Do you have an Annual QBR Playbook?

Although client meetings are getting shorter due to the remote environment, account managers need to pack more into each session. Flooding the client with too much information in a short amount of time leads to an overwhelmed audience, a lack of decisions and countless unorganized follow up meetings. The key is to be able to define all the talking points with the client and spread them out logically over the year. This sets a predictable rhythm for the account manager and the client so they can discuss all salient points and make decisions one step at a time. In this blog we review how to best distribute the topics over the year and the critical points of developing your Annual QBR Playbook.

Your QBR Annual Playbook is your game plan to specify the different topics, decisions and engagement over the year on the different QBRs. This playbook is developed internally and shared with the client to engender alignment.

Different playbooks should be developed for different client segments. If you have only one meeting with a client for a year (as they are small and have no budget for more meetings) you cannot really have a playbook with them. However if they actually have 2 or more meetings a year then a playbook can come in quite handy. We are going to review a 4 meeting QBR formula as this can be applied to medium and larger clients as well.

Are you a time-crunched account manager?

The QBR Annual Playbook helps you understand how your vCIO and Account Management team can maximize their productivity.

1. Decide on the Main Topics

The main topics with the client can be divided into three different areas regarding your service offering.

1. IT Infrastructure - everything about their devices, stack, services, vendors, infrastructure components and connectivity
2. Cloud Services - everything about their applications, cloud subscriptions, storage, integrations, adoption of applications and their Office Suites
3. Cybersecurity - everything about their policy, compliance, awareness, risks, best practices and staying productive with high security standardsThe fourth area is the strategic perspective that brings all these above into a bigger plan with goals, initiatives, budgets and updated services. This gives you the ability to plan with them over the year and get all they need organized into an IT Strategy.

You can shift these topics as you want, but those are the main points we see MSPs discussing in different shapes and forms.

2. Kickstart with Audits

Each quarter should start with an Audit. An audit is a great way to specify “what good looks like” and compare the current reality to that ideal. An Audit also promotes continuity with ever-increasing scores, so they can reflect on their plans while getting closer to the future state. These audits and scoring give a tangible feel for often abstract or unfamiliar topics.

By sending them random thoughts on Cloud or Applications, you can provide them a list of different categories of application types that help with different business problems. That helps them to see the big picture and understand how technology can help their business.

Audits also streamline the account manager’s efforts and gives complete transparency on which client stands on what level of maturity. These audits can be combined into one “IT Excellence” score which gathers the different topics into one number.

3. List the things to review

Often the amount of information you need to share with the clients can be overwhelming. Some QBRs go as planned, but many get sidetracked with rabbit-trail discussions so not all points get the desired attention. 

Listing the different items to review will give you an easier agenda for the meeting, and preparation of a follow up lets them review some items before or after the session. 

In some cases it’s really important to “remember” that you reviewed their security state and they decided not to move forward with a certain action item. If you just missed that review and something goes wrong you have nothing at hand to prove it, or let alone explain that you did not have time to cover that topic over the QBR.

This can be a simple checklist to make sure you track. It will also drive your meetings as they’ll understand you have a list to go through. This practice with a general audit of the topic can be very helpful to cut the time and get aligned and on the same page with all parties.

4. Keep the plans integrated

You need a good QBR system in place that provides a higher level of governance with a client. That means that if an initiative came around over a cybersecurity audit it would not become an ad-hoc project they have no budget to cover. Without a proper IT Strategy each QBR becomes a “sales effort” to get approval on projects, which will reduce engagement.

The IT Strategy part solves this issue. If you have those 3 major cost centers for them (they spend money on IT infrastructure, Cloud and Cybersecurity) then the 4th session is to plan and budget in general. That gives the eagle eye level of view of their “current scores”, “future scores” initiatives and budgets. So as this is planned a year upfront the Quarterly Business Reviews of the different topics helps to “fill the blanks” and get decisions on critical initiatives within their budget.

Often working with less mature clients raises the “we have no budget” problem, as they do not plan for expenses on cybersecurity or applications. We have no place on this blog to go into the details, but there is a quick hint to generate a placeholder budget with them over the year: use an “industry benchmark” IT budget as a placeholder for their spendings. You can pick a percentile of revenue for a ballpark and reference for low maturity (5%), medium maturity (7%) and high maturity (9%). That establishes a “reasonable” budget where their IT spending should fall. 

This helps to have those detailed discussions spread over the year and not get into the “sales” conversations every quarter.

Conclusion

Managing your client’s technology is not easy. It takes time and effort from both sides. You are the leader of technology so your role is to create a framework for them to review, decide on and implement development projects to make their IT work for their business. Creating an Annual QBR Roadmap gives a framework and drives those crucial conversations.

Are you a time-crunched account manager?

The QBR Annual Playbook helps you understand how your vCIO and Account Management team can maximize their productivity.

What to ask from executives on a QBR?

Most MSPs enjoy great personal relationships with office managers and technical contact people because of their regular work together. As executives are not part of the operation it is very important to know them better, understand them better and build strong relationships with them through the only touchpoint you have: Quarterly Business Reviews.

In this article, we check the 8 most important areas you can cover with your executives to get more engagement.

1. Personal related questions

Why ask:
Essentially every business decision executives make root back to personal priorities. If you understand them better as a person, you understand their business better. That gives you the opportunity to offer better guidance and become a trusted advisor for them personally.

• What they are worried about
• What are their personal challenges
• What personal goals they have

2. Competitive landscape related

Why ask:
Their competitive landscape is their playing field. Their competitors, their differentiation, their value proposition and how they compare to others are very important to know. This helps you to find solutions for them to become more competitive.


What to look for:

• What is their competitive advantage
• Why are they winning clients over the competition
• Why are they losing deals to the competition
• How their market is changing
• Any opportunity they see in the market right now

3. Clients related

Why ask:
Their clients are their source of revenue, so client requirements are very important. Understanding their challenges with their clients can help you come up with valuable ideas. How for example technology can enable them to communicate faster, better and easier with them.


What to look for:

• Who are their best clients and why
• What makes their clients happy
• How do they communicate and collaborate with them

4. Growth related

Why ask:
Knowing their past growth and future forecast is critical to see where their business is going. If they have healthy growth, expansion is on the horizon and they need to scale and have resources for developments. If they have growth issues then they might be cautious with budgets but investments in technology might unlock their growth potential.


What to look for:

• Past growth targets and actuals
• Future predictions, goals and forecasts
• Internal and external bottlenecks of growth

5. Marketing related

Why ask:
Their marketing channels have dramatically changed over recent years by the introduction of social media, eCommerce platforms and the changes in consumer behaviours. Understanding the adoption of these new marketing trends is important to see where technology can help them to build their brand, generate leads and promote their products better.

What to look for:

• How they are leveraging social media and eCommerce platforms
• How they are getting leads and how the channels have been changed over the years
• What are their online marketing strategies

6. Sales related

Why ask:
The ability to constantly sell services and products determine the top line of the organization. If the top line is healthy the bottom line can be healthy, as well. If sales are growing that encourages executives and they become more optimistic and open to IT-related developments. However, with a lack of sales, they are more conservative on general IT spending but always interested in how technology can boost their sales.

What to look for:

• Effectiveness of their sales process
• Visibility, transparency of sales with information, report and accountability
• Bottlenecks of sales

7. Operation Efficiency related

Why ask:
Every organization is full of internal challenges. Broken processes, client experience issues, productivity challenges or growth pains. The quest for operation excellence never stops. This is the easiest topic to engage executives: what is broken and how do we help fix it? It can be a report, an integration, a new application or just better communication.

What to look for:

What processes are broken and why
What is the single most painful bottleneck of the company
What part of the business process generates the most noise in the organization

8. Management related

Why ask:
Every executive leads other people. Managing expectations, meeting with others, communicating, leading projects, accessing information and making decisions are their everyday life. Most of their personal frustrations and excitements are about their management role. Anything that can help them be more productive and become better leaders are a priority.

What to look for:

• Management challenges
• Personal productivity issues
• Communication, collaboration and project management issues

Covering these topics regularly with your executives puts you in a position where you are able to solve their Business Problems. That leads you to become a trusted advisor for them.

Are you truly engaging your client executives and owners?

Download our Executive QBR Power QuestionS 

The reason why QBRs are not repeteable

If you’re an MSP doing Quarterly Business Reviews / Business Strategy Reviews / Technology Business Reviews or anything along those lines, you might have noticed a chronic hurdle: it’s impossible to wrap a process around them that has traction for more than a few quarters. Thus it’s hard to make those productive, engaging, and repeatable. The result is either an ever broken process or the owner of the MSP is stuck in these meetings and prevented from focusing on more strategic work.

What quarterly business review (QBR) means in the MSP market?

As many decision makers of your clients don't play an active role in the day-to-day IT operation, they're often oblivious to the MSP's performance, hard work and value they deliver. A Quarterly Business Review meeting is the single most important opportunity for MSPs to generate executive level client engagement, demonstrate value, discuss business priorities and expand their services.

Why SOME MSP's QBRs are broken

The problem is a too tactical viewpoint of your client engagement process. Typically people in an MSP see various issues with clients that should be solved. Examples:

1. clients are not adopting standards
2. clients don't update their devices
3. clients aren't using Office 365 to its potential
4. clients do not understand the services
5. clients are looking at the competition
6. clients are bargaining on price
7. executives are not engaged
8. agreements are old needs renewals
9. clients are not in the new stack and items need adoption

The list can go long, but the fact is that issues are constantly surfacing that need attention, and most need to be addressed together with the clients. They believe that the root cause of the problem is the lack of proper communication on a particular topic. The tactical approach is taken: wrap a QBR process around the issues. 

Now they have found the topics for the QBR, they automate the process. They start to look for tools and practices to streamline the conversation on those essential topics with some structure:

• standards and their score of adoption report (clients are not adopting standards)
• warranty report with recommendations (clients not updating their devices)
• Office 365 adoption report (clients are not using Office 365 for it 's potential)
• Service utilization report (clients do not understand the services)
• Service Satisfaction and Ticket Reports (clients are looking for the competitors, clients are bargaining on price)zoo
• Strategy Technology Reports (executives are not engaged)
• Service Agreement Renewals (agreements are old needs renewals)
• Solution Stack Adoption Report (clients are not in the new stack, items needs adoption)

Why is this a flawed approach?

The approach is not sustainable as it does not address the real problem. The real question is not that those topics need to be discussed with a client efficiently. The root problem is that ALL of those topics must be covered with ALL clients REGULARLY in a very compressed time frame.

If an MSP misses ANY of those conversations with a client, they start to build up an account management debt with the client. More account management debt means less engagement, more risk, and lower profitability with a client. 

What is Winning practice?

The more strategic approach for client engagement is solving the root problem. The MSP defines all the possible topics to cover with the various audiences of the client. The MSP sets the general priorities of introducing a process for the given communication need, and also specifies the system to be able to spread topics with clients over a yearly period in client-specific QBRs.

Step 1: Define the topics by audience:

Now the MSP defines what needs to be developed and priority.

7 example topics with executives for strategy/business engagement

• Business Strategy Analysis
• Technology Landscape Review
• SWOT Analysis
• Competitive Analysis
• Digital Transformation Strategy Planning
• IT Infrastructure Development Planning
• Business Application Planning

7 example topics for executives for strategy/technology engagement

• Technology Health Review
• Cybersecurity Health Review
• Information Management Review
• Policy and Compliance Analysis
• Technology Improvement Roadmap Planning
• Technology Initiative Planning
• Technology Budget Planning

7 example topics for Managers for Tactical/Business engagement

• Service Process Reviews
• Team Scorecard Review
• Customer Satisfaction Review
• Master Service Agreement Review
• Service Utilization Reports
• Project Reviews
• Budget Reviews

7 example topics for managers tactical/technology engagement

• Solution Stack Compliance Reviews
• Project Reviews
• Ticket Reviews
• Operation Scorecard Review
• Critical System Reviews
• DR / BC Planning
• Warranty Reports

The case might be that the MSP decides to start with the Tactical/Technology part to engage the main contact person AND start some strategic conversation with executives with a Business Strategy Review. Now both main stakeholders are going to be engaged until the remaining topics unfold in the quarters to come.

Step 2. Set Development Priorities

These 28 example topics cannot fit into a single QBR session nor be developed over a quarter. That means the next step is to set priorities and craft a mini development roadmap of the most important issues. That defines the solutions for the most critical issues kept in mind; the rest being dealt with over the next few quarters.

It also gives an opportunity to slowly build the systems around the solutions, test the processes, and help clients adopt topics quarter by quarter.

That allows the MSP owner to relax and see how the client engagement topics are going to be developed over time. Also, it gives confidence to the AM team that it won't be just a "quick fix" with "another tool."

Step 3. Plan the solution stack and automate

Now, the QBR process is not determined by any "QBR solution", but it is an open book of topics and ideas. The problem is QBR solutions offer specific QBR processes for the topics THEY see important. These topics could be "Best Practice Adoption" some for "Lifecycle Management", some for "Strategy Overview", some for "Asset Management". The adoption of those tools solves one problem only and it’s always a temporary one. It does not promote covering "all topics", does not promote a roadmap to develop further and does not even promote the MSP's special take on those critical meetings.

Instead, what is needed is an open hub for defining and discussing the topics and automation to gather inputs for the meetings and setting outputs after. 

If a topic example is Solution Stack Standardization, then the input is a score of their current Stack Adoption, and the output from the meeting is a set of recommended processes. This is a standard process; many tools can leverage.

However, if you have many topics distributed throughout the year and you would like to track which topic was covered with which client you need more horsepower to automate this.

Conclusion:

The philosophy of applying tactical solutions for a QBR with clients was a great process to start any QBR conversations with clients. However, as the operation matures, client expectations start varying. The technology service provider competition means more top MSPs need to see their QBRs as a real strategic differentiator. They need to be ahead of the curve, stay unique, and articulate their value for all client audiences.

All of your clients are 100% aligned and engaged?

Download OUR QBR Discussion Points Checklist

Lessons Learned: How to thrive during uncertain times

Throughout the pandemic and these times of uncertainty, we’ve seen various industries defaulting to panic mode. They don’t know what to do or what’s coming next, so they hold their breath, make decisions in the moment and hope for the best. Moving from one thing to the next without strategy has left these employees increasingly tired and unmotivated. 

In the technology world, we have a phrase for this practice that we hear multiple times a day: Firefighting. Firefighting means you’re spending your day putting out one fire after, always moving to the next issue with no time to plan ahead or create solid solutions for the future.

Being stuck in this firefighting mode comes with a big problem: burnout.  Always having something to do is fun at first; it feels like you’re coming in as a hero and fixing the problem. Then reality hits. You aren’t getting anything done, you’re just bouncing around from one thing to the next and creating recurring problems.  Fortunately, there’s a way to stop this, and that’s where Lessons Learned comes in.

Lessons Learned is one of those phrases that we see thrown around anecdotally, but rarely is it actually used in practice.  This is a pity because learning from your mistakes is what differentiates people who thrive during stress versus people who simply get through it. 

In an unprecedented and often difficult time like this, you have to make sure you come out on top. Here’s how: whenever you triage and fix an issue, you MUST schedule time to talk about it later. This is called a Lessons Learned. You will ask these three questions during the follow up:

• What went well?
• What went poorly?
• What actions do we have to take?

Lessons Learned: How to thrive during uncertain times

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Let’s look at these questions in more detail and explore how you can do it in practice. Implementing this Lessons Learned process will put you ahead of your competition when it comes to overcoming business challenges that have resulted from the pandemic.

• What went well? - During this question, you will mark down the things you always want to do. Remind your staff and yourself of what you consistently do well and what you want to continue doing.
• What went poorly? - What hindered your progress? You want to mark down what would have led to a better resolution.
• What action items do we have? - This is where you take action! Take what went well and document it so you can do it again. Take what went poorly and make sure it does not happen next time. Maybe you need a tool, maybe you need better communication, or maybe you need better strategy. Whatever it is, identify it and then put it into action.  

This may seem obvious and overly simplistic, but here is the problem: if it’s so easy, why haven’t you been doing it?  There’s no better time to implement this process than right now, because COVID-19 is still in full swing and issues will continue to arise and increase. You can answer these three questions in less than five minutes, but you often choose to not. One of the biggest reasons is that you plan to do it “someday”. “Someday” means you have no real plan.

So, here is the trick — you must schedule your Lessons Learned and dedicate an adequate amount of time to it. They MUST be on your calendar as soon as you finish troubleshooting, which means it needs to be part of your normal troubleshooting process.

It doesn't matter if it takes minutes and you jot down a few notes, or if it is an hour long meeting with multiple departments. However, you need to do it every time there is a problem.

This is the main action item from your first Lessons Learned.  Start implementing this three-step plan and stop putting out fires. Although this is a challenging time, you can still thrive!

Here is your first lessons learned:

• What went well:    You are triaging clients and keeping them running smoothly.
• What went poorly: You aren't following up on long term strategy to help your client’s success.
• Action Item:  We will be hosting a 1 hour webinar on September 7th to walk you through successful delivery of a lessons learned using an amazing tool that makes it easy.  Sign up today!

Lessons Learned: How to thrive during uncertain times

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vCIO: The Ultimate Guide

The vCIO or Virtual CIO (virtual chief information officer) term was popularized in the managed services industry to initially differentiate one MSP from another by adding higher-level management practices to their services.

The term has been overused and without a lack of an accepted definition, certification or agreement across the industry the term has lost its original meaning. As any MSP could claim to provide vCIO services it is no longer the main differentiator. Meanwhile, the service provided by vCIOs has become more relevant than ever.

That is why most MSPs have their own terminology for the vCIO role such as digital advisor, digital consultant, business technology advisor, and so on. 

The 6 Steps of the IT Consultative Sales Process

The currently dominant sales processes aren’t able to generate enough leads nor provide proper differentiation for MSPs. This undermines any chance for predictable growth. When they aren’t able to win new business in a predictable way, managed services providers can’t grow, develop new services, hire the ‘A’ players, develop internal processes or scale. The root problem is that the current transactional (the client is looking for an IT provider) and solution (IT Infrastructure or NIST Cybersecurity Assessments) sales models are reactionary. These methods assume that the client understands the problem and has a pretty good idea of the solution they’re looking for. These models don’t enable the managed services provider to elevate the message, educate the client about what’s important, differentiate the MSP’s offering, set proper expectations, or start a conversation without a buying intent. The IT consultative sales process does all of that and thus provides far more predictability.

Why IT Consultative Sales important for MSPs?

The IT service market has been saturated, the offerings have matured and the typical IT infrastructure problems are easily solved. Generating demand among high-value, high-maturity clients with business potential is a challenge as they very likely already have an IT service provider they’re happy with. Potential clients are not out shopping.

Once the referral channels have dried out, selling MSP services became a very unpredictable and long process. If a prospect has no visible pain she won't change her provider if only for a better price. It’s difficult to differentiate from the competition as everybody can claim to be a world-class MSP.

The current transactional and solution sales processes have proven to be successful when prospects have immediate and obvious IT needs. That’s why referrals worked so well and why inbound calls get through the website. IT infrastructure or cybersecurity assessments have been a big help to manage the process by qualifying clients and offering an IT solution.

The IT consultative sales process is a proactive one, that does not require the prospect to start the buying process and it performs better on this new landscape.

What is the process of IT Consultative Sales?

The IT consultative sales process consists of six major steps. Each works toward differentiating your MSP business from the current competition by redefining the market and services. You are not claiming “to be better, faster, cheaper, or more” you are claiming to solve different problems and defining a unique context of your IT services. The process itself helps to set their expectations of their current provider higher and to evaluate them in your context.

1. Differentiate Your MSP’s Message - The IT consultative sales process starts by developing an elevated message. This message drives a wedge between you and your market competitors, reframes the problem the prospect has as well as the expectations. Typically this is a new “category” of services they have not used before.
2. Capture Leads with Education on Business Problems They Want to Solve - The sales process is supported by specific, unique, and very valuable content. This content helps to educate your potential clients on the business problems they want to solve, relates to your services and exhibits the value of the “category” of your services.
3. Qualify Leads Focusing on Quick Win Solutions - The lead generators are followed by a first interaction which is your introduction. This first meeting sets you apart from the current IT service provider “category” and quickly demonstrates many of their current problems you can actually solve.
4. Deliver Value Connecting Business Problems to Technology Solutions - The first meeting leads to a business workshop where you are able to lay down the map for success. You can articulate their business challenges, current reality and set proper IT goals for them. This workshop helps them translate the “vision” to actionable steps.
5. Gain Clarity with Proposals - Your proposal does not consist of a final and large commitment engagement (such as switching their managed service provider). Instead it’s a “springboard” engagement, which is easier to buy and solves a very specific problem.
6. Upsell Your Clients - This process expands the IT strategy where the client starts engaging you, leading to further engagement and value delivery.. 

HOW DO I LEARN MORE ABOUT IT CONSULTATIVE SALES?

The 3 best consultative sales books:

1. Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship
2. The SaaS Sales Method: Sales As a Science
3. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

The 3 best consultative sales videos:

1. The Power of Remote Sales
2. What is the Difference Between Consultative Selling and Normal Selling?
3. What's the difference between Consultative and Provocative Selling?

The 3 best consultative sales blogs:

1. The 6 Principles of a Consultative Sales Process
2. The Consultative Sales Process: A New Model of Selling
3. Digital Maturity Group

3 previously posted Managed Services Platform blogs about IT consultative sales:  

1. Two Ways to Differentiate Your MSP
2. What is the One Business Skill MSP Leaders Can Teach Their Clients?
3. Why MSPs are not Closing Business Enough

5 reasons MSPs do not have predictable IT sales

If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you’re the best managed IT service provider in town, you have the most mature offering, hire and train the best people, and have the best internal processes an MSP can imagine. However, it’s also probable that your sales are just not at the level you want them to be. You are not alone. Even the best MSPs have issues with sales. But underperformance in sales is only one symptom of the problem. The root cause is that your sales are not predictable, and this leads to all sorts of issues. Let's dig into the cause, then see what you can do, then develop a plan to make this happen!

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In the good old days, referrals from your clients came in like clockwork. With your client's testimonials, you were able to close 80-90% of the leads you generated. The competition was weak, and it was pretty easy to communicate why your service offering is superior. IT problems were obvious to clients and business owners wanted to solve those visible issues to grow their business.

Over time your potential clients have been increasingly able to solve their visible IT issues. The market is saturated and it’s now very hard to differentiate. Compounding all this is dramatically decreasing opportunities coming from referrals.

This leads to several issues: 

Coming in second against "trunk slammers" who win your well-deserved deals by undercutting your prices. It’s frustrating because you know the service quality will be lacking, and the client will be unhappy.

The new website with expensive marketing materials even promoted by paid advertisements did not yield results. Leads are coming in from all over the place but your well-crafted marketing campaigns.

You hired an IT sales expert or inside sales lead generation company, but the calls were unqualified and you couldn’t convey your message, so most conversations didn’t lead to sales.

"Building an MSP is hard enough, and business owners should have a predictable sales process to fuel the company internal process and service developments."

What are the main reasons for IT sales being unpredictable?

I know you want to jump into the solutions, but the major part of solving a problem is understanding the causes. Let's go quickly through the main issues:

1. You want Control but your IT sales is too reactionary

You may have noticed a trend of business owners getting motivated to switching IT providers or replacing internal IT when "SOMETHING" happens. It can be anything. Their IT guy leaves them, their IT provider finally dropped the ball and they’re fed up, or they’ve realized that they have outgrown their provider. 

The key is that "SOMETHING" has happened, which leads to the need for a new provider. After this "SOMETHING" has happened, they google the local managed IT service providers, and the IT sales activity starts without delay. 

This "SOMETHING" is out of your control. It can’t be triggered by you, but without it none of your MSP marketing and IT sales activities can start effectively generating predictable demand.

That leads you to invest in MSP marketing and IT sales, but with no control over meager demand being generated for your services.

2. You want to solve real problems but prospects look only for "Better IT"

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses" - Henry Ford

Your prospects are no different. You have been solving root problems they do not even understand need to be addressed. They don’t know why the world needs security policies, an IT roadmap, or moving legacy things to the cloud. They want "better IT", whatever it means. Your sophisticated approach can be intimidating and let them feel "we are not there yet". But eliminating those issues would create "better IT" eventually.

Your "trunk slammer" competition can cater to their needs with deceptive communication. Not that they are bad guys, but they can address the client's needs very inexpensively. Yes, they’re soothing the symptoms, but not curing the disease, because their methods are very cheap. That never actually achieves "better IT" so they keep changing providers, and repeating the trial. That can engender a negative view overall - "IT guys are all the same... they just don’t get it".

That all means you lose deals even though you are the clear choice for the discerning business and were confident at the IT sales meeting that you got this.

3. You want to solve business problems but "they just don't get it"

Remember how IT sales used to be much easier when your value was more obvious and naturally presented? They had slow computers, and you gave them fast computers. They had slow internet, you gave them fast internet. They had devices, cables, and applications all over the place and you uncluttered it. Primarily your solutions were DIRECTLY addressing their obvious tangible pains.

Unfortunately, your other values such as proactive support, IT Roadmap, unified stack, employee education, and security policies don’t perform so DIRECTLY. They have to burn calories to understand why an IT roadmap and a lifecycle management plan lower the cost of their IT investments. They just don’t see any of this as clearly as they understood the faster computer benefits.

Now you’ve become disconnected from most of your prospects. You feel like there are no "ideal" customers out there anymore.

4. You want to Differentiate but the "other IT guys" are all around.

"To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail." - Anonymous

Your marketing and sales effort is geared toward the "problems" and "pains" you can solve. And no wonder all your competition promises to solve the same sets of problems. As more providers start up, more people are fishing in your pond. As fewer clients can perceive the less obvious IT problems, the smaller the pond is.

However, there is another pond. A pond which is getting bigger and is still mostly undiscovered. It takes courage to leave the pond everybody is fishing in for an empty pond nobody seems to be interested in.

This pond is full of mature, financially stable companies with leadership teams that have already invested in IT, and have no VISIBLE IT problems. They have their managed IT service provider already and they are happy with it. 

However, these companies are suffering different problems that seem unrelated to IT infrastructure, like weak employee productivity, lack of excellent internal communication, the management team lacking proper data in their weekly reports or the need to automate many cumbersome processes. These are NOT VISIBLE IT problems, but you can solve them, and communicate this to generate interest.

Without finding the right pond to fish in, you are lost in the noise and have no chance to differentiate.

5. You feel you got the deal this but the prospect goes dark on you.

The last issue is not something new for you. Engaging with you takes a bold move from your prospects. They need to trust they can give you the keys to their kingdom, they need to invest in their infrastructure, they need to talk to the MSP they’re leaving, exposing them to security risks, they need to face some internal challenges of adopting new processes and come to terms with why they are paying twice what they did before.

The barrier of entry and the switching of costs are enormous for your clients. I know you try to offset this with "free onboarding" or very generous project prices upfront. But this is a fact that the better your services are, and the better your solution stack is, and the higher your maturity is, their switching cost is going to be even higher. The switching cost can be the sole cause  that kills your deal.

Without the experience of being a client, they do not understand why they should be a client. It’s a Catch 22.

Without being able to engage them with low-risk, low-switching cost engagements, your competition might steal your deals as the perceived switching costs might be way lower.

What can you do to make your IT sales predictable?

This article is geared toward the realization of the problem rather than the presentation of the solution. But I do not want to leave you hanging without any hint of what can be done. So here it is in a nutshell.

1. Elevate the message

Your IT Infrastructure, Cloud, or even cyber security theme do not provide the necessary differentiation and the leading edge you need. 

Your theme has to address the pains and problems of executives, not the subject of your service offering. 

Your theme has to be exciting and forward-thinking enough to attract the business owners who have NO VISIBLE IT problems yet. 

Your theme has to make your competition puzzled and too scared to even try to copy. 

I am not going to spoil anything here, and you know why.... because we do not want to educate your competition, right? More later...

This elevated message helps you to build a marketing and sales funnel that actively attracts your ideal target clients. It makes lead generation more natural and has conversations with prospects without requiring the "SOMETHING" to happen to them to look for providers.

2. Implement a IT Consultative Sales Funnel

IT Consultative Sales Funnel is a very special funnel. It is a thorough, slow, and step-by-step process to educate your prospects and provide value along the way. It is not for the impatient ones. The IT sales process consists of a well-crafted landing page leading to a well-crafted lead generator leading to a well-crafted call to action, then to a well crafted first conversation to a well-crafted consultation meeting and then a well-crafted proposal leading to a well-crafted paid consultation engagement leading to well-crafted processes to expand to ongoing services. 

Wow... this is a process of eight different well-crafted things... you might feel overwhelmed. The exciting thing is that as the process is linear, pushing people to the top of the funnel and optimizing the steps to help them get through is pretty simple. Also, it gives you a unique process, and is invisible to your ever-catching-up competition.

3. Kickstart The IT Sales with Specific Campaigns

Your IT consultative sales process has enormous advantages: 

It can be applied to any part of the sales funnel. It can be at the top of the funnel for people who don’t yet realize they have problems down to prospects with whom you had some engagement recently and lost a deal.

It can be applied to existing clients as well. As the process has consultative elements, you can perform those events with them for client engagement or even expansion.

It can be a great source of referrals. Not to become a client directly but referrals to get more qualified leads into your IT consultative sales funnel. You can distribute this funnel quickly to your clients and ask referrals for the consulting engagements. (like your consulting sales process has an attractive lead generator, or you have a Workshop of any kind that can be referred to). This can be viral, meaning the leads can be generated automatically based on your IT consultative sales activities. Just like, you may remember, for dropbox.

With only parts of the IT sales funnel ready, you can kickstart campaigns for prospects and clients to start fueling your referral engine. 

Plan to make a predictable IT sales funnel

I know this is a lot to take in—many new concepts from the "SOMETHING" to different ponds to fish in and entry barriers. There are many new concepts from fueled referrals and IT consultative sales. I know... this is good news... the more overwhelming this is, the more difficult it’ll be for your cheap competition to emulate.

Also, you might feel this is a "ton of work" you cannot commit to.

But you have a choice to make. To step back now or to push this further. Ignore the opportunity or move and learn more. If you are the brave type, if you are like the cutting edge, if you are thinking forward, you know this is worth exploring further. We know you need a plan to put this together and have a process to implement the ideas.

A blog can’t cover it all, and we wanted to do more...

We created a 7 Day Video Series to go into the details. Why 7 days? Because you can leverage a 5 Step Framework and a 2 Step Implementation Process. We want to give you time to digest all steps separately and let the different action items sink in. It will provide you with a quick but comprehensive look at the actions that need to be taken for predictable sales.

Why did we do that? We believe that MSP owners have been working too much too hard on their business and deserve more predictability. One thing that seems out of control for you is sales. We want to help solve this problem so you can predictably grow your business. You can provide predictability for your employees and their families and get rid of the anxiety of being unable to control your business's primary source of fuel: new clients.

Podcast That Bridges the Gap Between Business and Technology

I have long been a huge podcast fan. I listen when I drive, hike or while working out, but I had trouble finding something great to share with our MSP community. I told this to Adam Walter about a year ago and he took up the challenge. Now after hearing the 7th episode of his Humanize IT podcast, I decided to put out this blog for our audience to make sure the word got out. I love this new voice and narrative about how to differentiate, how to serve and how to run an MSP of the future. He has been interviewing the most forward thinking MSP leaders about how to make IT more human, how to drive great conversations and how to deliver business value to clients.

Check out the latest episodes here. Thanks to Adam for doing this for the community!

Based on Wikipedia Humanize means to "make (something) more humane or civilized." The main concept of the Humanize IT podcast is to bridge the gap between business and technology — a fun, educational podcast that will keep you relevant, maximize your value and help your clients see you as a trusted partner. In each episode, hosts Adam Walter, Skip Ziegler and other industry experts will show business owners, technology professionals and problem-solvers how to excel their careers with a new, more conversation-based approach to IT!

In this episode, they kick off the "Tales From Around the World" series.  This first episode features Richard Bauer, an engineer from South Africa's own Cape Town.  We hear about how they are being affected and some of the positive items they are seeing. From homemade pineapple beer to remote work strategies, we cover it all. Richard is a client of ours and a very forward thinking guy.

Tools allow us to either fix things more quickly or, if used incorrectly, break things in epic new ways. Bob Mohr joins them for a lively conversation regarding all the tools we amass over time.  Whether you're a plumber or a technician, we all have tools we trust, and there are always new tools emerging that we must adapt to and integrate along the way. Bob is one of the mastermind behind our vCIO programs.

As a business owner, you may be left wondering how to stay productive when your staff is working in different environments.  This episode will help you manage a distributed workforce. And, don't miss our most hilarious Fail of the Week yet!

 

 

In this episode, they dive in and discuss the effects of disaster recovery and business continuity facing us today. With the current COVID situation, this is a particularly poignant topic, They'll help you overcome and adapt to changes so you can thrive during this time. 

 

In this hard-hitting episode, we talk through how you can ruin a perfectly good idea by not being prepared and give you strategies to avoid this situation. I was the guest of this Podcast and man... it was a hard lesson when we prematurely scaled our MSP back. It still hurts.

 

 As a professional, it's your responsibility to not only deliver value, but communicate it, as well. If you don't take charge of your communication channels, you'll likely walk into a trap where you and your clients have differing expectations of each other. This podcast will help you ensure everyone is on the same page. 

 

 

As business professionals, we often get so caught up in the latest and greatest technology that we forget how far we've come. In this entertaining blast-from-the-past episode, we talk about problems from a bygone era — the days of countless floppy disks and crazy hardware. No matter how advanced technology gets, it's always good to remember where we started. 

Listen, subscribe and engage and again thanks for Adam, Skip and the Virtual-C team to made it happen!

Your web conference setup sucks (and how to fix it)

In today’s distributed workforce everyone is settling into a routine. Many, however,  haven't really put objective thought into how their presence is viewed by their clients. We are still playing by old rules: dress nice, speak clearly, have a predefined agenda. This is no longer the case, and it takes a back seat to web presence. So, for those of you who don’t want to read this whole thing, here are the 3 things you need to know.

1. Your web setup is too casual and unprofessional.
2. Your current setup will cost you customers in the long run.
3. For less than the cost of a new outfit you can distinguish yourself.

We have been given a lot of grace lately but this is going to change.  There is a right way to present yourself online, just as there is a right way to present yourself in an in-person meeting.  Would you show up to a meeting without considering your appearance? Right now you think you look nice but in reality you are coming across like a 5th year college senior. Let us show you how you could look with a little work and you can decide if it is worth it.  

Honestly you are being outperformed by twitch kids in their mom’s basement.  Let's fix that.

Your sound sucks

One of the problems we have with web meetings is that even if you are dressed for success you can still look and sound like crap. That three piece suit will not save you if your microphone makes you sound like you are under water. Let me say this clearly:

Sound is King.

It no longer matters how many thousands of dollars you have spent on a wardrobe, your customer will not pay attention if they cannot understand you.

For less than a pair of cheap shoes you can upgrade your microphone. Blue Snowball mics are pretty much idiot proof. However, feel free to do your own research. But get ANYTHING that is not a built in mic on a webcam or laptop.

You look terrible

Most built in webcams as well are horrible. Some of you are lucky enough to have a high def camera but they still have crappy lenses.There is only so much you can do with a tiny lens that was meant for quick conversations and government spying.  A good camera is less than a sport coat from an outlet store. Getting a Logitech Brio will make that colorful outfit really look stunning even in low light.

Also lets talk light,  your houses are dark places. Instead of new pants, get a ring light or soft box from your favorite vendor, brighter is better, but make it dimmable because you value your eyes. Open your windows, sit them on one side of you, do not look directly into them.  One side of your body should be lighter than the other.

FLOOD your room with light. 

If you think you have too much light in your room you are wrong. For comparison I have 3 west facing windows 9 sq ft each wide open and 2x15,000 Lux lights at 6800K.  You should be able to do surgery in my room.  So...no, your room isn’t too bright.

In web meetings your eyes need to stay focused just below the camera, not on the screen.  Have a hard time with eye contact? Now is your time to shine.  Do NOT look at people unless you are trying to read expressions, look just below your webcam while presenting, this will keep people’s attention and make them feel like you are talking to them.

Follow these basic rules and when you interact with people you will stand out. If you are bidding for new clients you will look amazing and they will want this professional to be on their team.  The right basic setup will differentiate you from everyone else. All for less than the cost of a new outfit.

How to craft a perfect QBR Process

Quarterly Business Reviews are tricky. Some clients are not engaged with your QBRs and require a different approach, some clients don't justify the time spent on a QBR every quarter, and some clients are more mature and need different reports, even some demanding complete technology roadmaps and updates...do you need a custom QBR template for each client?! If there's no one fit-for-all QBR process or template it seems that scaling Account Management and vCIO is going to be near impossible, since every client is different.

In this article we show you a method to assess the complexity of your QBR needs and the time you can afford to run those meetings. Then we introduce three different types of QBRs with all the major agenda points, and we'll show you how those QBRs look in an example.

So you'd like to get set up and running quickly with your QBRs to generate client engagement and opportunities with Project Roadmaps?

The vast amount of selection of report templates, widgets and software functions can be overwhelming when you start. We put together a quick guide to let you choose not only the templates but the best approach and software functions as well.

STRUCTURE, MANAGE AND AUTOMATE YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND VCIO PROCESESS

Prerequisites:

Before we jump in, just a reminder of the four roles of Client Engagement. If you have not yet read the article you might start there. The four roles that make you a high value business partner

A quick refresher: The idea is that there are four critical roles your company needs in order to engage a client. These roles are distributed among Strategic/Tactical and Business/Technology domains. The challenges is to make sure you command all domains and communicate priorities with clients. This is a basis of planning and designing a QBR.

With respect to the four roles in your QBR there are communication agenda items for each:

What we are going to address here is which role and which agenda should be covered with the different types of clients and circumstances.

Walkthrough:

In this video we are going through the 3 steps that will find you the best template for your QBR.

1. How to do a quick self assessment - now you know what approaches you might need
2. How to choose from the three approaches - now you know what the different approaches do
3. How to perform each approach - now you know what topics are covered and how

Step 1: Self Assessment

Not all QBRs are created equal. Each MSP has their own way to interact with clients based on their current situation.

To choose the right template for your QBR you must first assess your current situation to determine the best course of action.

Assess the Complexity Scale

You should decide whether you have small, medium or high complexity in regard to QBRs.

Average Client Size

• • Large client 75+ seats (high)
  • Mid size client 25-75 seats (medium)
  • Small client 25- seats (low)

The larger your clients are the more complex their business and IT environments can be. This requires assembling more complex reports delivered to different stakeholders.

Your Team Size:

• • A Team delivers QBRs (high)
  • A single Account Manager or vCIO delivers (medium)
  • The MSP Owner delivers (low)

The bigger your team is the more communication, alignment and internal documentation is needed to stay productive.

Audience:

• • Business Focus and Technical focus with multiple stakeholders (high)
  • Mostly Business Focus with Executives (medium)
  • Mostly Office Managers or IT Coordinators (low)

The more people involved throughout the QBR process the more alignment, communication and documentation is needed to get ideas and approvals across.

Decide the Complexity: High / Medium / Low

Considering your answers decide whether you need a Small / Medium or High Complexity approach.

Assess the Effort Scale

You should decide how much time you would like to allocate on the development and the maintenance of the QBRs. This helps to make sure that the process is conducted efficiently and won't be wasted effort.

Time for learning and implementation

• • Less than 3 hours of initial implementation time (low effort)
  • 3-7 hours of initial development time (medium effort)
  • 7-10 hours of initial development time (high effort)

While it is possible to edit and customize the templates, we recommend you start by using the templates as provided. Once you've learned the basics, then, if you have the time and or resources, spend time on customization. 

Preparing a client report:

• • Less than 30 minutes per QBR (low effort)
  • 1 hour per QBR (medium effort)
  • Up to 2 hours per QBR (high effort)

The more time you can dedicate to a QBR the more widgets you can use and the more software functions you can leverage to generate more engaging processes with clients.

Maturity of the current processes:

• • You have a current process in place with automation (low effort)
  • You have a process but need better automation (medium effort)
  • You do not have a current process / best practice (high effort)

The more mature your current QBR process the less time you need to develop your processes and deliver them.

Decide on the Effort: High / Medium / Low

Based on your answers decide whether you have a Small, Medium or High Effort approach.

2. Three Approaches of QBRs

Based on the Complexity / Effort scales, choose which template you'd like to start with.  

Basic QBR

If the effort is medium or low and the complexity is medium or low we suggest you use the Basic QBR.

The process uses a simple IT Infrastructure Audit with a generic MSP IT Infrastructure Health Assessment. It helps to quickly assess a client, prepare the report, farm projects and handle all tactical elements ad-hoc.

• Simple and ideal for ad-hoc meetings
• Very quick adoption time (2-3 hours)
• Great for technical related conversations
• Can be done irregularly once or twice a year
• Farming projects to a roadmap
• Very quick preparation time (~30 minute)

Advanced QBR

If both the effort and the complexity sit in the middle we suggest the QBR report template and simply removing or hiding most of the widgets.

The process uses more content widgets to make recurring meetings possible such as meeting agenda, executive overview, what's new, technology landscape and widgets with embedded technology reports such as Brightgauge.

This can leverage the tool's Snapshot feature to show progress over time.

• Add a regular cadence
• Clarity on progress and value
• Accountability with logging the meetings

Expert QBR Approach

If your team is large and your clients are demanding or you are offering this process as a part of a paid engagement we suggest to go all-in. The modular report builder is going to give you many options and functions to use. Again, you can start small and add functions along the way.

Scorecards can be used for getting insights from internal resources, users or their executive team through simple questionnaires, and pushed into scorecards. 

Service Review widget is a way that you can associate service bundles to your clients and review the offered services one-by-one. This is a great way to officially review your services with high maturity and demanding clients.

• Very versatile approach for handling very complex use cases
• Can be branded to your organization for use as an internal report (for internal IT teams)
• High level of PSA integrations allows you to develop very efficient workflows
• The report can be version controlled by an admin and lower permission users can only complete reports
• Combining with the Client Engagement Software overall Client Engagement Scores can be generated

Conclusion

Finding the right way to craft and effectively deliver your QBR requires the following:

• Understanding your Client Engagement roles
• Understanding the QBR agenda for each role
• Understanding what level of complexity in QBRs your clients require
• Understanding how much effort you can put behind a QBR
• Choice of an approach (or multiple if needed)
• Designing the agenda items
• Building a dynamic report that reflects the required outcomes

It might be intimidating but for Managed Services Clients you just need to go through the decision making process and pick our pre-built templates. Customize what you need but always consider the required time of development and delivery implications of those developments.