How do you break that cycle ? Your job as an MSP business owner is to create a strategy for how your sales team is going to win the sales that align with your business goals . That requires planning — reverse planning .

The problem is that most MSP owners have no clue how to do this or where to begin . Sitima Fowler and Ray Green , MSP sales experts , are here to unravel the secrets of reverse planning to steer your business toward intentional , sustainable growth .

Start With Your Business Goals

She Said : Your MSP business is not going to grow by default . You must be intentional about the outcome you want . Say your goal is to be a $ 10 million MSP in three years . What do you need to do to get there ? If you need to start growing 20 % year over year , what does your revenue need to be this year ? What does your monthly MRR need to be to achieve that ?

He Said : You can use historical data to help make your sales goals realistic and enforceable , but if you only use your past performance to set your future , you can easily fall into the trap of “ We ’ ve always done it this way .” The outcome ? The same results you always get . To grow , you need a dashboard with leading indicators that you can adjust to get the results you want .

Set Your Sales Goals

She Said : Once you ’ ve established that your salesperson is responsible for a certain amount of new MRR every month to hit your revenue goal , work backward to determine what behaviors and actions are required to make that happen . Let ’ s break it down . What ’ s the game plan for divvying up that MRR ? What percentage do you expect from new clients versus existing clients ? To reach that percentage , figure out your average deal size so you can determine how many new customers you must close each month .

He Said : Good point . Now , let ’ s talk hustle . How many first-time appointments ( FTAs ) are we looking at to seal the deal with the desired number of new customers ? Let ’ s backtrack further . How many cold calls , networking events , LinkedIn messages , emails , and marketing outreaches do you need to land those FTAs ? How many local events should supplement that outreach ? It ’ s not just about reaching the goal but understanding the dance of percentages : new customers , appointments , calls , and events — reverse planning in action .

Manage Your Team

She Said : With a plan , your sales team knows what they must achieve every month . Plus , you have a repeatable and scalable process that drives results .

Here ’ s an example of how to achieve a quota of $ 4,000 of new MRR every month . If the average deal size is $ 2,000 / month , you need to close two new clients every month . To achieve that , you need to present four proposals , go to eight discovery FTA meetings , and get 16 qualified leads .

MONTHLY GOAL SETTING TO HIT YOUR NUMBERS

To keep your goals on track , watch three sets of numbers : 1 . Business results ( sales , profits , market share , wallet share )

2 . Sales goals ( proposals , discovery meetings , technical assessments , qualified leads , etc .)

3 . Sales activities ( prospecting calls , followup touches , networking events , etc .)

He said : Absolutely . Manage and forecast the outcome on a weekly basis with a sales activity tracker or dashboard . Every MSP ’ s KPIs will be slightly different depending on how they generate demand and get leads . Some KPIs to measure include dials , FTAs , proposals generated , close rate on FTAs and proposals generated , and more . When you give your sales team actionable goals and a scorecard that shows if they are hitting their numbers , the desired output is almost naturally going to happen .

She said : That ’ s right . If the results are off , you can easily see what ’ s wrong and troubleshoot . Do you need to make more outbound calls ? Send more emails ? Up your marketing activity ? Hire a sales development rep ? Those are things you can control to change where your business is headed .

Have The Mindset To Hit Your Goals

He Said : The first step is to 100 % believe you will reach your sales goals . You must have a mindset for success . Reverse engineer how you will get there . And have a process in place to successfully onboard and manage the new clients your salespeople bring in . Because if you plan and manage their sales activities , they will be successful .

She Said : Because here ’ s the truth : Success isn ’ t accidental .

MSPSUCCESS . COM | 27