The signs are up – everywhere! Before the Thanksgiving turkey has thawed for cooking, they will ring loud and clear:
SALE! SALE! SALE!
It is definitely not the time to get distracted and “save” so much money at a sale that the bank account is empty. It is, however, a great time to put the sales to work for your clients.
How an MSP can help
Not only is it the season of thanks and the season of giving, it is also for many businesses the end of the fiscal year. An MSP who is a strategic business partner with its clients is well positioned to help their clients make the most of the season.
QBR or qbr?
Have time for a QBR? No, then send an EOY qbr (that’s a mini-quick business review) instead. If you have a full QBR scheduled for your client, then you should absolutely follow through on that plan. But be sure to add this one pager EOY qbr to your report. And if you don’t have a QBR scheduled, then you need to run the same one pager and send it to your clients.
The one page EOY qbr report
Typical budget forecasts do one of two things:
- Provide high level projections for several years
- Provide a detailed budget list itemizing spends in months or quarters.
At the end of a fiscal year, each client is thinking one of two things:
- Things are running tight, what expenses can we push into next quarter?
- We need to spend down some funds before the end of the year. What are some items we can buy now?
This is where the MSP can help. Provide this report to all of your clients helping them focus on answering their questions. This quick report is simply the detail asset budget for Q4 and Q4. One note: if a client has a large figure in the overdue category then be sure to include that in the download as a nudge to get them to spend down that category. If that overdue amount will overwhelm them, then it is a good conversation starter around what quarter to reallocate those expenses.
Here are the settings to download the report in Lifecycle Insights:
Download the report (sample data shown).
Send the report along with this note:
Dear {Customer Name},
We at {MSP Name} are thankful to have partnered with {Customer Company Name} this year. As the year wraps up, we are often asked one of two things:
- What budgeted asset items can we push to next quarter?
- Are there any asset needs we have scheduled for next quarter that we could use end of year funds to purchase?
In order to help you answer your question, we are sending you this quick report. It outlines your technology asset budget needs for Quarter 4 and Quarter 1.
Please reach out in order to (insert appropriate call to action: schedule a time to talk, reallocate asset end of life expenditures, purchase devices to capitalize on end of year sales). It is always a pleasure partnering with you!
