MSP Summit is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Marketopia’s Terry Hedden Wants You to Get the Leads You Need

By Allison Francis | October 15, 2021
Sales funnel

Every channel partner knows that in order to get the sales and profit they want, they need good leads. It is an age-old story and conundrum.

At the MSP Summit, co-located with the Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Nov. 1-4, Terry Hedden, CEO of Marketopia, will attempt to solve the industry’s greatest riddle. He plans to help those leaders who are struggling to attain their organization’s sales goals. In his session, Hedden will convey that why relying on word-of-mouth referrals to feed the sales engine is dependent on the undependable, it's a recipe for frustration at the least and disaster at the worst.

Senior channel leaders will learn how to identify the top KPIs (key performance indicators) for their sales team. The conversation will then shift to the marketing activities needed to achieve your company’s lead-gen requirements.

We sat down with Hedden to get a sneak peak into the session ahead of our show. 

Channel Partners: Can you briefly touch on the conundrum partners face that to get the sales and profit they want, good sales leads are a must. What are the challenges there?

Terry Hedden: Most partners struggle to understand why their sales teams struggle. They hire, train, invest, patiently wait and then at some point give up and blame the sales rep. Over and over and over. Meanwhile, word-of-mouth leads eventually fail to provide any meaningful growth for their firm. This leaves them stuck in the $750,000-$1.5 million revenue range, which is just a very challenging revenue band to operate with plenty of work, but not enough revenue to hire managers.  

The solution for almost all is quite simple. Once MSP owners see that marketing and sales are two different functions and their sales reps struggle because they are being asked to do a very different job, they begin to invest in lead generation. The resulting investment in the front end of their business in lead gen gives sales what they need to provide a consistent flow of net-new clients. It also gives them a steady growth that funds leadership and profit as the organization ascends. Of course, that is when the marketing and lead generation is good!

Marketopia's Terry Hedden

CP: For those leaders who are struggling to attain their organization’s sales goals, what top-level advice do you have for them?

TH: Do the math. That’s right, sales is just a math game. Figure out the close ratio, average deal size and use those to figure out how many clients you need to hit the sales goals. With that, you can simply multiply the close ratio in decimal form to the clients you need to get the leads you need. Engage a marketing and lead gen with a simple order — get that number of leads!

CP: Why are word-of-mouth referrals a potential recipe for disaster?

TH: They are a blessing when you can get them, but don’t bet your future on them. They are not predictable, consistent and eventually not enough to maintain a strong growth rate. So market to referral partners to get more of those and then lean on real marketing and lead gen to get the remainder. Real marketing and lead gen can give your sales team the leads they need without depending on people to give leads that may not.

CP: What are one or two top KPIs for partners’ sales teams?

TH: Close ratio should be 25-50%. If too low, your sales team may not be strong enough. Too high, and you're not getting anything but word-of-mouth leads or you're charging too little. Percentage of leads needed to achieve goal — take the results of one and track that number. If you need 20 leads per month to mathematically hit your growth goals, measure to that.

CP: What are a few of the marketing activities needed to achieve one’s company’s lead-gen requirements?

TH: Effective marketing for MSPs consists of two things these days: digital marketing and appointment setting. Digital marketing includes a strong website, SEO and SEM to market it, then social media and email marketing. Telemarketing is the process of converting the marketing-qualified leads digital brings and nurtures them into appointments for the sales force.

Tags:
MSP Summit, Marketopia