“ The purpose of the wedge is to further develop the prospect ’ s dissatisfaction with their current provider and help them see areas where they ’ re being underserved .” - Sitima Fowler
assumption that everything ’ s OK with their current service — and it might be , depending on their understanding of what IT support should be . Through your questioning , you can draw out some problems they ’ ve just been accepting . You ’ re not creating the pain ; you ’ re helping the prospect understand that there ’ s a problem they weren ’ t aware of .
The Takeaway
The next step of the wedge technique , the takeaway , is designed to relay how significant a problem is to the prospect . However , it isn ’ t your job to explain it — it ’ s to ask pointed questions to allow the prospect to come to that conclusion on their own .
She Said : The takeaway allows the prospect to discover the consequence of inaction . For example , if cybersecurity is your “ wedge ” and the prospect says they don ’ t get that from their current provider , the takeaway would be : “ Oh , maybe it ’ s not a big deal then , because not every company gets ransomware . And if you did , you ’ d just pay a fine and lose a few days of productivity , right ?”
Suddenly , the prospect is going to “ get ” why cybersecurity matters . The takeaway seals the deal . You ’ re using it to remind them of the consequences .
He Said : Exactly . Both the wedge question and the takeaway are really powerful . When you help the prospect realize these things on their own through a series of questions , instead of telling them with a sales pitch , it ’ s more credible .
Putting the Wedge into Practice
Here ’ s an example . The wedge question is , “ When your IT person conducted the last test restore of your backup — sort of like a fire drill — so you knew for sure you could be back up and running fast in the event of an emergency or ransomware attack , how did that process work ?”
She Said : You ’ re creating a picture with words , making it very clear what the service should look like . Now this part is critical : The wedge technique only works if you assume the prospect already has the service . If you phrase the question like a salesperson would —“ But does your provider do THIS ?”— they ’ re not going to tell you anything more .
So , if the prospect then says , “ We ’ ve never done that ,” or something similar , the takeaway would be : “ Oh , so is running a fire-drill test restore of your network to make sure you can be back up and running fast not something that ’ s important to you ?” You ’ re telling them what the consequence would be .
He Said : You ’ re planting seeds of doubt with these questions . But resist the urge to start selling ; you ’ re still in discovery . If the prospect says , “ Our provider doesn ’ t do X ,” this isn ’ t the time to say , “ Oh , we do that , and we do it better than so-and-so .” Keep your response subtle ; maybe sound surprised . A little “ hmm ” or “ oh ” will take you a long way .
Make Your “ Wedge ” Unique to Your MSP
The “ Picture-Perfect ” technique will help you create the perfect wedge questions to highlight what your MSP does best . With your leadership team , put together an image of the ideal circumstances under which the prospect could be doing business — one that you provide .
She Said : Every business is different , right ? Your business may not do certain things , but you may do a lot of things that other MSPs don ’ t . That uniqueness is going to become your wedge .
He Said : Focus on your unique selling proposition and come up with a few go-to wedge questions to use — things that differentiate you . You can create questions that highlight what you do , all by asking how the prospect ’ s provider does that thing .
Dig Into the Pain — You ’ ll Get the Gain
When all is said and done , you should create a wedge question that correlates to each major pain point your prospect is likely to bring up . This includes things like response time and security .
This is why it ’ s essential not to skip any steps of the discovery meeting process . Each step builds on the previous , further building your rapport with the prospect and exponentially increasing your chance of making a sale .
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