How to structure and reward your sales team for cloud success

SkyKick advocates leading with your “base bundle” for one simple reason

It’s a proven strategy. Your base bundle is the package of cloud services you put together for your customers – one that highlights your expertise in knowing what’s most useful. SkyKick MSP Partners who take this approach have seen two times the growth in their top-line income and four to five times higher bottom-line profitability. 

However, running a highly profitable cloud business isn’t guaranteed even when placing a bundle in market. The key to success is hiring and encouraging motivated salespeople to lead with your base bundle in all situations. This bundle is not something that just gets handed to your cloud focused sales team as a  “cloud-only thing.” No, we advocate that EVERYONE sells this bundle. 

Reward a cloud-first sales mindset

Design a compensation structure that aligns your sales team with strategic objectives — in this case, your base bundle.

Drive faster uptake and velocity of the bundle offering among your sales team by implementing sales accelerators to year one of your base bundle. This tool, when used strategically, builds momentum for the bundle while rewarding your top sellers. At the same time, it also limits compensation for salespersons who underperform. To get started, you’ll want to identify your top objectives. Below are four internal priorities we often see MSPs looking to solve for and how the right compensation allows MSPs to hit their goals. 

Do your sales compensations reflect your priorities?

• Increase annual recurring revenue: Put sales accelerators on over achievement
  
• Reduce churn: Increase commissions for renewals and put accelerators on multiyear contracts
• Improve cash flow: Incentivize deals that include upfront payments and put accelerators on multiyear contracts and expansion
  
• Shift sales model to a multi-product strategy: Add accelerators to bundled sales

Structuring your sales team for cloud success

Salespeople who are used to selling software as a service or outsourced IT services will need to work differently in a cloud-centric sales environment. Lower deal value means your business needs renewals in order to be profitable.
A lower upfront price means high-velocity sales are the only way to achieve real growth. Fortunately, a lower upfront cost generally entices prospective customers. Implementing an effective digital marketing campaign can help you capitalize on this and generate qualified leads at the top of your sales funnel.

SkyKick’s Partners are most successful when they create sales roles customized to sell cloud bundles. Market development and sales development representatives should work alongside account executives (AE) to move potential clients from lead qualification to sales qualified in order to close deals quicker. High-value AEs should focus on driving conversions and closing deals, with account managers focused on successful onboarding experiences. Customer success managers need to encourage continued use and ongoing adoption of cloud services, which is vital in driving renewals and identifying upsell opportunities. Designing role-based incentives and compensation models help ensure there is profitable engagement along each stage of your customers’ lifecycle.

These tips are just a few things that MSPs can do to increase cloud service revenue.