MODULE 2

Performance

LESSON 2.5

Create Your Marketing Message

Clear Messaging to Win New Business 

Understanding your customers’ needs is essential when selling an IT-based security solution. This knowledge allows you to offer tailored solutions, build trust, communicate effectively, enhance customer satisfaction, and gain a competitive advantage. 

Key Focus Selling Your New Solution

1. Effective Communication:

• Why it matters: Knowing your customers’ needs allows you to communicate the benefits of your security solution in a way that resonates with them. 
• Benefit: You can highlight the features and advantages that are most relevant to their situation, making your pitch more compelling and understandable. 

2. Customer Satisfaction: 

• Why it matters: When customers feel that their specific security needs are being met, their satisfaction increases.
• Benefit: Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers and recommend your solution to others, leading to increased sales and positive word-of-mouth. 

By focusing on these aspects, you can ensure that your IT-based security solutions are not only well-received but also foster long-term relationships with your customers.

START HERE

Engaging with potential new customers largely comes down to probability. In 99.9% of interactions, you'll hear responses like 'we're satisfied with our current IT provider, no thanks…' However, occasionally, you'll find that rare 1% who are open to considering other options.  

To tackle this, you might outline "your odds" like this: ‘If I reach out to 200 customers, I will secure 5 meetings, and from those 5 meetings, I will gain 1 customer’.  

Or worse, you might spend $20k, $30k, even $100k on a marketing campaign, with promises that customers will come flooding in and the result… you get no meetings and a big hole in your bank account. 

This sales stuff isn’t much fun, is it! 

Good news there are some very simple things you can do to improve your odds.  

However, this will necessitate a slight shift in mindset, readiness to speak somewhat differently, and persistence as you refine your delivery. But the effort will be worthwhile, as it will help you attract the kind of customers you want.  

Creating Your Go-To-Market Messaging  

As mentioned in Lesson 2, industry context plays a crucial role in engaging a potential customer in conversation. Capturing their interest increases the chances that they will reach out with an email or phone call to learn more.  

While marketing efforts can yield significant results, they must always be effective by delivering highly pertinent information to the target audience to capture their interest.  

Marketing efforts frequently falter when they are overly broad, trying to cater to various industries at once. This approach can make the message seem irrelevant and unengaging to the intended target audience. 

With this in mind, let's develop our marketing message for Healthcare, and as we do so, we'll utilise Copilot to assist with this information.  

Please note: You will notice we choosing to remove any references to Microsoft 365 in our marketing and when discussing solutions, you should too. Ultimately the platform/s being used to fulfil the need, are irrelevant, when you are selling and delivering a holistic outcome.  

Instead, we will replace these references with the solution name you create, with this helping to stop your solution being shopped around or commoditised down the lowest price. 

CREATE A NAME

Presenting Our Solution with a Strategic Go-To-Market Message

DO YOU AGREE?

Do You Believe The GTM Statement Achieves Its Purpose? 

While we are using Copilot to build the statement, vastly speeding up the creation process, we still need to ensure the statement is listing the relevant information, ensuring we simply need to tweak the message, rather than having to create it entirely from scratch. After reading it, ask yourself the following: 

• Does the request provide a clear message at the start and the end of the statement?
• Are the top 5 priorities listed, similar / same as discovered in Lesson 2 for Healthcare?
• Are the benefits listed highlight how the customer will see improvements in the day-to-day operations?
• Do you think the ‘take action now’ statement will resonate with these customers?  

If you feel that the statement isn’t quite right, go back and massage the request and re-present it until you are happier with it. If you feel the bulk of the statement is suitable, but what to rewrite specifics part, Copilot can do this for you very quickly.  

While perfection isn't necessary, the content must effectively highlight the key security priorities to resonate with the intended reader. 

A Note On Your In-Person Discussions 

We’ll discuss this in the Customer Service module, but each requirement denied by the customer, is a requirement you have the ability to dig into, if / when needed.  

For example: 

Mr/s Customer, our industry knowledge means that we know you need {insert relevant talking point}. Are you confirming that this {talking point} doesn’t apply here? Can you explain please? 

Mr/s Customer, we have discussed that these are the key security needs your organisation needs. Are you willing to comprise the security of your business, by not having them?  

This technique allows you to question their rebuttal; by simply asking them to explain why a key need isn’t important to them. In some organisations, their point may be valid, if so, move on. More often it goes to strengthen your value proposition the more you ask for justification. 

Performance Module Review 

Throughout this module, we addressed the solution build requirements and reached the following outcome: 

• Achieving points success is crucial for earning the Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security designation by effectively growing and managing the customer base using Microsoft Security products and services.
  
  
• Defining your target industries and customers helps you understand their needs better than your competitors, giving you a significant edge in the market.
  
  
• Building a value-driven industry solution focuses on addressing the primary priorities dictated by industry regulations or legal requirements.
  
  
• Setting your revenue and profit returns involves understanding your customers' needs to offer tailored solutions, build trust, and communicate effectively.
  
  
• Creating your sales message requires capturing the interest of potential customers by delivering highly pertinent information tailored to their specific industry.

Module Takeaways

The overall goal of these lessons is about strategically positioning yourself in the market by understanding your customers and their needs, and then tailoring your solutions to meet those needs effectively.

The goal is to grow and manage your customer base using Microsoft Security products and services. By focusing on performance metrics like customer growth and revenue generation, you can ensure you are not just adding customers but also driving significant revenue through your security solutions.

Next, defining your target industries and customers is critical. By understanding your customers better than your competitors, you can anticipate their needs and offer innovative solutions that set you apart. This gives you a significant edge in the market.

Building a value-driven industry solution is another important aspect. This involves focusing on the features that address the primary priorities dictated by industry regulations or legal requirements. By doing so, you can ensure your solutions are well-received and foster long-term relationships with your customers.

Setting your revenue and profit returns is all about understanding your customers' needs to offer tailored solutions, build trust, and communicate effectively. This helps your business significantly improve your business profitability.

Finally, creating your sales message is about capturing the interest of potential customers by delivering highly pertinent information tailored to their specific industry.

This approach helps attract the kind of customers you want and increases the chances of winning their trust and business.

Overall, the strategic takeaway is that by understanding your customers, defining your target industries, building value-driven solutions, setting clear revenue and profit goals, and crafting effective sales messages, you can significantly enhance your market position and achieve long-term success.

Next Module: Skilling

In the next Module, well outline the Skilling requirements, helping your team train and certify to meet the required points criteria.