Podcast: You're Only Selling to 3% of Your Market (Here's How to Capture the other 97%)
Discover why your outbound efforts aren't generating the results you expect. This episode breaks down the critical mistake most MSPs make—only targeting the 3% of prospects ready to buy right now—and reveals two powerful systems that successful MSPs use to capture the other 97% of the market. Learn how to implement an intel-gathering system that turns every outbound call into future opportunities, and create a top-of-mind strategy that positions you perfectly when prospects are finally ready to switch providers. Real client case study included: how one MSP went from 3-4 appointments per month to 20+ using these exact strategies.
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Welcome to Repeatable Revenue, hosted by strategic growth advisor , Ray J. Green.
About Ray:
→ Former Managing Director of National Small & Midsize Business at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he doubled revenue per sale in fundraising, led the first increase in SMB membership, co-built a national Mid-Market sales channel, and more.
→ Former CEO operator for several investor groups where he led turnarounds of recently acquired small businesses.
→ Current founder of MSP Sales Partners, where we currently help IT companies scale sales: www.MSPSalesPartners.com
→ Current Sales & Sales Management Expert in Residence at the world’s largest IT business mastermind.
→ Current Managing Partner of Repeatable Revenue Ventures, where we scale B2B companies we have equity in: www.RayJGreen.com
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Transcript
Speaker 1
One of the reasons MSP is don't grow despite a bunch of outbound activity, a bunch of marketing, a bunch of other sales activity, or really any business that has contracts or extended sales cycles, is there selling to 3% of the market? Right. And what I mean is
::Speaker 1
97% of the people that you talk to, that you're reaching out to right now aren't ready to buy like they are.
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They're in a contract. They don't have an active pane.
::Speaker 1
you know, the the provider that they have today isn't quite bad enough to, to switch. Nothing has come up for them to switch to. Like, I made a service, you know, from a break fix ad hoc model like for a number of reasons, right? Like people aren't ready to to buy right now.
::Speaker 1
And you know that if you're doing any outreach and the challenges in that 3%, like if you're only hunting for the 3% who are ready to buy right now, it is a really, really crowded space, right? And, you know, like, you can you can send out your mailers, you can make your phone calls, you can send your emails, you can send your LinkedIn DMs.
::Speaker 1
And nothing's going to change the fact that 3% of people are active in the market right now and have intent to to actually buy something. But the big brands, the ones that really maximize sales over the long all the way that they do it, is that they don't sell to just the 3% they sell to the entire market, meaning
::Speaker 1
the 97% that aren't ready to buy.
::Speaker 1
tretch that timeline out over: ::Speaker 1
They're going to renew a contract. They're going to have a problem come up. They're going to have some kind of issue that gives you an opportunity. And big brands do a really good job of targeting all of those people, as well as the people who are really high intent. So my advice is, if you're trying to grow your MSP and you're finding yourself like in that really competitive red ocean space of the 3% high intent, ready to buy buyers, and you're not getting the results that you want to see, then what you want to do is add in basically two things that will help you sell to the other 97%.
::Speaker 1
All right. The first thing is an Intel gathering and an action system. Right. Like and and what I mean by this is something that is going to let you capture all of the Intel, all of the research, all of the information that you're getting from what you're doing already right now. Okay. So if you're doing outbound email, if you're doing outbound phone calls, if you're doing any kind of marketing, chances are you're getting some Intel.
::Speaker 1
And the question is, are you capturing it effectively and logging it effectively and then using it effectively? And one example is, you know, a client that I, I work with has 6 or 7 dispositions for their BTR on their outbound calls. And those things will be, you know, like they can they can trigger for the primary reasons why somebody didn't book an appointment or take a take a call.
::Speaker 1
Okay. And that can be everything from, hey, we're in a contract right now. We don't have a provider. We don't need a provider. It can be. You know, I'm happy with the the provider that we have today. Like, whatever it is. And they log that disposition. And each one of those dispositions, when the BTR puts it in, triggers a three to month workflow or sequence that's going to nurture them with some emails, with some other stuff that when that BTR calls again in six months, or when the reminder comes back up,
::Speaker 1
they've been warmed up, right.
::Speaker 1
Like they have emails and case studies and value bombs that have been dropped over the course of 3 to 6 months. And doing this is actually what they credit for, going from 3 or 4 appointments a month to 20 plus per month. And they said, we just played the long game like we just installed a process. We didn't look at results just today.
::Speaker 1
We look at the results today, plus the results six, 12, 18 months from now. And we we started installing these things. And now in that BTR is calling the same people that he called six, 12 months ago. And they've been hit with really intelligent strategic workflows, sequences, things like that. It's a different call, right? Like, oh yeah, I've seen your emails.
::Speaker 1
Oh yeah, I've seen your mailers. Oh yeah. I've seen like so those things happen
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over a period of time.
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Another one of my, one of my clients has a field and in their CRM and when they're BTR is making calls and somebody says, now we're in an agreement or we just signed an agreement, they log in the date, and that date triggers a workflow 90 days before that date.
::Speaker 1
So they they punch in the date in the CRM and then 90 days before that, it triggers a call and a sequence in a workflow for the for the BTR start outreach because they know the agreement is going to be coming up. Right. So they're gathering the information, they're collecting it instead of saying, oh damn, they're not ready.
::Speaker 1
And moving on. Oh damn, they're not ready. Moving on to doing that over and over and over. They're trying to extract what they can while they're doing it. They're logging it, and then they're using it strategically in their process to make their life easier in the future. There's something that they call like monetizing the sawdust, right? Like from the old
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mill forms or whatever they're called
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they're cutting all the wood.
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And they realized, hey, you know, the sawdust that we're kicking off can actually be a product, right? Like, can actually be plywood or whatever it is. I'm not gonna pretend to to know, but like the term monetize the sawdust, this is a perfect example of that. You're already doing the work to spend a little bit of extra time capturing the the information, making sure that you log it, and then taking action on it as you go.
::Speaker 1
Now, the second thing that you can do, if you want to sell to the 90%, 97% of the audience is you can create like a top of mind system. Okay. And what I mean here is
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sometimes like, whether we like it or not, sales is just it is luck, right? Like you happen to be doing outreach and you are you or your salesperson is in the right place at the right time, like their provider.
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Just piss them off yesterday or they just had a board meeting yesterday that said, hey, we're going to start the process to replace this current provider, whatever it is. Right? But being top of mind increases your surface area for that luck to happen. Like it increases the probability of serendipity. So what you want to do is create systems that allow you to stay top of mind and simply be there when the opportunity arises.
::Speaker 1
For for a future change. Now,
::Speaker 1
this podcast is actually an example of that, right? So it's a resource that I create without many asks built into it that I, I, I hope you want to listen to it. Right. Like we want to create some value. We want you to it to be something that you want to consume, not just a piece of marketing or a direct, direct response piece of mail that says, hey, take a CTA, take a CTA that gets, you know, it's like, hey, we're going to create something valuable.
::Speaker 1
We want you to consume it. We want you to like it, maybe even share it. And you over time, like when the opportunity arises for mssp sales partners or, you know, an investment opportunity with with repeatable revenue to come up, you go, wow. You know, I did listen to race podcast yesterday and then we can potentially be there.
::Speaker 1
Now we've also got, an email newsletter that, you know, every time I go to an in-person event, like an MSP event or something like that, somebody mentions my newsletter to me, right? Like, oh, hey, I've got a folder. I've actually been keeping a lot of your newsletters in it or have been sharing your, your newsletter.
::Speaker 1
I'm somebody who does a lot of ops work with MSP, and he's like, dude, this thing is spot on. I refer to every single one of my clients and they're they're sharing that resource as a source of value, not as a source of marketing. But just like this podcast, we create it with the idea that you want to consume it and we stay top of mind.
::Speaker 1
You know that if and when the problem arises, you may not be in the market today, but over time, the chance that you are for fractional sales management or something like that, or, you know, the next 24, 36 months possible, right? And we will be there. So I think it's like you don't have to go all in, like this.
::Speaker 1
Like we've got YouTube, we've got newsletter, we've got a podcast that's not like you don't have to to go all in. Like, you can do this with pick one good longform piece of content and, you know, it's like, that's really probably all you need. Like one solid email, one podcast type of deal. Like one solid long form piece of content and dish that out.
::Speaker 1
Start distributing that. Start building up a list of the prospects you didn't book with, the prospects you didn't sell, and work to get them on a list that you can use to nurture over time. And, you know, keep in mind these things aren't going to ROI for like tomorrow, right? Like it's the only the downside to this type of, of marketing in this type of sales is the ROI
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Time frame
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is stretched, but the ROI is massive. You know, like my client that went from, you know, 3 or 4 bookings a month to 20 plus a month. Well, was it worth the 12 to 18 months of waiting and doing this thing right? So as BTR was calling a dramatically better list, in the future. Well, yeah, it's like you do the math, but you got to be willing to be patient, right?
::Speaker 1
Like it's not going to happen overnight. But I promise you, if you are willing to wait six, 12, 18 months and get these things installed and do them, it will dramatically change
::Speaker 1
your sales efforts.
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At that time, like you will look at this later and go, oh shit. Like, this is
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this is now really starting to it's a really ROI.
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Your inbound will start to pick up.
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then as the channels start to work together,
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they start to create synergies with each other. And you're not just competing in the red ocean of the the 3%, but you're now pre-selling and nurturing and engaging with the 97% who aren't ready to buy, but will be at some point.
::Speaker 1
So I hope this has been helpful. Videos.
