EP146 - Ask Stuart #5 - How Do I Get More Fresh Leads in My MSP with Ian Luckett & Stuart Warwick

INTRO

In this episode of the IT Experts Podcast, we help you get more leads in your MSP.

Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast, the only podcast to help MSP scale to 1,000,000, and if already there get to 5 and go fast at the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you rather than you for it. I hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Welcome to the IT Experts podcast. And today we've got Stuart back in the camp. Good afternoon, Stuart! How are you?

STUART

Hey, great. Great to be here guys.

IAN

Fantastic! And today we're talking about in the ask Stuart Series, these are the most common questions that we get asked almost on a daily basis. And today's question, how do I get more leads in my MSP? And this is a wonderful million dollar question and we have got some really great points for you today to help you expel the myths and kind of get through the get through all the mess and the noise that you hear out there on this. Yeah, you should be doing this and you should be doing that. And oh this, this works and that works and everything like that. So we're going to give you pretty much some of our tried and tested formula and how we know how we get all these. But what is this really all about it? Why do people struggle when running MSP to generate new business? Cause most businesses are all referral, aren't they? But getting fresh leads is like the Holy Grail. Isn’t it?

STUART

It is the Holy Grail and it is elusive for everybody until it isn't, and even when you do seem to achieve it, it can suddenly you know you can lose that that magic touch. However, it is a formula. It is a science, but it is also a bit of an art as well and as a result it's like, well, that doesn't help me. The problem, well, we we do get asked this all the time and everybody, every business needs more leads. You know it needs more business because you can't grow otherwise.

IAN

Exactly.

STUART

And you know, clients in a service environment, you know, clients come and go, things happen and you know to stand still, you need to grow. So, the issue though the issue with this whole, how do I get more leads is that many MSP's have tried lead generatio, which is marketing.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

And they haven't managed to get it to work for them. They might have had a little flush of success. And then for some reason it's not working and they try it again and it doesn't work. And they're like, how the hell do I get so in the end they just have this hate affair with marketing or lead generation and it's in the too difficult box because it seems like a waste of time. Waste of money. Too difficult. I'll go back to doing what I'm doing and I hope I get more leads from referral, you know.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

You know, doing good job with my clients, but that isn't scalable or sustainable. And so if you're ambitious to grow, and many, many are, but what kills me though Ian, is that many, I think, give up. They give up believing that they can grow because it's just too difficult and so they do the best job they can do and they kind of settle for sort of mediocrity in in their business results. And it doesn't have to be that way.

IAN

Yeah, and I think you hit the nail on the head pretty early on in the P word is patience. You know, we've got various different clients getting success on fresh new leads through different manners because they've been consistent. You know, we've got one guy who is really successful in Google Adwords. Just every single week he's got leads coming in literally every single week through the Google Adwords. But how long has he been doing that?

STUART

Yes.

IAN

Yes. And he's invested a bucket load of money, but now he's got this engine that just churns out automatic leaves because he's done it. And we've also had other people who had direct messaging campaigns doing different events, doing all sorts of different things. But the key thing you know to take away from this is, you know, have a process, be patient and be consistent with it because that's when it breaks down, isn't it?

STUART

And you bang on there because what you've said without saying it is that marketing works, whether it's leaflets, events, SEO pay per click, you name it. Marketing tactical activity works. However, it doesn't work all the time and so you need a blend of activities or like the AdWords piece. The AdWords is probably as scientific as it gets, and if you understand the how and how people buy and the sales process and the marketing process and the messaging process. When you have AdWords which can burn through a budget, you know in in in hours. When you've got the scientific bit of the whole funnel built, then it's worth it. But if you don't, and you're guessing, it feels like it's a money pit.

IAN

Just before we get stuck into the detail of this, I want to help everyone cover off, why this is not a happy place for most techies? Now most people are really, you know, technical very, you know, High SC on the DISC profile and thinking about being creative, going out, standing at an event, talking about marketing, putting yourself out there telling people what you do is like a place where they just turn around 180 degrees and go and hide, isn't it? So a lot of MSPs have trouble with technical people, have trouble working out how to unearth these wonderful messages on what they do with their, you know USPS from a non-technical point of view, but because this isn't they're happy place and a place where they really want to live because they entrust marketing agencies or other people thinking that they know how to do it. So how would you help someone to overcome those boundaries and those challenges they've got in their head when it's kind of not something I really want to do this morning. Thank you very much. It's not something that excites me, but. I know I've got to do it. Do you know what I mean?

STUART

Yeah, yeah I do. The secret is you don't have to do it. Be the marketing director of your business. And when I say that and that sounds scary, it's like, well, I don't want to do that. It's like marketing director is you under the strategy of why people would buy from you. And when you understand the psychology and the process and that's all. It is, yeah. For a technically wired individual, that actually becomes quite easy, but right now no one taught you the sales process, the marketing process, and so you don't know what you don't know. So as a technical business owner, no wonder it's in the difficult box and therefore we entrust agencies, marketing agencies, lead generation agencies, to kind of understand why it's important to our business, but if you don't own the strategy and the why and you understand therefore how the strategy should be implemented, you don't need the skills of how to do it, but you need to understand why copy is important. You need like on the last podcast we talked about importance of your avatar. And your buying persona of your ideal client. And yeah, that's a boring catch phrase that here, but unless you're absolutely super clear on that.

IAN

Yeah.

STUART

And therefore you're super clear if your agency and not don't expect them to guess on your behalf, that takes the heavy lifting out o f then creating copy, creating messages, and again people can create that for you. You don't have to create it yourself, so therefore stay in the marketing director role with the clear strategy, the clear target market, the clear proposition, and the rest becomes a lot easier. Obviously, there's a lot of moving parts to it. But then you can actually direct it because the data at the end of the day and this is the science of marketing, is that the data, the KPIs, the analytics come back to tell you, is this strategy working. Am I, because it's a numbers game. Again cliche, because it's a numbers game. Don't say that again to me, I'll punch you. But it's true. It's a numbers game. For every pound you spend. What does it give you? But what do you have to do to get the actual client to close? How many conversations? How many touch points you know in the old days before digital marketing, it was like 7 touch points or 7 follow-ups. Now it's something like 32, 33, 34. How the hell do I keep that going?

IAN

But it's interesting, you know, when you talk about the data and they talk about the numbers because, most MSP's, if they got one, maybe 2 new clients a month, they would be cockapoo. They'd be delighted. They'd be absolutely over, you know.

STUART

If not even slightly overwhelmed.

IAN

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

STUART

If it was every month.

IAN

Most of the businesses operations engines will probably fall over. But what I'm what I'm trying to get at is, you know, you go onto social media on the, you know, whether it be LinkedIn or whoever it is. So now we can get you this many leads. You've got this CRM, it covers thousands of this and hundreds of this and you need all this stuff, you know when Stuart saying look at the data and boil it down to what you actually need. You don't need that many people to make a big difference, because remember, while you're doing the lead Gen. And while you're doing some of these activities which are going to deliver very low numbers of results and very low numbers to start with, you've also got your referrals coming in. So even if you've just doubled the amount of referrals, you're going to get, you're going to get a really to say so. What I'm trying to say, just chill out a little bit, just don't think about, I've got to get 1000 leads and 100 people and I've only had 20 people sign up to this webinar and everything like that. Well, you don't need that many and if your sales process is in tune, which I'm sure we'll be talking about on another webinar on another podcast, sorry, then you know you can actually look at not having to worry about how many people sign up. How many people you've got on your list and all of that kind of stuff.

STUART

So if we come back to the question, how do I get more leads? The starting point is, understand how marketing and sales fit together because people forget that marketing actually encompasses the sales process. Sales is a tactical activity of marketing and so many people think ohh, I just need to get a load of noise out there, blogs content emails but it doesn't seem to work and that's because it's not connected to the sales processes. Which is, how do I get somebody to raise their hand and start a conversation with me? That's called a call to action. That's the middle of funnel activity. So you're being busy top of funnel, you're spending all this money and time with agencies creating this top of funnel stuff. But if you haven't got those hooks in it that allow people to hook onto pick up the phone, send you an e-mail and say actually that resonated, can I have a conversation or can I download something which then offers them the chance to have a conversation that's sort of only doing 50% of the job. So you've got to create your marketing funnel and then connect it to your sales funnel and that's all about the call to action and what we call the middle of funnel activity. Now before you get there and before they want to start talking to you, you've got to earn the right of credibility and relevance to being able to solve the problem. You as a company, you're, you know ABC MSP is irrelevant. All they are looking for is how do I solve whatever problem they've got with their technology. All that they're worried about, and that's the starting point of finding you top of funnel, the middle of funnel piece is, are you credible? Are you knowledgeable and you're still irrelevant as a company, as a company name or as a person until they film this guy, this girl seems to understand my world. Actually, maybe they could help me. Who are they again? Ohh, it's Fred Smith. OK, brilliant. And where are they are,they're local or it doesn't. In fact, they might even find that local is irrelevant, and that's when they're prepared to consider you. And that's a consideration phase that you might actually help them. And if you think of a retail point of view, you're thinking right. I'm prepared to now drive to that shop or bother filling out my details on their order form, to actually consider exploring their products and their services. But there's a lot of touch points and that's why this 32-33-34 touch points now of getting the earning the right for them to start considering buying from you. And so you've got understand where marketing and sales connect, you've got, you know build out your sales funnel and what the hooks are the call to actions. You're educating people so that they are. You know, they start circling those hooks.

IAN

Can you just explain what is a call to action for people who are listening to this and they kind of like might be quite new to this? You know, one of the things that we talk about in our, in our training and and some of our webinars is how we connect the content together. But as you're going down that sales file and as you're building that credibility, as they're going through. What's the call to action? Why is the language in that so important?

STUART

Because otherwise you are. It's a coin, a phrase. Shooting blanks. And you're not going to hit the target, so.

IAN

You're not asking them to do something. Are you saying? Hey, here's. A great blog, uh blah blah blah. Ohh lovely. Ohh shut the page down and away you go. You're not saying hey.

STUART

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're getting to the end of blog and saying, you know, we're really good at this. And not saying give us a call if you can, but actually maybe that's the step too far because in the sales process, what you're selling always is not the purchase you're selling the next step. So if somebody is in education mode in and reading your blogs or watching your YouTube videos. It's like what is the next safe step for them logically and psychologically and it might be, download, download this thing because if they download that thing that demonstrates might be a case study. It might be a tool they can use it mean it gives them a little bit of value and actually that is starting to like walking up to the sales agent in a shop and going where's the blue paint? So you've started. You're starting to consider that you know this shop can help you paint your house, and now you're going from where can I buy paint safely and affordably to the color blue? And now you've started to consider buying from them. And so if your CRM and your marketing and most of it is now is joined up, you'll be able to see when someone downloads something. So actually that then allows you to narrow who you're targeting to say, shall I send them a specific e-mail saying talking about security because of they've now said I want blue paint. I'm interested in security. Or data backup or Wi-Fi. Now you can actually target them with a more specific message. Now is that a post on linked it, not post a direct message on LinkedIn. Is it a phone call? Is it an e-mail? It could be you a drive by and a drop in, you know, and knock on the door. Depending on how you're structured and how confident you are and now you know what to go and talk about. And that next step would then maybe say, well, would you like to book a meeting to talk in more detail about it? Yes, I would. So that all sounds like lots of moving parts. You don't have to settle that if you learn how to be the marketing director of your business, then you can help direct how you want others to help you build a lead generation system.

IAN

And that's channeling them through with the come and download this. And if you're interested in this, then let's talk about the security thing or if it's something about managed services, then go and watch this webinar, this download or this case study or whatever it is and you're in control of moving the people through your sales funnel. If you've got lots of stuff going on at the top. And you've got referrals coming at the bottom, but there's this gaping great hole in the middle. The reason for that is because you got nothing that's interesting for them, nothing where you're educating them. Nothing where you're you're calling them through to hey, come down and come and download this or come and come to this event or meet up or have a free strategy call or whatever it was you wanted to talk.

STUART

And keep it simple. Everyone thinks they're going to boil the ocean and do it all at once. Keep it simple. Start with. It's a common one. Start with one business pillar. Start with security for example, and build top of funnel, middle of funnel marketing, messaging, marketing and sales process with all the hooks and call to action. And I want to say ohh it's not a lot you're looking at two or three kind types of message probably even one even to get started starting is better than never doing anything, and on the back of being getting started, it's just about consistency. We say this all the time. Consistent do something every day, every week, every month, and if it's got the relevancy and it's got the call to actions. And your audience is big enough, so this is coming back to is my top of funnel are my connections, is my e-mail database big enough to allow the numbers game which we will hear about, work for me. If you've only got 10 people on your e-mail list, the law of averages. Aren't going to be in your favour if you've got 1000 relevant 50 plus you know businesses in the accountancy world in your list, you're going to get some traction. But only if you then are consistent. Putting your messaging with your call to actions out there does that makes sense?

STUART

Yeah, it does. And I think the thing just to layer on top of that is about the consistency of yes, you've got your, your, your content going out there and you've got, you know, if you've got regular events coming in, but also to kind of supercharge this is to use direct messaging campaigns, isn't it either on whether it directly on e-mail directly on Facebook not well could be Facebook, but LinkedIn in particular is have a list of people who are your ideal target mark. And message them about one thing, one month, then message them or give them educational content the next month. Hey, I've just released this.

STUART

Yeah, Don't sell.

IAN

Yeah, you’re only educating that.

STUART

Just educate and add value.

IAN

And I think that's where people go wrong. Hey, do you want managed services? What's that all about? Why do I need it? What am I interested in it? I don't. Hey, have you got unreliable Wi-Fi that's causing you connectivity issues when you're trying to run your business. Yes, I have actually. Ohh, right. How do I how do I fix that? Ohh, you have to do this. Uh, we haven't got one of them. Ohh, would you like one? Ohh yes please. You know, and it's kind of going through and really understanding and talking to your customers and when you get the messaging right and how to get the messaging right, it's come up with something that Stuart said and then test it with your existing clients and just say what is it that we actually do for you? Ohh, you've got our backs. You do this, you do. OK. And what does that lead you to? And what does that help you do? And what does that help you do and keep going and you will get to the bottom line of going. Do you know what you guys should look after things? And that's all I want because I don't know what you're doing and that's just great. But the direct messaging campaigns as well, and tracking that either through, you know, CRM or remember the numbers are not massive, they're simple spreadsheet. You can have a simple spreadsheet just to keep the lack of to keep a track of those messages that you're sending out. You're educating people, you're just constantly, you know, not daily, but regularly keeping them front and centre of you so that they know when the time's right, they know how to get in contact with you.

And as usual with all of the ask Stuart podcast series we have got a guide for you to help you with lead Gen. and your marketing. It's called the new business advantage blueprint, but rather just put a link in the show notes and say, hey, you should download this, it's really, really great. Why do they need to download it. What's in this PDF? What's it going to help them do? What's it going to help them understand? So that the you know the outcome of going through this particular resource that we've got for all the listeners today.

STUART

The new business advantage blueprint , Ian, is a way of simplifying the linear process that we just talked about here, which even if you're listening to it and nodding along, you're thinking. Ohh, bloody hell. How do I get started? This will help you get started and it talks about the seven ones. The seven single items you need one after another to help you consistently set this up and generate leads. Simple as that.

IAN

Easy, and that's because it is not complex. It is straightforward. That's brilliant, Stuart. Absolutely nothing more to say. It's kind of as simple as that. It's all the links are in the show notes there, and as always, if you want to ask your own question in the Ask Stuart Podcast series, all you need to do is there's another link in the show notes click. The link fill out a question. Any question whatsoever with regards to scaling and growing your MSP and we'll do a podcast on it for you, no problem at all. We'll even shout you out if you want us to. So that's it from me today. Thanks very much for your time today, Stuart. We'll look forward to seeing you on the next one.

STUART

Thanks guys.

OUTRO

So I hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to learn more about how to take your MSP to a million, or if you're already there, go faster then come and join Stuart Warwick and myself in the Scale of Confidence. Facebook group. Link’s on the Show Notes. You go and enjoy the rest of your day and. I look forward to connecting with you soon.