How to Become a Sales-Driven CEO

According to Robin Robbins, when setting up your sales force to be successful, you must back it with a great marketing team. As the CEO of Technology Marketing Toolkit, Robbins knows a thing or two about MSP sales and marketing, and her brutal honesty can be a wakeup call for most MSP CEOs who possess a technical background – which is the majority of you.

In my previous blog, I covered Robin’s thoughts from the first episode of her two-part guest appearance on “Sunny’s Silver Linings” podcast. In Part 1, she questioned your business aspirations and made you take a good hard look at yourself and your commitment to establishing and implementing a solid marketing plan. Here I want to share with you her expert guidance from Part 2 which focuses on the essential steps you need to take to build a strong marketing foundation.

When asked what percentage of a budget should be for sales and marketing, Robin said that she’s not a fan of creating an artificial percentage of your budget for marketing.

“Everybody wants a simple rule of thumb. But this is not simple. It’s a series of complex topics with many variables, so there’s no simple formula,” she replied.

But there are some rules of thumb that you must know when developing a marketing plan. Robin was adamant about taking these steps:

• You must learn good marketing and sales fundamentals. Invest in this education via such means as attending conferences like IT By Design’s Build IT LIVE or our Build IT University.
• Hire an account manager/customer service representative if you have numerous accounts. This person will help you shed many time-consuming tasks so that you can deal with more important matters.
• If you don’t have many accounts, then hire a marketing administrator to help you implement a marketing program, generate leads, etc.
• Document the tasks that you’re doing. This allows you to learn how you can do them better and determine which tasks are the lower-priority ones that still need to get done. Then you can hire people to do them.

Not all MSPs have the funding to fulfill these marketing requirements – especially if you’re just starting out. According to Robin, if you’re a small MSP, then at least take the most essential steps:

• Create a good, functioning website optimized for SEO
• Implement an email marketing system to generate email leads
• Implement a CRM to effectively manage those email leads
• Create compelling profiles on Google My Business and LinkedIn
• Put a little bit of hustle into your business. Join networking groups, connect with others on LinkedIn, call friends or family members who might refer you to potential leads, etc.

These initial steps – which don’t cost much money, but rather time – will help you begin to generate some customers and cash flow. If you’re not willing to fulfill this list, then don’t bother enlisting an expensive telemarketing firm because you don’t have the means to address whatever leads you may get. So you’ll just be wasting your time and a lot of money that you could otherwise use to invest in a marketing plan that will bring you real ROI.

Click on these links to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of this insightful podcast with a true marketing guru like Robin Robbins. This is a terrific way to begin investing in your MSP marketing education.