
There was an accelerated push to digital transformation by enterprises in 2020 fueled by the need to serve customers who were increasingly relying predominantly on digital services due to the pandemic. From shopping to entertainment, healthcare, education, and banking, nearly every mainstream industry saw a great degree of transition to digital mode.
A McKinsey survey conducted among executives of top global companies found that nearly 80% of consumer interactions were digital in nature during 2020. Undoubtedly the key technology that was at the forefront of this transitional exercise was cloud computing.
Cloud is now a de facto choice for IT stalwarts across businesses to meet up with the rising demand for digital environments to serve customers as well as employees who work mostly remote. The cloud infrastructure market alone was worth USD 129 Billion in 2020.
Despite the huge potential of cloud technology to drive digital transformation forward, only a handful of companies control the cloud market share globally. The recent growth stories and performance put Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing services as the most promising of the top 3 vendors.
Microsoft’s cloud business is on a rapid growth trajectory aided by the focus that Microsoft placed on enabling better and more customized services for customers with proven reliability. The growth in Microsoft’s cloud business is good news for Microsoft MSPs as they get an opportunity to build on the reputation of Microsoft. But they need to innovate their sales process to help customers leverage more ROI and thus commit to a larger volume of business from their accounts. Today, most MSPs spend a considerable amount of their time reconciling invoices, managing licenses and subscriptions, and other back-office processes that they often forget to focus on the customer experience.
Here are 5 ways for Microsoft MSP sales teams to drive up their monthly revenue figures through better customer experiences:
Self-Service for CSPs and MSPs
10 Stats And Reasons That Prove That Microsoft CSPs Need Self-Service TODAY
Differentiate Services
Microsoft offers a whole plethora of services on its cloud. On top of that, there are thousands of vendors who have built custom services on Azure. As MSP, it is important that your sales associates can uniquely bundle custom services with flexible cost options depending on the unique needs of the customers.
This will help in delivering a differentiated service experience that is needed in a highly crowded market flooded with competitors. For this, you need flexible subscription and billing management to be available at ease for associates to create on-demand offerings for customers.
Provide Omnichannel Customer Support
Sales alone are not the benchmark for growing a business. Just as how there are multiple channels through which potentially leads come into the business, there should be a highly responsive customer support mechanism that offers a consistent omnichannel experience.
By providing support through channels like emails/chat, setting up a knowledge base for easy reference, and creating SLAs that adhere to customer objectives in cloud adoption, you can win more loyalty from customers and subsequently enjoy an increased volume of business with them.
Offer Self-Service
In the digital era, customers do not want to wait for a service customer associate to assist with their needs. They prefer to carry out a significant amount of their tasks on their own.
On this note, it is important for MSPs to build intuitive self-service portals that enable customers to manage a long list of items in their subscriptions on their own such as billing, tracking transactions, accessing order history, automated provisioning, and much more.
Stay Aligned with Market trends
Your MSP business needs to be fully connected to the Microsoft cloud ecosystem and get first-hand knowledge on updates, new configurations, pricing, and changes in terms.
This will allow your business to stay ahead in the competition and let customers access new features and capabilities that are made available by both Microsoft as well as other vendors in their ecosystem and stay compliant with Microsoft’s policies.
Ensure Personalized Services
Just as how your services require differentiation for improved sales, it is important to serve a personalized experience to every customer. By leveraging the vast amount of data pertaining to customers available in multiple systems such as accounting, invoices, subscription, etc., MSPs need to offer customized packages, flexible currency, or payment options that are dependent on geographical or regional preferences, facilitate seamless changes in billing requirements on demand, and much more.
In short, MSPs need to be able to create a holistic view of their customers as well as their service offerings in one place. This allows them to mix and match quantities and serve the unique needs of customers from all kinds of markets. Delivering the best experience for customers is vital in the journey to generating more revenue from the business. Being able to leverage the entire ecosystem of Microsoft Cloud to build sizeable offerings tailor-made to customer demands is the key to achieving the feat.
Automate Sales Operations and Processes
Do your business systems enable your sales team to grow? Are your processes structured and nimble enough for them to provide a consistent and at the same time personalized experience?
How easy is it for them to find products, costs, prices and turn them around into quotes, orders, and invoices? Sales = Knowledge * Exposure. Knowledge is knowing about the product/service and the customer. Exposure is a combination of connections and outreach.
Having systems that allow the sales team to know more about the prospects and reduce the time it takes to connect with them across different channels will help your MSP business grow.