Learn how to build the right farmer role to engage with existing clients, improve client retention, and increase your managed services sales.

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What is a Farmer?
A role where someone can cultivate/maintain
relationships in order to develop opportunities to
grow existing accounts

2. MSP Sales Strategies, Part 3: How Hiring a
Farmer Can Help Your MSP Business Thrive
Kaitlyn Langer
Community Coordinator
klanger@efolder.net
linkedin.com/in/kaitlynlanger

3. • Partner Introduction
• What is a Farmer
• Farming Strategies and Tactics
• Compensation Plans
• Hiring Criteria
• Questions and Discussion
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Agenda

4. 4
Partner Introduction
Nathan Austin
VP of Business Development
Mytech Partners
www.linkedin.com/in/nathanaustin
© 2016 eFolder, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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MyTech Partners
2 offices in Minneapolis area, 1 office in Denver
Founded in 2000
Offers managed services and networking infrastructure
Over 250 clients using file sync, BDR, and more
Clients in finance, medical, automobile and nonprofit sectors

6. The Farmer

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What is a Farmer?
A role where someone can cultivate/maintain
relationships in order to develop opportunities to
grow existing accounts

8. Hunters vs Farmers
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Hunters Farmers
Focus on new finding new
clients
Build relationships with
existing clients
Drive revenue through
adding new clients
Drive revenue through
cultivating existing
accounts
Close deals and move on Act like a trusted advisor

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Farmer Primary Goals
• Main point of contact for client
• Drive up-sells/cross-sells
• Ensure client retention

10. Farming Strategies and Tactics

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Psychology behind MyTech’s Strategy
4 Reasons Sales Close:
1. Like and trust sales person
2. Like and trust the company
3. Like the solution(s)
4. Price

12. Sales/FarmingTeam Structure
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Outside Sales Reps Sales Assistants
2 outside sales roles 1 sales assistant role
Business planning
Asset planning
Risk management
Daily transactions such as
as renewals, hardware,
etc.
In addition to sales engineers, telesales team, sales
managers and the marketing team, there are:

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Main point of contact
- Client is familiar with sales person from
the sales process
- One person your client is trained to
communicate with
- Build on the fact that client likes and trusts
the sales person

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Upsell Strategy
• Risk management & life cycle management
meetings
- Quarterly/monthly/weekly meetings depending on client size
• Tool that associates action items with cost &
budget
• Ask:
- How can we help?
- How can we be better?
- What business changes are happening in the future that we can
plan for now?
- How can we budget now for those changes?

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Client retention strategy
• Provide excellent customer service
– Sales go hand-in-hand with technical infrastructure
• Foster relationships
– Regular engagement
– Enable relationships to be successful
• Smooth relationships with accounting, onboarding engineer, and
sales assistant
• Asset managing
– Client meetings
– Blue Review process

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Farmer’s Role with Onboarding
• Provide smooth transition to
onboarding project manager
• Facilitate and participate in Quality
Acceptance meeting with
onboarding project manager

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Motivating Compensation Plans
• Base salary + compensation plan
• Reps get % of managed services on a monthly
basis
• Also comped on % of sales margins for products
(hardware & software)

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Hiring Criteria for MSP Sales Roles
Factors to Consider:
• Relationship builder
– Hardest to factor to teach
• Business savvy
• Technical aptitude
– Can take time to build up

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Questions for Nate
• How do the sales people balance hunting new sales
while maintaining current accounts?
• Do the members of your sales team have a quota in
regards to up sells/cross sells?
• How do you ensure successful collaboration
between your outside sales reps and the sales
assistants?
• How are sales assistants compensated?

20. Questions and Discussion

21. Thank you!
Kaitlyn Langer
Community Coordinator
klanger@efolder.net
linkedin.com/in/klanger