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COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the business environment in general and for the Managed Service Provider (MSP) industry in particular.
While there are many great new opportunities available, before a Managed Service Provider can take advantage of them, they may face several complex, new challenges. These include COVID-19’s negative effects on margins and growth goals, or adjusting to rapidly changing client needs and budgets, just to name a few.
The good news is that nowadays MSPs can count with a good number of solutions they can implement to successfully overcome these challenges. This article presents some of them, as well as our tips and tricks on how to set your MSP business for success in the times we live.
Companies in many industries are facing new, unexpected needs, such as the security issues created by having most of their employees working remotely.
Hackers are now becoming a greater threat to the security of financial and other types of sensitive data. For this reason, companies are turning to MSPs in droves for effective data security solutions.
At the same time, businesses in countless industries are turning to MSPs for help with cloud migrations.
In fact, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, MSPs were already busy trying to satisfy a high demand for help with cloud migration.
But now, with the new security vulnerabilities of the remote workforce, demand for help with cloud migration is rapidly accelerating, as the Cloud is seen as a proven method to enhance data security, as well as improve collaboration and business resiliency during the pandemic.
As a result, MSPs who can provide the right solutions for these needs are increasingly considered ‘White Knights’ businesses can turn to for help during this time.
Budgets cuts and new work environments have made it essential for MSPs to become more
creative, flexible and people-focused, in order to prevent sales from stagnating.
Being open and willing to try creative, innovative, new approaches to sales and marketing while trusting historical patterns and sales numbers can reveal ways to do much more than keep the doors open.
Visionary MSPs can seize and take advantage of available opportunities for growth by being open to adjusting or even transforming their sales and marketing approaches to better suit the current business environment.
New creative approaches can include coming up with new messaging and promotions sales teams can offer customers. Integrating new marketing automation workflows and tools to gain efficiency in your sales activities can definitely help. So does implementing new and unique ways to keep your sales team motivated and helping them develop a flexible mentality. Especially now that many of them may be working remotely.
Creating innovative new sales processes and strategies, using marketing automation and other automatic tools for daily sales tasks management and adjusting sales and marketing strategies as you go can help you tap into lucrative, or underserved markets, and maintain a consistent growth rate.
Visionary MSPs can seize and take advantage of available opportunities for growth by being open to adjusting or even transforming their sales and marketing approaches to better suit the current business environment.
This unpredictable current business environment makes accurate sales forecasting almost impossible. Instead, savvy Managed Service Provider teams should consider multiple ‘What If?’ scenarios and think through ways to leverage them.
Taking the conservative approach can leave you hoping for the best and preparing for the worst when a fresh new approach can have you prepared to benefit from multiple outcomes. Many opportunities are available for dramatic growth for MSPs willing and able to adjust their product and sales strategy as they go based on what the marketplace requires.
Therefore, for MSPs to be successful during the post-COVID-19 times, they should be open to exploring and making a shift to new verticals. As new challenges and needs arise, formulate a dedicated offer or service bundle. In response to a new identified problem, prepare an offer and launch your new services.
Adjusting to the post-COVID-19 business environment has many people working harder and longer than ever before to remain profitable. The ‘work from home’ mandate has blurred the lines between people’s professional and personal lives.
To ensure your staff does not experience burnout as they attempt to adjust their schedules so they can complete their work and manage their time, focus on creating a company culture that encourages people to take time off to rest, relax and rejuvenate their minds and bodies.
Being proactive in ensuring workers get adequate rest will help them maintain their health, energy level, enthusiasm and motivation as they work to fill the sales gaps.
To solidify their profit margins and improve their odds of attaining their growth goals, MSPs must find reliable partners that can provide them with the resources, solutions, tools and support they need to increase their potential revenue streams.
These solutions could apply to network management, support, or even marketing. For instance, network automation solutions can enhance your MSP performance while reducing your OPEX and increasing your margins. Also, implementing new remote access and collaboration tools can help your MSP better adapt to the new WFH environments.
Astute MSP management teams know without the right tools, resources and support, it is impossible for them to succeed. To be able to meet the developing and changing needs of all their clients, MSPs need the right tools, expertise, resources and solutions. To do so, they must be able to identify, locate and contract with reliable partners with the resources they need to support their business.
Organizations of all types expect the managed services providers they hire to have the expertise and skills necessary to deliver the right solutions to their fast-changing, developing needs.
There are a few things you can easily implement to ensure your MSP is on top of your client’s needs:
To gain and maintain a leadership positioning, MSPs should start exploring the power of AI and automation to manage clients’ network infrastructure.
Automation solutions were already growing in popularity before the COVID-19 outbreak, as a way to become more competitive and cost-efficient, and ensure sustainable growth. Nowadays, they are becoming even more crucial for many businesses.
Choosing the right automation solution is vital for MSPs businesses, as it can directly impact the company results, for good or bad. MSPs can get all the tools, equipment and business resources they need to support all activities from the reliable business partners they selected to help them produce the diverse, complex, solutions their clients need and increase their revenue potential.
Savvy managers of MSPs make sure to find the business partner that can give them the right resources.
For managed service providers, the future is flush with opportunities. The key to being able to take full advantage of those opportunities rests on their ability to overcome and successfully navigate the challenges and complexities of the post-COVID-19 economic environment.
That requires the effective use of modern technology and solutions, being able to rapidly and proactively respond to the market needs, and coming up with innovative, automated marketing and sales techniques to stimulate revenue growth.
One of the ways MSPs can make their services indispensable to their clients is to work in partnership with companies that can help to increase their profit margins and reduce their workload through the use of an excellent network automation stack.
To learn more about how you can start integrating network automation to your MSP operations, contact us.
Whether you are a CEO, CTO, engineer, consultant or sales manager, if you are looking for an easy, fast and effective way to help your company to succeed in the post-COVID-19 business environment, it’s in your best interest to hire MSPs that are partnered with software development companies that can provide access to innovative and reliable network solutions.
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