Category: TruMethods Blog

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Thought Leadership: You Just Need to Start

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

There is a lot of conversation about thought leadership and content marketing for managed services providers (MSPs) these days — and there’s a reason for that. As MSPs, we have an excellent opportunity to create a buyer’s journey that results in a more predictable flow of qualified leads. Becoming a thought leader is a great way to accomplish that.

When I owned my first MSP, before I even knew the term “thought leadership,” I began by looking for better ways to connect with my team, hoping they would share our MSP’s vision and mission. Back then, our goal was to build a one-of-kind MSP — a company that started with a vCIO relationship that was beyond valuable. We planned to be more proactive and more process driven in a way that would allow our team to delight our customers. I wanted everyone on my team to feel that excitement and how different it was. So, I began recording audio messages a few times a week to share with the team about things happening in the company, but mainly to discuss our mission and why it was essential to our team members and customers.

Then something incredible happened. I had been recording the messages for a few months when I got busy and missed a week. By midweek, I was getting messages from our team. “Where was this week’s message?” they asked. That day, I learned that proper communication aimed at the right audience could be powerful.

When we started TruMethods, I began recording audio messages for our members. Since then, I’ve recorded probably well over 1,500 audio messages. If you had told me a decade ago that I had to record thousands of messages and webinars, I never would have started. But I just started with one week and let time go by, and you know what? I still have this discipline in place today.

When my son, Gary Jr., began building out the marketing function at TruMethods, thought leadership was at the center of our approach. We started using pieces of my audio messages on social media and repurposed them into blogs. We did the same with my webinars and my team built white papers, training guides and eBooks from the content webinars.

All you have to do is start with a discipline you can follow. For instance, write a 500-word blog post or record a three-minute audio message weekly. Eventually, you may want to start a podcast.

I always say that time can be your friend or your enemy. And for me, time has been my friend for thought leadership just by doing a little every week.

Are You Prioritizing Mental Health?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

We usually — and unfortunately — overlook mental health when running our businesses. Instead of caring for ourselves — and the mental well-being of our employees — we tend to focus more on day-to-day operations and generating new revenue streams. While this is the norm, it’s not sustainable in the long run.

As an entrepreneur for nearly 30 years, I’ve had ups and downs like every other business owner. One moment I’m closing a deal for a new customer, and the next, I’m putting out a fire for a current one. The back and forth is stressful, making you question why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Running a business is grueling, and if you don’t take care of yourself, your mind will suffer. Overcoming this is less about stepping back, and more about finding a physical and emotional balance, and managing your anxiety about the unknown.

Sometimes it’s necessary to give yourself a pep talk when you’re stressed. When I’m feeling the pressure, I usually take a moment to analyze the situation by asking myself a few questions. “What is the worst thing that could happen?” “Are my feelings based on my actual situation?” “What could I do differently?”

It also helps to know what matters most to you and what keeps you in check. Even though this is different for everyone, priorities keep you grounded. Everyone should have them. Do you know what yours are? For me, my family is first, and my business is second. Everything else can wait.

Fall back on your community when you need support. It helps to have people around you whom you can confide in about how you feel and gain perspective. It’s okay to be vulnerable. It means you’re human. Most importantly, talk to a professional if your distress continues for an extended period or if nothing is helping.

Don’t ignore distress signals. The longer you do, the more of a toll they’ll take on not only you but also your team.

Is Social Media Not Working for You or Your MSP? It Could Be You!

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

I had a chance at DattoCon 2022 to listen to Gary Vaynerchuk. If you’re familiar with “Gary Vee,” you know he’s very popular on YouTube. I know he can be polarizing (and uses the F-word more than me), but he shared an interesting view of social media.

He said that most people over 40 have a strong bias about social media that keeps them from understanding the platforms and their power. Speaking about LinkedIn, he said you should be on the platform if you own a business, especially a service business, and post content at least 3 times a day. I know that seems hard, and it is hard, but it is possible! He said the best way to do that is by starting a podcast and interviewing prospects and customers. Then cut your interviews into one-to-two-minute clips to post.

He explained that all platforms mature. For example, 15 years ago Facebook was for college kids — and today, it’s for grandparents. He said if you did something interesting 3 years ago on Instagram or Tiktok, that would gain 200 followers. Today, that same post would get you 20,000 followers. Social media is like real estate; it gets bought up over time. LinkedIn is early in changing its algorithm from what Instagram and Facebook had based on followers to what Tiktok does in terms of interest.

He said that people who have been to his speeches email him daily to tell him that they posted on LinkedIn for three weeks, and it didn’t work. He responds with, “LinkedIn works. You just suck at it.” But he also gets emails daily from people who followed his lead and changed their businesses.

If you want to start a podcast, Dan Tomaszewski, EVP of Channel at Kaseya, has a great session in the Powered Services Pro portal that takes you through exactly what you need to do. Also, if you’re a TruPeer member, we just did a great workshop on social media for MSPs, and it is in the peer portal.

This is another example of how removing our bias and preconceived ideas about something can open the most significant opportunities.

What Year Are You Living In?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

I talked to around 100 MSPs at DattoCon this year and learned a lot about the state of our industry. While the good news is that some MSPs are seeing the opportunity in our space and capitalizing on it, the bad news is that many MSP leaders either don’t see it or are changing too slowly.

Unfortunately for them, they’re trying to solve problems that top-performing MSPs solved a decade ago and questioning solutions we know work already. They’re living in 2012 instead of 2022!

Here’s the problem. Your customers, prospects, and competition are living in 2022. Some people are still drowning in tickets and projects and dealing with inefficiency impacting margins and profitability, struggling with landing, and expanding. In today’s world, understanding cost drivers, roles, and processes, translating your service into value for customers and prospects, and building genuine strategic relationships are critical to your success.

There are a couple of things that every MSP needs to do today. They need to add new customers at some predictable rate and increase their wallet share per customer, which could come from higher prices, value, and additional services.

The TruMethods Framework offers the information and support you need to run a better MSP. Start investing in yourself and your teams. Pull your face away from the page and see the opportunity in front of you.

If Nothing Changes, Then What Will Change?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

My dad said, “If nothing changes, then what will change?” Too often in business and life, we fool ourselves by thinking that our results will change if our intentions change.

Our peer groups have a process called “The Hot Seat.” At each quarterly meeting, one business breaks down its business in detail. It also shares its goals and its plans to get there. This has proven to be extremely valuable not only to The Hot Seat participant but also to all other peer members.

Everyone gains perspective from this process.

The most common thing I see is that people have had the same results or issues for years. Their plans to move forward are the same plans they’ve had, but, according to them, “We’re going to do it this time!”

My response is, “No, you’re not.”

It’s not because they don’t want to or aren’t capable. It’s just that if they were going to make the plans work, they already would have.

There are systemic things with your business or your self-image that are holding you back. You need to dig deeper and do things differently if you want things to change.

Here’s the bottom line. If you want dramatically different results, you must do things differently. Trying harder and having better intentions are great. It’s just not enough.

We spend too much time in our life kidding ourselves about protecting our self-image. I challenge you to think about where you want to be in two to three years and ask yourself, “Is my plan the same plan that has only gotten me this far?” “What is standing in my way?” “What will I do dramatically different?”

Again, if nothing changes, then what will change?

Are You Sure You’re Ready to Hire an MSP Salesperson?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

The opportunity for MSPs to grow new logo sales has never been better. Our target markets have improved in every way. The sweet spots for the number of users in our target customers are rising. (Even our seat prices are increasing!) More targets willing to pay more for our services is an excellent market to be in — but how do we capitalize?

The first thing you will probably think is, “Oh, I’ll hire a salesperson.” We love problems we think we can outsource, don’t we? We hire a salesperson. We tell them to sell. Then we go back to running our business. Wouldn’t it be great if that worked? Unfortunately, you must get to the hard part. So, what should you do? I like to work backward to solve challenges.

Let’s start with the amount of new monthly recurring revenue (MRR) you want in a year. For example, let’s say your target is $40,000. Well, how many customers would you need to hit your goal? If my average customers are $3,500 a month, that’s 11 customers I would need, so about 1 customer a month. Then determine how many leads or first-time appointments (FTAs) you would need to close 11 deals. You should base this on your close ratio. If you have sold $10,000 of MRR in the past 12 months, or if your average deal size is $2,000 versus $3,500, then your goal of $40,000 may be out of reach. Your lead generation process doesn’t currently support the goal.

Here’s why this is important. If you have no process to generate FTAs today, specifically warm leads, hiring a salesperson may not fix your problem. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hire a salesperson; you just need to be sure you have the right expectations and set the right priorities.

It would help if you decided on the qualifications of the salesperson, too. I like young salespeople who have had success in high-activity sales jobs. You need a high-revving motor in MSP sales! I want salespeople who have gone through activity reluctance. But I don’t want them to have so much experience that they can’t change if they’re too stuck in their ways to adapt to the sales process for MSPs.

Then, think about this: How would you train these salespeople? What activity metrics would you judge them on? What quota would you assign, and how would it ramp?

Salespeople, just like any technical role, need to be put in a position to be successful. This means defining the role and process, the key metrics, the accountability process, and putting people in a place to be successful.

The Best Time to Join an MSP Peer Group Was 10 Years Ago, But There’s Good News

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

To be honest, the best time to join an MSP peer group was 10 years ago, but here’s the good news — today is the second-best time to join a peer group!

There’s only so much you can do sitting in your office. If you want to increase your margins, generate monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price, and grow your business, you need to join an industry peer group (such as TruPeer) to learn from like-minded individuals, especially if you’re stuck in your business (because if you don’t, you may never get unstuck).

Dan Tomaszewski, Executive Vice President of the Channel at Kaseya, and I, recently hosted a webinar about the importance of industry peer groups, and in addition to providing our thoughts, we spoke to several peer group members.

Here are some key takeaways from our discussion.

Industry peer groups provide more insight than local networking groups

While joining local networking groups can help you with acquiring new business, they usually don’t offer you the industry perspective you’re looking for when trying to transform your business. There usually isn’t anyone in your group you can compare yourself to or bounce ideas off, as everyone is in a different business. “TruPeer has really been a huge blessing and resource for me to be able to fill that gap,” said Jimmy Huber, President of InfoTech Solutions and Services, Inc. When you’re stuck in your business, you need guidance, and sometimes the best advice can come from your peers in the same business as you. But it’s not always easy to find someone who can help point you in the right direction, especially when you’re with a group of individuals who can’t assist from an industry standpoint.

Digging deep

Sometimes you need someone else to help you with digging deep. There are two parts to fulfilling potential. One is knowing what to do, and the second part is being able to do it. The latter is where peer groups come in handy. For example, only industry peers can deliver insight on what a good customer looks like and how much your customers should be paying you monthly. When assessing his customer base, Jesse Hill, President of Tier 3 I.T. Solutions, decided to raise his company’s monthly rate after attending a TruPeer event. “When you really sit down and look at it, every one of those low-paying clients is distracting you from doing a great job and delivering what other clients are paying for and expecting,” he said. Having people around you who know what to ask to find out what you’re doing wrong behind the scenes is critical.

Different stages of the business journey

Everyone in industry peer groups is at a different stage of the business journey, so someone in your peer group has probably faced many of the same challenges you’re confronted with today. “We all have the same problems,” said Danny Carlson, Executive Vice President of Platinum Systems. “We really do, so it’s really nice to be able to go and talk to somebody else. It’s good to have that support.” That someone, who is already ahead of you can usually identify your struggles and provide you with a roadmap to overcome them. In return, you provide industry veterans with a fresh perspective on the industry. “You can’t just move the boulder tomorrow,” Carlson said. “It’s all of these tiny little steps you have to make, and those start adding up to something.”

Joining an industry peer group can be life-changing for not only your business but also for you. Consider one of the peer groups offered by TruMethods to start your transformation.

Protect your Clients from Business Email Compromise Attacks

Posted on | Author TruMethods

Business email compromise (BEC) attacks are some of the costliest cybercrimes companies face now. In BEC attacks, criminals impersonate a legitimate email account and use it to send messages that appear to come from a known source. For example, they may send an invoice with an updated mailing address, request that an employee with purchasing authority buy gift cards or transfer funds or ask clients to wire payments to a phony account.

These attacks can be challenging to detect and prevent because they appear to be from a trusted source and generally do not include malicious attachments. They rely on psychology to be effective – users will generally trust an email that looks like it came from a colleague or a vendor.

Stopping these types of attacks requires a high level of visibility into email traffic and the ability to respond rapidly to suspicious activity.

Why a Managed SOC Makes Sense

A 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC) can play a crucial role in defending against these attacks, but most companies lack the staff, know-how and technology to create an effective SOC. Offering SOC as a service can help MSPs monitor and secure multiple client networks, in the cloud and on-premises from a central location, but SOCs are difficult to establish and expensive to operate.

A SOC is a 24/7 commitment, and given the shortage of cybersecurity professionals, even a large MSP would be hard pressed to establish these types of services from scratch. However, by partnering with a technology provider like Barracuda, MSPs can tap into a platform that provides automated monitoring across multiple clients and the ability to identify a wide variety of threats. For example, the Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR solution includes wraparound SOC services without the headache and expense of cobbling together a DIY solution.

Barracuda acquired SKOUT cybersecurity in 2021, which added extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities to its product line, which it offers to MSPs as a managed solution. As a result, MSPs can access around-the-clock monitoring and response without the costs and headaches of setting up various security tools, threat intelligence and machine learning capabilities, and staffing and training security teams to stay ahead of ever-changing cyber landscape.

Barracuda SKOUT Managed XDR allows MSPs to offer wraparound SOC services to their clients. With a SOC, MSPs can help clients proactively detect malicious activity and adjust defenses in response to new threat alerts. The SOC can also identify vulnerabilities before an attack and conduct detailed analysis following a breach.

Leveraging a SOC also allows companies to benefit from software tools to help identify potential BEC attacks. For example, these solutions can automatically check inboxes for BEC keywords, deleted messages, and other tell-tale signs. They can also watch for new mailbox delegates or forwarding rules to external addresses, unusual geolocation data for logins, and other suspicious activities.

A well-run SOC partner will also stay up to date on new threats and utilize analysis tools to continuously improve the performance of the security infrastructure by analyzing daily usage data and information about previous attacks. This makes it easier to sort out suspicious email activity from normal communications.

Leveraging an outsourced SOC provides security benefits without requiring the client to dedicate IT resources to these daily security tasks. In addition, it helps the MSP provide 24/7 monitoring and response without bogging down their team with time-consuming mitigation and investigation tasks.

In the case of the Barracuda SKOUT Managed Email Protection offering, the SOC includes a team of security experts to detect and respond to email threats and a holistic global threat detection network consisting of a threat database and artificial intelligence-based software for analysis and resident security analysts and engineers. It also enables centralized security policy management and provides MSPs with a central dashboard for monitoring activity across the client base.

As the number of BEC and other phishing attacks increases, a managed SOC offering will help MSPs and their clients consistently identify and block these increasingly clever cybercriminals.

Adam Khan is Vice President, Global Security Operations for Barracuda.

Profit is a Decision

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

Let’s talk about profitability. For many MSP leaders, profitability is an elusive goal — and, sometimes, it’s not even a goal.

I meet MSPs every month that have been in business for several years and have never had annual profitability above 12 to 14 percent after a true owner salary. I always say that “you get what you tolerate.” If you’re happy with that kind of profitability, based on the risk and effort that you put into the business for a 12 percent return, it’s your choice.

Again, I want to be clear that it is a choice.

Profit is a decision. Dan Tomaszewski, Executive Vice President of Channel at Kaseya, and I interviewed several of our peer members on a webinar recently. We discussed this very topic, and one of our members quoted me when I said that you can make 70 percent gross margin decisions in your business, or you can make 40 percent gross margin decisions, but you can’t do both.

Here’s the first issue. If you don’t know your cost drivers, and you don’t know what 70 percent looks like, you can’t make profitable decisions. You’ve taken your choice away. In other words, profit is a choice if you understand it.

If you’re a business owner, your salary is what you earn for doing your job in the business. The profit you make after salary is your return on investment or return on effort, and there’s no reason why every MSP should not run at a true profit of more than 20 percent. It just means you either don’t know how to get there, or you’re unable to execute. Both are fixable.

Profit builds culture. It allows you to take better care of your team and your customers. Profit is a decision.

Are All Your Eggs in One MSP Basket?

Posted on | Author Gary Pica

Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good strategy. It’s always best to diversify most aspects of your business, especially your customer base.

Most of us have been there before. We score a big customer and tout it as a big win, which is a significant milestone for your business. Landing a whale can completely change your business. But not always for the better.

How having a large customer can negatively impact your business.

For instance, having a customer who’s more than 5% to 8% of revenue is a significant risk for any MSP. Large customers usually are a more considerable percentage of tickets and overall costs than their percentage of revenue. This reduces the overall gross margin and diminishes resources for other customers to pay the right price. Even if the customer is profitable, when one customer uses too many of your team’s resources — it puts you in a difficult position.

Also, if you decide to sell your business down the road, a large customer in your portfolio will reduce your valuation significantly. A single customer keeping your business afloat is a risky investment for investors. What if the customer leaves after acquisition? This alone is a major concern for buyers, which is why they’re more likely to purchase businesses with diverse customer bases.

Want a pro tip? Diversify your customers, and you won’t have to worry about scrambling to replace revenue.

What should you do if you lose your biggest customer?

But what happens if you don’t heed my advice and end up losing your biggest customer? While you’re in a tough spot, you have options. Take out your profit and loss statement (P&L) and review all your costs. Some words of advice: It’s time to step up and be a leader. Please make the necessary decisions (no matter how hard they may be) to stay profitable. Then, double down on your go-to-market (GTM) strategy. The only way to reduce risk to your customer base after losing a large customer is to add new sweet spot customers until the overall percentage of revenue is reduced. Rethink your business. How do you plan on acquiring new business? Are you investing in social media marketing? Are you joining your local business networking group? Think about what you will do differently to make up for lost revenue and develop new business relationships. Pledge to never rely on a single customer for the bulk of your revenue again. I’ll say this: Your future self will appreciate what you did.

The best way to avoid putting your eggs in one basket is by reviewing your revenue regularly to assess where the bulk of your revenue comes from. If it’s all from one source, rethink your strategy and find where you can improve your revenue streams.