Introduction

Sales Qualified leads is a big challenge for every MSP, right from east coast to west coast in the US, Australia & Canada. There are millions of reasons for it, but you can start by looking at how you prospect and what you prospect because a lot of qualifying processes happen in this stage. If the right prospects are not mined, then there are high chances that you might not see any responses from those prospects.

So, start with the prospecting process and make sure it is done right. If you want to target businesses with 11–100 users, then always have some of the important titles in the prospecting, like-

1. CEO

2. Founder

3. Owner

4. COO

5. CFO

6. Office Manager

7. Admin Assistant

If you get all these titles for businesses with 11-100 business users, then there’s a high probability of you landing those important appointments. After getting these important prospects, you can try and implement a campaign which would be focused on landing appointments. Having the right emails in your cadence is important.

For the right emails, you need to divide your emails such that you can give equal weightage to the introduction, business information, and CTA. Keeping the email short is important; make sure you remove all the unwanted words or phrases that are there in the email. This would create another impression on the prospect, and this can actually help the process of qualifying the prospect. Now, anyone can write anything short and say it is the right email.

So, here’s the guide for the right email –

1. Come straight to the point; what is the email regarding? (2 lines max)

2. Talk briefly about the business and how it can help them (max 3 lines or 6 bullet points).

3. CTA and ask for the time slot (2 lines max).

Email with 7 lines or 4 lines + 6 bullets is a winning combination, and we have seen that the prospects are actually replying to these emails and giving the time to meet.

To qualify it further –

1. Ask some relevant questions.

2. Talk about whether response time, engineer quality, or pricing—what seems to be the pressing issue.

3. See if their MSP is local or not. Local MSP does have an advantage.

So creating a particular image in a prospect's mind is something every MSP should try. Right prospecting and the right email create a qualified prospect, and once they come on the call with you, you feel like giving everything and winning their business.

Once a prospect agrees to meet with you, try one more thing: send an optional form along with the invite and ask five multiple-choice questions. This would qualify the lead further, because if they have accepted an invite and filled out a form, you are looking at a very productive meeting.This technique would qualify the prospect further.

Basically, we complicate the process of qualifying a prospect and think that it can’t be done over a cold email process, but we have generated more than 30,000 qualified prospects, and hence we know it is possible; it’s just you need to do it properly.

Combining all these would land you a more qualified prospect. We talk to a lot of MSPs talking about “you cannot get a qualified prospect with email marketing,” which is really not true, and we have proved them wrong after doing campaigns with them. You can read more about it here. With email marketing, you would see a few appointments, but they convert faster. So, there are a lot of myths regarding email marketing and the qualification process.

#1 - Talking tothe prospect before a call is a much-needed process

There’s no such protocol where you need to talk to aprospect to qualify it. With the above-mentioned methods, you can qualify your prospects quite well.

#2 - If you are meeting with a lead without an agenda, the chances of closing are much lower

This is a myth that a lot of MSPs have. They seem not interested if the local business expresses interest and says nothing about the interests. We always ask that if they are giving time, they go well prepared for those calls.

#3 - Email marketing cannot get exact requirements

We have seen local businesses sending us the requirements over the email itself a lot many times.

#4 - Price shopping is more with email marketing

MSPs have this myth that the leads coming out of email marketing are more price shoppers instead of genuinely interested. We tend to have a different opinion here; 92% of our leads have actually shown interest in doing onsite or proposal.

#5 - Sales cycleis longer with email marketing

We have heard that with email marketing, the prospects you get tend to take more time to close. They compare this with cold calling and say that dealing with cold calling is faster as there’s a relationship built. We have a 1-week to 2-month sales cycle for managed IT services and 3 months for co-managed IT services.

Qualification of prospects can be done with email marketing easily, rather than any other form of marketing (if you have alimited budget). We are not saying that other forms of marketing are not valid, but they demand more budget.

Asking for information before the lead call over email, if they have not filled out the optional form that we talked about, is a complete waste of time. This might push the prospect away, as he might see that as a very salesy process. Rather than that, sending some material that you would be reviewing during the call would be more relevant. At least they would know what to discuss.

Sending an agenda before the call is also agreat thing. This sets the tone of the call, and then the prospect would be ready with the set of questions. This is one more technique to qualify the prospect. Just do not overdo it, because these are precious leads that can be lost once you push the things to them. Asking the next step after the introductory call should be based on the conversation and should not be pushed. Click here to schedule a meeting.