us for a free IT Services Assessment. If we cannot show you how to lower the total cost of ownership for IT by at least 14 %, we’ ll pay YOU $ 1,000.”
3. It must have a STRONG APPEAL to your target market.
This is why you MUST start with defining the“ Who” or target market of the marketing equation. For example, one member who was selling to medical practices submitted this as part of his overall USP:
“ We Make IT Personal – We create partnerships by building connections. We believe that working with you and your business is an opportunity to be a part of building something exceptional. We have the courage and commitment to both learn about and align with you and your team. We care for your business like it is our business and we are dedicated to its success.”
There are a few problems with this. For starters, these statements are really vague. What does“ create partnerships by building connections” really mean? But a bigger problem is that it’ s NOT a benefit, and his target audience does NOT CARE about this. Therefore, it violates the litmus test of needing to have a strong appeal. The practice manager of a busy medical practice just wants their IT systems to work; they don’ t want to create partnerships and build something exceptional.
So I asked this member,“ WHO is your typical client, and what do they worry about? What are the biggest problems they come to you to solve?” He said it’ s typically a“ she,” a 40- to 60-yearold woman who is not technically savvy, does not perceive they have a problem with HIPAA, and spends their day dealing with“ utter chaos,” reacting to problems, firefighting. Typically they come to him for a single problem— the phone system is not working, they have a virus, or— the big one— something with the electronic health records system is not working. BINGO. So I suggested we make this one of his USP points:
“ We Eliminate Every Single Problem with Electronic Health Records( EHR). Our medical clients see a 99 % reduction in EHR issues after becoming clients of ours. From slowness, workflow issues, and inability to access notes on patient records, to reentry and rework due to bugs in the system, we solve them ALL.”
4. It must be defensible before they buy.
A USP must be proven. One of the points in our USP is that we have“ more documented client success stories than any other marketing or sales consultant in this industry, PERIOD.” That’ s not only true, but it’ s specific, meaningful to our clients, and defensible before a prospect buys. After all, they can go to our website and see the hundreds of reviews, testimonials, and case studies.
This also brings me to the critical point: A USP needs to be TRUE. If you lie, or fail to deliver on your promise, you’ ll only accelerate the pace at which people discover you’ re an incompetent liar.
At the time of writing this, there has been an uptick in brandnew MSPs starting up— a surge that began back in 2022 and has only recently started to slow.
Unfortunately, most of these start-ups are not sophisticated entrepreneurs who understand business financials, marketing, and sales, so they play the only“ marketing” card they know how to play to acquire new clients: cheapness.
This presents a big problem because even though they are not able to deliver the same quality of service and support as more mature MSPs, many of your clients see them as“ good enough,” and therefore those buyers willingly sacrifice a“ Cadillac” experience for cost savings. That, coupled with the fact that you’ re not dealing with an experienced buyer of IT services who can discern what“ good” is, makes for a difficult selling environment.
That’ s why it’ s more critical than ever to be able to articulate to a prospective customer— or even a CURRENT customer— why they need to trust YOU over any and every other option available.
Robin Robins is the IT industry’ s most in-demand marketing consultant, sales trainer, and direct response marketing consultant who specializes in developing strategic marketing, sales and lead generation systems for MSPs, VARs and IT services companies.
Robin Robins is the Founder of TMT and MSP Success.