Maybe you are looking for a way to drive a wedge between your prospect and their current IT provider. Perhaps you need a better way to help your clients decide to invest in their IT security. Or maybe you are just sick of showing up and having people tell you: ‘I’ve been doing it this way for years and haven’t been hacked.’
Whatever the reason, if you are looking for a better way to make more sales, this article is for you.
Let’s start with a simple question. When you are buying a house, do you use a home inspector?
I sure do.
Why? Because I don’t know much about houses (other than what I’ve learned the hard way) and I don’t completely trust the person selling me the house to tell me what’s wrong with it.
Why don’t I completely trust the seller? Maybe they don’t know the issues. OR maybe they want out because there’s a crack in the foundation.
Their motive isn’t quite aligned with telling me everything that is wrong. You might call this a conflict of interest.
How does this apply to selling MSP services with assessments?
When you perform a normal network assessment, you are the seller AND the inspector. You are pointing out all these issues with their current provider. You’re also the person who benefits from the screw-ups your report identifies. You have that same conflict of interest we just talked about!
Your clients and prospects are like that first-time homebuyer. They aren’t experts at technology (at least not to the extent you are). And they are going to be approaching investments in cybersecurity—investments that have nearly invisible returns—with caution.
While they might trust you and your service, in the back of their mind, you better believe they’re thinking that you’re trying to sell them something.
Wouldn’t it be better to have someone else point out the problems and for you to come to the rescue and solve them?
Rather than being seen as the salesman, you’re simply providing the right amount of security to meet their needs.
When you create your own cybersecurity reports for clients and prospects, you reduce your credibility.
I’m not saying that the reports you create aren’t informative or accurate.
You just have a blatant conflict of interest (you’ve got a financial stake in their decision).
What I’m saying is the perception of a self-generated report won’t get you very far. When you’re trying to get your client or prospect to seriously invest in a new solution, wouldn’t a homegrown report come off as a bit too self-serving? Selling with a self-generated report is MUCH more difficult to get buy-in than when presenting a report generated by someone with no stake in the game.
So… Do 3rd party assessments help with your close rate? Heck yes, they do.
If you are interested in achieving an 83% close rate, Read on.
Eliminating your conflict of interest isn’t the only reason you’ll want to consider a 3rd party assessment. Here are three other reasons to make the switch:
- Create urgency – when you offer a FREE assessment for your clients or prospects, they can cash in on that any time they want. There’s really no way for you to create urgency without sounding like you have slicked back hair and sell used cars on the weekends. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) With a 3rd party assessment, you can communicate scarcity. Maybe that you only have 3 of them per month to use, and when those three are gone, so is the opportunity for the assessment. Get them to act now.
- Massive value – your clients and prospects need 3rd party penetration tests (well, they will when they go to renew their cyber insurance). Not only that, but a 3rd party analysis like this would run them at least ten thousand dollars if they decided to look for one elsewhere…so the value is VERY high.
- Keep competitors off client networks – the last reason is less about prospects and more about clients. Have you ever had a competitor offer one of your clients an assessment? If you already had a 3rd party assessment performed for your client, they have ZERO interest. If you haven’t…now your competitor is grading your work. Can you say, “conflict of interest working against you?”
How does a 3rd party assessment work? If you are working with Galactic Advisors, it is super simple.
I’ll run through the process for prospects.
When a lead comes in, you talk to them. Pretty normal so far.
While you have them on the phone you find out why the heck they called. There will always be a reason… ‘I heard about you and wanted to experience your service’ isn’t usually the top of their list. It will be something more like… ‘my current vendor can’t figure out how to call me back.’ Chat with them for a few minutes and tell them the first step is to perform an assessment. Before you hang up, schedule a 20-minute phone call.
Send them a digital shock and awe – Show them your credibility and that you are a viable solution for them. That you have a reputation to stand on. Also, make sure to include a non-disclosure agreement (If you want a sample get a copy of our document on improving sales with assessments www.galacticscan.com/audit you will find one on the last page).
The day before the call, send them a little note reminding them of the time.
Now you are ready to go. Hop on the call and ask them the questions that we’ve put together for you. These questions do two things:
- They help us learn more about the network you are analyzing.
- They create anxiety as your prospect thinks through the answers.
About halfway through the questions, send over an email with a link to perform the analysis and have them start it while you are on the phone with them. You ask them a few more questions and schedule a meeting to review the results with them about five business days out.
After that, you might have them get a couple more users in their organization to run the scan (depending on the size of the company).
Finally, you click a little blue button to request the reports and we provide you everything you will need to sit down with them and win a new client. No technical work is required. If you have a salesperson or marketing manager, they can do this entire process on their own. No need to wait for a technician to be available to help them.
Now, the hardest thing you have left is showing up on time to that readout meeting you scheduled.
Show them the report of findings. Explain the benefits of your security solution. Relate your benefits back to the findings on the report. Walk out with a signed agreement. Ask for the referral. Schedule your next meeting. Profit!
Interested in seeing how all this works? Would like to find out more about Galactic? Check out https://www.galacticscan.com/security-guide/
We Don’t Know What We’d Do Without Galactic’s Service
We used Galactic Advisors to help with a technology audit we did for one of our prospects, and due to the incredible service Galactic Advisors provided, we were able to convert that prospect into a customer. This turned out to be a perfect client for us and the pen test really helped the process. We can’t thank them enough for their help! Their pen test was detailed and surprisingly easy for clients to understand. We use Galactic Advisors as a cybersecurity coach because they have an in-depth understanding of the industry, and helped broaden our knowledge around cybersecurity. We don’t know what we would do without their weekly SECOP calls. Each week we learn valuable information, that gives us a more robust understanding of our clients’ needs. Thank you, Galactic Advisors!
—Dan Hernandez CEO, Professional Computer Support- SF
Grab a copy of 7 Critical Changes Every MSP Owner Must Know About Selling Managed Services With Audits (https://www.galacticscan.com/audit/) to find out how you can improve your assessment process.
