The evolution of Entertainment
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3AyHCUd
Youtube: https://youtu.be/f3VfzE4CSW4
Entertainment and business - do the two of them go hand in hand? Absolutely! This week, we will talk about the entertainment industry and how to apply it to your business.
It is easy to fall into the old idea that the streams of work and play should never cross. But that is not necessarily true. If you think about it, our society is driven by entertainment. For you to be successful, you have to pay attention to what is going on in the entertainment industry.
When you are at work, what tools do you usually utilize? Do you use messaging platforms like Slack or Discord? Do you host virtual meetings with your clients or staff? You can thank the gaming industry for that. Think back to the 90s and early 2000s. Games went from platform leaping side scrolls to remote play. Suddenly, we were able to play games and connect with people all over the world. Next came VR. Now you can share virtual worlds, games and sports with people from the comfort of your own home. Whole companies and businesses have been created using what they learned from gaming messaging platforms and applied it to develop tools that organizations of every kind use on a daily basis.
Need more evidence? Look at crypto-currency. It’s not something you can put in the wallet or purse, but it’s definitely got value! They have turned graphic cards into something that is more than just something cool to look at. It’s an actual form of currency.
Our world is always changing. What engages people, what pulls people in - like it or not, it has to be entertaining. If you want people to lean into your message, they have to enjoy it. This means you have to pay attention to the ongoing trends. Check out the latest YouTube videos or what’s trending on social media. What are people tuning into? What are they watching? What online games are popular? Why? Now, put yourself in your clients’ shoes, answer those questions and help them implement plans to push the envelope and keep them fresh. The same goes for you and your business strategy. Keep up with the times and keep your audience entertained! Your impact will be much stronger when people have fun.
So, how does the formula to success in entertainment match a business model? The answer is simple: When demand increases, so does the value. When the value increases, there’s money to be made! Learn what makes a business tick. Whether it’s you, a client or MSP, it’s up to you to keep things moving. Success is essentially a gaming model. You start on level one, master it and then move on to the next level. It’s up to you to ensure that each level is mastered before moving on to the next.
Now, that’s not to say that everything “old” is obsolete. There’s a whole market for people who still listen to music on cassette or records for the “right” sound. But trends come back! When you know what is happening and what is driving people to engage and tune in, it helps you understand what people value.
Entertainment is successful because it is constantly evolving. It tries something new, releases it to the public and tests the waters. It may not always work, but when it does it can lead to big wins. Businesses do the same thing and like entertainment, they have to change in order to stay relevant. Switch on, power up and be entertaining!
Tech and Teens
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3AyHCUd
We’ve got a very special guest with us for this week’s episode: Lizzie Walter, my daughter! We’re talking about one teenager’s opinion on technology and how it affects school, home life and friendships. Here’s a glimpse into our conversation!
Adam and Skip: What kinds of technologies rule your life right now?
Lizzy: Snapchat and Instagram. I don’t have Snapchat, but most teenagers have them. I usually use Instagram over most other things, even though Instagram is pretty similar to Facebook.
Adam and Skip: When we were in school, we used to have books for classes and carried them around in our backpacks. Today, most people have Chromebooks for school. What do you guys use for school?
Lizzy: Google Classroom, a portal with all of our textbooks and video platforms, Google Keep for notes and Google Classroom to plan and keep track of assignments.
Adam and Skip: Do you trust these technologies, or do you feel the need to check on it and make sure everything is working properly?
Lizzy: I trust that it’s going to be there and give me the information that I need.
Adam and Skip: Google Classroom is pretty accessible. Given the choice, would you rather pick up your phone or your Chromebook?
Lizzy: I prefer my phone to quickly check assignments, but if I have to do something on a Google Doc, then I prefer to use my Chromebook because it’s easier to see and type on. And, It’s less distracting.
Adam and Skip: VR is the new, cool technology in town. How big are you on VR stuff?
Lizzy: It’s cool and all, but most of my friends don’t have a VR headset, so I can’t really talk to them or play with them on that. I have other stuff I can do with my friends.
Adam and Skip: What’s your digital life like at home?
Lizzy: We turn on the TV and everything that we want to watch is there. Sometimes we have to pay for stuff, but that’s becoming less and less of a thing. My phone, the switch and the Xbox are my favorite technologies at home.
Adam and Skip: It’s pretty normal to get mad at technology. Do you ever get frustrated with technology?
Lizzy: Yeah. I probably yell at my phone on a daily basis because something isn’t loading.
Adam and Skip: Do teens unplug or take technology breaks?
Lizzy: Some of us do, but not a lot. I feel like I need that every once in a while. I like being outside and it’s nice to get a break from technology. I really don’t think about how much I use my phone or other technology. I can see how much I use it, but it doesn’t really bother me because I am just used to it.
Adam and Skip: What do your friends think about technology controls or people watching over them on their devices?
Lizzy: I have gotten a few complaints about restrictions, especially when I run out of time on a game.
Adam: Can you explain to everyone what our deal is and how you get restrictions with your phone?
Lizzy: I usually get more restrictions when I am abusing the phone, spending too much time on it or downloading games I’m not supposed to. But, if I’m open with how I’m using my phone and my screen time goes down, then I get more freedom and my restrictions get loosened.
Adam and Skip: To wrap up, what’s one piece of advice you can give tech leaders and parents?
Lizzy: Restrictions are good because they help turn your kid in the right direction. You may think you’re being mean, but in the long run, it’s super helpful.
Just like at Humanize IT, good conversations and open communication help everything run smoothly. Thanks Lizzie for chatting with us about your take on technology! Join us next week for another episode.
Internet of Things
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3uooSU
In this day and age, you have lots of choices when it comes to the internet. These choices can be big or small, from choosing an online banking platform to deciding whether or not to get wifi-capable light bulbs.
These decisions might not seem super important but, with so much at stake, you need to choose what you are allowing technology to influence.
The main thing to look at is the specific value that technology is bringing to the table. It is not bad to embrace new technology or know more about what we are doing, but it’s important that you are getting a return on your investment by implementing technology more into your daily life.
Take a smoker for example. Humans have been smoking meat for a very long time—longer than we’ve had the internet, that’s for sure. Smoking meat has always been fairly simple: you put the meat in and then you wait. It’s a no-fuss cooking process and the hardest part is just being patient. With technology, you now have the option to get a wifi-capable smoker. This allows you to check the temperature of the meat at all times and monitor the cooking process from start to finish. This is not a bad thing, but it seems a bit unnecessary. By opening the smoker and adjusting things or messing with the controls in general, you are making the smoker’s job or smoking meat harder. The best thing to do is just walk away from the smoker and let it do its job without technology messing with the controls.
Sometimes, the less that people know about specific things within their operations, the better. Take the smoker. If you are aware of the whole process and something normal happens that seems like a problem, then you might freak out and do something unnecessary like change the temperature. Ultimately, you are supposed to just let the meat cook and messing with the temperature might end up being the problem that ruins your meal.
You now have more knowledge than before and you don’t know what to do with it. The internet of things provides a lot of features and data, but do you truly need all of that information?
The simplest of things has now become complicated. Troubleshooting has become a whole different ball game with customization available for every single issue in the book. Although technology is important and it does advance our lives, there is not value in every item integrated with the internet.
Here’s a good rule to follow: don’t make something web-capable that you rely on for your livelihood. Be smart about what you are enabling and make sure you know how to function without the internet of things. Also, make sure that it’s improving and enhancing your life and not becoming a distraction.
Why Growing an MSP is so hard?
The Managed Service Provider business model is a complex one and comes loaded with all sorts of challenges. One of the biggest issues is being able to drive predictable growth for the company and to build an operational maturity that can manage that growth at the same time. You’re beset from both sides: MSPs will suffer from their growth being slow and all effort will go into desperate tactical marketing and sales efforts. They’ll also struggle if growth is too fast and all efforts are spent on a tactical fix of their service delivery.
Progressive MSPs have deserved a strategic answer to move from the reactive firefighting mode to a proactive business building model. Let’s review how to solve this problem once and for all.
STRUCTURE, MANAGE AND AUTOMATE YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND VCIO PROCESESS
Flow
A fellow Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity. He wrote an amazing book on the subject called “Flow: The Psychology of Happiness”. His studies revealed that what makes an experience genuinely satisfying is 'flow' - a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity and results in the achievement of a perfect state of happiness. Flow has become the classic work on happiness and a major contribution to contemporary psychology.
The foundational idea is that if you personally face a challenge too big for your skills you feel anxiety as you are overwhelmed by the task in your hands. However, if your skills are developing and you are not facing challenges you feel boredom and lack of motivation. What he pointed out was that the challenge and skills have to be in balance to be able to be happy and grow as an individual.
We’re sure you can see how this idea can translate to growing an MSP…
Your MSP’s Flow state
If you make the analogy apply to growing your managed services you can envision a strategy.
MSP’s Flow state is needed to grow your MSP in a sustainable way. Imagine how it would feel to:
- grow your business by differentiation and win new businesses in a predictable way
- grow by developing, releasing and adopting new services such as cyber security, Cloud or IT Consultation
- grow a happy, motivated and developing team and provide them efficient processes and automation to deliver amazing services
- grow your existing client base by staying relevant, making their businesses more competitive with technology
Flow State
Your MSP’s Flow state is when Operational Maturity Development is balanced with Growth. This is the state where your growth is sustainable, people are motivated, issues are minor, it’s fun to go to work and an exciting journey to run the company. The owner can make enough money to set aside profit for personal reasons but invest back to the company as well. There is a satisfying sense of balance between working “in” the company and working “on” the company.
Cash-Flow Issues State
On the horizontal axis, you see your MSP skills as Operation Maturity which means more professional people, organization, leadership, processes, and automation. This usually leads to higher expenses, salaries, and overall cost increases. If sales aren’t sustainable to match, growth leads to cash-flow issues as expenses overtake revenues.
Service Delivery Issues State
On the vertical axis, you see the growth challenges your MSP is facing which means releasing new services, selling more projects or landing more new clients. This usually leads to service delivery issues such as new client onboarding issues, piling up projects or dropping the ball on day-to-day operations.
Apathy State
This is the state when the MSP is too small to be able to work enough IN the business to generate quality delivery and too small to be able to work enough ON the business to be able to overcome issues and grow. This is not where an MSP should start, but it’s where MANY MSPs find themselves after a successful start, by servicing too many not ideal clients, generating too many services, growing without any structure and entering unprofitable agreements This becomes a constant battle to make ends meet, and a struggle to escape the vicious cycle. This is not what bankrupts and MSP, but is where they get stuck for a long period of time without realizing it.
Reactive vs. Proactive Business Building
The reason for being in any of the yellow - not ideal states is the lack of balance between Customer Development (Win New Businesses and Expand Existing Client Base) and Internal Development (Operation Development and Service Development).
The operational pains (like service delivery issues) force the leadership to focus on fixing problems and pay less attention to winning new businesses or expanding the current client base. They hire new people and buy new tools to let people work on internal projects (which reduces the billable hours overall) which leads to cash-flow issues.
The cash-flow issues force the leadership to shift focus and start generating demand, go after existing clients, do QBRs and close more projects. As the pressure is high they likely close deals with less ideal clients or promise services the team cannot deliver in a sustainable way. They close more projects with clients who need more development, consuming disproportionate resources and so on. The operational pains start to arise again.
This vicious cycle pushes the company from one yellow state to another without staying in the middle for any valuable period of time.
On the contrary, proactive business building is when the organization stays in the “flow state” most of the time. They might take on a new client who is not ideal, they release a new service half baked or simply not paying attention to high-value clients for a while. These are natural imbalances but none of them alone pushes the organization out of balance to force the leadership to shift gears rapidly. Internal Development and the Customer Development is balanced which results in less turmoil, issues, problems and needed damage control.
This might lead to an obvious question: how to actually grow in a proactive way? What is the solution for that? What are the blueprints? Can I follow a 10 step formula?
The bad news: there is no solution…. you have to figure it out by yourself...
The good news: there is no solution… your competition has to figure it out themselves too.
The bottom line… if you excel in this, you can leave your competition behind and wondering how you do it!
Sneak Peek - The Model of Proactive Business Building
I do not want to leave you hanging without giving you a chance to start solving the problem. This is the first article of many we produced on Proactive Business Building. Let’s take a sneak peek of the model we are going to introduce to give you a competitive edge over your competition. The model is not going to solve your problems but will give you a reliable process for you to see negative trends, causes and potential fixes to get this done quickly.
Your growth potential depends on the four different elements we have covered before:
Internal Development:
- New Service Development
- Operation Development
Customer Development:
- Win New Businesses
- Expand Existing Client Base
As you see we can put those elements into an easy thinking framework and call it Growth Potential. This helps you to wrap your head around the concept of Development-type activities for new services and new clients and Operation-type activities for Operation Maturity and Client Engagement.
It might be obvious that these quadrants are highly interdependent. You cannot be great in one without being great with the other three.
There are key activities you can execute better to unlock your growth potential. Here are the 20% activities which will lead you to the 80% result.
New Service Development
- Service Development Process
- Service Development Roadmap
- Services Productization
- Service Catalogue
- Service Marketing
Win New Businesses
- Sales Readiness
- Differentiated Message
- Predictable Demand Generation
- Consultative Sales Process
- Sales Operation
Operation Development
- Internal Development Processes
- Service Delivery
- Project Delivery
- Stack Standardization
- Process Automation
Expand Existing Client Base
- Account Management Services (Tactical)
- vCIO Services (Strategic)
- Client Segmentation and Playbooks
- Client Engagement Operation
- Client Engagement Activities
To unlock the key activities we have been building an assessment and action plan tool to be able to quickly assess your growth potential. The result is a score over the 4 building blocks to review the health of your growth over the various categories.
The assessment gives you an idea where your company stands and what actions need to be taken to get back to a “Flow State”
Stay tuned as these items are going to be published over further blog posts and downloadable PDFs!
Debate on All In vs. Modular MSP pricing
The Managed Services business was created from the traditional suite of desktop management, backup, network and server support. Most MSPs now are offering various services outside the traditional managed infrastructure scope: application management, additional cyber security or virtual CIO services. This is the evolution of managed services, and the right way, however many MSPs have just reactively added some of these services to stay relevant to their customers and protect the core MSP services. They might call themselves "your IT department." Let's check out why it’s a problem and what to do about it.
The problems
Here’s a quick overview of the pitfall of adding more to our managed services delivery without proportional monetization.
- Application Management, IT Security, and vCIO services don’t fall into the core MSP value proposition. Mixing them into the Managed Infrastructure Services creates confusion. The current IT infrastructure expertise was not always so convertible to process, business, or security expertise. Clients may have trouble believing you’re qualified for the others.
- These additional services create confusion in your messaging as well. What makes you better than your competition if you can’t clearly differentiate ourselves? If you just mesh these services into the MSP package, they and the value perceived get lost as "features of the MSP program" rather than stand-alone products.
- As you add services, your MSP offering becomes more expensive. Your competition can still claim the same offering, though it isn’t, and at a lower price point. Clients will see no differentiation and not understand what makes you more expensive.
- If you stack all these services together, you lose flexibility. Clients may not need some of what they’re paying for, so you’ll lose the ability to deliver packages suited to the primary need/lower maturity/small client segment.
Differentiate yourself from your competition and become sales ready in 30 days
This all means if you keep doing the one-size-fits-all "we are your IT department" package, you’ll be lowering your shield to where the competition can hurt you and also dulling your sword in terms of new client acquisition.
What to do
Let's quickly cover some strategies you can apply to make this trend your friend and not your enemy.
- List out the value propositions you’re offering. Managed Infrastructure, Managed Applications, Managed NIST Cyber Security or vCIO. You can add to the list if you need, just make sure you define each as a value category that makes sense to the end client.
- List out all the services you do for your clients and try to place them into the categories. What you’ll see is your complex offering start to make more sense, with an internal consistency that’s both easier to describe and to get the client invested.
- Treat your listed services as your modular (e.g. LEGO) building blocks. Now you can start building up different service bundles based on those blocks. If you focus on the differentiation between Application Management, IT security or vCIO, you will see how you can actually have service bundles as stand-alone products rather than just added features.
Because all your services are going to be in bundles your tech people will have no difficulty knowing what each client has. Also because most of the categories are not related to their infrastructure job, you aren’t creating more complexity on the execution side.
- If you’ve crafted some bundles, you may consider create a basic and a premium offering for each product line. You can end up, for example, with four product lines, two versions each. A basic package will be good for entry level stuff like a small advisory as a vCIO and some starting IT security in the packages.
- Now you can deliver a proper service offering for each client and prospect based on their needs. For example, an accounting firm will have Premium IT Security, Managed Service and Basic vCIO and Application management, whereas an engineering firm will need Premium App management, vCIO, MSP and a basic security package.
Benefits and tradeoffs
Let's see some pros and cons for this strategy
Benefits:
- Now you’re able to give your clients a more tailored offering, and they’ll see that it suits them best, because you could give them a choice.
- Now you can maximize the monetization and profit for each package, because you don’t have to deal with competitive pricing.
- Now you can keep up-selling as their maturity grows, and eventually offer them all premium offerings in years to come.
- Now you can differentiate yourself and get into the battle where the prospect has a strong MSP but the IT Security, App management or vCIO is weak.
- Now you can communicate online and better convert on your website, as three value propositions are not commodities (only the infrastructure component is).
Tradeoffs:
- You have to productize the services and define each clearly (we’ve already defined 100+ services for you in high level of detail)
- You have to keep clients in their swimming lanes with proper account management and internal service management (quarterly business review with discussion is enough in most cases)
- You need a discipline to sell what you deliver and deliver what you sell. With production it’s not a problem, but still a new item.
Just for fun...remember… in 2008 it was only one iPhone available…. How about today? Why do you think Apple has more options in colour, size and storage today?
Conclusion
Consider the benefits and tradeoffs of moving to a different pricing model. Your managed service will be evolving in a more rapid pace as client needs evolve. It’s up to you to create a model which will manage these changes reliably. If not, you’ll have a very stiff and rigid model giving away a tremendous amount of value and sacrificing opportunity and service all at once.
Accelerate Your Growth with the new features just released
I am happy to introduce the sets of software features, updated templates, expert guide content and super specific programs to accelerate your growth! If your Account Management is not producing project revenues, your vCIO is not getting paid for advice, your Sales people are not getting leads or your cyber security services are not being sold then this release is for you! This is what we are going to cover:
- New Software Features for Growth
- Expert Guides for Growth
- Role Specific Programs for Growth
- Quarterly Sprints for Growth
1. New software features for Growth
One competitive advantage can be to build your MSP faster, design and communicate services better, create better client experience and become a high-value business partner.
Integrating these functions into one platform will generate momentum and even solving one bottleneck at a time keeps that momentum building. You don’t need to master everything all at once - just one at a time - then ride the momentum to reap the results as you move on to the next bottleneck.
New Features to Help Inspire High-Value Client Conversations
During the 2019 Q4 release we were focused on making you a master communicator as an Account Manager, vCIO, Technical Account Manager, Owner, Salesperson or even as a virtual Chief Information Officer.
Click on the circles!
Some of the major focus areas:
Sections: Organize your reports better into sections, open them for clients and focus on the content you are about to deliver or their decisions you want to support.
Questionnaire: Get involvement by conducting questionnaires up front. Use the results for an audit, checklist or a general progress report. More involvement leads to more commitment.
Calculators: Turning vague ideas into specific numbers, percentages or dollar amounts will facilitate communication. Use calculators with clients together for clarity and collect evidence to support their decisions.
Snapshot: Taking occasional snapshots will build a story about the problems they had, the solutions you provided and the growth they achieved with your help.
Integrations: Use more tools from your stack like BrightGauge, Office365 or SmileBack to pull out detailed data whenever you want to underline your message or show evidence.
Audience: Communicate to the right audience by selecting client side roles such as CEO, CFO, Office Manager or IT Coordinator. Log the meeting based on their seniority and collect Client Engagement Scores.
Infographics: Get your ideas across with modern visuals, interactive drawings, timelines, processes or charts. Customize your own graphics or embed auto updating partner infographics for changing content.
Scorecards: Simplify things with quick ratings. Gather user feedback, executive opinion or even the internal team's perception of scorecards. Send surveys or complete within the report and showcase scorecards.
New Features Help You Focus and Boost Productivity
The other big focus is on your execution efficiency with the 2019 Q4 release. There’s dashboards show aggregated information, a renewed Connectwise integration and many small workflow related UI enhancements to do more with less.
Click on the circles!
Standard Adoption Score Dashboard: Have a quick glance at the current rate of the adoption of your technology stack. You can set different scores for different segments and measure with attention to your diverse clientiele.
Growth Score Dashboard: Identify the amount of revenue in your deal pipeline and where revenues are stuck. Find out why you can’t move from planning to approval or why projects aren’t closed and billed.
Client Engagement Dashboard: Keep tabs on your high-value clients and be confident they all have regular meetings and are engaged. Even a substantially cheaper offer won’t undermine your value and they’ll stay.
Master Roadmap Portfolio: Forecast workload, budget and analyze projects together to be able to push certain initiatives further or close them faster to meet your resource allocation needs.
New Connectwise integration: Generate Connectwise opportunities and projects from the platform and keep those opportunities and projects synced with your PSA and your roadmap. This is a true two-way integration to sync account management with the service team.
Task Library: Simplify operations and communications by predefining tasks needed to meet the technology best practices. Connect library items to your scores and auto-generate tickets in Connectwise.
Multiple Seniorities: Assign different client-side roles to your contacts to make sure you have all types of conversations you need with the strategic, tactical and technical business roles.
Expanded New Templates: Updated templates for the Client Engagement Excellence Program are ready for you. A brand new Quarterly Business Review with visuals, dashboards and partner content will help you get inspired and build the report that will support your goals.
2. Expert Guides for Growth
Choose a role you want to explore further and watch the short video for inspiration. Expert guides will walk you through how to grow your business with that role.
How to grow with Account Management
Sell High-Value, standard projects with a proactive process - by Myles Olson
How to grow with vCIO
Drive Strategic Conversations and take on the execution by Adam Walter
How to grow with Technical Account Management
Develop Technology Standards and get all your clients to adopt - by Skip Ziegler
How to grow with Sales
Generate qualified leads and differentiate with client experience - by Mark Woldman
How to grow with cyber security
Make cyber security make sense to clients and offer packages they can buy - by Caleb Christopher
How to grow with Focus on Execution
Create structures for AM/vCIO, keep the team in focus and ensure accountability - by Elissa Kulczycki
3. Role Specific Programs for Growth
We are introducing role specific SMART goals for you to accelerate your growth with one role at a time.
- Account Managers: Generate $100.000 project revenues in 10 strategy driven QBRs
- How to grow with vCIO: Upgrade 3 clients to a paid stand alone vCIO package with $3.000 MRR
- Technical Account Management: Approve a Technology Roadmap with all key clients to adopt your Technology Standards
- Sales: Get in front of 5 high-value prospects and close 2 deals with $5.000 MRR
- Cyber security: Upgrade 10 clients to a paid stand alone cyber security package with $25/user/month
- Managers: Structure your Account Management and vCIO Operation with Client Engagement Score
4. Process for a Sustainable Growth
Growing your business can be done with quick high-intensity bursts. These results unsustainable growth with short peaks of results. We want to make sure you have a long term vision, break those to quarter long rocks you can deliver. Those rocks are focusing on one area, fix the bottleneck and keep it sustainable. Then you move your attention to the next goal but build on top of the previous efforts.
- Platform Orientation Meeting - if you have no membership yet, let's start exploring your goals and discover how the platform might serve your growth
- Growth Readiness Assessment - assess your readiness of growth and identify the bottlenecks holding you back preventing your breakthrough
- Smart Growth Action Plan - build a SMART goal and plan your next steps to achieve those goals with an action plan
- Execute your Rock - do it by yourself, pick an expert guide's education or engage with a 1-many or 1-1 program to make things change
- Repeat - go back to the drawing board, choose your next goal and get started on the next quarter....
Grow your enterprise one quarter at a time
Hope you are excited to get your MSP to the next level and start building your SMART goals and action plans!
Unleash Your Growth Potential
Whether you’re a “one-man-band”, an emerging MSP with a handful of people, a team about to reach the 20 people mark or even a large 50+ organization you have one thing in common: you may have reached a growth plateau and want to unleash your potential to get to the next level. In hindsight you can recognize that it all comes back to bottlenecks in your organization’s capabilities to unleash those potentials role by role: Account Management, vCIO, Technical Account Management, IT Sales, Cyber Security and even the owners. All of them have low-hanging-fruit opportunities and by snagging those you can get to the next level in a smooth, predictable way.
Understand your Untapped Growth Potential
Let's first check your company roles and how they can be bottlenecks in your growth.
- Account managers are not providing a predictable stream of projects and cannot support a steady cash-flow
- vCIOs are not upgrading clients to strategic-business vCIO services and cannot get paid by clients
- Technical Account Managers are not adopting new technology standards and cannot set the base for efficient service delivery
- Owners are not setting proper structure for AM/vCIO and cannot keep the team accountable
- Sales People are not getting in front of ideal prospects and cannot differentiate themselves from the competition
- vCSOs are not upgrading clients to modern cyber security services and cannot get paid by clients
You might be a small company and you as the owner might be wearing all of these hats. If you had to choose only one, which would be the most important?
Unleash your Growth Potential one role at a time
Working on every role at the same time will not let you focus or ever achieve a breakthrough. Pick the "rock" you want to work on during the specific quarter and focus on that role. Here are some examples how:
Watch the complete seminar to learn how to unleash your potential with different roles in your organization. Expert guides will walk you through making it happen.
- How to grow with Account Management: Sell High-Value, standard projects with a proactive process by Myles Olson
- How to grow with vCIO: Drive Strategic Conversations and take on the execution by Adam Walter
- How to grow with Technical Account Management: Develop Technology Standards and Adopt them with all of your clients by Skip Ziegler
- How to grow with Sales: Generate qualified leads and differentiate with client experience by Mark Woldman
- How to grow with Cyber Security: Make cyber security make sense to clients and offer packages they can buy by Caleb Christopher
- How to grow with Focus on Execution: Create structures for AM/vCIO, keep the team in focus and ensure accountability by Elissa Kulczycki
How to Unleash your Growth Potential
The traditional way of developing a company is to develop best practices, implement those to the normal daily life and keep vigilant with them during the day-to-day operation. As you have no resources this leads to bursts of projects without sustainable outcomes. Think about why the six roles of your company still have bottlenecks.
Your potential of growth depends on three things:
- Your Talent - the strengths of your team
- Experts help you - people can take the workload from your shoulders
- Tools help you - applications can offer you a productive framework and streamlined execution
By building your MSP with Expert Guides and Purpose-Built Software you will drastically cut the time to success. This will help you to leverage your current resources to break through the barriers and stop spinning your wheels.
5 Steps for sustainable growth
Growing your business can be accomplished through a series of quick high intensity bursts, but will manifest in unsustainable growth with short peaks of results. We want to make sure you have a long-term vision, and can break down the big rocks to stones you can deliver. Those big rocks don’t fit through your system - fix the bottleneck and keep it sustainable. Then move your attention to the next goal but build on top of the previous efforts.
- Platform Orientation Meeting - if you have no membership yet, let's start exploring your goals and discover how the platform might serve your growth
- Growth Readiness Assessment - assess your readiness of growth and identify the bottlenecks holding you back and preventing your breakthrough
- Smart Growth Action Plan - build a SMART goal and plan your next steps to achieve those goals with an action plan
- Execute your Rock - do it by yourself, pick an expert guide's education or engage with a 1-many or 1-1 program to push things through
- Repeat - Go back to the drawing board, choose your next goal and execute the rock of the next quarter....
Conclusion
Regardless of your company size you always have growth potential. By identifying the low-hanging-fruit with one role, you are able to generate the momentum and the positive cash needed to fuel further growth. Being more conscious, focusing on one role at a time and making sure the role will stay sustainable will deliver a compounding positive effect over time.
The 4 Steps of Successful Cyber Security Service Monetization
In my observation, previously working for an managed service provider and now with MSPs: for some, monetizing security is an elusive goal that seems to be reserved for those who already have connections, experience, and the right customers. Why?
Generate client engagement
with five NIST cyber security roadmaps in 30 days
Clients are confused
It is very common for managed services customers to believe their MSP is responsible for cyber security. They think it should be included in the price they already pay. This is just an extension of the misconception that Information Security is part of Information Technology.
MSPs are inadequate
Selling cyber security services is only for those “big” enough to have an in-house service because quality security talent is hard to find, expensive, and nearly impossible to retain. And without some experience on the team, many MSPs are not sure they have adequate expertise to build and run a security program anyway.
Some turn to third parties for assessments and services, but are concerned that having a 3rd party conduct assessments might reveal that somehow the MSP has been doing a bad job with security. Often, the MSP can't play a role of any significance to the customer in the assessment process, so without an option for a heads-up, many abandon the effort.
MSPs are overwhelmed
Big companies are snapping up all the qualified/experienced security staff, while the rest are playing “employment pinball” until they’ve got enough experience to be a senior analyst somewhere. From the outside looking in, there’s a strong “gotta have money to make money” vibe in cyber security.
There also don’t seem to be any partners focused on helping MSPs build cyber security programs. All the partners and products are focused on the Enterprise sector. What guidance is available costs $thousands and still takes 8-12 months to build out a cyber security program and able to offer any services.
It shouldn’t be this hard
It just shouldn’t be this hard to build and monetize a cyber security program — especially if you actually care about it! There is a way. I’ve built a cyber security program designed for MSPs. This works for those who want to work on building their own in-house program as well as those who just want to be able to sell cyber security (and remain involved) without having to hire and retain their own cyber security experts.
4 Steps to Monetize Cyber security in your MSP
Essentially, the process goes like this: Educate → Sell → Assess (and prioritize) → Remediate (remediate, and remediate some more).
Once I show a business owner their need, they then typically ask me what they should about it, so I sell them an assessment in which we build a roadmap of risk reduction projects to execute in both the short and long term. Now in my case, I’m not actively an MSP, so someone else is making the money on those remediation projects, and those projects hold more revenue than any single assessment — especially if the remediation includes subscription services.
Educate
When it comes to selling cyber security assessments, the first thing you should want to avoid is being shopped on price, so instead of vying for position in the eyes of the few who already know they need cyber security, seek to educate just some of the many who don’t understand their need.
Some will understand if only you can explain things in a way they can relate to. That is the secret sauce. I have found a way to effectively communicate the significance of cyber security to the ongoing success of their business in this internet-connected world.
In the book Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, they describe how to shortcut the learning process for complex or new topics. Essentially, the human brain learns based on what it already knows. My favorite example is where they attempt to describe an uncommon fruit in detail, from scratch. When they’re done, the reader may think he has a decent understanding of this fruit. Then they start over, but this time they start with a point of common shared understanding: “it’s like a grapefruit, but bigger.” Instantly, the reader understands the fruit even more clearly than by reading the detailed description. This is the technique we use in helping business owners understand their need for security.
See a short sample video: Making Security Make Sense - Teaser
Here’s why I start with education: In my experience, when I play the role of mentor by educating the asset owners, they tend also look to me for their next step. They ask “OK, well… so now what do I do? What’s my next step?” The obvious answer is: start with an assessment.
Sell
Since the business owner already knows his need for an assessment at this point, my job is to continue to guide him toward his goal of getting one. He already wants to buy, so I explain the “simple process” the assessment follows. I do this because visualizing a simple start-to-finish process takes the mystery (read that: uncertainty) out of the purchase.
Once the process is understood, other than presenting him with a quote with a Statement of Work for an NIST cyber security assessment, my job is to not give him any reason to think twice. Show him the process, then give them the quote + SOW. I am pretty firm on this not being the time to do special scoping discussions or negotiations. Keep it simple. Anything but a smooth path to purchase introduces risk of a lost sale.
Note: As a cyber security consulting firm, the sale of the assessment is my “win,” so I don’t really budge on pricing because I know what I need to get out of the transaction for it to be profitable. But for an MSP, there is another angle to consider: the assessment is just the beginning of the revenue stream from cyber security. For the MSP, remediation projects are more likely to be the real revenue source. So MSPs can flex on the front-end pricing (quite a bit in fact, if they know their typical remediation revenue). BUT, this bears repeating: Keep it simple. If you slow things down or introduce turbulence by debating numbers, the chance of losing the sale increases greatly.
So here’s what I suggest: Before you show them pricing, decide ahead of time what “deals” you’re willing to make. So if you’re willing to offer a half-price deal, be ready to cross through that initial price and put the half price number there. However, I wouldn’t start with a bid of several thousand dollars and be willing to go to free though… People don’t respect what they don’t have to pay for, and if they took you from $thousands to $0, “What kind of game are you playing?” Whatever your numbers, pick and stick so the process is quick.
Assess / Prioritize
Whether you’re running your own assessments in-house or you’ve outsourced them, they need to be timely and relevant, and they need to demonstrate business value.
Timely Assessments
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably not trying to run comprehensive assessments with complex requirements. That means there’s no good reason for these assessments to take long.
For relatively straightforward assessments, I shoot for two weeks as a maximum amount of time to gather data, prioritize findings, produce the summary with recommendations, and be presenting back to the client. I’ve found they typically tolerate three weeks, but at the fourth week and beyond, they’re impatient and much more likely to be critical of your findings, process, advice, etc, especially if you have any “critical findings” in your report which you took your sweet time to tell them about. So if your goal is to sell remediation services after the NIST cyber security assessment, be quick about the process.
Relevant, demonstrating business value
Unfortunately, many assessments have been delivered which had little more than the standard output from whatever scanning tool was used. That’s like a mechanic handing me a color-coded printout of the OBD2 readouts and telling me to fix all the red stuff first. Thanks a lot.
For an assessment to be relevant and have business value, it has to provide realistic guidance for the particular business for whom it was performed. A quality assessment delves into the risk tolerance, the whos, and the whys of the customer. Only when you have a good understanding of the business’ objectives can you make relevant recommendations. For example, there are plenty of critical severity findings which may pose no practical risk for a given business, while several low severity findings in combination pose immediate risk.
Relevance and business value go hand-in-hand. If you understand how the business operates, what it wants to achieve, and it’s mid-to-long term goals, you can offer practical guidance on risk reduction.
Remediate
Remediation is the sweetest part for an MSP. It’s additional revenue (maybe even monthly recurring revenue!) on top of whatever managed services are already in place.
When it’s time to present findings and remediation guidance to the customer, it’s best to break it into timeframes. There may well be several relatively critical findings, but keep in mind: if this business owner only recently realized the need for cyber security, they don’t have a budget set for remediation. They bought the assessment to get a feel for what they need to do something about vs what they’re going to have to put off until later (or simply accept as inherent risk). So in my experience, it is very well received to provide them a “menu” of things to fix within different timeframes. Something like “Immediate,” “This Quarter,” and “This Year.” (Keep it simple.)
During the report presentation, I explain the implications of findings and my recommendations for immediate fixes, then I ask the business owner which ones they can / want to tackle first. Everything else in the “Immediate” section gets moved down into the “This Quarter” section, with anything else already there. Again, we discuss what would be practical to pursue within the next 60-90 days and move everything else down into the “This Year” section.
These discussions can’t really take place without some understanding of the price for the various remediation projects. So I recommend the MSP come to the meeting with individual quotes for each item in the “Immediate” section and rough price-only estimates for the items in the “This Quarter” section. This allows the business owner to do some quick mental math so we can plot a rough course for the next year during the presentation meeting. Estimates for the longer-term projects are optional, but aren’t very helpful during this meeting.
Once the business owner has decided the order of remediation projects, an Account Manager or vCIO can handle the roadmap without further need of a cyber security analyst. Any immediate actions for which the MSP brought quotes can be executed on the spot.
Note: MSPs need to be ready for the findings. Some findings may reflect poorly on the MSP, so be ready to step up and fix things ASAP. While this may be embarrassing at first, it is usually endearing to the customer when they see you doing your part, just like you’re recommending for them to do.
The 4 Steps of Successful Cyber security Service Monetization
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What does EOS have to do with becoming a Cloud Service Provider
I'm talking to you today because I've been getting a lot of questions about why I've been so focused on EOSTM (Entrepreneurial Operating System) and then other strategic methodologies and all of these teachings that I've been bringing to you regarding shifting from a traditional managed service provider to becoming a Cloud Service Provider (CCSP). And what I've realized as I've worked with different clients is that one shoe doesn't fit all...
Win new clients with it sales software
I could be far more prescriptive about the specific tools and execution strategies, and we'll begin to formulate that as we have more and more folks come together and get our brain share together in terms of these specific tools and tactics we can utilize in this journey. But I fully believe that not all organizations are built the same, and ultimately leadership needs to come together, create a great strategic plan and they need to know how to execute against that plan.
So all of my conversations have really come back to my core belief. And I happened to be an EOS implementer as well. And so I've been teaching people traction, EOS, and really helping folks utilize that methodology to execute well within their business. Once they begin to execute well, we can get a bit more depth around strategic tools such as 3HAG, I'm a big fan of 3HAG, Blue Ocean strategy and some others to really think about where they want to be, who they want to become over the next three years, and how that ties to their vision, their values, their purpose. Bring it down to that strategic three year map, that picture, and then know how to execute against it within that one year, 90 day, and one week rhythm that EOS brings to you as an organization.
So as I work with you, please know that my focus is going to be very centric around the EOS, that EOS mindset. And then everybody I'm working with is thinking about how Cloud is going to shift their business. And we're also going to layer in some strategic activities to make sure that we are aiming that rifle in the right direction, and we know where we want to end up three years down the road.
Monetize Microsoft 365 Cloud Services
On this interview Rich Anderson (Imagine IT) and Adam Walter (Virtual C) talk about leveraging Microsoft 365 for business discussions, differentiation and as a platform for growth.
Rich Anderson has been successfully validating the opportunities behind Microsoft 365 discovery processes and cloud services. Adam has built a remarkable audit process for turning productivity issues into projects.
Check out the chat if you're interested in these innovations:
- Imagine IT used Microsoft 365 IT Audits as door openers where a traditional MSP pitch did not work
- monetize Microsoft 365 related deployment, education and adoption services
expand business discussions and services beyond the owners and make it a scalable process - take control of personal, team and business productivity for your clients
- design projects and services that harvest the low hanging fruit with your clients and prospects
- position yourself as a business partner and differentiate your offering from your competition
- get your clients up to speed by proactively using Microsoft 365 products with them
Click on the image to see the complete report
Related Solution Sets
There are three different versions of Solution Sets available for helping you to monetize Microsoft 365 cloud services.
- If you're comfortable doing this on your own, the projects and report templates are available here
- Looking for a bit of guidance on getting this off the ground quickly? This includes 4 hours of 1 on 1 coaching. Pretty much your recipe for quick success!
- Want some help customizing the templates and report? This includes 3 months of guided implementation, coaching and accountability. You cannot fail!
