The lines between telecom, managed, hosted, and cloud providers continue to blur. As business models mature, this makes it increasingly tough to stay focused, identify the right clients and partners, and maintain pricing power. During this session, we’ll look at 10 strategies to concentrate on the right niches and avoid commoditization. You’ll learn how to assess your product/market fit, analyze your competitive positioning, attract the right strangers, generate more highly-qualified leads, accelerate more opportunities, and more effectively scale revenue growth across both new and existing clients. Presented by Joshua Feinberg Chief Thought Leader SP Home Run Inc. at #MSPEXPO 2018 / #ITEXPO 2018 #FortLauderdale Joshua Feinberg shares a ton of great content and best practices about finding the right niches and avoiding commoditization. Best way to get access: Connect with Joshua Feinberg on LinkedIn #managedservices #managedserviceprovider #webhost #hostingprovider #cloudservices #cloudserviceproviders #niche #differentiation #commoditization #sphomerun #joshuafeinberg

2. 10 Ways for Managed, Hosted, and
Cloud Providers to Find the Right
Niches and Avoid Commoditization
Joshua Feinberg
Chief Thought Leader
SP Home Run Inc.

3. 10 Ways for Managed, Hosted, and
Cloud Providers to Find the Right Niches
and Avoid Commoditization
The lines between telecom, managed, hosted, and cloud providers continue to blur. As
business models mature, this makes it increasingly tough to stay focused, identify the
right clients and partners, and maintain pricing power. During this session, we’ll look
at 10 strategies to concentrate on the right niches and avoid commoditization. You’ll
learn how to assess your product/market fit, analyze your competitive positioning,
attract the right strangers, generate more highly-qualified leads, accelerate more
opportunities, and more effectively scale revenue growth across both new and
existing clients.
Joshua Feinberg
Chief Thought Leader
SP Home Run Inc.

4. Show of Hands Please:
Which best describes you?
a) MSP
b) Host
c) CSP
d) Other

5. Show of Hands Please:
Which best describes you?
a) Company leadership
b) Sales or channel/partner
c) Marketing/product/engineering
d) Other

6. Show of Hands Please:
Any fans or followers?
a) Fans – MSPEXPO 2017, speaking, webinar,
podcast, etc.
b) Social media followers / connections

7. 1.
Provide Managed Services,
But Not as an MSP

8. Today’s environment:
• The lines have never been more blurry
between managed services, hosting, cloud
services, and colocation.
• Your clients are beyond confused.

9. Five Pillars to Be #1 in Your Market
• Differentiation
• Thought Leadership
• Competitive Positioning
• Sales Cycle Acceleration
• Revenue Growth

10. 2.
Assess Your Product/Market Fit

11. Product/Market Fit (PMF)
• The degree to which a product satisfies a
strong market demand
• Roots in the product development and VC
worlds (Marc Andreessen,
Steve Blank, and Ben Horowitz)

12. Does an MSP/Host/CSP Have PMF?
CTO Tom CFO Fred Compliance
Connie
Average client
lifetime value
(LTV)
Average cost of
client acquisition
(COCA)
Average sales
cycle length

13. 3.
Get In Front of
Today’s Buyer’s Journey for Managed,
Hosting, and Cloud Services

14. Buyer’s Journey of the Past
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Prospects ready to
speak with your
sales team
Marketing
• Trade shows
• Print ads
• Direct mail
• Email spam
Sales
• Sales controlled access to information
• Seller-centric sales cycle
• Buyers forced to speak with sales
• Cold calls
• Cold emails

15. What All Changed in 2007?

16. Today’s Buyer’s Journey
10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Prospects ready to
speak with your
sales team
Marketing
• Trade shows
• Print ads
• Direct mail
• Email spam
Sales
• Sales needs to get found early as
trusted advisors
• Buyer-centric sales cycle
• Sales monopoly on info gone
Disruption of Traditional Playbook
• Search
• Social
• Mobile
• Cloud
• Sales and marketing alignment is critical
• Marketing has massive control over sales’ paychecks
• Personalization is critical
• Much more consultative

17. 4.
Analyze Your Competitive Positioning

18. Modern Buyer & Digital-First World
Opens New Markets
• Search
• Social
• Mobile

19. Modern Buyer & Digital-First World
Brings New Competition
• Direct Competition
• Indirect Competition
• Non-Business Model Competition

20. 5.
Take Stock of Your Content Assets
(or Lack Thereof)

21. Can Your Team Compete?

22. No Longer Enough Just To…
Minimum
Requirements
▪ Website Optimization
▪ Blogging
▪ Content Management
▪ Social Publishing
▪ Paid/Sponsored
Placements
Game-
Changers
▪ Buyer Personas
▪ Personalized,
Educational Content
▪ Full Funnel Revenue
Growth
▪ SMART Goals
▪ Continuous Data-
Driven Improvement

23. 6.
Attract the Right Strangers

24. Competing in a Digital-First World
• Don’t chase vanity metrics.
• Position for trusted advisor status.
• Attract the right influencers and decision
makers, in the right places, at the right time,
and (most of all) in the right context.

25. 7.
Generate More
Highly-Qualified Leads

26. Traditional Website Design is Broken
• Most websites are still glorified brochures
with not enough content.
• Your website should be your hardest working
24/7 sales rep.
• You need lead generation content for each
buyer persona and stage.

27. Two-Pronged Emotional Reaction
• Wow!
• What else?

28. 8.
Accelerate More Opportunities

29. Track Your Stages
• Prospects
• Leads
• MQLs
• SQLs/SALs
• Opportunities
• Clients

30. Content Plus Context
CTO Tom CFO Fred Compliance
Connie
Awareness
Consideration
Decision
Buyer Persona (Educational Content)
Buyer’sJourney
Stage
(Context)

31. 9.
Scale Revenue Growth Across Both
New and Existing Clients

32. Customer Marketing
• Build Structured onboarding for new clients.
• Teach new clients to get the most value.
• Educate new clients about all of your other
products and services.

33. Transform Clients Into Promoters

34. 10.
Let Your Best Clients’ Data and
Buyer Personas Dictate Niches

35. Connect the Dots
• Closed loop reporting
(marketing + CRM)
• Close performance gaps with talent,
technology, and strategy

36. Pick the Right Niches
CTO Tom CFO Fred Compliance Connie
Average client
lifetime value (LTV)
$50K $150K $115K
Average cost of
client acquisition
(COCA)
$10K $7.5K $30K
Average sales cycle
length
3 months 10 months 21 months

37. Find the Right Niches and
Avoid Commoditization
1. Provide Managed Services, But
Not as an MSP
2. Assess Your Product/Market Fit
3. Get In Front of Today’s Buyer’s
Journey for Managed, Hosting,
and Cloud Services
4. Analyze Your Competitive
Positioning
5. Take Stock of Your Content
Assets (or Lack Thereof)
6. Attract the Right Strangers
7. Generate More Highly-Qualified
Leads
8. Accelerate More Opportunities
9. Scale Revenue Growth Across
Both New and Existing Clients
10. Let Your Best Clients’ Data and
Buyer Personas Dictate Niches
Photo
Opportunity
Joshua Feinberg
Chief Thought Leader
SP Home Run Inc.

38. One More Super-Quick Public Service Announcement
• Joshua Feinberg shares a ton of great content and best
practices about finding the right niches and avoiding
commoditization. Best way to get access:
• Connect with Joshua Feinberg on LinkedIn
10 Ways for Managed, Hosted, and
Cloud Providers to Find the Right Niches
and Avoid Commoditization
Photo
Opportunity
© SP Home Run Inc. SP Home Run is a Registered Trademark of SP Home Run Inc. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.
Joshua Feinberg
Chief Thought Leader
SP Home Run Inc.
joshua at sphomerun dot com