Why aren’t more businesses using Managed IT services?
That’s the million dollar question. When you consider the benefits, Managed IT sounds like a no brainer. Reduced capital costs, increased efficiency, greater reliability – what business wouldn’t want that? And yet, many organizations are still reluctant to take the leap, and, after digging into the subject, I’ve uncovered many reasons why.
Like most barriers to growth, these challenges are usually rooted in a lack of communication between solution providers with answers and customers with questions. Through active listening, teaching, and communicating, your organization can overcome these obstacles, and earn the trust of companies that need your help.
Here are some of the most common objections we hear about from our clients.
“Why Fix Something That Isn’t Broken?”
Break-fix is most common with small-to-medium-sized businesses with limited resources. Unfortunately, many of them spend more on break-fix support than they otherwise would if they had a proactive plan in place.
If they added up the costs associated with everything that needed fixing throughout the year, including the time wasted trying to find a provider who will do the work quickly, they would probably rethink this approach. SMBs waste a lot of time and money on break-fix, including countless hours of lost productivity.
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Opportunity:
Businesses do not understand this approach not only wastes precious resources, it exposes them to security threats. MSPs have an opportunity to educate customers about the real costs of break-fix, and compare them to the expense of hiring a dedicated team of technicians that monitor the health of your infrastructure at all times.
Too Much Faith In Application Vendors
Not all businesses like to throw caution to the wind and wait for something to break, of course. Many of them think they are covered through third-party application agreements. This misunderstanding is primarily due to a lack of knowledge about everything that’s involved with security compliance.
Companies may have a service agreement that ensures the security of firewalls and networks connecting to the point-of-sale system and customer database, and senior managers might believe this gives them all the protection they need. The fine print often reveals huge gaps in coverage. Unless the vendor is monitoring and documenting issues with the entire infrastructure, including employee devices that connect to the server, the business is not PCI compliant.
Opportunity:
Businesses make wrong assumptions the level of protection they are getting from service agreements with application vendors. Your team can show them what questions to ask their providers, and assess where their coverage begins and ends.
We Already Have An IT Guy
We all know how valuable it is to have a knowledgeable, skilled IT technician in-house. In many small businesses, this role is often filled by a tech-savvy employee who really has no professional training in information technology whatsoever.
Regardless of how skilled that person may be, businesses must realize they will still have to outsource certain services. It is impossible for one person to have the knowledge and experience required to satisfy all the demands of maintaining an IT infrastructure. In fact, the first contact most MSPs have with a new client frequently comes from an in-house tech who needs help with a project.
Opportunity:
Businesses need to understand the limitations, and risks, of in-sourcing all their IT services. Co-managed IT is a great solution which will allows you to supplement their team, reduce costs, and minimize overall risk. MSPs need to teach them about how these partnerships help enterprises get more productivity out of their employees.
Other Reasons Why Companies Don’t Use Managed Services
In a 2015 article on CSO, Maria Korolov sites several reasons why SMBs do not invest in managed services, and her findings are very telling:
- Businesses are realizing ROI is not easy to quantify, and find it difficult to believe industry claims about cost savings.
- Companies that operate in the cloud feel they do not MSP support, particularly with deploying and installing new applications.
- Some companies fear that outsourcing IT exposes them to privacy and security risks. Oh, the irony!
- Leaders within the organization worry about losing control of how tech functions are performed. IT departments also experience anxiety about getting laid off when services are moved to an external provider.
- Major IT transitions can be incredibly disruptive to important business functions. Some prospects are reluctant to invest in managed services because of anticipated downtime and training on new systems.
These concerns are legitimate, and need to be addressed as MSPs implement their sales and marketing strategies. Using inbound marketing, your company can bridge the gap between customer expectations and the solutions you provide.
Overcoming Objections Using Inbound Marketing
As we’ve demonstrated above, many barriers exist between your sales team and your target customers. Businesses are making erroneous assumptions about their security and capabilities with IT. They also do not have a clear picture about the benefits a managed service partner provides or how they operate.
By listening carefully to these objections, you are gaining valuable insight into why they are not investing in your solutions. An inbound marketing campaign uses these insights as fuel for an on-going educational campaign that teaches customers how to help themselves.
They don’t understand where security gaps are often found? Show them how to do a proper assessment. They don’t see how managed services can reduce costs? Show them strategies – or better yet, an app – that allows them to quantify time spent on tasks now, and compare it to your average turnaround on a managed plan.
These questions customers ask is great material for blog posts, videos, and other content that provide answers without sales messaging. This is very important. If you provide helpful information without trying to sell people, you will capture their attention and build trust much faster.
Once you build a rapport with potential customers, you can start providing more specific information about the solutions your company provides, and eventually close the sale.
This powerful and intricate strategy provides many benefits, but it all starts with good listening and communicating. If you can engrain these skills into the company culture and get everyone to embrace the principles of content marketing, you will be well on your way to turning doubters into customers.
