Whose Buy-in Counts When Selling Managed Services?

By Frank Bauer

Within each managed IT services sale, there are usually multiple people, or stakeholders, involved who provide varying levels of input on choosing your product or solution. Every MSP must be able to identify who these stakeholders are within any given company you're prospecting. And not only that, you must also know how to position yourself accordingly with each. A 100 percent uniform strategy will yield zero success in selling managed IT services.

Welcome back to our MSP Sales Success blog series, a collection of posts that dive deep into the sales journey. Last time around, we looked at the do's and don'ts of an MSP sales discovery call. In this next post, we cover the three types of people whose trust you have to earn and how to do it!

The Gatekeeper

The Gatekeeper is just that - someone who won't let anyone or anything get to the decision maker without their say in the matter. You’ll encounter the Gatekeeper in at least two instances:

1. When you’re working towards a net new sale
2. When the organization you’ve been trying to sell has waning interest
   
   

When you’re working towards a net new sale, whether that’s upselling clients on IT products and services or acquiring brand new accounts, the Gatekeeper can either be your best friend or your biggest obstacle. A good strategy when encountering these people is to incorporate them into your MSP sales process, turning them from adversary into ally. Instead of seeking out the Decision Maker (more on this stakeholder later) directly, involve the Gatekeeper by asking questions like....

For the full article, and others from this series, please visit our blog: Whose Buy-in Counts When Selling Managed Services?