MSPs: Never be ignored on LinkedIn, again

[00:00:02] Speaker A: No shortcuts maybe. But Good news. Growing MSPs have this show right here, packed with real tactics, case studies, and all the inspiration you'll ever need. All right there. Thanks for dropping back into the show. Here's what I've got lined up for you today. 5 super smart LinkedIn connection request messages how to get ordinary business owners and managers excited for your msp. And my special guest reveals the secrets to running your MSP as efficiently as Disney runs its parks. Welcome to episode 326 powered by MSP marketingedge.com Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast for MSPs, LinkedIn is the number one place to go farming. Never hunting, but farming. Slow, steady, reliable relationship building with the exact people that you want to do business with. And that means adding new connections, ideally on a daily basis. Let me give you five super smart LinkedIn connection request messages that you can swipe and use today. Farming on LinkedIn is about slow, steady, reliable relationship building with the exact people that you want to do business with. And the good news is that LinkedIn makes this incredibly easy. If you approach it the right way. Most MSPs massively underuse it. They log in every now and again, maybe post something, maybe like something. And then they wonder why nothing really changes. They get nothing out of LinkedIn. But the real power of LinkedIn is in building your network, your connections. You got to think of every connection as a tiny, tiny little seed. The more relevant seeds you plant, the more opportunities grow later. Your job is simply to show up every day and plant a few more seeds. So how do you do that? Very simply. You search for the people you most want to do business with. Business owners, managers, decision makers in your target verticals and your target geographical areas. If you serve financial firms, go and look for accountants, CPAs, financial planners. If you specialize in manufacturing, look for operations managers, plant managers, supply chain directors. If you're local only and you just want local businesses, search by your town or your region. And then. And here's the system. You send 10 personalized connection requests every day. Not 50, not 100, just 10. Because consistency beats volume every time. Doing something small every day is always more powerful than doing something big every now and again. So make it part of your daily routine. Same time each day, same process. No emotion attached. It's just a system. In fact, you can get other people to do this for you. Maybe a member of your staff or a virtual assistant. Now, let's talk about the connection request messages. And again, here's where a lot of MSPs go wrong. They send the same bland, boring copy and paste connection request that screams I'm going to pitch you something here. But we're not pitching, remember, we're farming. We're starting a relationship. And that's why you want a set of smart, simple, human sounding messages that you can just rotate your way through. Today I'm going to give you five of the best. And these are the same ones that I give to my MSP Marketing Edge members. So let's go through them. Message number one is called the common ground message. This one is beautifully simple. Hi Name, it looks like we both and they hear you insert something that you have in common. I want to add you to my professional network. Now maybe the thing you insert is that you both live or work in the same area, or maybe you're in the same industry group or maybe you're both fans of a particular business author or a local sports team or something like that. Humans connect through shared identity, so point out the common ground with them. They're much more likely to accept your connection requests. Message number two, the local business owner message. If you target a geographic area, this one is gold. Hi Name, it looks like we're both local business owners in town. Should we connect to see if there's anything we can do to help each other? People feel good supporting businesses on their doorstep, so why not use that message number three, the mutual connection message. Now this one creates instant trust. Hi Name, it looks like we're both connected to. Name you know someone you're both connected to and then you add a line about how you know that person, maybe you worked with them, maybe you met them at an event, something like that. And then finish with, I want to add you to my professional network as well. It's borrowed credibility that makes this one work brilliantly. Message number four, the content admiration message. Now this one works amazingly well with people who post on LinkedIn often. Hi name, I was just reading your post about subject and thought it was very well written. I want to add you to my professional network. Now this works because people love being recognized for something that they've created and it shows that you're not just spamming them, you've actually read their content and obviously you need to read their content to be able to use that. And finally, number five, the vertical joke message. This is the one that gets a smile and you tailor it to your target vertical. So here's an example for CPAs for an accountant. Hi name, an accountant is having a hard time sleeping. Have you tried counting Sheep, a friend suggests. That's the problem. I make a mistake and then spend three hours trying to fix it. Sorry for the appalling joke. I just want to add you to my professional network. Now, of course, you'd replace that joke with one relevant to your vertical or your niche. Or niche. The key is it's got to be light, fun and memorable, because no one sends jokes in LinkedIn connection requests. And that's a reason to do it, because you're not going to forget the person who made you smile with a LinkedIn connection request. So those are your five messages. You can just use the same one because remember, everyone only sees them once. Or you could rotate them, use a different one each day. It doesn't really matter. Just do what feels best to you. And remember, your job on LinkedIn is not to go out hunting and selling. It's the farm. And you do that by planting connections, planting relationships and future opportunities. 10 connection requests a day, every day, makes it a system that's going to grow plenty of future business for your msp. Paul Green's MSP Marketing podcast still to come. Have you ever been to one of the Disney parks? I've done Orlando and Paris a couple of times and they are fun. You really should go and just give yourself over to it. You'll have a great time, even if you're like a very serious old adult in real life. Anyway, when you do go to one of those parks, it's always a surprise just how well run they are. In fact, you can compare it by going to other parks nearby and. And they're like chalk and cheese. I remember going to Universal in Orlando, and it's nothing in the way that it's run compared to how the Disney park is run. The Disney staff are always friendly. It's always such a fantastic experience. And of course, that's not by accident, that's by design. My special guest today is an expert in the kind of customer service that Disney systemizes so well, and he's going to tell you how you can achieve a similar effect within your msp. He's going to be here with us in the next few minutes. To win more new clients for your msp, you must first understand what motivates your prospects. There's a little bit about getting inside their heads and a lot more about getting inside their hearts. The more you can connect with their wants, needs and fears, the easier it's going to be to persuade them that your MSP is the answer to all these things. Here's exactly how to do that every business owner or manager has two sides to be influenced when making big buying decisions. First there's the rational mind, which is the logical Vulcan part that looks at facts and figures. And then there's the emotional mind, the human side that responds to feelings, fears and hopes. We all like to think that we make decisions rationally, but no, we really don't when buying something that we don't understand. And this of course is how ordinary business owners and managers buy managed services. The emotional mind makes the decision and then it passes that decision onto the rational mind for a stamp of approval. That means around 80% of your marketing needs to speak to their heart and not their head. Help them feel that they know you, like you and trust you, and then give their brain just a little bit of evidence to prove that yes, you are a safe choice. So how to do this? Well, you if you truly want to get inside your prospects hearts, you must go where they go and consume what they consume. Let's say your ideal client is Dave the accountant, a local CPA in your town. Read what Dave reads. His trade magazines, professional websites, his industry newsletters. You might not understand some of it. In fact, if you're reading accountancy magazines, you may slip into a coma. But you'll soon start spotting patterns, law changes, new tech, or other pressures that matter to Dave and then go where Dave goes. Maybe he attends networking events or professional meetups. Don't go there to pitch though. Go there to talk and listen. Notice what other accountants worry about is it deadlines? Compliance changes, losing clients to cheaper firms, recruitment headaches, offshoring. These are all emotional hooks that really, really matter to these people. The more you immerse yourself in Dave's world, the more you'll understand what really drives him. And then you can weave all of that into your messaging and content. Let's take compliance changes, which are an easy topic for an MSP to leverage. If the fear of not being compliant is a big emotional driver for Dave, then a key part of your messaging must demonstrate that you understand that compliance affects him and you understand why he wants and needs to stay in line. And you know how to use technology to ensure he never makes a mistake. That's the emotional side of compliance dealt with. And then you could just pull together a guide to easy compliance for CPAs and maybe get a video case study of an existing CPA client on your website that then ticks the boxes for the cognitive side of things as well. When Dave is looking for a new msp, if he sees all of this in Your marketing. This will transcend everything that all the other MSPs are saying because it seems really, really, really relevant to him. While everyone else is talking about technology, you're talking about eliminating his fear and you're talking to his heart and to his brain. And I promise you, if the timing is right for Dave, that will get you a sales meeting. Great. Marketing for your MSP isn't about being clever and it's definitely not about being technical. It's about being human and connecting with your prospects emotions and giving their brain something to think about as well. So if you want more leads that engage better and convert into more sales meetings, stop focusing on what you want to say and start focusing on what they feel and how they think. Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast. Right. Question for you. Do you yet have your free copy of of my MSP Marketing map? This is such a cool thing. It's a physical wall planner. It goes on your wall, it's a real thing and I'll send it to you in the mail. And the idea is it shows you kind of like a route to improve your marketing. It's got 36 smart marketing actions that will take you from no marketing, zero leads up to actually winning new clients. And it's completely free to get hold of. It's not one of those things where I'm trying to get you to start a subscription. There's no catch at all. You don't have to put any payment details in. Nothing. Just sending this out so you and I can start a relationship and I can get something onto your wall that has value for me and value for you. So to get your free copy, just go to MSP marketingedge.com planner. That's mspmarketingedge.com planner. Are there really customer service and operations lessons for your MSP from Walt Disney World? I believe so. And so does my special guest today. You see, Disney has completely systemized an amazing experience. Every time you visit one of its parks, no detail is left to chance. They have literally thought through everything in advance and then turned it into a system that their staff can implement stress free. Wouldn't that be an amazing thing to do with your MSP's customer service? My special guest is going to tell you right now exactly how you do this. [00:12:20] Speaker B: Hey everybody. My name is Vance Morris and I am a customer experience strategist and tactician working with service based businesses pretty much in most English speaking countries. So here I am. [00:12:35] Speaker A: Here you are. Thank you so much for joining us Vance. And in particular we Want to talk about the things that you learned at a particular part of your career where you worked within Disney and anyone who has ever spent time in any of the Disney parks. And I've spent at least 30 days of my life in Disney parks, you know, in all of them actually, apart from Tokyo. That's, that's on the list. But we all know that they are a whole step up, right? You go into a Disney park and the experience and not just for what they've built, but particularly the experience with their, their people compared to say, a Universal or a SeaWorld or other similar things where they, they can buy the same r. Similar rides, but the people thing is on a completely different scale. So we want to explore how does Disney achieve that and particularly how can MSPs do that within their business? So I've kind of dipped into the start of your career there. Just tell us a little bit more about that career advance. What have you been doing over the last 20, 30 years or so? And how did you end up working with Disney on their leadership? [00:13:37] Speaker B: Certainly great question is actually one of it was my second job in my lifetime. Well, second real job after college. And I had a very interesting application process. Buddy of mine from college was a recruiter for Disney. I got tired of living up north. I called him up and said, hey, do you have anything for me? He said, yes, come on down. And that was the extent of the interview process. Now, I guarantee you they're not doing that anymore. But I did spend the next 10 years working for the Mouse and primarily in hospitality, hotels, resorts, restaurants and things like that. And I learned one of the first things I learned, and it wasn't how to pick up trash or how to be nice to people or anything like that. It was that Disney runs on systems, processes and systems, and they've got one for everything. I mean, you want to change a tire on a bus, they got a system for it. You want to carry a tray in a restaurant, they got a system for it. And what I found is that if you follow the systems and you practice the systems, it actually gives you room in your head to do all of the nice things that Disney is known for. So it gives you some freedom so that you're not focused on your actual job, but you are now. You do the job by rote. I mean, it says muscle memory. You go through it and now you have time to take pictures of families and, you know, do autographs and. And all of the little things that Disney is known for. And so I applied that in my businesses So I started, I have three home service businesses here in the states, in Maryland. And I took those systems, those customer experience systems, marketing systems and plugged them into a carpet cleaning business and a mold remediation company. And I figure if it works in a carpet cleaning business, work anywhere. And what it did for me as a business owner is it gave me freedom from the business. So once I had all that implemented, fast forward to today. I'm spending about 90 minutes a week on those three businesses. I was able to hire general manager, he runs the day to day and I'm able to spend 60 minutes with him, 30 minutes on the banking and kissing babies, eating bon bons, that kind of thing, and away we go. But truly that, that first thing is systems. And you, you have to systemize your business so that you have consistency in the experiences that you're providing your customers. [00:16:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So I guess this by putting in place systems like that and let's just take it back to Disney because that's obviously something that we're all or most of us are aware of. So if you go and work for Disney in whatever job you do and it's completely systemized, I guess from, from an employee's point of view, rather than taking away freedom from you, it actually shows you this is what success looks like. So you gave the example of changing, changing the wheel on the bus. And we all know that changing the wheel on the bus isn't really about changing the wheel. It's about communicating to the people on the bus, communicating to the people who are waiting for the bus that isn't going to arrive. I'm sure Disney doesn't like breakdowns in its parks because it doesn't ever want anyone to see behind the scenes. How does the driver act, how does the mechanic act? Is all of that kind of stuff. And obviously someone somewhere has thought that through. So all. So I got this from. I read a book, what was it? Years ago. I bet you've read it, Vance. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. I don't know if you've come across that. It's a great book and it's a very similar thing. It's set within the worlds of medicine and aviation and it talks about how checklists can help incredibly intelligent people, brain surgeons, airline pilots, take away all the small things that they have to think about so that they can actually, as you say, focus on the things that you can't plan, you can't systemize, like you know, taking photos of families or in their Instances, stopping the plane from hitting the mountain or you know, saving, saving someone from the brain thing or the heart thing or whatsoever. So it's, it's, it's. And I think one of the things in, I think it's that book or the E Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is where one of those authors talks about the fact that most business owners fear systems because. And because we believe it's going to take away our staff's ability to think and to be creative. But I think you and I both agree that actually it's the complete opposite, completely opposite. [00:18:09] Speaker B: And if you're not convinced about systems, when you go to sell your company, you have anywhere between a 1 and a half and a 2 and a half multiple added on to the value of the company. If you have documented systems in your business, marketing systems, experience, systems, accounting, whatever, the more documentation and systems you have in your business, the more valuable it is when it comes time to sell. So there's an added, you know, benefit and reason why you want to have systems in the business. And it doesn't take away from the employees effectiveness and it doesn't take away from their ability to ad lib or you know, work in a particular situation. They have that creativity, they have that freedom. As long as the job's getting done, you this, you can react to the situation, how the situation demands and it's just, it, it's the consistency and I think that's what Disney is also known for, is that it consistently delivers an excellent product. And so there's no, you know, swoops and ups and downs. And you know, Martha's having a bad day today. So you know, all of Disney is, you know, in, in the, in the toilet and then, oh, Martha's got a, you know, she's happy today, it's her birthday. And now Systems equalizes and delivers consistent service across the board. [00:19:36] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely love that. So you, as you just said, you've got three businesses yourself, you run them in 90 minutes, just kissing babies, eating bon bons, which sounds a bizarre thing to do as a business owner, but hey, whatever you go with that, so do you. What, what do you think? So obviously you, you've come at that from having experienced 10 years of systems in a, I mean Disney, goodness knows how many employees, there must be tens if there's not hundreds of thousands of employees across all those parks. So you, I can see how someone like you spending a decade in that goes to run, you know, a business that you've bought or started or however you got those businesses and it's, it's just a no brainer, right? Oh well, we'll just run that on systems. But you take the average MSP who perhaps has been running four, five, six years, might be listening to this or watching this on YouTube and where do you start? Right, because you've by the point, you've got like four, three, four, five technicians, you've got, you know, some, some clients, there's always a crisis, there's always proactive work that's not being done that should be done. You know, every day there's, there's more tickets coming in than can be answered. When you're at that kind of point where you starting to lose control of the business that you started in the first place. To get control. Because we all start a business to get control over what we do, who we do it for and how we do it. And we all know that we lose that, we gain that control when it's just us, then we lose that control as we, as we gain stuff that's typically the experience. So where do you even start in a situation like that? [00:20:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great question. So it's, it's not a sexy answer. But what you have to do is map out your entire customer journey. So whatever the first point of contact with your business, the customer has, whether it's a website, a postcard, a phone call, whatever, that's point number one. And then you map out every other point throughout the customer journey from the customer's point of view, not from your point of view. So let's say, you know, point one is a phone call. Great. And your next step would be to visit their, their place of business to do an estimate or see what they need to have done in between those two steps. The customer is doing something, the customer is waiting. So they're waiting for you to come, they're waiting for you to send something. What are you doing in that wait period that is going to help move the sale forward or create some kind of experience? Because let's say they're shopping around and they've called three, you know, MSPs to, to help them out. The one that does something between phone call and first appointment, 99% chance they are the winner because they've achieved what I call moment zero. And it's that first seven seconds of okay, we've made the impact, we've got the customer. And so you do that throughout the entire customer journey. And then at each point you look and see, okay, how do we make this better? So say it's answering the telephone, you know, you would. Most places answer the phone, you know. Thank you for calling Dave's Insurance. How can I help you? It's boring, it's bland, it doesn't stand out. So if you have a way to answer the phone that separates you from everybody else. Quick story. I had a insurance company. Again, very boring, bland business. But the insurance agent was a rock and roll fanatic. So he had Led Zeppelin and who posters everywhere and, and, you know, autograph guitars, gold records in his office. It was true rock and roll nut. And so we're doing the brainstorming on the customer journey with him. And we realized that answering the phone was like one of the key things to. And also they wanted a way to sift, sort and screen out people that would be not be a good client for them. So actually the receptionist came up with the way for the company to answer the phone. So as I mentioned, he's a rock and roll guy. So she says, we'll answer the phone like this. Thank you for calling Dave's Insurance, the agency that rocks. Now you say it 10 times, it's a little goofy, but it really one. It's separate. Nobody else owns that. You own that, right? So you can't copy him. It's certainly different. So it's memorable, which is key. And it sifts, sorts and screens out people that would otherwise not be a good fit for them. And so just by answering the phone that way, they've saved themselves time. They're attracting the people that they want to do business with. You know, people that are like, okay, this sounds kind of like fun. And it's not the stick in the mud kind of people. So. And you just do that with every step of the customer journey. How do we make this particular point better? And then, you know, maybe six months, 12 months, 18 months later, you might come back to it and say, how do we make it better again? So Walt Disney had a term for this. It's called plusing. So he always wanted to plus the show. And so we have plusing teams that, you know, get together once every other month, look at areas that could be have most bang for their buck, have the most impact on the customer or most impact on profitability and say, okay, how do we make this better? How do we plus it? So you're not just resting on, okay, I set the system. And now it's, forget it. No, we've set the system. And then you come back to it and you say, how do. How do we get it going better? [00:25:27] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. And of course the beauty of, of plussing is, well, you can't plus unless you've got a system in the first place because if, you know, if you, if it's not written down, answer the phone in this way, then you can't go back and tweak that in time. I remember speaking to an MSP a couple of years ago and he hired a dispatcher which, and the dispatcher was obviously a non tech whose job it was to answer the calls and empathize with the, with the client. So whatever they were calling about, even if it was a minor thing like I can't pr, which obviously, you know, is the worst thing that anyone can ever say. I can't print. So boring to hear that. But for that client in that moment, that's the biggest problem they've got in their life. I cannot print and I need this print this afternoon. So, so whatever that problem was, that dispatcher was, was like, I'm so sorry to hear that. That must be a real pain for you. Good news, we're going to get you sorted out, right? Regardless of what the problem was. Good news, I'm going to get you sorted out. And I remember talking to the MSP and how he was going to get that phrase because there'd be days when the dispatcher wasn't there and he's like, I'm going to get that phrase into every, every mouth, right? Anyone who ever speaks to a client about a new problem, I want them to say that that's such a, that's so terrible. I'm so sorry. Good news, we're going to get you sorted out. So it kind of demonstrates empathy. But he didn't have a system, so he, he was on a constant battle of trying to get his technicians to say this phrase, which, which she'd said naturally and it wasn't. But like, you can see that, can't you? If you, if it's a systemized thing, this is what we say to every new problem. And it doesn't matter if they hear it from us twice a week for the next 3,000 weeks, that all they're going to feel is empathy. They're not going to hear the same words over and over again. I love that. So I love the concept of plussing, but you need the systems to do the plussing. [00:27:03] Speaker B: When you have a system, you now have something that you can measure your employees against as well. So it's an employee review tool. So you're not comparing Fred to Bill because that's not fair to either one of Them you're comparing Fred to, to the standards you're carrying, comparing Fred to the system and say, hey, you know, 80% of the time you're doing it great. 20% of the time, these are the points that you need to work on. So you're no longer comparing employees to each other. You're comparing employees to the standards and the systems that you've implemented. [00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Love that. And I will bet $5 that the single biggest offender in the business for not following the system is the business owner. Is that your experience Most of the time? [00:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah, they are. [00:27:53] Speaker A: I just want to know. [00:27:55] Speaker B: Oh, it doesn't apply to me. Yeah, and, and it truly, I mean, if you, you've got to have, you got to be congruent. I mean, you've got to have, you know, the ability to not just say, you know, do what I say, not what I do. I mean, you'll lose employees, you lose credibility, you lose authority. So you have to, when the system is in place, you got to do it. [00:28:17] Speaker A: Exactly. Well, those of us with kids know that, you know, the kids learn more from watching what you do than listening to what you actually say. And it's no different at work. You know, if you think of your team as your, as your children in some respect, then that's true. Vance, this has been fascinating. Thank you so much. So tell us, what do you actually DO to help MSPs and what's the best way to get in touch with you? [00:28:35] Speaker B: Sure. So the big thing that I work with certainly is I will help you with the, you know, entire customer journey. And the one thing we really didn't touch on that is extremely important, especially with MSPs, is customer retention. So you have to deliver a great experience in order to have any prayer of having customer retention. If you deliver average or bad service, your customers are not going to stick around. And so I also do a lot of retention strategies, both online and offline with companies so that they're always, it's, what have you done for me lately? You know, trying to stay top of mind. And people are like, well, you know, we've got the contract, we see them once a month or whatever. I said, that may be true. But at the point they're ready, somebody asks, hey, who do you use? And if it's been a month since they've seen or heard from you, they may or may not remember you, because it is not your customer's job to remember you. It's your job to remind the customer that you exist. And I think that's something that many business owners, they miss that. And then as far as reaching out to me, certainly I'm on LinkedIn. I think I'm the only Vance Morris Disney guy there. And I do have a special hot sheet for everyone. So if you're not feeling overly creative, I have something called 52 Ways to Wow your customer without breaking the bank and you can get that at wow5twoways.com. [00:30:12] Speaker A: The Ms. MSP Marketing Edge Member Update A quick update. If you're a member of the MSP Marketing Edge, of course it's the 10th of the month and that means you've got brand new content available in the portal. In fact, you now have all the content you need. For March, we drop new content on the 10th of every month. So if you need great marketing content to help you build relationships with your leads and prospects, why not see if the MSP Marketing Edge is available in your area? Because we do only work with one MSP per area. You can [email protected] coming up, coming up next week. Thanks for listening. This week. Next week we're looking at verticals. I believe that verticals are amazing. They make all of your marketing so much easier and so much more effective. So we're going to do a bit of a deep dive into how you can break into a new vertical. See you then for MSPs around the world around the World, the MSP Marketing Podcast with Paul Green.