Managed services on the outside is about technology, but the reality is a successful managed services operation is actually making the most of all of its relationships. “It’s cultivating relationships and being strategic about how you meet the needs of everybody in your sphere, and helping them meet your needs,” said Stephanie Morgan, CompTIA’s director of member education.
“The hard part of managed services is figuring out how to start and create a relationship, which is hard in any setting but particularly in business, when more often than not your clients don’t know what they want,” Morgan said. “And if they think they know what they want, they’re very often wrong. It’s a tricky place to be.”
The new resource bundle from CompTIA, Learn Managed Services With These 5 Tools, includes tools to help you effectively start and maintain these important client and vendor relationships. Improve your sales play, find clients and learn to understand their needs, and cultivate the soft skills needed to maintain those important client relationships.
Learn Managed Services With These 5 Tools includes:
- Trends in IT Managed Services
- Quick Start Guide to Managing a Managed Services Sales Organization
- Buying Guide for Managed Services
- Executive Certificate in Profitable Partnerships with your Vendors
- Quick Start Guide to Improving Sales Performance with Solution Playbooks
Technology Is the Easy Part
The bundle begins with annual trends in managed services and how it fits in the overall IT ecosystem. “Knowing where your customers are can give you a better sense of how to craft your message,” she said. “Understanding the fact that improved security is the No. 1 driving factor for managed services means when you go in to talk to a new customer, you need to be prepared to talk about security, and the right size and solution.”
In managed services, there could be the impulse to keep the customer in the dark. If they don’t know what’s going on, maybe you can make a couple bucks off their ignorance. “That’s a very short-term approach and one that will inevitably backfire. The tools in this bundle help with the ethos of current and perspective clients,” Morgan said.
The buying guide will help build trust in those relationships. “This is something you can take directly to a perspective customer and say, ‘Here’s an agnostic resource to teach you about managed services so you can ask the right questions and make sure you’ve got the right partners.’ It’s a tool that helps you make a sale because it helps you develop that trusted adviser role.”
On building relationships with your sales team, the bundle offers the proper tools and incentive to build trust and longevity. “If your employees don’t have a good relationship with you, it’s going to be hard to develop good relationships on your behalf,” Morgan said.
The bundle digs deeper to show you strategies to finding and connecting with a partner who’s a good fit for you, and taking advantage of the benefits they provide.
“People say the channel is rife with challenges, but in reality it’s rife with opportunities,” said Morgan. “Keeping those relationships with customers and vendors fresh and well-tended means you’re in a better position to succeed in managed services.”
Honesty Reaps Rewards
To get to the real truth in your business, use the tools in the bundle with honesty and a lot of circumspection.
“You’ve got to be really objective about your strengths,” Morgan said. “There are things you can do to make your position in the channel stronger, and that means working with the people who are your partners, your vendors and customers, and potentially sort of horizontal partners who are good at doing the things you’re not.”
Whether you’re looking for a 50,000-foot view of your company strategy or just ways to better understand managed, use tools in Learn Managed Services resource bundle. Most CompTIA resources are available free of charge to our Registered Users. Anyone can sign up, though some resources are only accessible by those who purchase Premier Membership.
Michelle Peterson is a communications specialist for CompTIA.
