MARKETING FEATURE CONT.
“ There is also no ' one ' perfect market, because a market can’ t be ' perfect ' until we identify what the product or service is that we’ re trying to sell, and if we’ re doing marketing the right way, we need to identify a market with a need FIRST before really designing a solution to fill the need.” – Robin Robins
to the attendees at my event as“ software guys” and“ geeks,” thinking he was aligning with them. It was SERIOUSLY uncomfortable in the room as people sat and smirked at every word he was saying.
Several years ago, a competitor posted an ad on Facebook, promising to“ flood your MSP with thousands of leads.” I laughed the minute I saw it. It was a gross“ miss” on messaging that instantly revealed he has no understanding of his target audience( small MSPs). The comments were hilarious as many of the MSPs commented they wouldn’ t even know what to DO with 100 leads, let alone 1,000. Many posted they would be happy with five to 10 more per month! Again, this is a“ simple,” seemingly innocent mistake, but it can create a massive rift between you and your audience, causing them to think you’ re a fraud.
On a positive note, one member took my idea about working with cyber insurance agents to secure more business. He discovered that all of his BEST clients had, or were interested in, buying cyber liability and ransomware insurance. This resulted in him getting over a dozen great clients, with more in the pipeline. It is obvious why this works when you think about it. Any CEO willing to purchase cyber liability or ransomware insurance clearly believes the chances of a breach or cyber incident happening are high AND they are willing to spend money to prepare and mitigate the risk. BOTH are psychographic signals this person would also spend a good amount of money on managed services, backup, and cyber protection. Yet how many people would be a) willing to notice this commonality among their best customers, and b) actually DO something with this information?
All three of these scenarios are simple examples of why it’ s so critical to deeply understand your target audience. The WHO is very, very important for planning, marketing, hiring, pricing, strategy, and your sales process. Often, the right WHO profile already exists in your business, but you’ re not paying any attention to it … or maybe you know but you’ re not acting on it.
I discovered that my best customers share common core values such as hard work, self-sacrifice, and providing value, and they are VERY opposed to victim mentality and thinking. They have“ honest ambition” and are avid learners and readers. They are very patriotic and pro-family, sharing what many would think are“ old-fashioned” values. When I write, I write for them, often“ poking the bear” of those who do not share the same viewpoints and core values. In doing so, I aggravate and alienate some but draw my core CHOSEN market closer to me. The prospects and clients who storm off in a huff are ALWAYS the low-value ones who are a giant PITA.
YOU need to figure out your WHO as well. Demographics are a good starting point. Size of company, number of employees, geographic location, industry and SIC code( s), years in business, etc. But the real juice will come from the psychographics— what they believe, their core values, what they buy, what they read, who they pay attention to, and their stance on critical industry issues as well as business overall.
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 CEO and Founder of TMT. TMT is the parent company of MSP Success.
12 | MSPSUCCESS. COM