The #1 Reason MSP Sales Reps Fail to Close (MSP Sales Training)
I reveal the shocking truth about why most MSP deals actually fail - and it's not what you think. After listening to countless sales calls, I've discovered that deals don't die because of timing, price, or contract issues.
They fail because sales reps never actually ask for the sale! I know it sounds crazy, but I'm going to prove exactly how this happens and show you the simple techniques I use to avoid getting ghosted by prospects.
I'll walk you through my proven closing strategies, including the exact questions that force prospects to reveal their real objections so you can address them on the spot instead of hoping they'll magically say yes later. If you're tired of deals getting stuck in "we'll think about it" purgatory, this video will change how you close forever
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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
Unknown
Most MSP deals don't die for the reasons that you think they do. Things like timing, contract, price, they actually die because the person selling them never actually asks for the sale. I know this sounds asinine. If you give me a few minutes, I'm going to prove how this is a problem, why this is a problem, and I'm going to show you a very simple fix to avoid getting ghosted.
::Unknown
To identify what the real objections are and give you the best opportunity to get an actual decision in the room with the person that you're sitting down with. Let's dive in. I was recently listening to a call from somebody who I'd actually followed this whole process, so I had heard the discovery call and he was now going in.
::Unknown
He gave the presentation a walk through the slide deck like it was done pretty well, like it was presented. Well, the slide deck followed the formula that we that we say that you should follow. And he gets to the end. He shows the plan like says, you know, this is the recommendation. Gives them a second to think about it.
::Unknown
And then he follows up with. So what I'm going to do is give you some time to think about that. And I'll leave this with you and we'll follow up next week. And I thought, I can. Now this isn't uncommon. I actually we because we run sales on it. So I'm telling you I see this all the time.
::Unknown
Sales processes that end without actually asking the decision maker for the sale, showing them a quote that you need to then send to them and let them review. It's walking through a proposal and then saying, well, I'm sure you want to think about this, so let me go ahead and send this and let you think about it. The number of times that I actually see someone in the presentation right at the proposal, ask for the sale and try to get an actual decision is actually very low.
::Unknown
It's very, very much in the minority of times. And this is how the we'll look it over. We need to think about it. I will follow up next weeks. This is good. Let me just, you know, kick it around a little bit. This is how all of the deals end up in that state, right? Like some sales purgatory where you never actually get to hear the decision, never get to work through the objections or anything like that.
::Unknown
If you never actually ask the decision maker for the sale, if you never ask for a decision, then what you never get is the opportunity to hear what the objections are. And if you don't hear what the objections are, then you never have the opportunity to resolve those objections. And you can't close a deal unless you've resolved the objections.
::Unknown
So if somebody has some uncertainty, they have some questions, they have some concerns, they have whatever it is. These are all obstacles and objections, and things are in the way of you getting a close deal. If a buyer of a prospect has those things and they're left unresolved, you do not get a sale. As a salesperson, you want to know what those things are.
::Unknown
How do you ask for the sale? Like, it's not monumental. You know, in fact, if you've run a good discovery process and you work through the proposal and the presentation, by the time you get to the point that you want to ask for a decision is really anticlimactic, right? So asking is can be as simple as you working through your piece.
::Unknown
Here's what I recommend. The investment level is this a pause for just a second? Is there any reason not to move forward today? Once you've done that, like once you've laid out all of the information, right? Because at this point you should have addressed them, their problems, their pain points. You should have addressed the gap between current or future state, like all the stuff that goes into like sales fundamentals and consultative sales.
::Unknown
When you've walked through your presentation, you've delivered all of your information. Now what you need to do is start extracting information, right? Like you need to understand where do you sit now that I've given this presentation and I've shown how we can solve your problems, and I've shown how we can help you achieve your goals. And I've shown how we're the better service provider.
::Unknown
And I've done all these things that I've given you the price. I've given you the plan. I've given you what's there's no more information for you to deliver. When you ask, you now go into closing mode. It is time to close the deal. And that is simple. Ask something as simple as. Is there any reason not to move forward today?
::Unknown
What you're doing is it's it's respectful, it's polite. It's not cheesy. It's not salesy. Is that not the question that you want to know? Right. And so that is the opportunity. That's the impact point. One of my old sales managers used to call it like the impact point. Right. Like that is it. And if the answer is no meaning yes.
::Unknown
Like is there any reason not to move forward? They say, well, no, not really. Fantastic. Excellent. Right. Like you, let's move forward. Like let's keep this process rolling. If they say, yeah, I'm not really I'm not ready yet. Right. Or I'm not whatever. It is also fantastic because now you're having a conversation about all of the roadblocks that are in between you in this closed deal.
::Unknown
Right. Those are the real objections. Those are the real questions. Those are the things that you need to resolve, that you need to answer, that you need to address in order for them to feel comfortable moving forward with you. So by asking that question, you give them the opportunity to express that. You force some clarity into this process.
::Unknown
Now, the next thing that happens, if they say, I'm not really ready, right, I need to think about it. Yes, there are some reasons that we're not ready to move forward today. Then one of the first follow up questions I'm going to ask is, what would you say is holding you back? You're maintaining not high pressure. You're not you're maintaining not combative.
::Unknown
You're not like a hot or how are you like it's like you're just well, okay, but what would you say is hold you back. Right. And you are consultative selling now. All right. So then you get into that conversation and ideally they just tell you right. Ideally they express whatever those objections are. They say, well you know what?
::Unknown
We have another bid. And it's X amount or our current provider is Y amount or, you know, hey, it doesn't include ABC or hey, it's overkill on on this. Like actually they tell you whatever that is the more common scenario is you get some smokescreens they don't necessarily tell you exactly what it is. And that's when you as a, as a salesperson, needs to start thinking and strategically about, how can I hone in on what's really the issue here?
::Unknown
Because I need to address that. Right. So if you get smokescreens, well, now I just I just need to think about it. I need to run it past somebody I need is there you go. Okay. And you've done everything, you know that you need to do sales fundamentals one on one. Then the question that I like to ask as a follow up like, no, we still need to think about it or I need to talk to so-and-so before we can move forward.
::Unknown
Hey, I totally understand. You know, switching providers is a is a big decision, if I may ask, on a scale of 1 to 10, with one being you wouldn't do business with this in a million years. And ten being were an actual perfect fit and were know you're looking for the contract right now. Where would you say you are and this decision right now?
::Unknown
What I'm trying to do is create a contrast in extremes. And I'm trying to say, please put a number on where you stand in this process right now. And the thing that I love about this, first of all, if there are other decision makers, well, what I'm wondering is what you think, right? Like what is your perspective and where do you stand on this today?
::Unknown
But the real like meat of this, the reason it works is because when I can get a number right, and that number is typically it's going to be six, 7 or 8, right? Like something like that. Unless you've completely missed the mark or can't read body language, something like that I get it. So it's like it's it's typically going to be something in there.
::Unknown
Then the follow up question to this is what would make this a ten right dozen different ways that you can ask that question. And here you get to have the conversations about budgets. You get to have the conversations about timing, about real urgency, about risk, about fear of calling their service provider today. And you know, how awkward and uncomfortable that's going to be, or, you know, whatever it is, that's the conversation that you want to have with them while you're in the room.
::Unknown
And this is the pattern that I see with the best closers, right? The best people at selling MSP services, it's because they are the best at getting decisions, yes or no. They're just better at getting decisions. And they do that by understanding what are the objections and what are the things that are that are below the surface. Because the best closers understand I need to know what those things are so they don't avoid them.
::Unknown
Right? Like the vast majority of people, when they go through the selling process, are trying to avoid the discomfort or the friction or the tension that's associated with some mild disagreement, some sense of reservation, or the questions that they have. Right? Like they try to avoid the pricing discussion until the very, very end. And the best closers aren't afraid of it.
::Unknown
They lean into it. They want to know what they are. They want to get all of those things out because they want to have the conversation about whatever they are right here. Right? Because I know as a closer, the odds of me addressing that issue question, objection, whatever it is, are way higher if I can work with you through that process, if I can answer those questions directly, if I can respond to those objections directly, I will have a substantially better likelihood of clearing those things out of the way if we talk about it while I'm here, if I leave and leave you with all of those reservations, well, then I just kind of hope
::Unknown
that my presentation that I've already given, by the way, that my presentation does the work for me. Right? And I hope that in their own process they come to the conclusion of a yes. Right. Whereas I as a closer, as a salesperson, I see most of my job fundamentally is getting people to make decisions. And in order to do that, I need to know their decision making process.
::Unknown
And I need to not be afraid of the objections. And I need to ask for the sale. I need to ask for a decision while we're sitting in the room in order to have the opportunity to surface those things. Because as you notice, working through those are all in the follow up questions, right? It's all after you've asked for the sale.
::Unknown
You don't get to do that if you don't initially ask for the sale. Humans naturally avoid discomfort. Make sense? But sales requires some degree of tension. There's a little bit of friction, right? Like in the decision making process, or getting people to make a decision to change something that they're currently doing, or convincing them to think differently or challenging to think differently.
::Unknown
All of those things fall within your wheelhouse, fall within your responsibility as a consultative seller. And to do that, I've got to ask for the decision initially. If you've done this and you've still got a not yet right, like you've still got to have some follow ups to this, which will be the case in sales, then that's okay too.
::Unknown
But you want to make sure that you do is don't leave that meeting empty handed. Right. That's the last thing that you want to do. And what I'm going to do in the next video here above is I'm going to show you how to never leave this meeting empty handed, and how that changes your clothes rates and your conversion substantially.
::Unknown
So feel free to check that one out, or here or here or wherever the hell it is, and I'll see you in the next video. In the meantime, if you want to get dive into our library of resources, we have the mSRP Sales toolbox. It is a place where we put we have playbooks, we have templates, we have scripting.
::Unknown
We have, you know, forecasting stuff, all sorts of sales stuff that we create for our clients or with our clients. And we drop a lot of these things in here and we add new resources every month. So feel free to get access to that. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. You'll have lifetime access to it. And that's an mSRP sales toolbox.
::Unknown
You'll see in the next video. I go.
