EpISODE 164: Complexity is the Enemy

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Having a simple solution is better than having a perfect solution. People are constantly in danger of over-complicating solutions. Here is how you can simplify things and make them more elegant and easier to understand. 

The world is complex. When creating a project or coding a system, it is super important to document your work. Commenting and reminding yourself of certain tips and tricks is helpful for you down the road. You should put 2-3 lines of comments for every line of code to make it less complex and increase your ability to return to the code later on and still understand how to use it efficiently. Plus, if you comment as you’re creating, the code will be fresh in your mind and make more sense than it will at any other point in time. 

We can make things a little over the top. We’re human — it happens! 

The best way to know if you have over-complicated a project is to explain it to someone. If you launch into a long narrative and need to explain every little detail in order for the person to make sense of what you have created, then it is probably too difficult to actually implement or be used in your business by other people. If so, it is time to step back and rework your project in order to be simple and easier to understand. 

It’s easy to get distracted by the possibility of creating something cool and forget to ask yourself if the process needs to be automated in the first place. 

Look at your process. Can you explain it in less than 30 seconds? If not, it might be time to take the big, complicated process and take steps to simplify so your business can more-easily manage the system. 

Understand the ins and outs of your process so you can let your company and other employees know what it is and how it is solving problems. Once everyone understands the process or system being used, your business will flourish. 

Have your IT professionals take a look at the process your business professionals are using and vice versa. There may be an easier solution or tool that can simplify both profession’s ways of doing things in order to make everyone more efficient.

Once things are easier, you can sell more, onboard new clients and have more time to dedicate to other, more important things. 

The best thing to keep in mind is the plan that is going to work is the one that you have in front of you. You will not always be able to make your process simple right away — you might have to use a complicated system if it is the only one available to you. But, there is always the ability to go back and simplify over time. 

Complexity crushes our ability to talk to people and it takes up time. Write down what you’re doing as you’re doing it, explain it to someone else so that they understand what you’re doing and know that you can always go back and simplify as you learn and grow with the system. 

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.

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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.

Client Engagement in 2021 New Features

At Managed Services Platform our vision has always been to turn technically heavy client meetings into engaging value added business conversations. 

2020 has brought new challenges for Account Managers and vCIOs. Client meetings became remote, the duration of sessions shrank, the topics in QBRs steadily increased and clients got very apprehensive about investing in general.

We would like to go through the upcoming new features to make sure you can solve those challenge.

#1 - Communicate cyber security with executives

Despite all the trends favouring cyber security related services, the gap is still growing between the real value of cyber security services and their perceived business value. The cyber security assessments are technical, executives do not see the value of investing in cyber security and often expect it to be covered by the service providers already.

One of the major features is focusing on cyber security communication. We have not just created a new solution set for NIST Cyber Security Communication but the Essential 8 for Australia and Cyber Essentials (EU) is on the way. The report’s proposal section with the proposal feature supports a complete communication tool to make sure executives get to the point of making decisions and you can demonstrate the value over time.

These new functions not only enable a better conversation about cyber security but makes you more productive too.

#2 - COMMUNICATING HW/SW ASSET UPGRADES TO EXECUTIVES WITHOUT BEING SALESY

Hardware lifecycle management is critical. Careful though - explaining the investments needed as a result of out-of-warranty issues can feel salesy and lack the business sense of hardware replacements.

The new asset management features allow you to import both hardware and software assets from your various systems. You can associate the assets with project templates. This way you can use the project templates to explain the business cases for the hardware upgrades in an easier way. For example, amend the communication from a “servers out of warranty” technology narrative to a “server modernization” business narrative.

These new functions not only enable a better conversation about hardware asset and lifecycle management but make you more productive too.

#3 - GET PROJECTS APPROVED AFTER QBRS WITHOUT A LENGTHY QUOTE PROCESS

The more time passes between the client meeting and proposal/quote the less likely the project will be authorized. The quicker you can let them sign a proposal the greater the likelihood of winning projects will be.

The new proposal features allow you to generate a proposal in seconds based on your projects in the report. You can list the projects for which you need authorization, send a tokenized link and let the client sign off. These proposals can be considered as letters of intent and also means you can block the budget for projects quickly. This lets you get the ball rolling as soon as possible.

The new functions not only help to close more project and service revenues but saves time for both you and your clients.

#4 - SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME SETTING PRIORITIES TO MAKE SURE ALL CLIENT MEETINGS ARE DONE ON TIME?

Most of your clients need more touchpoints with you remotely. The more client meetings you need to handle the more likely clients will slip between the cracks.

The new Client Touchpoint features help you to seal those cracks. It allows you to set reminders for clients based on their annual, quarterly or even monthly touchpoint segments. We remind your team about the clients who need to be contacted in the given period and we list the clients who are at risk. We also let you send all client touchpoints to your Connectwise/Autotask as tickets.

These new functions not only deliver peace of mind but also increase the execution of client meetings.

#5 - STREAMLINE THE COMPLETE CLIENT MEETING PROCESS ACROSS PSAS

To streamline your client meetings you need to get information from your PSA before the session and usually have to pass info back for the team to execute. Now both PSAs have the complete workflow.

Before your meeting you can sync the projects, opportunities and assets from clients so that you can prepare for the meetings in minutes. Then after your session you are able to pass back tickets, projects, opportunities to your team closing the loop. We add more functions to Connectwise and revamp the complete Autotask integration.

These functions are not only speeding up the process but provide a complete repeatable process for client meetings.

We release the functions starting in December 2020 till early February 2021. Keep an eye on the blog for the upcoming functions.

How to transition to High-Value Business Partners during the recession

The narrative is about to change now. With the recession coming only high-value and proven partnerships are going to last. All fat is going to be on the chopping block. High-value strategic relationships with technology providers will be critical for all organizations. In this blog I teamed up with Rich Anderson to probe some thoughts on the opportunities and conduct a practical walkthrough with inspiration on how to actually do it.

1. What are the opportunities?

This crisis has been demonstrating to executives worldwide how technology readiness, agility and remote work are key to business. The expectation for service providers is shifting quickly from "give us computers to work from home" to "help our people adopt applications quicker, be more tech savvy and grow a culture of ready remote work." Here are some tips to transition to the high-value partner model as quickly as possible!

• How to shine as an MSP during the crisis
• Why adoption of technologies is now a must for clients now
• How to take credit if your clients were prepared
• Why IT can be again a visible and important business resource in the future
• How to show a plan and become a guide of clients
• How to redefine the narrative and become a business advisor
• How to communicate with different types of clients through the crises
• How to flatten the curve internally to cope with the overload of work
• How to become a coach, mentor and guide
• What is the role of leadership
• How to create a contingency plan for your MSP

2. How to make this happen?

Epic effort came from our team, members and Virtual-C to make this COVID-19 Remote Work a reality. Rich is sharing his process and thoughts on how to take leadership and clarify communication with the COVID-19 Remote Work Readiness Self Assessment Grader and Audit Report.

• How to generate a mini questionnaire to gather input from clients and prospects quickly
• How to qualify clients to run an in depth audit to create a technology roadmap to make them ready for remote work
• What are the key points of the readiness assessments?
• How to gather input and evidence from your tech team
• How to gather input and evidence from their users to strengthen your case
• How to fill the project roadmap with valuable projects

My Conclusion:

This is the time not to brake, but to push the pedal to the metal. Let's seize this opportunity! In spite of the current unprecedented stresses this is your time to shine and lead your clients through the crisis.

If you are able to assess your client's current position, communicate that effectively, then generate a vision and plan for them to move into the future, then you are recession-proof, and your business can only come out of all this stronger!

How We Predict the IT Industry Will Adapt to a New Crisis

One of the best things about IT is that we thrive on change.  Even when the world is on fire, we are at our best — we have come through for society several times over within the last 20 years alone. Our resilience and adaptability are what make our industry so valuable.  

STAY RELEVANT, EXPAND YOUR REACH AND
ACHIEVE YOUR FULL POTENTIAL!

Crisis-Fueled Cyber Security Services

Even in the dial up days, we knew cyber security was important. However, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we saw a boom in security initiatives. Technology personnel stepped up and a whole new realm of cyber security was born. 

Crisis-Fueled Cloud Services

After the recession hit in 2008, we saw a massive change in how we do business.  SaaS had been around for years, but it wasn’t until we learned that we needed more robust applications to support a diverse workforce that we saw businesses really invest in them. Stability of budget, consistent delivery models, and able to scale on a moment’s notice? Business signed up!

What New IT Services Will This Crisis Fuel?

The previous two examples bring us to our current situation in 2020. We have been aware of work-from-home strategies in the past, but many companies saw it as just a perk.  Well...now it is a necessity. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have businesses asking questions about continuity and work-from-home now more than ever. Once again, we are seeing technology professionals step up and deliver school, business, and personal connectivity to hundreds of millions of people overnight!

What should we expect as a technical profession? I predict the death of the traditional, brick-and-mortar company.  We are about to fully enter the era of distributed workforces. We have been seeing this develop gradually, but now it’s manifested into reality. We should expect high-priority requests for diversified networks that allow users to work from anywhere. We should also expect tech spending to increase dramatically, while other projects get placed on the back burner.

Additionally, I predict another technical boom. Within the next year we will see entire businesses coming to market in order to deliver work-from-home offices, complete with seminars, workshops and best practices. We will see a more open-minded culture toward virtual assistants and other virtual employees. Is your company ready for this challenge? 

What do you need to do now to get ahead of the curve?

Once you have some breathing room, will you help your clients create robust home offices that are interconnected as well as their brick-and-mortar is?

I believe every tech company needs to provide their clients with the following over the coming year:

1. A STRONG delivery of distributed workforce strategy
2. Technology that’s aligned with business initiatives
3. Remote assistance that’s better than on-site

Get these three things ready; if you have the distributed workforce product prepared, your next step is to up your game with business alignment. Don’t drive this as a technology solution; it’s a business solution! I may be biased, but vCIO strategies will help you here. You need to be ready to show your clients how your distributed workforce strategy will not disrupt their business.

Lastly, you need to up your game on remote assistance. Remote tech support should not just be “good enough”.  You should consistently be delivering your clients an even better IT experience than they are used to. No more pinching pennies here —  this is the place to heavily invest in to support those distributed workforces.

Welcome to the new age. I know everything is chaotic right now, but we are about to go on another ride. 

Change is in the air. Are you ready?

Why the better MSPs work the less perceived value they have

For a while after our session with Sea-Level something was bugging me. We pondered a conundrum in this seminar: why can’t MSPs not become the victim of their own success? Why does a smooth service have to lead to disengaged clients? How can the MSP remain the hero not justhen the client has problems in their day-to-day operation but even when those problems are gone and the technology just works, and they stop noticing the value of the services? 

After many 1-1 discussions we came up with an answer. The issue comes into clear view from a distant overhead, as does the solution. Now having been able to create a model that explains the problems, the solution is far less difficult to manage.

We are going to break down the problem into 3 stages each with a brief explanation.

Develop and operate a scalable and structured

account management and vCIO operation in 30 days

The Model of Perceived value and Maturity

We are going to use a little model here. On the vertical axis you see the level of the Client’s  IT operation maturity. The more mature the IT operation, the fewer problems will arise. This is where MSPs commonly focus their energy to ensure reduced ticket noise and a smooth IT operation. The operation maturity is climbing not only on the MSP’s side but on the client’s side, as well.

On the vertical axis you can see the Client’s Perceived Value of the IT services. As you see you are a victim of your own success. The better IT you provide to the client the less value they perceive from Technology Services.

This model is not about the net value that they got but their perceived value. There are three distinct phases along the journey. Let’s tackle one at a time.

Phase 1.: Constant IT Problems

This is the phase in which most MSPs have made the initial sales deal. The prospect had low IT maturity with minimal in-house or outside resources. They were fed up with the problems. When their MSP came on board perceived value of the services skyrocketed. The MSP was able to bring order, standardize operations and improve the quality of their work.

In this case the value was entirely in Technical Services and was very obvious to them. Nobody had to sell the value.  Everybody has it laid out in front of their relieved eyes.

Phase 2.: Reduced IT related issues

Now after years of your hard work it seems that IT is no longer on the board meeting agenda as it no longer generates issues. Everybody is working efficiently, the discussions with the MSP become “business as usual”. Some problems arise occasionally but are mostly within development projects and aren’t emergency issues. Complacency grows and clients start to see the MSPs more as a service provider rather than a hero.

Now in this phase, the value is even more clear from the MSP’s perspective. The work is harder, more processed and very high maturity. But this is exactly what prevents problems from germinating and if the client has no metric to evaluate the MSP other than “problem, issue resolution” then the perceived value will start to fall. Cruelly, their net value is rising while perceived value declines.

To maintain your well-deserved perceived value to the client in this phase is no longer a technical service-related task, but communication-related. This is the phase when the MSP needs to establish a proper Account Management / Technical Account Management practice to be able to communicate the value of the services. These are the technical reports, and roadmaps to be able to show to the client the hard work the MSP is actually doing. Nothing fancy, just let them see what they are paying for. Without introducing Account Management, the perceived value will diminish. That is the beginning of accruing an Account Management Debt.

Phase 3.: No IT related issues

The next phase is where very few MSPs can increase the perceived value without stretching the boundaries of the initial Managed IT Infrastructure Contract. In this phase, the IT infrastructure is not just good enough, but probably overshooting their need. Just think about how much advantage most aren’t taking of their Office 365 subscriptions outside of email. 

The client’s IT maturity cannot be raised more without them actually implementing applications and leveraging the opportunities of technology. This part is hard as now the client’s willingness will essentially decide what’s next.

This is the place where churn becomes likely even with very satisfied clients. Why? Because they start shopping for “cheaper” alternatives. The majority of the developments have been done and no more technology projects are on the horizon. They start feeling less value in their services.

This phase is no longer just a technical and communication related one. If the MSP cannot connect the application of technology to their business then the client will not see value or opportunity within IT. If the IT only keeps firewalls and emailing with Office 365 then it will not be seen by them as a real business relationship. 

The MSP has to establish a business conversation with a client to be able to stay relevant. The client management team should believe in the future and the opportunities that technology can bring to the table. This requires a true IT consultancy mindset and services. Without a business consultancy, digital transformation or business vCIO mindset and services the perceived value will stagnate at best.

Your Decisions:

1. Treat Clients differently based on their maturity: Check your client base and determine at which stage you are with them. 

• If they are in phase one, you need to push awesome technical solutions. 
• If they are in phase two, you need to add high-touch account management to be able to communicate the given service value. 
• If they are reaching phase three, then brace yourself…you need to introduce a new way of thinking and sets of services to generate business value outside of the technology focus. It’s that or create many mechanisms to lock them in even as their perception of value declines.
  
  

• Defensive Strategy - shoot for the clients on Phase 1 and 2 then monetize the opportunities along the way. Once they’re reaching Phase 3 do whatever it takes to keep them even with a declining engagement
• Offensive Strategy - do not even try to sell to Phase 1 clients but focus your efforts to catch Phase 2 clients. Invest in development services for Phase 3. (vCIO, Application Management, Cyber Security Compliance etc.) Then go out to the market and steal clients from MSPs playing the Defensive Strategy. How? Simply offer the client’s executives “business value” with IT strategy planning sessions and Digital Transformation services.

Conclusions

The trends are obvious. 

1. Fewer and fewer small and medium businesses will be in the Phase 1 stage.
2. There will still be a great deal of clients in Phase 2 but the competition will be very fierce here.
3. More and more clients need higher-level IT services - it’s a real emerging market with little competition. Here the challenge is service development and a consultative sales process.

None of the options is easy to manage but all are predictable from the big picture standpoint.

How to get out of your “Client Engagement Debt”

As a Technology Provider, you’ve undoubtedly encountered the symptoms of your clients' "Technology Debt." This is the manifestation of the inherent costs of perpetual support for less-than-optimal technology. This is a drain on both you and the client. Client Engagement Debt is a similar concept that encompasses the implied cost of not having enough quality Account Management, Technical Account Management, vCIO or IT Consulting activities with your clients. This costs you money, erodes trust, loses opportunities and even lowers the value your clients see in your services. Let’s take a look at how much debt you have and how to get rid of it this year.

STRUCTURE, MANAGE AND AUTOMATE YOUR ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT AND VCIO PROCESESS

7 Symptoms of Client Engagement Debt

Let’s cut to the chase and see whether you have Client Engagement Debt. The following list will provide symptoms of unhealthy Client Engagement Debt.

1. Meetings are ad-hoc - meetings are set not well in advance but because of an issue, opportunity or client request
2. Conversations are tactical -  issues have piled up so the discussion is long and strategic topics go unaddressed
3. Too much preparation time - there are no snapshots or baseline reports so conversations have to start from scratch every time
4. Conversations are technology-focused - the lack of business discussions leads the meetings to technology discussions usually with non-executives
5. There is no Strategic Governance - the quarterly meetings stand on their own and aren’t supported by a strategic roadmap
6. The MSP owner is the only one who can do QBRs - the MSP owner is overtaxed with integrating all the missing pieces to present to a client

and this symptom is very tricky… as it presents as a great outcome of hard work..:

1. Efficiency gains - reduced ticket count and efficient operation generate less natural facetime with a client. This is positive in general but it might relegate the MSP to a “low touch” partner role if there are no consistent proactive Account Management meetings in place.

Potential implications for different MSP size

Client Engagement Debt is not something that happens overnight because of a sudden issue or problem. Rather it’s a result of a slow eroding process of various inhouse and external factors. 

External factors like technology commoditization, more millennials in the workplace, general technology adoption, tech savviness and the overall maturity raise the managed services market.

Internal factors like Account Management processes, quality of client meetings, time invested on client meetings, discussed topics, previous attempts of developing client engagement initiatives.

Here are the potential implications for MSPs of different size and maturity:

Small MSPs

If your company has less than 5-7 employees the chances are high that the owner is the only resource capable of delivering engaging client meetings. The obvious time pressure limits the resources available for developing programs or delivering quality interactions with proper follow-ups. The challenges are in streamlining the process and becoming more strategic with these conversations. This goes back to defining an Annual and a Quarterly process with clients, and support it with an application that helps the sharing of conversations and action plans.

Mid Size MSP

If your MSP has 8-20 employees the chances are high that there is a full-time individual responsible for Account Management and/or vCIO activities. The challenges at this point are related to accountability, scalability and a unified experience through the process. Properly set expectations for the client segments, proactive playbooks for activities, measurement of engagement as well as defined and adopted technology standards. These are the foundations of a process that will scale.

Large MSPs

If your MSP leadership were able to pass the 20 person mark then your 2nd layer of management should be in place and, due to your size, multiple people are responsible for different levels of client engagement. Account Managers, Technical Account Managers and vCIOs are working together as a team to drive client engagement. Now the challenges are more on the management and scalability side of the house. Processes, unified workflows, shared information, productivity and duplicate-able client meetings are the priority. As the team has to work together, a single QBR process might include 3-4 people in various roles to prepare a report, deliver the meeting and follow up all tickets, projects or opportunities. This leads to internal client engagement operation initiatives.

Regardless of the size of the MSP the real solution for managing Client Engagement Debt is similar to getting out of financial debt.. First create a momentum to start paying back the debt, then stabilize the operation to prevent future debt arising. That is why a holistic approach is needed rather than a quick fix.

Holistic Client Engagement Development

Let’s not go into the details too much here. If you feel you have these symptoms and are less engaged with your clients, you need to fix it soon. It’s critical because being an MSP is a “High-Touch” business model. Your foundation is a very close relationship with clients. In the past “Solving the IT Problems Together” created a natural bond with your clients. Now that you’ve been so successfully efficient you need different activities to maintain quality engagement.

Client Engagement Development has four components:

1. Client Engagement Foundations

Before we hit the road and cut the Client Engagement Debt we need to lay down the foundations of your Client Engagement.

Essentially, what is the level of Client Engagement your MSP wants to provide, who is going to provide it and what will comprise its requisite activities?

1. Client Engagement Goals and Strategy
2. Client Engagement Roles
3. Client Side Roles
4. Client Segmentation
5. Client Segment Playbooks

2. Standardization

Once we have these foundations you have to define your standards. These standards are required to create an overall scoring of the technology health, applied best practices and technology stack adoption by your clients. These make the misalignments actionable for your team and standardize the operation, and will hugely attenuate ticket noise, as well as render the Account Management process easy and repeatable.

1. General Standardization Strategy
2. General Standardization Process
3. Service Standardization
4. Technology Stack Standardization
5. Technology Best Practices Standardization

3. Client Engagement Activities

Now you can start establishing your client engagement activities. What is going to happen in the Annual Strategy Meeting, what will you do in the Quarterly Business Review Meeting, what types of Audits will you have (Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, Office 365) and so on. This is going to define the various activities you’ll provide to the distinct client segments you’ve defined.

1. Technology Engagement Activities - Technology Roadmap Planning, Quarterly Business Reviews, Technical Audits etc.
2. Business Engagement Activities - IT Strategy Planning, Quarterly Business Reviews, Business Workshops etc.
3. Sales Engagement Activities - Renewals, vCIO Project Scoping, Consultative Sales Meetings

4. Client Engagement Operations

Parts 1-3 were about developing your Client Engagement - and now we move to execution. Now you need to manage your people (or your calendar if you are alone), schedule meetings with the right contacts, manage meetings and generate and maintain client roadmaps for governance. This part is about efficiency: less time in preparation, more effective conversations, and productive handoffs to the delivery team. Here’s where we are going to learn how to run an effective client engagement operation.

Your Reward: Client Engagement Excellence and Account Management Dividends

Client Engagement Activities done well reduce your Client Engagement Debt and prevent future Debt happening.

1. You run an efficient, profitable operation by adopting technology best practices, a unified solution stack, and well-defined services.
2. Your clients are better engaged, value your services more highly, feel they’re getting what they’re paying premium rates for and generate sustainable growth for you.
3. You can differentiate your brand and demonstrate your value to your clients.

Without a strategic effort, your next Client Engagement initiative will likely stall and never take off for scalability. Let’s do it right this time. 

Managed Services Platform Account Manager Report 2019

In our previous blog post, we reviewed how we typically see our vCIO community members from 2019, so now let’s look at another report regarding our other active community of more than 700 account managers that are working with us today.

Generate client engagement with five qbrs in 30 days

Like in the case of our vCIO community, the language composition shows a clear majority of English-speaking countries. 62% are from the United States, 10% for both Australia and Canada, and 5% for the United Kingdom and New Zealand respectively.

The most active movement of account managers is concentrated in the United States, Eastern Coast. However, the most numerous account manager nucleus is scattered in California, North Carolina, and Texas. The largest city groups are in New York and San Francisco; furthermore, we should mention Toronto, Canada and London, UK as well.

Considering that the most active account manager groups are scattered throughout the United States, its no wonder as to why their educational experiences aren't centralized in any American university. However, at the beginning of the list, classic technical education centers can be seen: Berkeley, Stanford, MIT and Harvard.

The account manager function is related with technical account management topics like sales, information technology, engineering, support and only partially related with business management topics such as IT consulting, business development, finance and project management.

Between the groups and forums, hot topics are more technology-related than any other; virtualization, Microsoft Office 365 and recently cloud computing, NIST cyber security. It should be noted that smaller MSPs usually deliver these services through outsourcing or assistance from an MSSP or CCSP partners. In order to develop these transformations internally for MSPs, we have launched our “Build a Better MSP” expert guide program with a wide range of building business solutions for the SMB space. 

Unfortunately, only a small minority of account managers feel the importance in developing their business management skills, like consulting, communication, decisiveness, problem-solving and leadership. The technology dominance usually happens when owners of MSPs with less than 15 employees perform the account management role themselves, among many others. And most of these MSPs are challenged with the commodization trap of their service offering. So they look for new cloud or security services that can differentiate themselves from other MSP competitors. 

Regarding their experiences, we can say that qualified and veteran account manager experts are a majority in managed services providers with more than 15 employees: 70% have more than 10 years of experience in the technology market and the other 21% have between 6 and 10 years of experience. That’s why they have a high percentage of account managers at seniority level positions. The other reason that account managers find themselves in senior level positions, as mentioned further above, is that CEOs are usually the  executives of small MSPs with less than 10-15 employees, but are also often the Account Managers as well.

Often small MSPs do not have dedicated Account Managers, while the mid-size MSPs with more than 15 employees are challenged with MSP Account Manager turnover problems, because more than 50% of them have less than 2 years experience with the organization. That's why MSP owners try to give their account managers a clear playbook of activities that they can manage and fulfill with clients. Likewise, they would visibility gain access into their account manager activities.

So what are typical and successful MSPs like with account management services?

• Small MSPs usually have resource problems because the owners or executives try to provide account management services themselves, among many other roles, which is the reason why they can not be full-blooded professionals who don’t always have time resource problems. 
• Account managers are dedicated professionals from a mid-sized MSP with more than 15 employees but owners of these businesses are challenged with employees for which the solution should be developed into a scalable business consultative service with processes, predefined segments and tools that support their executive and monitoring demand. 
• Account managers have strong technological backgrounds and interests, but only a small minority are interested in developing their consultative and business-related skills. However, like vCIOs, should feel comfortable talking with small to mid-sized business executives, and last but not least, they should understand how to put technological solutions into a business solutions context.

Be sure to download our growth guide below, and for more information on how to build, strengthen or create a more efficient Account Management offering, check out our account management Growth Solutions here on our homepage.

• vCIOs in United States
• vCIOs in New Zealand
• vCIOs in Australia
• vCIOs in Canada
• Managed Services Platform vCIO report 

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:

1. New Software Features for Growth
2. Expert Guides for Growth
3. Role Specific Programs for Growth
4. 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.

1. Platform Orientation Meeting - if you have no membership yet, let's start exploring your goals and discover how the platform might serve your growth
2. Growth Readiness Assessment - assess your readiness of growth and identify the bottlenecks holding you back preventing your breakthrough
3. Smart Growth Action Plan - build a SMART goal and plan your next steps to achieve those goals with an action plan
4. 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
5. 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!