Lead Generation for MSPs: What Your IT Company Can Expect
Our goal with this blog and with all blogs in this series is to help companies who fall within our core niches to understand how B2B appointment setting can benefit their business. Today, we’re focusing specifically on IT companies and what they can expect from our services. As with anything you read online, it’s important to consider your source. In this case, you can trust a company like Abstrakt to share statistical information about B2B lead generation for MSPs. We support 100+ MSPs making thousands of calls and setting hundreds of appointments annually.
In addition to collecting data for all of our client programs, we also use our CRM to keep a thorough record of great notes. We’ve leveraged Salesforce more than most companies our size, so we have unbelievable insight into what’s happening with our efforts. Now, we’re ready to share that data with you and your team in hopes that it will help you understand what a B2B lead generation program might look like for your MSP.
Through data collection and excellent note-taking, here is the information we’ve gathered about B2B appointment setting for IT companies.
Average Deal Size
Average deal size: $25,513.66
The average deal size for our IT clients is $25,513.66. Keep in mind that this is an average. Some deals are much larger, while others are smaller. But, our hope is that this gives IT companies a good idea of what size deals they can expect to land by working with us.
As for opportunity type, this average takes into account a mixture of many different types of deals. Some of these deals are for project work, while other deals are for recurring work (ongoing managed IT services). Our partners are required to report the annual revenue that they receive for recurring services, while deals that are for large projects just require that one time dollar amount.
The good thing about working with a B2B appointment setting company like Abstrakt is that we find your MSP all types of opportunities, both big and small. But either way, you can expect steady opportunities month after month of working with a partner like us. Plus, even the smaller projects can evolve into larger ones. It’s our goal to build a relationship with leads and pass that information to you so that successful projects can turn into more projects or opportunities to sign clients on for recurring managed IT services.
Most Common Key Decision-Maker (KDM)
Most common KDM level: Managers, Directors, and C-level employees
In addition to the size of deals, you might also wonder what types of employees you’ll be speaking with. Who do we typically schedule appointments with for our IT partners? Good news—we have this data to share with you, too! For IT companies, we often set appointments with various types of managers. But, the majority of our IT appointments are set with people who are Director level or above (C-level executives).
Getting in contact with someone who is a Director level or above is not easy, and it often requires several attempts. To set appointments as an IT company, you have to be good at talking to gatekeepers, good at explaining why you need to talk to the KDM, good at delivering your value proposition, and good at handling objections. You have to earn the conversation with the KDMs at this level. Instead of hiring your own sales team and training them to be THAT good at talking to decision-makers, why not work with a team of experts? Our professional B2B sales reps know how to have these conversations and schedule quality appointments.
Number of Days Between First Dial and First Appointment
Typical number of days between first dial and first appointment: 90
On average, it takes 90 days between the first dial and the first appointment for IT companies. If you think about it, if you’re a decision-maker at your own company, this probably mimics your own buying cycle. You probably rarely answer the phone. You may get a voicemail, a couple of emails, etc. But, if someone tries you longer than that, they’re eventually going to catch you. The same is true when you try to call a decision maker.
Be ready to hang in there for a little bit. Be ready for a long journey, because you’re about to go on a hike, but the view at the top is going to be great. How do you make sure you’re successful during these 90 days where you’re trying to get that first appointment?
- Lead nurturing. Having a lead nurture process is extremely important in B2B appointment setting. Lead nurturing is the process of developing relationships with potential customers throughout every stage of the buyer’s journey. This means following up, asking questions, and learning as much as you can about the buyer’s needs. By doing this, we’re able to provide value to customers and solve their problems with your services. Our dedicated B2B sales reps know how to nurture leads so that we can schedule appointments even when faced with rejection.
- Having a process. It’s also crucial to have a process if you want to schedule appointments in this timeframe. Abstrakt follows a proven process to set appointments for all of our IT partners. It’s not just luck, we’re following a process that has worked time and time again. We know when to follow up, what to say, how often we should reach out, and so on. It’s our process that helps us schedule appointments.
- Using a CRM tool. Our customer relationship management (CRM) tool helps us keep track of important information for our IT lead generation programs. In our CRM, we can take detailed notes, see the last time we spoke with a prospect, and more. It keeps all information for every potential customer in one centralized place.
Number of Dials Between First Dial and First Appointment
# of dials between 1st dial and 1st appointment: 13.5
It takes 90 days, but 13.5 dials on average to schedule an appointment for our IT clients.
What salesperson do you know that’s going to make 13 dials to the same prospect who doesn’t respond?
The truth is, you probably don’t know someone who is going to make this many dials, which is why you need help with your B2B appointment setting efforts. No salesperson is going to make 13+ dials to a record that doesn’t respond, but a B2B appointment setting resource will. It’s their job to set appointments for you, and they won’t stop no matter how hard it gets.
A sales rep who you hire in-house at your IT company is hired to sell IT services, not schedule appointments. They won’t waste their time with records that don’t respond. But, not following up is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, because you might miss out on some great opportunities. Instead of hiring two employees in-house (a sales rep and a B2B appointment setter), hire a B2B appointment setting partner to maximize opportunities for your business.
We have the knowledge and tools that your team may not have:
- We leverage the world’s largest CRM for our B2B appointment setting programs
- We know how and why to dial at different times and how to space out our dials
- We keep track of when we leave a voicemail and when we don’t so that we can have some variation in our attempts (you won’t get a response if you leave 13 voicemails; instead, leave voicemails, don’t leave voicemails, follow up with emails, etc. Just make sure you vary your communication every time)
You’ve Seen the Stats—Now, Are You Ready to Start Your IT Lead Generation Program?
You’ve seen the stats and raw data that our team has collected, so what are you waiting for? Why not see what the efforts a B2B lead generation company could do for you? We help hundreds of IT companies across North America and work hand-in-hand with them every day to grow their business.
The next IT appointment we set could be yours. Ready to get started? Contact our team today for more information.
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