Being an IT Managed Services company, the real risk starts when your clients believe you are responsible for troubleshooting and fixing the issues when something goes wrong. The problem lies in how, as an IT managed services company, you set the expectations based on what your clients want to buy from you.
Now the real challenge is to decide what services you are selling to your customers and what they are really buying. This is where you need to set clear expectations through value billing and see the IT managed services in a smart way. When a client reaches an agreement with an IT managed services company, they need to have a good understanding of what exactly you offer and what you are accountable for. As their dedicated IT managed services company, you are not responsible for resolving all of their problems.
It’s Not About the Technology
Buying technology is not the end game for your client. In fact, no customer is buying technology just because they want the technology. They have a requirement for a part of the technology because it’s a need for them to grow their business. Moreover, their requirement will vary which is dependent on the evolution of the technology and updates in the industry.
As an IT managed services company in India, many of our clients have achieved their milestones with the assets and services we offer that help with value billing. When assessing your customer’s requirements, take into account what this information brings to them which makes it worth paying you for.
What Clients expect?
The challenge with many IT managed services companies while selling their services to new clients is, they have no idea about what exactly their data requirements are. Conveying this to a customer may be difficult. It’s not about the need of a help desk, it’s about needing a particular result and as an IT managed services company, it’s your responsibility to identify the technology and services that cater to that requirement.
Working on a Proposal
As an IT managed services company, selling value is not easy as your clients do not want to know the action plan of how you are delivering what they need. So, let the customer decide and advise what they require out of your service offerings and then change the way you approach while selling your offerings.
Avoid the old-school approach while working on a proposal. No matter if it is security, accessibility, or recoverability, plan what your clients are buying and outline the action plan that you are looking for to achieve the outcome instead of listing out the goods and services they are buying from you.
Ask Questions
As the IT managed services provider, you are always responsible for what your client doesn’t know. Ask them questions that help them know that they don’t know as much as they believe they do, such as:
- Inquire about their end-users and data. How are they used, and what they use it for?
- From Where do you want to gather this data?
- From where do you want to access it?
- How are we supposed to assist your employees?
- If employees are planning to work from home, are you going to migrate their data there?
- Are you planning to secure their home computers?
Setting Expectations Based on Results
Many IT managed services companies in India agree that when a customer requests a meeting with them, they’re typically not satisfied with the services offered and they think they are not getting the outcome. The root cause of this scenario is the current technology provider selling the technology or service at a cheaper price for the value that they bring to their customer.
This is where your opportunity lies in to make business for an IT managed service provider — and it all begins with setting expectations based on results.
Sell your clients a data-centric result-oriented solution and price then appropriately. Be bold enough to tell them it’s because their offerings were under-priced and the data results usually cost higher, they are most willing to pay you that price.
