This is always the first question I ask all of our clients when we are building sales, marketing and business development campaigns for them. Why? Well the thought process that answering this question should provoke is designed to bring forward the “Light Bulb Moment;” the moment when the challenges facing the owners of MSP’s and VAR’s hits home!
Market conditions have never been harder for MSP's and VAR's; with non-receptive audiences combined with the shift towards cloud services, ever-decreasing margins from hardware and software, and rapid consolidation in the channel (all of which have already led to the channel in the States shrinking by an estimated 36% since 2008), ensuring your marketing and business development initiatives are both highly targeted, as well as effective, has never been more important.
With most UK resellers refocusing their businesses and transitioning towards MSP, Consultancy or Cloud Provider status, the battle for new customers is well and truly underway, and now is the time to carve out your niche and make sure you are targeting and converting the RIGHT customers. After all, if you are spending good money on acquiring new customers, why would you not target the ones who will be the most desirable and most lucrative to your business moving forward?
Oh and before you think about it, don’t over rely on Organic Growth! Organic growth is great - there is nothing to beat a customer referral or someone you've dealt with before who has moved to a different company - but this is “The Law of Diminishing Returns” and will never sustain serious and fast business growth.
Whether you're looking to build up your business value ready for exit, you're looking to take bigger profits to sustain your lifestyle, or you're needing a swift uplift in turnover to cover new investments in people or infrastructure, you will need a sound marketing strategy that will deliver results, and in planning for this there will be many matters to consider and many questions that you are going to have to find the answer to.
In fact, far too many to be covered in this post, so please feel free to request a copy of our “White Paper,” (at the link below), covering the challenges facing all of us operating in B2B sales channel environment.
However, and in summary, some of the questions you should be considering are likely to include the follow;
- How effective is your current marketing strategy?
- What type of business is it yielding?
- Are you concentrating on the highest ROI activities?
- Are there other things you should be adding into the marketing mix?
- Does your current marketing strategy support your business growth objectives for 2017 and beyond?
Working on a flexible basis around the needs of your business and supplying the skills and expertise required in order to succeed on your behalf, we have already constructed and delivered highly targeted sales, marketing and business development campaigns for MSP’s and VAR’s, building bespoke product offerings including public Wi-Fi services, secure cloud based hosted desktops and traditional IT infrastructure services, for companies looking expand into the Pharmaceuticals, Law, Independent Schools, Recruitment, Accountancy and Financial sectors, to name just a few.
In many cases we build and run the campaigns from the ground floor up, operating as outsourced sales and business development resources partners, or alternatively just built the highly targeted and effective marketing campaigns required to feed your sales operation and to drive growth to your business.
We know how to build these models, they are “Current” and continually evolving, we know how to target and speak to the decision makers in your target markets and most importantly, we know how to grow your business and make you money!
If this has resonated with you and you would like to explore how we can help you achieve your growth aspirations, then please do not hesitate to contact myself or my colleague Jane Gatfield on 0118 947 1010, or email us at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk or
janeg@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
For more information about our services please visit www.virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
To read more posts covering all aspects of sales, marketing and business development for MSP’s and VAR’s, please visit our blog;
Yours sincerely,
Andrew Banning
DOWNLOAD THE WHITE PAPER
This post forms a small portion of a white paper I have written covering The Art of The Approach, a specific sales based white paper written for the IT Sector. To request a copy please email me directly at andrewb@virtuosoconsultancy.co.uk
