PitchIT Volume 2

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3AyHCUd
Youtube: https://youtu.be/xK0KEi-AKD8

Welcome to the second part of PitchIT with Sean Lardo of ConnectWise! We’re diving deeper into our IT world and how to provide your service to clients.

For those of us who work in IT, we know that our industry is ever-changing and growing. However, the growth that we’ve seen over the last few years has been exponential. When Covid hit, our services had adapt and expand in ways we did not anticipate. People had to stay home and run their businesses while out of the office. Innovation wasn’t what we wanted. It was what we needed!

Serving our MSPs is, of course, always at the forefront of our work. But how do we ensure they have the resources and understanding needed to do their jobs? The answer is simple, and ConnectWise has broken it down into 3 promises they make to their clients.

Be easy to work with
Invest in partner growth
Bring more innovations faster

Being easy to work with sounds simple, but it’s more than being friendly and showing up with a smile. You need to know your clients’ needs and develop solutions they can understand. Your clients deserve to know your company’s value and how it betters them. When people think of IT, their first thought is cybersecurity. But MSPs work with everyone from mechanics to bakeries by providing services from HR automation to accounting. Understanding what your clients want and need makes it easier for everyone to achieve their goals. Make it a point to know your clients and be personable! Ask them about their weekend. How’s the family? Let them know you care and are genuinely invested.

Investing in partner growth helps your client achieve their goals and keeps ongoing business by building stronger relationships with your customers. At MSPL, we believe in conversations, not presentations. Before meeting with a client, send them an agenda with your understanding of their needs, how you can address them, and how to move forward in the future. It tells your clients you are listening, invested, and have a firm grasp of their goals. Don’t use your PowerPoint or slides as the basis of your meeting. Use it to keep the conversation on track and address the topics that need to be discussed. An hour-long conversation should only require 20 minutes of slide show presentation. Tailor your conversations to your clients. Showcase your understanding of their needs, that you’re invested and how you can be of service.

Your clients want results, and they want them now! When you talk to your customers, you’re telling a story. Let them know how far they’ve come, where they are now and what the future holds. Each conversation needs to be better than the last. It allows your client to see how quickly you’ve improved their organization, where they are now, and the potential yet to come. Know your vertical, your space, and own it! New IT companies sometimes get into the pitfall of, “We can do anything!” but that’s not necessarily true. Sometimes a request goes beyond the scope of your abilities, and that’s OK. Be honest with your clients and help them find another venue to fulfill their needs, even if that means sending them to your competition. It shows the clients that you care and want to get them the best results as soon as possible.

Serving clients is the primary goal of any business, IT or otherwise. By being easy to work with, investing in partner growth and bringing more innovations faster, you are setting yourself and your customers up for success!

Powerpoint Costs You Clients

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3AyHCUd 

If you’ve ever walked into a room, gave a lecture and then walked out and wondered why no one bought your product, this one is for you. 

Here at Humanize IT, our motto is conversations, not presentations. If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ve probably heard us talk about that a ton — and, for a good reason! We want you to have the best conversations with clients, and that means it’s time to get rid of PowerPoint. 

First things first, you have to get out of the mindset that presentations have to be information overload. Your meetings should be all about the technology that you’re hoping to implement or the solutions that you find. These conversations have to be about what the client needs and how to get there. Your client most likely doesn’t care what type of technology you’re selling them, they just want to know how it’s going to help them and what the outcome of that tech is going to be. 

So, if you’re going into a meeting and starting with all the talk about tech, you’re going to lose people’s focus. Instead, start by asking a question and engaging with your audience. The best way to have a successful meeting is to ditch PowerPoint and craft a conversation to accomplish your goals. 

Think about a car salesman. When you go to a car lot, you’re not instantly bombarded with presentations and spreadsheets about car performance. The car salesperson generally asks you about what you’re looking for in a vehicle, what you like to do for fun, they ask about your family — ultimately, they get to know you more personally. Then, when all the personal information is grabbed and the relationship is set, they show you the vehicles that they think might work best for you and your needs.

That’s the best way to have a meeting as an MSP, as well. Go in and get to know your clients, find out what they need and why and then, at the very end, go through your solutions that you have come to a conclusion on. Your clients want to feel seen and they want their situation to be understood and these types of meetings will be the best way for them to feel that. 

Now, don’t just go into a meeting completely unprepared. It is best to come with a framework for what you will be talking about as well as some way to collect notes on what your client is saying. This will keep the conversation on point and allow your client to know that you are understanding and taking into consideration what they are saying. 

In order to see success in meetings, you must have conversations with your clients and get rid of the PowerPoint. That way, you leave room for your client to talk and that is what will sell.

New Year, New Topics

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3AyHCUd

The new year is coming and we are starting it off with new content! In the new year, we really want to focus our attention on MSPs because some people don’t even know what MSPs do and how they can help a business grow. We’re going to provide tons of MSP-related content — here’s a sneak peek into what 2022 will bring!

Who MSPs are and what they do

We will dive into who came up with the term Managed Service Provider and how the position has developed into what it is today. Managed Service Providers developed due to a need for businesses to see how critical technology is for their business and needing a better way to manage it all and provide stability. We will also discuss how MSPs can help businesses, no matter what type of products or services you offer. 

How to choose a good MSP

This ones for you, business owners! If you’ve been wondering how to actually go about finding the right MSP for your business, we will help you figure out the necessary steps to finding the perfect solution for technology management. 

How does an MSP find good clients

Not all business is good business. With that in mind, we’ll show you how to have the best experience with your clients. You definitely don’t want to work with difficult clients, so we’ll point out red flags to stay away from and how to attract the people and companies that you really want to work with. 

How to match up what is actually important to a business

Every business is a snowflake — completely unique from the next. As an MSP, you have to be aware of that fact and run your services accordingly. We’ll give you tips and tricks to gage what your client needs in order to best align with them and provide as much value as possible. 

These are just a few of our topics that we will be diving into in 2022 — get excited about everything that is to come! Our main goal is to be a resource for you, whether you’re an MSP or a business professional. The businesses that have ended up on top have learned to use technology in new and exciting ways so they are able to outperform their competitors and provide an amazing product — we’ll help businesses get there!

We’ve got something for everyone! If you’re a business professional, we’ll help you align with your MSP. If you’re an MSP, we’ll help you learn to align with your clients to get them to stick around and have the best possible relationship with them. We’re excited for 2022!

Business Shiny Things

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2NHRRDl
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3uooSU

Last week, we talked about shiny things in IT. This week, we’re bringing you the business side of shiny things. Let’s dive in!

Let’s say an executive goes to a Microsoft Conference and learns about a bunch of new technologies and software. Then, this business executive likes the sound of them and signs up for a bunch of new things. This is all exciting and new to the business professional because it has the potential to bring new productivity to the office and streamline everything. The problem is, this business professional gives it to the IT professional and expects it to be implemented in order to make their business better. This brings a lot of work to the IT department and may not work well with the existing systems, making it necessary to rework the entire way of doing things.

The other issue is that the business professional bought shiny things without an understanding of how the shiny things will actually help the business. Great ideas are fun, but they don’t always work very well, are expensive, and require lots of upkeep. Basically, it’s bad to invest in shiny things without the demand already there. 

The latest methodology or frameworks can be overly complicated and might not work for your business. And, the more complicated the system, the more difficult it will be to implement. Even if something looks great, it just might not be the best option for your company. 

Look at your framework as a playground. Have people do things the way they want to, then, when “recess” is done, have everyone line up at the door together. This way of doing things allows for people to feel comfortable in how they go about working, but still keeps things streamlined for your business. As long as you line up at the door, you can do things the way you would like. 

The biggest question to ask yourself when looking at new, shiny business things is this: what business practices fit into what I am already doing? It should feel like implementing new systems does not take much effort and allow a slow and natural move. 

Back in the day, Palm Pilots were all the rage. People bought them hoping to be better organized in their day-to-day lives. The issue was that you already had to be organized to have the Palm Pilot work for you. If you already struggled to be organized, then a Palm Pilot would not help you. Or, if you’re not already using a day planner, then an electronic day planner will be no help to you. 

Think about how you already think and work and find new technologies that will fit into that and make your business more efficient. Also, think about your employees. Every single person is different and new systems will not always work for every single person. 

Augment things that you already do and allow shiny things to drive your business instead of confusing and overcomplicating. Make sure that the shiny and cool technology has a practical purpose that you can implement and support. 

How Salespeople Close IT Projects Faster?

We’re all too well aware of the enormous amount of work that goes into the preparation phase of every client IT project. From the idea stage (we need to replace the server architecture) to actually being able to send a proper quote ($18,500 with labour cost) the MSP spends dozens of hours coming up with the IT project plan and the numbers. The hours are tracked as “sales” hours spending time on those quotes but at the end of the day most of those projects never take off. Everybody is bummed, the client calls off the opportunity, the team writes off the time to a “lost opportunity” category and life goes on. However there is a totally legitimate, battle-tested sales tactic that a few MSPs use to cut this unproductive and morale-draining busy work. Let's get into the details.

WATCH our free RECORDED webinar and we'll explore how to prepare

client meetings even more efficiently

What is the real problem?

Once you do the work and prepare the IT project quote, then three things can happen:

• Client loses interest during the process, the pain is not there anymore and the issue is pushed to “next quarter”
• Client realizes they have higher priorities seeing the $18,500 quote and saying “we did not budget it in”
• Client starts negotiating but eventually goes ahead

The real problem is that the client receives all the critical information needed for the decision only AFTER you’ve poured dozens of hours into the project scope and planning process, and when the pain and problems are likely not that pressing anymore. That leads to lost opportunities AND time.

The information came too late in the process and was probably much more precise than needed for actually making the decision.

How to fix this?

Salespeople use a process to overcome this problem. Their goals are:

• Strike while the iron is hot - “move things along while they’re in focus“
• Qualify the client’s budget against the solution - “are they ready to pay?”
• Make a “reversible” decision - “do not be pushy”
• Get a “letter of intent” from the client - “evidence of the priority”

They are not pushing people or being salesy. They want to deliver all the information to the client as soon as possible for decision making AND to get proper feedback, to enable them to invest in the opportunity.

They want to move the decision making way up in the process in order to qualify good opportunities and avoid those with less chance of success.

The two best practices they are using are the price testing and the pre-approval in order to move the decision event PRIOR to the excessive work of planning and quoting.

Step 1. - Price Test

The first thing to qualify a client for a certain project is a price test. This is a verbal agreement from the client that within certain conditions they are good to go. At this point it’s pretty hard to guess the right price for us (lack of proper scope) or to commit to any price. So they are qualified for the opportunity with a price test to make sure it’s worth the time.

They use a price range ($16,000 - $20,000) rather than a hard number ($18,500). This reflects the assessment of the magnitude of the work. It does not really make a difference if it is $16,000 or $20,000 to make the preliminary decision. But the client isn’t left guessing between $5,000 or $100,000 and has a reliable budget range.

Second, the salespeople cannot commit anything to the client yet. Instead of saying: “This would be about $16,000 - $20,000 to deploy the solution. Can you afford that?”, they’ll say “last time we solved this problem for a similar size organization it was about $16,000 - $20,000; is this in a range worth solving the problem?”.

You see the difference?

Managed Services Platform Tips

• The IT project roadmap is a perfect place to play with numbers in the budget sheet
• Predefined project templates help to vaguely scope the projects without extensive work
• As these projects are likely going to be custom feel free to add the templates to the roadmap and start editing with them

Step 2. - Pre Approval

Talking is useful but writing is a different level of commitment. Most clients do not realize how much work goes into the project preparation phase, and innocently send you to craft a proposal like they’re fishing. If they realized that this is a bigger commitment on your part, they might take this more seriously.

When companies are making their bigger deals involving a lot of work from both parties they sign a paper called “Letter of Intent”. This agreement is not legally binding but strong enough to demonstrate interest from both parties to invest more time and money.

In your case this is something like a “Pre Approval”. The pre approval requires only a number from the price test and a defined results and outcomes to solve the problem.

If the project scope is templated then you are able to get approval right away. If not you can write a quick brief and send for pre-approval.

Managed Services Platform Tips

• The proposal process is ideal for asking for pre-approval
• You can link your “Terms and Conditions” to the proposal to offset legal obligations
• You can use the note section to state that this is only a “letter of intent” and not legally binding

Conclusion

This is how you protect your time and resources and work only on IT project plans and quotes if both parties have agreed on the boundaries. Most managed services providers are operating in a high trust environment with clients. If the client is aware of the “additional work” needed to actually prepare a proper quote, understands the goal of a project and knows the potential investment, they can easily pre-approve multiple projects. That puts the tech team in a better position to invest more time in higher probability opportunities and not hustle opportunities with no potential for success.

How to Schedule QBRs for Engagement

Most MSPs have a hard time not only engaging executives in QBRs but even being able to sit down with clients, as they don’t see the value they add to their business. The goal of scheduling a QBR is more about selling them the process, benefits and the results so they see the value and look forward to these events.

We are going to discover the minimum requirements of scheduling an engaging session with the right people in the client’s organization. As a result you are going to get more executive level decision makers in your meetings with higher anticipation.

UPSELL YOUR CLIENTS WITH STRATEGIC QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEWS AND IT STRATEGY MEETINGS

Define the Value and Benefits for the client

Without defining the value and benefit of the upcoming QBR people will be less likely to engage. You want to make sure you aim for the highest possible level in the organization, even just for the main contact person.

Consider these ideas from the client’s perspective to craft your message accordingly. We have found these messages effective if crafted properly:

1. The ultimate goal of the QBR - “IT is an integral part of the corporate operations. Our goal is to make it as efficient as possible and support the company goals effectively. To deliver continuous value to your organization we need direction, priorities and to understand your goals to serve you better.”
2. Benefits for the client - “During the session we are going to discuss IT Infrastructure, IT Cybersecurity, Office Productivity and Technology Strategy related questions. That makes the board aware of the opportunities to improve their business and achieve their goals.
   During the session we can review certain performance indicators, make decisions and answer questions. Then we generate action items we can distribute among the teams.”
3. Pain relievers for the client - “We made sure that this process is very efficient so we do not waste anybody’s time. We discuss business topics, priorities and directions with executives in plain english, to help us engage your team for the execution part.
   That means you invest 2 hours every quarter and you do not have to worry about the technology any further. We get the approval to go to the right direction in helping your business to excel.”
4. Cliffhanger - so they do not want to miss out - “During our session we are going to walk you through a specific best practice with Office 365 that’s saved thousands of dollars in productivity for other clients. We are going to let you know the top 3 cybersecurity tricks that hackers are using recently.”
   If you have your own templates such as above for your style, then you can always customize these letters with the client and add more specifics.

Productivity Tips with Managed Services Platform:

• Create a template of this email and add it to their report as a content widget so that you always have the last message on file
• Track the client’s roles in your QBR template so you always know who is responsible for what on the client side to deliver the messages accordingly

Client Experience Tips with Managed Services Platform:

• Record a short video on your phone, embed that to your content widget and send for a personal touch alongside the letter.
• Create a snapshot and copy the content to your email and share the report with them so they can see the previous Quarter’s topic, results etc. 

Issues, Risks:

• Your QBRs should deliver the value you highlight here, and as you mature the value is going to increase
  Do not over-promise, if the experience doesn’t deliver you might lose the executives for a while

2. Schedule the meeting professionally

Although the best way is to create an annual predefined calendar with each client, the individual meetings have to be always scheduled.

This part is very critical as the client always can make an attempt to skip the session - “everything is great we do not need a session now” - or worse, defer the session to a lower level employee without real decision making power - “let Jannie do this for me, I’m busy with other things”. Therefore reiterating the value and having the value proposition on hand is very helpful.

Using a calendar invitation tool is always great as it helps the client to pick the time from your calendar. However, it requires their diligent action to schedule the session so you might give up the control of the process.

A good tactic is to actually send them a direct invite 2-3 weeks in advance AND ask them to choose a different time if it does not work. Now there is a meeting in their calendar and they have to take action to cancel it or reschedule, but you avoid an open loop.

Productivity Tips with Managed Services Platform:

• Set the client touchpoints (Annual, Quarterly, Monthly or no Touch) for a client so that you will always keep track of who needs a meeting for a given month
• Block Days in your week for QBRs, like every Tuesday AM / Wednesday / Thursday PM so you can stack multiple sessions
• If you have the Client Engagement Score (CES™) module you can generate the specific activities based on playbooks upfront

Client Experience Tips with Managed Services Platform:

• Embed your Calendar Tool to a content widget so they can choose a time easily
  
  

Issues, Risks:

• It’s best to have a certain date pre-scheduled with every client in your calendar.
• Getting into an open loop can be easy, so be diligent in getting something on the calendar

Conclusion

Your goal is not just to get to their calendar to make sure we have the session with client executives. We want them to want you to be there with anticipation, being engaged and looking forward to the session with you.

To accomplish that you should craft the value proposition of the session and schedule the meeting professionally.

Business Relationships cannot be automated...

There are many tools and best practices out there to streamline, and automate technology conversations with RMM integration, ticket reports and asset management functions. The reason is that as most MSPs by starting their QBR processes they simply try to run faster to the wrong direction. The common mistake we see is they try to streamline a technology focused tactical conversation (important for them) rather than elevate themselves with strategic-business focused QBRs (important for clients). Let’s see the 3 reasons why it is the case, 3 impacts taxing these MSPs and the 3 steps to fix this quickly.

Do you engage the proper people from your client’s organization?

DowNload our Strategic QBR Client Mapping Tool 

If you are one of the fast developing MSPs this is totally normal to have tech conversations with clients first then move up to the executive level for business conversations. Staying on the “tech” level though raises many issues on the long run that leads to less profitability, lack of differentiation and competitive price pressure. Let’s check how to fix it with better QBRs.

3 Reasons

Wrong Process

Most of the Quarterly Business Reviews has not been developed from a strategic standpoint proactively. They started after losing a client or based on a negative client feedback. The team realized some sort of “regular meetings” needs to be taken place. That means the process usually ad-hoc, rushed and developed “by implementing a tool”. The main success criteriums of any account management process are missing and very immature. Implementing a tool gives a hope of structure.

As the MSP mature the development process shifts from ad-hoc to proactive.

Wrong Focus

As the QBR process starts shaping the most obvious conversation points are determined by the issues the team faced. Warranties were not discussed with a client, the client developed a technology debt or simply the client did not see the value and activities from the client. Therefore the to satisfy the audience reports are generated to so

lve those technology related issues with technology focused conversations.

As the MSP mature the focus is shifting from technology focus to business focus

Wrong Audience

Most MSPs are starting these conversations with the point of contacts to resolve the technology related issues. These point of contacts are usually office managers, power users or financial people. Their main focus is mainly tactical, not strategic. They are looking for solving day-to-day issues like replacing a computer of an employee. This is good for a start however elevating the conversation from tactical to business the audience needs to be different.

As the MSP mature the focus is shifting from tactical to strategic approach.

3 Negative Impacts that Taxing you

Stuck in a “tech box”

One major impact of not developing QBRs is to stuck in the “tech box”. That means simply that the client sees the MSP is a very good technical vendor rather than a business partner. Technical vendors are less strategic to a client therefore easier to negotiate or replace them in a long run. Becoming a high-value business partner is not a soft “feeling”, it does not mean that 5 star reviews and recommendations are putting an MSP to this spot. This means that the executives of the clients are constantly engaging the MSP with strategic business questions and consultation.

As the MSP mature it is perceived from client executives as high-value business partners

Perceived Salesy

The main issue we are seeing when we help an MSP to further develop their QBR is they feel the process is salesy. Showing the clients budget reports, bombs, warranty issues, subscriptions are teaching the client quickly is a QBR means spend more money. That connotation makes the MSP hard to actually solve those tech issues as they have no business context around those. Yes the MSP is a victim of the circumstances as without the client investing on technology they cannot really provide value. The MSP should generate a strategic layer on top of the QBRs to avoid the constant “sales” conversations.

As the MSP mature the QBRs are more touchpoints of the strategy execution

Perceived less engaging

After the first few QBRs the topics are settled and all around technology metrics and customer satisfaction and so on. Even if a client executive were involved on the QBRs they learn quickly that this is now on track and the second in command can handle these “boring” meetings. As the executives are detached from the opportunity to elevate the conversation has already gone. As the executives are not present most of the QBR stuck in the technology-tactical conversation which forces the MSP to “make it more streamlined”. This is where they implement more and more automation to actually get further from their goal is to actually engage executives.

As the MSP mature the QBRs have topics for engaging multiple audiences in the same time

3 Steps to fix

Identify the client roles

Use the MSPL’s 4 quadrant formula to determine the different roles to separate tactical / strategic and technology / business conversations. As you identify the CEO / Business vCIO roles you can map those roles to each clients and find who should be engaged with business conversations. You need to be able to sit down with the MOST senior executive at least once a year to get her perspective of their goals and to demonstrate your strategic value to them. Identifying those target individuals are the first step.

As the MSP mature the QBRs are engaging more senior people on the organizations

Map your talking points to roles

Use the QBR Kit #1 to identify all the talking points the different roles you have. Keep going with your tactical/technical conversations with the office managers and power users but make sure you create a new narrative with the executives. Use Kit #2 which has all the power questions you need to engage an executive and generate a strategic agenda outside of a QBR. This can be called a Strategy Meeting or Digital Transformation Annual Review. Anything related to a higher business level conversation. Create a scoring/audit mechanism to measure the different tactical elements of their business such as Security / Infrastructure / Office 365 / Applications and so on separately. These are separate audits you conduct in order to present all of this at once as a “Master Score” so they cannot see the details only the very high level.

As the MSP mature the high level strategic conversations are getting measurable

Run multiple layers

As you have a number / score for their strategy / digital transformation you are able to claim a spot for an Annual Strategy meeting in their agenda. As the context is their business and technology you have all the talking points making technology decisions in a business context. This high level conversation / report and deliverable is the single most important leverage you have to make all QBRs effective, decisions made and engage both the executives and the critical contact persons.

As the MSP mature the QBRs are becoming the execution of the Annual Strategies

Conclusion

Starting a QBR process is always ad-hoc tactical and technology focused. However you have a choice how to go to the next level. Once choice is to automate a wrong discussion and create a process which generates less engagement, price pressure and lack of differentiation. OR you develop a business conversation which elevates your discussion, connects to the key decision makers and helps you stand out from the crowd.

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.

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