No matter how good your product is, it is challenging to persuade MSPs to replace something that is already working for them, with something that you say will work better.
This is completely understandable, new things are usually only a slight improvement on existing technology, and often not worth the pain of changing. When we proposed our “game changing” ai-driven security platform designed for MSP’s to one of our partners, Elmdale IT, their initial response to our approach was a firm “No”. The final result was a video testimonial with them.
So how did we get from “No, not interested”, to a partner agreeing to do a video testimonial?
Understanding MSP pain points
Elmdale IT is a long standing business with many SMB customers. Historically their customers bought IT products, but Elmdale has created a managed IT service offering and is migrating their customers to it.
They had chosen a portfolio of security products to meet their customers needs; Awareness Training, Firewall, Backup, End Point Protection, Cloud Data Protection etc …. Each product hand picked to meet customer requirements. They were justifiably proud and protective of the solution that they had put together.
As well as recurring product costs the pain that MSPs selling a managed security service feel is usually in people. As they add more security controls to their offering the work involved in detection, response, remediation, measurement, and reporting grows. SOC team members need to monitor all of the product consoles, for all of their customers. More customers x More security controls = exponential service delivery cost.
Helping MSP’s Improve their Cyber security offering
Our initial proposition was to replace many of their security products with the Guardz security platform and deliver one product for a low monthly price.
E.g. Why is Guardz email security better than XYZ email security etc. It’s easy to show that the platform offers a lower cost on a monthly basis, but it can never be best of breed in every category, so MSPs looking to politely say “No” have many choices of “No”.
Adopting the “When Harry Met Sally Approach”
We went for a series of Yes’s, like Meg Ryan’s yes, Yes, YES in When Harry Met Sally
Will you just have a look? yes
Would you like to try it in your own network? Yes
Will you try it on a customer? YES
Will you include it in your proposition? YES
Elmdale IT are now onboarding their customers to the Guardz AI data security assisted platform. They are able to offer a broader range of security controls at a lower price, and grow their customer base without overwhelming their SOC team.
