database and hundreds of first appointments over the last 10 years and why I think that's the key to your ongoing success.
Everyone is in Sales
Regardless of how many people you have in your company everyone that works for you is in your sales and marketing departments. Make sure you communicate this to them and they understand that EVERYTHING they do is a reflection on your company. The way they are seen in the "outside world" is how you will be perceived.

The way they look, how they dress is a 100% reflection on your company,  the company that you have built.

Are you paying mileage? Why not get a mobile billboard or a fleet of them!

After we land a new client we always schedule an all-hands meeting with the team to take them through the sales process that occurred with the new client. We talk about the leadership of the new company, the reason we feel that they trusted us with their IT needs and what were the key points we brought up with them in the sales cycle. We try to get the whole company preaching from the same hymn book so when they are talking about the company, our services or our team we are all using the same vocabulary and everyone in the company becomes part of the sales force.
You need to schedule for successful Prospecting
Prospecting and lead generation is tough for some of us. When I was building out my team one of my first hires was a sales guy. I thought that I could get one guy and he would be my sales guy for everything. I thought he could fill all the roles I needed. I thought he could be successful doing:

Inbound Lead Response - answering phone calls and emails
Outbound Prospecting - cold calling and list building
Proposals and Closing - Hunting and Closing Deals
Account Management - Working our Installed Base for new opportunities for upsells and cross-sells.

The truth of the matter is this was completely unrealistic and would even if he was able to be successful in all these roles something would suffer.

So what do you do if you can't afford to hire for all four roles? You need to dedicate time to and measure your efforts in all for activities. Start by putting the thing you despise doing on your calendar and do it! You need to shut off your cell phone, turn off your browser and buckle down and do the hard stuff. For me, this would be cold calling…
Get out of the Office
You can't meet people from behind your desk or by sticking your head in a computer. You need to get out there and network. You won't be good at this at first and you may feel uncomfortable but start building your network in person. Think about events during the work day but also ones in the early morning or evening. Try to attend a mix of tradeshows, industry events, meetings, and seminars. Don't forget seminars and meetings where your prospects live. Offer to speak at THEIR industry events, spend time at events with your clients. They can introduce you to their peers.
Plan for Follow-Up
As they say, the fortune is in the follow-up.   When you are networking have a plan to follow up and cement the relationships you are building.  There are a lot of ways to follow up and I encourage you to find out what works for you but the key is to just do it.   Make a system for yourself and follow it.  If you use Connectwise, Hubspot or any other tool that allows for some marketing automation you can assign a track to a prospect and have that track or workflow assign you an activity.  If you are using LinkedIn, drop the new contact into your CRM and make a note of any mutual connect...