Managed Services Sales Strategy

How many of you would walk onto a clients site and start working on a large $30K project without first consulting with the client?  Or, how would you respond if the client started asking you questions about pricing right off the bat like "how much to re-cable the entire East side of the building?".  Would you just give them the price right then and there, or... would you explain that you first need to scope the work out and see what's involved prior to providing a price?  Silly questions right?

However, the point I'm trying to make is that delivering on a managed service offering is no different than delivering on a project.  You first need to determine the clients needs and then align those needs with the appropriate managed service.  If the client doesn't need the extra $15K worth hardware and software, I highly doubt you're going to 'squeeze' it into the project.  Again, the same applies to a managed service offering, if the prospect in question isn't critically dependent on their network and can function without it.... they probably don't need a $2K a month managed service.

If all you're selling is a basic, 'monitoring only' offering and nothing else, you probably don't need a lot of sales planning.  However, if you're company does offer more robust managed services and you plan on approaching new clients in 2010, I would highly recommend that you take some time and map out a clearly defined sales strategy that factors in the needs of your target prospects.