How Airbnb, Hilton & VRBO Solve Your Biggest MSP Problem (New Clients)

:: 00:00:00

Speaker 1

What if I told you that three massive hospitality brands are engaged in a war right now? The way that they're fighting it holds the keys to getting more MSP clients in your business. Tune in because you're gonna want to hear this. Let's dive in. Hey. What's up? I'm Rick Greene, founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we help IT companies scale sales.

:: 00:15:08

Speaker 1

And I'm the managing partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we invest the time and expertise and capital into a select number of B2B businesses as an equity partner. And one of the things that I'm constantly telling MSPs, IT businesses and service businesses, and in general, it is becoming more and more important to really understand what makes you different and to go out there and differentiate yourself in your marketing, in everything that you do.

:: 00:38:14

Speaker 1

If you are running an IT business, and especially if you've been running one for a long time, you've probably seen these trends, right? Like it used to be, you know, break, fix and ad hoc type of stuff. Then it transitioned into managed services, and that kind of gave you a boost. And that allowed you to differentiate yourself. And there were some some good things to really lean into.

:: 00:54:27

Speaker 1

And then more and more and more people became MSPs and were selling managed services. And so it started to look and feel kind of the same. And then you took on the cybersecurity part of the industry as it changed. And that allowed you to differentiate yourself. And now everybody's kind of doing that. And we're again at a place where it is very difficult for customers who, by the way, don't even know how to buy it most of the time to begin with, because it's not something that they buy routinely, but those people don't know how to differentiate.

:: 01:23:15

Speaker 1

And so they go out there and they ask for like a few quotes, and people come in and they say, hey, here's what we do. You know, we we do IT services. We do our best, we do cybersecurity, we do it. And at the end of the day, the customer says, what's really different about these people? And if I can't tell what's really different, then I'm going to go to the next obvious choice to make my decision, which is going to be price at that point.

:: 01:46:17

Speaker 1

That means you are fully commoditized. And I promise you, if you don't already know this, that is a race to the bottom. Like if you are using price as your differentiator, that is not a sustainable strategy. And the long term effect of that is you have a business with all of the cheapest people who are usually the most demanding.

:: 02:02:20

Speaker 1

So even if you do manage to make it work and you usually don't, then you've got a business that you don't even want anymore. How do you get more clients and get more clients at premium pricing? Well, you differentiate yourself. You tell the market why you're better. Typically, when I'm having this conversation, people get it conceptually right. Like you get okay, like I get being different actually helps you.

:: 02:22:06

Speaker 1

All these things like brands, we kind of we kind of know this intuitively. So I talk about it, people say, yeah, and I say, okay, like so. So what makes you different? And it's something like, well, we answer our phones live or, you know, we've got local boots on the ground because we're, you know, we're we're local in the market or we've got great response time or you know, we've got like a really stellar, you know, tech stack that we use to to protect our clients and take care of our clients and listen, all of those things are great, but they aren't differentiators.

:: 02:49:26

Speaker 1

You know how I know? Because I just said the same thing that you may be saying, and that means so many other people are saying the same thing, that it isn't different anymore if it ever was. So what is different if it's not those things like that? Maybe the question that you're asking like, what do you mean? Right?

:: 03:05:00

Speaker 1

Like, how do I find what makes us different? How do I find the unique selling points, right. The things that we can lean into in our marketing and our sales that allow us to say, see, we are not fully commoditized. We are different. And because we're different, we are better. How do we do that? Right. Well, it's a great question.

:: 03:22:14

Speaker 1

And there's an example in the marketplace outside of the the IT space right now that I think is an excellent example of brilliant strategy. Right. Like three different companies who have, in my view, effectively identified what their unique selling points are and then gone out and spent a lot of money to make sure that we know what those are.

:: 03:42:00

Speaker 1

Now, those three brands are Hilton, Vrbo, Vrbo. I was what I thought it used to be until I saw the ads and Airbnb, these three companies on the surface are basically companies that you pay to find a place to sleep right when you're on business trips or you're on vacation. The end of the day, like all of them, basically provide a place for you to stay.

:: 04:03:01

Speaker 1

If that's the only thing that I think separates them, then obviously I'm probably gonna look up the area that I'm going to and I'm going to look at the different options, and I'm just going to pick the cheapest one, right. Like that's the natural buying process. If I don't understand the differentiators now, what they've done is said, nope, this is our strength, right.

:: 04:20:03

Speaker 1

And we are going to we are going to basically attack like we're going on the attack. We're going to differentiate ourselves to the market. We are going to tell them why we're different, and we're going to tell them why we're better. And then the competitor does it and then the competitor does it. Right. So Airbnb kind of fired the first shot here and went after the hotel.

:: 04:37:13

Speaker 1

And I'm going, gonna show you the ads in just a second and went after the hotel industry and said, hey, we are better because of this. Hilton responded very well, might I add. Their ad rebutted that right and said and didn't say they're wrong. It said, well, here's our space and the market. And then Vrbo, who I think actually had the hardest job.

:: 04:55:11

Speaker 1

Right. And I'll show you that ad too. They had the hardest job. These two had already carved out space in the market and said, this is how we're different. And they had to then go in and say, well, chairman, how are we different and not the same as those two? Right. So I think they actually had the more difficult job.

:: 05:09:10

Speaker 1

So what I'm going to do is just fire up these ads, I'm going to let you watch them, and then we're just going to talk through why I think these are brilliant examples of how do I identify your USP, and then how to apply them to your MSP so that you can differentiate yourself from.

:: 05:28:10

Speaker 2

When you share a hotel room with your kid, you also share a bedtime with your kid.

:: 05:38:04

Speaker 3

But no.

:: 05:41:01

Speaker 2

But if you get an Airbnb, you get to pick your own bedtime.

:: 05:45:06

Speaker 1

All right, that's good. Right? Like, and this is maybe this is because we've been on traveling basketball, you know, tournaments with my with my kids. And we've been, you know, flying around and staying in different places, staying in, you know, awesome condos on a beach, staying in hotels. I wasn't I really didn't want to be in. So you see this ad and if you've traveled with kids like, you know, like, okay, that's actually real.

:: 06:05:25

Speaker 1

You know, like we if we get to a point where, like, you know, maybe they just need a second room, okay, like if we're going to go to a hotel, maybe they just need a second room for, for the boys or something like that. So this resonates. They took on the whole in hotel industry with this ad and said we are different.

:: 06:21:00

Speaker 1

Like this is how we are different. And they took a sliver within that difference, right? Like just a sliver. And they found a piece that, at least for me and I and other parents, I know, they said, yep, that's that's a thing. Right? Like it's got them zipping up the pajamas. And because, I mean, who really wants to watch, you know, Disney movies at the end of the night, right?

:: 06:40:15

Speaker 1

Like, we want to go do what adults do. And the first time I saw it, I thought, damn, that's really good. Now, what's better is when Hilton responded with with their ad. So I'm going to show you that real quick. Now notice the title of Airbnb's was bedtime, right? And you go, okay, perfect. Like so. At bedtime, I get to be an adult instead of having to share the room.

:: 06:59:23

Speaker 1

So Hilton is actually named Make bedtime a good time. And here's, here's there's.

:: 07:11:29

Speaker 2

Mom, whose room is. Oh, I don't know when you want bedtime to be a good time. Goodnight, sweetheart.

:: 07:25:03

Speaker 2

It matters where you stay, Conrad. Hotels and Resorts. Hilton for this day.

:: 07:34:13

Speaker 1

All right, so Hilton fires back right. And I again I think it's a great app because they said okay. Like that's going to be the unique selling point that you listen to. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to identify what within our service the product and the service that we provide. What either neutralizes that unique selling point or flips it all the way around.

:: 07:54:01

Speaker 1

Whereas Airbnb leaned into, you know, having some autonomy as an adult and flexibility and independence kind of choose your own bedtime. So the trip that you're on is actually more enjoyable for a longer period of time. It's like, not just like at them, you know, at the end of the night, we shut it down. And Hilton, on the other hand, leaned into some reliability, safety, security.

:: 08:13:22

Speaker 1

Like, you know what you're going to get. So one is aimed at parents better time. Got it. The other is hey predictability right. And and safety and security and consistency. You're not going to show up and be like, this isn't what it look like in the pictures. And again, if you've ever had this experience then you know, right.

:: 08:33:07

Speaker 1

It's a if you know, you know, type of thing. I've shown up to Airbnb's and said, you all right? Like not exactly what I wanted. Now many of those on business trips like they're, you know, they're they're either rooms or they're apartments or something like that. But I learned this lesson a while ago, like, really got to, you know, dig into, you know, the reviews and, you know, kind of take a look if it's a new area, like, what neighborhood am I in, like type of thing.

:: 08:54:07

Speaker 1

So if you've if you've done this and you've experienced it, then Hilton's done a perfect job of saying, here's our space, here's our market, here are our strengths. And at the same time, here are their weaknesses. Airbnb takes their first shot. Hilton fires back. Now verbal in my view, like I said before, actually has a harder job because verbal does something almost identical to what Airbnb does.

:: 09:16:17

Speaker 1

And by some definitions as actually they have less inventory, they don't have as many options. You can only rent whole houses like you can't rent a room. So you look at and you go, gosh, we do basically what Airbnb does, but we don't even have the same access, you know, or the same inventory or the same options that they have.

:: 09:34:24

Speaker 1

So they're bigger and give people more choices. So how are we going to differentiate ourselves? And we can't even say we're not the hotel because Airbnb claimed that space, right. They claimed the space up. Not a hotel. Verbose, but to identify something else. Now here's they're at the same pool.

:: 09:51:19

Speaker 3

Check in time. It's three.

:: 09:54:15

Speaker 1

It's 255, I know.

:: 09:58:26

Speaker 2

Is this what he's doing now?

:: 10:00:15

Speaker 3

Have a seat. As your host, I have some room first. No showers longer than five minutes. This isn't a spa. There's no streaming, only cable television.

:: 10:11:20

Speaker 2

Any games for the kids?

:: 10:13:13

Speaker 3

No games, no fun. The kids aren't even allowed on the house. That's the rule.

:: 10:25:05

Speaker 3

There's a great barbecue outside. But don't touch that. How do you guys get inside? Two floors, maximum. For a bathroom. There's your couch. You guys got about ten minutes because this is daddy time in the tub.

:: 10:40:13

Speaker 2

Meanwhile, out of our Bo. When other vacation rentals make you share your turf with a host, try one you have all to yourself.

:: 10:49:17

Speaker 1

Boom. Like that's slick in my view. They said damn. All right, what is the difference? Right? And they even took what might be considered a weakness. They've got fewer options. They've got less inventory. And they said, no, you know what? That's going to be our strength. We're going to turn that weakness into a strength. And we're also going to carve out this space in the market.

:: 11:08:08

Speaker 1

Right. This we're going to own this space okay. So you've got three people in the same industry give or take. And they've all said, you know, we're going to make it very clear to the market what we believe our unique selling point, at least in this, at least in this round of ads, is the one that is going to hit home most.

:: 11:26:13

Speaker 1

Now, the thing is, this is a strategic process, right? Like I wasn't part of the discussions, but I've been part of similar discussions at other businesses. And I can tell you that there's some debate, there's some market research, they're doing some investment, they're doing competitor research. They're looking at the space in general, they're talking to customers are looking at reviews, and they're saying, where are we going to set?

:: 11:46:15

Speaker 1

Like where are we going to lean into? What is the unique selling point or what are our unique selling points that we want to leverage here? What are their weaknesses that we want to call out directly or indirectly? And how are we going to deploy that strategy into the market? Right. Like how are we going to message it?

:: 12:02:03

Speaker 1

And what I want you to take away from this as an MSP is that you can do the same thing, right? Like you may not have $100 million marketing and research budget to go do this, but you can check out your competitors. You can go through their funnels, you can identify what they're saying, makes them unique and better.

:: 12:17:20

Speaker 1

You can understand their plans. You can look at their reviews. You can understand the other players in your space. You can also objectively look at your business. You can go talk to your customers, and you can also objectively look at your business, right? Look at your plans, look at the history, look at the customer reviews. Look at all of the stuff that makes up your business and say, why are we better, right?

:: 12:40:12

Speaker 1

Like, why would someone other than me? Because I'm objective, right? I own the business. You're always going to think yours is better. Why would someone other than me, why would a complete stranger off the street, right. Cold traffic? No, not people from referrals. They think that cold traffic doesn't know you. Why would they pick your business over somebody else's?

:: 12:57:20

Speaker 1

And if you can't clearly articulate that, then don't expect too many people to make that decision. Right? Like the whole purpose of marketing, the whole purpose of your sales process is to lead them to make the decision to do business with you. And a big part of that is helping them understand how you're different, other than price. And the outcome of going through a process like this is that you have a list of bullet points that, you know, create space between your competitors, right?

:: 13:21:12

Speaker 1

So if I'm looking at you and somebody else, I can understand the difference and I can understand how that difference makes you better. And candidly, it's very difficult to say, here's a step by step, paint by numbers process to find your USP. Because once you start following a prescription or you start following a clearly defined step by step process, it may work at first, but then everybody does the same process.

:: 13:43:06

Speaker 1

They all end up with a similar outcome. So it's not really what you want to go through. What you really want to do is identify what makes you unique. There's a few things that have to be true in order for unique selling points to matter. One is it has to be true. And I know I'm stating the obvious, but you can't go out on your website and say we we offer the best customer service in the world.

:: 14:00:15

Speaker 1

We have the fastest response time in the world. We have the best tech stack in the world, one nobody believes it to. It's not true. Don't go out there making these big broad blanket statements and bullshit promises. Don't listen to the online marketers. I tell you like you know, big, huge, massive promises when they don't like. You're dealing with a sophisticated market in a B2B sales spot, so don't go making bullshit statements.

:: 14:20:19

Speaker 1

Right? So it's got to be true. It's got to be unique. And I know this sounds obvious. What does unique mean? Unique means actually different from everyone else. So it can't be something like, we answer our phones live. It can't be the tech stack that you're deploying because it's based on third parties. It could be the exact same thing that somebody else is using.

:: 14:38:13

Speaker 1

It can't be good customer service because your competitors are going to say the same thing. So how do you know if it's actually unique? A quick test can your competitors claim it on their website? True or not? But like can they claim it? If you find something that your competitors can't even claim, you know you've got a really good unique selling point.

:: 14:56:04

Speaker 1

And I have some friends in the IT space that have actually changed elements of their business in order to create the unique selling point that they wanted. For example, a friend of mine who started her IT company and exited and they've actually been acquired a couple times now, part of $100 million. IT company actually created new hiring and onboarding processes internally for her team so that when she's selling her service and differentiating, okay, here's how we're better.

:: 15:19:27

Speaker 1

We have better people. In fact, I'll prove it to you. Here's how we find people. Here's how we train them. Here's the caliber of the group that here's the culture of the organization. So she team did something in the business to make it different, and then use that as a unique selling point. And she made the process up so no one else can even claim that they have that same process.

:: 15:38:04

Speaker 1

It was hers. Right. So think about these ads, right? Can Hilton claim to have the same unique selling point as Airbnb? Well, not unless you're buying suites, right? Which isn't who the ad is really aimed at. Can Airbnb claim to offer the same thing that Bravo does? No. Like, unless they start taking all the rooms and everything off of the table now, like they're actually stuck with that.

:: 16:01:03

Speaker 1

And so these companies have created space and then given customers something to choose on other than price. Right. And the other competitors can't even claim it. So got to be true. Got to be unique. The third is it's got to be something that your customers care about. Again, sounds obvious, but I hear so many times in pitches people talking about cybersecurity things when the customer has never said that that's a priority, right?

:: 16:24:08

Speaker 1

Like they're looking at something completely different or vice versa. Right. Like but at the end of the day, you want to look at the unique selling points, and then you want to say based on the person that I'm talking to at this point or the market that I'm actually targeting when I'm doing this marketing campaign, whatever it is, is this relevant to that audience?

:: 16:39:23

Speaker 1

And you may have 20 great unique selling points, but only 3 or 4 of them may be relevant for a specific candidate or a specific campaign or something like that. So you're looking at you're saying, is it relevant? Like if they've said response time is one of my biggest issues, and you have a proprietary process to make sure that you have the best response time and you have it measured and you have overwhelming data to to prove it.

:: 17:01:27

Speaker 1

And you've got testimonials to to back that up. Then you want to lean into that, right. But you don't want to necessarily highlight unique selling points that aren't relevant to the audience that you're actually trying to target. So there you go. That's my breakdown of how these three brands in the hospitality industry are doing really well at differentiating themselves, and then how you can take the lessons from that, apply it to your MSP and go get more clients at a higher price.

:: 17:24:07

Speaker 1

I promise if you implement this, you've got the foundation for a really smart sales strategy, so employ it. Ask questions below and if you want weekly tips on things like this and sales. How to get more clients going, subscribe to my newsletter. The link to do that is below. And if you want more stuff on video, subscribe to the Channel Audio.