How to Increase Your Managed Services Profitability

Aug 22, 2017

Case Study: How to Accelerate Your Managed IT Services Success

Chicago Office Technology Group (COTG) is a copier dealership who was looking to create an additional revenue stream with managed services. If done right, they understood all the opportunity managed services could provide their company and customers.

They had tried it in the past but were unsuccessful, so this time they were going to get it right by:

1. Partnering with a Master MSP: To ensure they started off their managed services business on the right foot, they partnered with Collabrance, a Master MSP located in the Midwest, to minimize their risk and upfront investment of having to buy an MSP or build a NOC or Help Desk in-house. Partnering with a Master MSP would speed up COTG’s success in the managed services space because of all the proven processes, best practices, and accessible tools they would provide upfront. They choose Collabrance because of the true partnership that included a virtual sales manager, a live-answer help desk with consistent high customer satisfaction rates, and the ability to focus on revenue generating activities while Collabrance would be able to resolve 95% of the issues remotely.
2. Using Success Profiles: After signing on to be a Collabrance partner, COTG knew they had to have the right people in the right managed services positions. They worked with PathShare® HR Services (also a GreatAmerica company) and used their success profiles to hire a new Subject Matter Expert (SME) and engineer dedicated for their managed services offering.
3. Investing in Training: COTG sent their Director of Managed Services, Mark Curtin, and VP of Sales, Mike Grabowski to Cedar Rapids, IA for a few days of onsite training. They were going to learn about COTG’s new partnership with Collabrance and attend the 2-day “CharTec Sales Simplicity Seminar: How to Sell Everything-as-a-Service” to learn how to effectively sell managed services.

COTG Experiences Immediate Results

On COTG’s first day back to Chicago, IL from their training with Collabrance and CharTec, they scheduled a first appointment with a medical customer who was struggling with their current IT support. COTG went to this appointment with their CharTec book handy, and the trainings with Collabrance fresh in mind. After understanding the customer’s current situation and pain points - it was time to close on the network assessment.

CharTec encourages solution providers to charge for network assessments. They help you deliver the value of the network assessment to your prospect so they understand that you are charging a fee so you can both be confident a thorough network assessment is completed on their technology environment. The assessment fee ensures the proposed network solution and technology roadmap is able to meet all of their requirements and needs.

When COTG tried to sell managed services before partnering with Collabrance and attending CharTec, they did not charge for network assessments. Following the first appointment process from the training, COTG was confidently able to close their first assessment for $2,500.

Charge for Network Assessments

Several solution providers struggle to charge for a network assessment, and for a larger sum which results in a loss of time and money. Solution providers should be charging for network assessments and be able to easily justify the cost based on the amount of work you should be doing to provide customers with a proper proposal that supports their needs. COTG is now gaining more revenue from assessment fees in addition to MRR with their new managed services offering thanks to Collabrance and attending the CharTec Sales Simplicity Seminar Training.

DOWNLOAD COTG CASE STUDY ON SALES SIMPLICITY SEMINAR

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