Unleash growth: 10 sales and marketing tips for TSPs

As an IT solution provider (TSP), staying ahead of the curve in a constantly evolving and demanding industry is crucial for increasing ROI and scaling your business.

One solution many TSPs seek is to bridge the relationship between sales and marketing more effectively. However, the lack of knowledge surrounding these strategies can be a challenge for those aiming to grow their businesses. To ensure business growth, TSPs can prioritize sales and marketing with these easy-to-follow tips tailored for them.   

5 marketing tips

Marketing is a powerful tool for TSPs at any stage of their business journey. With the vast array of mediums, strategies, and messaging available in our digital age, TSPs can curate the perfect positioning to win over their audience. The flexibility of marketing means you don't need a big budget to achieve your goals. Organic marketing channels like your website, social media, and email offer free or low-cost ways to communicate with your target market, making it accessible to businesses with tight budgets.

To deliver a smooth customer experience, testing what works and ironing out any bumps in the customer journey is essential. This significantly improves close rates and helps build positive relationships with customers. Here are some ways you can prioritize your marketing efforts:

1. Apply inbound marketing best practices

Inbound marketing drives buying decisions by offering tailored content that meets buyers where they are. With an emphasis on internet presence, inbound marketing uses the web and social media to attract prospective clients.

Organic marketing channels like your website, social media, and email are free to use, but inbound marketing campaigns often require a greater up-front strategy investment. This is because success relies on shareability, which requires accurate buyer personas, clever content, and a way to track engagement. TSPs who invest in these elements can improve outcomes and make more informed decisions.

2. Use search engine optimization (SEO)

When you create content, your clients and prospects should be top of mind. This is especially true for web content. If you include keyword searches from your target audience in your website content, organic traffic will improve significantly.

SEO tools can be used to determine the keywords and phrases with the highest search volume in your market. With this information, you can include the relevant terminology on key website pages to rank higher in searches for those words.

SEO best practices include keywords in website copy, adding internal and external links, including a meta description, and keeping content updated. However, you should avoid stuffing high-volume keywords into your website. This won’t improve your organic rankings. Google refers to this as “clickbait” or “keyword stuffing” and uses algorithms to deprioritize this type of content. Aim to include key terms in a way that creates value for your readers.

As a bonus tip, include a clear call to action (CTA) on every webpage to enhance the customer experience by making it easier for visitors to learn more about key topics or contact you.

3. Redefine your email marketing strategy

Email marketing has an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent. However, when it comes to the software and technology industries, the average ROI increases to $40 for every $1 spent.

This demonstrates a tremendous opportunity for TSPs to reach their audience and see a significant ROI through email marketing. To make the most of your email marketing efforts, continually test new strategies and tactics to find what works best for your business.  

For example, if you’re experiencing low email marketing engagement, consider updating your contact list by removing inactive contacts. There are various free tools to support your email marketing practices, including one that ranks the effectiveness of your email subject lines, free marketing automation platforms to automate and send emails, and the ConnectWise Partner Program Portal.

Beyond catchy subject lines, your clients need relevant and timely information. When crafting email content, focus on presenting solutions to common pain points your audience has and speaking “with” rather than “at” your audience.

4. Build your social media following

With social media taking over the world, there’s no denying that it is a powerful tool for building brand awareness, driving lead generation, and boosting overall engagement. According to Hootsuite, over 4.74 billion people worldwide use social media, making it a vast opportunity for TSPs looking to attract new businesses.

To grow your online presence and sales pipeline, TSPs should maintain a company page on popular social media platforms, such as LinkedIn or Facebook. This provides visibility into your business and the solutions you offer, allowing you to engage with your audience and drive sales. Regularly sharing company updates, industry news, and thought leadership content could boost organic engagement with your brand.

5. Start a referral program

Today, it’s all about who you know, and some of the best new clients come from existing customers. You may have been given referrals in the past, but formalizing the process can reinforce the behavior with meaningful perks—discounts, early access to new programs/services, and more.

Implementing a referral program can benefit both the client giving the referral and your business. Referral programs bring in more clients, save money, and nurture existing client relationships, making it an effective strategy for TSPs looking to grow their businesses.

For more low-cost marketing ideas, check out this blog on 10 tips to build brand awareness when money is tight.

5 sales tips

Selling your services can be a challenging and complex process. With economic uncertainty and increasing competition in the market, it's essential to have a solid sales strategy that can help your sales team close more deals and meet their KPIs. Here are a few tips on what you can do to gain more market share and deliver the best sales experience possible:

1. Expand into new verticals

An easy way to expand your business is to not limit yourself. Breaking into new, high-growth vertical markets can help your organization continue to reach sales projections in the face of economic shifts. Healthcare, legal, medical, banking, and financial markets are popular verticals for TSPs looking to expand their market presence and create new opportunities for growth.

2. Offer cybersecurity services

According to this report on The SMB Opportunity for MSPs, about 52% of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) intend to enhance cybersecurity. SMBs are turning to managed service providers (MSPs) and TSPs to meet compliance regulations and manage their security posture, making cybersecurity a necessity for TSPs to bring in more sales and revenue.

3. Sell business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) services

Differentiating yourself from others in the industry makes you unique and desirable to prospective clients. Providing additional services like business continuity and disaster recovery is a great way to help customers protect their data and keep their operations running if an incident occurs.

Since many businesses struggle to recover effectively after a major data breach or natural disaster, BCDR solutions are essential to ensure organizational resilience and longevity.

4. Monitor renewals

It’s easy to get so caught up in prospective clients that you forget about the good business you already have. Don’t let that happen! Nurturing relationships with your clients is key to renewing business throughout the year. When you position your business as an extension of theirs, you shift the narrative to be less sales-focused and more solution-driven. When the time comes for your clients to renew their purchase, the trust and relationship you’ve built will make it your easiest sale yet.

5. Personalize your approach

People buy from people. Remember to include personal touches in your sales interactions to let prospective clients know you’ve been paying attention to their specific requests.

It pays off to get to know your clients on a personal level. Keep note of personal and professional details they share, send personal notes or emails to check in on their success or roadblocks, and follow up with thoughtful and resourceful materials to encourage success.

Post-sale tracking metrics

A smooth sales-to-service handoff is integral to delivering a superior customer experience. Take time to ensure this transition meets or exceeds the expectations you’ve set with clients. Happy and satisfied clients are more likely to refer other good businesses your way, making it worthwhile for you to invest time in getting the sales-to-service handoff right. 

Once you have perfected the hand-off, you need to measure your sales and marketing efforts. These metrics will give you a better understanding of what strategies worked best with your target audience. This information lets you adjust your approach for future efforts and optimize your marketing campaigns.

An important metric to follow is your customer acquisition cost (CAC), which is the cost of acquiring a new customer. Keeping this number as low as possible is the name of the game. Effective organic marketing strategies can significantly reduce your cost per lead and overall CAC, saving your business money.

Join the ConnectWise Partner Program for more tips and resources

With these 10 tips, you will set your business up for growth and success. However, the best thing you can do for your TSP business is to join the ConnectWise Partner Program.

For many TSPs, sales growth and go-to-market strategies are some of the challenges they face every day. Created with this in mind, the ConnectWise Partner Program is designed to support our partners in their marketing efforts, sales initiatives, and go-to-market strategies to help them achieve their most ambitious vision of success. 

As a member of the Partner Program, you’ll gain immediate access to a wealth of educational resources, in-depth training videos, white-labeled marketing assets, go-to-market campaigns, and community-based events to prepare, educate, and empower your sales and marketing to reach your goals.