Human nature is alive and well in the Managed Service Provider (MSP) proposal creation process.
As I’m working with prospective clients here at Quosal, one of the most common pain points that an MSP will relate is the difficulty of creating proposals for managed services. The word “dread” is often used when describing how they feel about sitting down to create a proposal for a customer, new or old.
When we human beings dread an activity, certain natural reactions take place. We avoid that activity, we procrastinate. We delay. We make excuses. We hem. We haw. In the case of proposals, this has the unfortunate side effect of costing us our credibility with the customer – and often our opportunity and even our potential relationship with that customer.
When I ask the question, “Have you ever lost business because you didn’t deliver a proposal as you committed you would?” the sheepishly delivered answer is most often “Yes.”
This is a problem that can be solved, and the “return on solution” is very substantial for most MSPs – not only financially, but emotionally as well. It is a big burden to not meet your commitments and have unpleasant, incomplete tasks hanging over your head.
The solution involves a complete turnaround in the attitude toward creating managed service proposals. The MSP must move from “dreading” the process to looking forward to the process. We look forward to activities that:
- Are not difficult and bring us recognition
- Are in themselves enjoyable and engaging
- Lead to success and the desired result – in this case, new business
A fresh approach to MSP proposals can help get you there. Certainly a new tool and platform for proposal creation and delivery such as Quosal is a part of that solution – this turnaround is one of our favorite deliverables here at Quosal. There are additional steps for the MSP as well, including re-design and refresh of the MSP documents (often performed in conjunction with implementation of Quosal) and working with other MSPs in a context such as MSPU (www.mspu.us), which has created actual training sessions for MSP proposal creation.
In a battle with human nature, you’re defenseless – so turn that process from something you dread into something you look forward to, and put human nature to work for your company.
