ScalePad Exec To MSPs: Aim To Be That ‘One-Stop Shop’ For Customers

‘Technology is always evolving, and your clients need to know that you're keeping pace. They may not understand the latest innovations in automation or cloud security or cybersecurity, but they rely on you to bring those advancements to their attention,’ says Ray Mann, channel development manager at ScalePad.

For MSPs, success starts with developing strong customer relationships that help open the door to satisfied customers and move the conversation away from a strict focus on making a deal.

That’s the word from Ray Mann, channel development manager at ScalePad, who told an audience of MSPs at the recent XChange NexGen 2024 conference that having the best technology is not a guarantee of success.

“Technology is constantly evolving, and businesses rely on you guys not just for technical solutions, but for guidance and trust and support through these changes,” Mann said. “Customers are looking for a technical partner who can help advance and grow their business alongside them over time.”

Building strong relationships with customers allows MSPs to understand their specific needs and challenges, and that level of understanding positions them to be able to offer solutions beyond meeting their immediate technical requirements, said Mann (pictured).

“You can proactively suggest upgrades or services that lead to upsell opportunities for you,” he said. “But more importantly, strong relationships build growth, and when clients trust you, they stay with you through thick and thin. And satisfied clients become your best advocates. They refer your services to others. And in an industry as competitive as ours, referrals are absolutely pure gold. It’s easier to close a deal with referred clients because there’s already that foundation of trust from that recommendation.”

Unfortunately, Mann said, some MSPs approach sales like a car salesperson, pressuring potential customers to make a quick decision or upsell a deal with unnecessary features or services.

“One thing that I learned to ask is, ‘How’s business?’” he said. “That simple question allows me to get the pulse of how customers are doing. How they’re doing in the face of some of the challenges they’re facing.”

A recurring and strange theme Mann said he sees is customers not liking quarterly business reviews.

“A QBR should be a period where we’re working with our clients in order to drive important business outcomes that are important to them,” he said. “You have the perfect opportunity to get everybody on the same side of the table and work together. And the initial meeting should be where you work together to figure out what’s important to them.”

Sustaining long-term relationships is at the heart of any successful company, but it’s not enough to win a customer to simply provide services, Mann said.

“The challenge is maintaining that relationship over time and becoming a trusted adviser,” he said. “In the MSP world, this means consistently delivering value, anticipating your client’s needs, and evolving alongside them as their business and technology changes.”

Being a trusted adviser means going beyond just providing technical solutions, Mann said.

“It’s about truly understanding your client’s business, how they operate, their challenges, their goals,” he said. “And in order to do that, you need to ask the right questions, not just about what technology they need, but how their technology fits into their broader business objectives. For example, ask them about their growth plans, their key challenges, and what’s most important to their operations. And by gaining this insight, you change your business offerings in a way that aligns with your clients’ businesses.”

Continuous value is another critical piece of sustainable relationships, Mann said.

“Technology is always evolving, and your clients need to know that you’re keeping pace,” he said. “They may not understand the latest innovations in automation or cloud security or cybersecurity, but they rely on you to bring those advancements to their attention. Offering new services regularly that align with their business goals ensures that they’re staying competitive, but also ensures that they won’t look elsewhere for solutions. You want to be that one-stop shop for all their IT needs.”

MSPs should also adopt a number of best practices to help their customers.

These include using tools like CRM to track every single interaction an MSP has with customers along with their preferred communication styles, their business cycles and even personal details, he said.

“You might notice that your client’s contract is expiring,” he said. “And when you have that data at your fingertips, it allows you to be proactive, reaching out to them before they even know that they need help. And that builds long-term trust with clients because that’s the kind of attention they want.”

Time is often an MSP’s most valuable resource, and oftentimes there is not enough of it, Mann said.

‘The demands of keeping your clients happy, dealing with fires, maintaining and managing the technology, it can all feel like a juggling act, especially when it comes to QBRs,” he said. “QBRs should give the opportunity demonstrate how you provide value. But they often become rushed and disorganized and lacking the depth that your clients are expecting. So why does this happen? It really comes down to two main issues, a lack of time and a lack of easy access to the right data. You’re likely managing multiple clients’ needs, and honestly, gathering all of the relevant information for all of those different scenarios in order to provide tailored insights specifically for them is a massive undertaking and can take quite a long time.”

The good news, Mann said, is that a lot of that process can be automated.

“You can automate the collection of the data,” he said. “You can automate analysis of that data and then create comprehensive reports which can save you significant time and resources. And more importantly, you can transform your routine meeting into a demonstration of your value as a strategic partner.”

Chris Wilson, CTO of technology alignment at Rudick Innovation & Technology, a Dallas-based MSP, said Mann was right about the need for quarterly business reviews.

“We do that right now, but it’s not a very mature process,” Wilson said. “I can see where using a product like ScalePad could make it more strategic for us right out of the box. If we have some people that are less experienced in a vCIO role, they could potentially just follow that product and have a much better outcome than what we’re doing today, which is a PowerPoint presentation.”

Wilson said Mann’s point about communicating with customers as a way to improve sales is a key takeaway, citing as an example how his company sells warranties.

“The way we position warranties now is, ‘Hey, your equipment’s too old. Here’s your two options. You’re either going to upgrade or you’re going to extend a warranty,’” he said. “But we haven’t really positioned it from the standpoint of, ‘If you want to do an accidental damage warranty, here’s the benefits you can get out of that.’ So I think a lot of what he said makes sense.”