I had a coffee with the owner of a managed service provider business last Thursday. We had both attended a presentation on AI and marketing. I was interested in his perspective on the presentation to cross check my cynicism. He was looking for a solution to his growth problem and thought this presentation may offer the silver bullet.
His business is successful. He has 11 employees and a stable client base generating 1.8M per annum. He has been in the same position for just over 2 years. To his credit, he has not lost any employees and he has only lost 2 small clients due to factors outside his control. He admits that he has no idea what he needs to do to get his business growing again. He thinks about it all the time and it is causing him some stress.
About 2 months ago, he decided to hire a sales person. Up to this point he took responsibility for sales and business development generally. He has an excellent administration person who ‘manages’ social marketing and updating the website.
The new sales person has been in the role for about 4 weeks. This person has a strong background in IT having worked in marketing and sales for a software company and a short stint with another MSP that closed its doors.
“How is he going?” I asked. He replied, “I am not sure. He is talking to people and going to as many events as he can, but it doesn’t feel like he is getting any traction. We are not preparing any new quotes or proposals.”
“What is his sales budget?” I asked.
He looked away briefly and replied, “I didn’t have one. How do I set a sales budget? I have never done that before and I have no idea what is realistic?”
Ok – there is the first clue. The second clue came next. My next questions:
“What is your target market? Who are you guys targeting with your marketing and sales outreach?”
The blank face told me I had hit bone. I was not having a coffee to diagnose his business and I did not want to come across as an over-eager consultant.
I left it with, “Maybe you guys can think about targeting businesses you like working with. It makes the whole marketing and sales process so much easier.”
I am catching up with this guy in about 2 weeks. He asked me, not the other way around.
I will update this post to let you know how we go.
