Today we had our monthly member call where we discussed managed services becoming a commodity. There were some excellent ideas that came out of the call that I thought I would pass on for the rest of the community since they might come in handy to someone out there who is facing these very issues.
First, MSP's need to stop leading with price. If you are on a sales call and the first words out of your mouth deal with price you have already put yourself at a disadvantage. Managed services is about value and professionalism. If you make the relationship about price, someone else will always come along who is cheaper!
Second, never let the client reduce your price. At least a couple of the people on today's call said that they had felt pressure from clients to reduce price in order to keep the deal alive. If a client is willing to lower your fees they are really saying they do not value you as a MSP. It's one thing to ask for a price break on a piece of hardware, but professional managed services is another thing altogether. Don't be devalued!
Third, don't let the big boys intimidate you into a pricing war. You will most likely lose that battle, and you'll go broke in the process. The larger MSP's and vendors will and are entering this profession and they will bring a lot of positive attention to us all. Let's accept that fact sooner rather than later and begin reaping the rewards. I remember a time when this industry would have been ecstatic about the type of attention these larger companies are bringing to managed services.
Fourth, most of the commodity talk talking place in our industry is fake. That's right, it's fake. What I mean is the commodity talk is almost entirely created by MSP's who are concerned about the future. Let's not make a hypothetical scenario into reality. Managed services will only become a commodity if we allow it. If MSP's continue to mature and educate their clients, the sooner this industry will leave the commodity talk behind and move onto more important things.
