Too many managed service providers aren’t taking advantage of the revenue that could be generated by selling cloud services to their customers.
Although most are at least selling Microsoft Office 365 to their client-base, there’s so much more to the Cloud than that. We’ve provided a few tips below to help you sell the Cloud to your customers.
Tip # 1 Sell To The Right Customer
Look for customers who want to grow and understand how technology can help them with the right partner by their side.
Tip # 2 Sell To The Right Needs
If your customer has aging hardware, explain that they won’t have to spend capital with the Cloud. Do they have a seasonal business or require flexibility? Explain that, with the Cloud, they can quickly scale resources up or down as needed.
Tip # 3 Does Your Customer Need High Availability?
Explain how the Cloud can have built-in failover systems with zero downtime.
When you provide your customers with all the reasons why they should move to the Cloud, most of them should agree that using cloud services is a good solution.
Explain The Advantages of Moving To The Cloud
Fewer Outages: Typically, they’ll have fewer outages, issues, problems and thus less downtime for their employees when your customers utilize a cloud infrastructure. If their business relies on web-based transactions, then uptime is an important factor.
There’s no telling how much revenue they could lose if their website goes down for an hour here and an hour there. It hurts their business reputation, and it costs them in sales. Let’s face it! These days online shoppers are spoiled. If they can’t make a purchase quickly on your customer’s website, they’ll simply click over to a competitor’s site.
Cost-Effective: When you factor in both the direct and indirect costs, cloud services don’t seem so expensive anymore. That’s an important point to make if you’re trying to sell cloud services. You can’t simply consider the monthly cost. You must also think about how working in the Cloud will decrease downtime. No business owner likes to see their employees sitting around getting paid while waiting to get the network back up and running again.
That’s a significant factor that can make the switch to cloud services seem like an excellent investment for any business owner.
Fewer Headaches: Overall, those businesses that have most of their technology in the Cloud have fewer snags and glitches that cause problems. Everything runs smoother. This alleviates a big headache for business owners. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending all day waiting on your IT guys to fix a piece of equipment so all your employees can get back to work.
Better Customer Service: If they’re paying people to just sit around, they miss out on orders, and they can’t serve your customers. If this happens on a regular basis, they can expect your customers to go someplace else at some point.
Cybersecurity: Did you know that over half the small businesses that get hit with a cyber-attack will go under within six months of the attack? Most business owners are just not prepared.
They have no idea how far the world of hacking and cyber theft has evolved in the last couple of years. Hackers are now backed by huge governments. Their only job is to sit around all day creating new phishing emails or searching for vulnerabilities in a company’s network. They specialize in finding weaknesses and then exploiting them.
The Cloud provides much stronger cybersecurity than on-premise solutions. And to tell the truth, managed service providers haven’t done a very good job of telling their customers these things. They’ve been slow to demonstrate to their clients how much safer data is when it’s stored in the Cloud. Too many business owners actually believe the Cloud is less secure than physical servers.
This Is Just The Tip of The Iceberg
There are lots more issues like this that MSP’s could be explaining to their clients. And doing so will be considered helpful and educational. Business owners want and need to know these things. In the long run, they will be interested in learning how to protect their data from hackers, how to decrease their downtime, and how to alleviate common technology problems. As a managed service provider, it’s your job to make sure your clients know these facts.
What’s The Bottom Line?
There’s a lot of money being left on the table each year. Managed service companies could do a better job of teaching their customers about the Cloud. This is vital information that can help a business owner reach their financial goals. So why not share it?
Although you might earn $500 to $1,000 by selling a physical server, that’s where your revenue stream ends – or at least takes a big downward dive. When you sell the Cloud to your customers, you create an ongoing revenue stream. As long as you keep providing excellent service to your customers, they’ll continue to depend on you for all their technology needs.
There’s a lot more useful information available that can make a strong argument for why a business should switch to the Cloud. It’s just up to you, the managed service provider, to acquire this information and pass it on to your customers.
Need Help?
If you need a helping hand Cloud Services For MSPs is well-versed in this area. We were around during the very beginning of cloud technology, and we’ve been part of its evolution. We can help you fine-tune your sales pitch and inform you about all the advantages that your customers can enjoy once they switch.
Want to learn more about selling cloud services to your customers? Let’s chat about this important topic. Call (866) 883-8836 or visit cloudservicesformsps.com to learn more.