Madison Strategic Sector Premium Fund : Tracking MSP Sales Pipeline with a PSA Solution

Professional services automation (PSA) solutions are critical business tools that combine data across all the different aspects and functions of running a business-from sales and project management to time tracking, billing, and service desk- into a single-pane-of-glass view to help managed service providers (MSPs) drive efficiency, accountability, and profitability.

Sometimes having all this information right at your fingertips can be overwhelming. You might not have the time to sift through all the data to understand what you should be tracking, what you need to measure and how you're going to create actionable, smart decisions to drive your business towards success.

Everyone has a theory about how you should do this, and processes vary from business to business. However, the most important thing is to find out what works best for you. Let's use your sales process as an example. Using a PSA solution, you can help simplify the way in which you track and target your sales, and you can create a much more efficient, streamlined process.

Tracking Your Sales Pipeline With PSA

Developing a sales process or sales pipeline is essential for business growth. Each process will differ from business to business, but generally speaking, a sales process is a repeatable set of steps salespeople follow to move potential clients from a prospect to a customer. The stages of the sales process typically include things like lead generation, determining how you're going to track and set targets, and how you're going to ensure business growth using the tools around you. This is where a PSA solution can help you.

Many MSPs do not have a dedicated sales team. Autotask PSA can help simplify this role with the robust customer relationship management (CRM) component for sales forecasting and pipeline. A forecast offers a short-term view, including what deals are likely to close in the next few months, whereas a pipeline offers the overall view of all opportunities that are still at play across various stages of the buying cycle. Knowing this information will help you identify which opportunities to focus on and when to focus on them. You'll begin to make smart business decisions based on the real-time information your PSA gives you, enabling you to work smarter, not harder.

To learn more about the KPIs every MSP should track with their PSA solution, download this one-pager.