I recently reviewed the results of the Schnizzfest 2023 Event Surveys with my team. (Thankfully, our members rated the event highly across the board.) However at some point, my team asked me what I looked for when reviewing feedback. I told them my goal wasn’t to have the highest ratings, which surprised them and may surprise you as well.
Our members needed to hear some of the sessions at Schnizzfest, even though they might have liked other session topics better. It’s more important to me that we deliver the content they need, not just the content they like the most.
Something else I considered: No matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone. A session that is the best for someone, for another that might not be the case. No one is going to like everything you do.
There’s a lesson that I have learned in running several successful businesses and it relates to both customer and employee feedback. The customer is sometimes wrong. In our business, as you know, the customer is often wrong — and, unfortunately, we’re the ones who must tell them. They want our results their way. It’s not that we don’t want feedback (of course, we do), but we don’t take feedback or criticism at face value.
I don’t love customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores when business leaders tie too much weight to them. You must consider two things. Knowing what people like and dislike is essential, but you must correlate it with what’s important to them. Sometimes a customer or employee may hate something, but it’s unimportant. Other things they may mildly dislike, but it’s super important.
We want feedback from employees, but business leaders need to make decisions eventually. For instance, when selling myITprocess to MSP owners, they would agree that they needed alignment and a vCIO process and that myITprocess would help. But then they would get their techs involved and have them vote on it. An objection I would usually overcome by responding with, “That’s great! Did your techs ever run high-performing MSPs?”
Listen, feedback is good, but leaders need to make decisions. Be sure to remember that leaders have a different perspective than any one employee or any one customer.
It’s a new year and the middle of a new quarter from a business perspective. As the saying goes, “Hope springs eternal.” Unfortunately, so does procrastination.
Just as you may have probably felt a sense of urgency at the end of 2022, you may feel like you have plenty of time in 2023. However, time goes by quickly.
Every week, when I record my audio messages, I put them into a monthly folder inside an annual folder. Recently, before I created the 2023 folder, I scrolled through all the folders dating back to 2009. More than the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve, this is the moment that time hits me the most.
Each year, it seems like there’s a shorter time between these annual folders. I feel fortunate that I have spent my time well over this last decade in terms of my career and with my family. However, it also makes me feel a sense of urgency for everything I want to experience or accomplish with the time I have left. This is one way I gain perspective and encourages me to act on important things I’ve been putting off.
You may think you have plenty of time this year or in the future. But time passes at an increased rate for you each year. Don’t you feel it?
Here’s what I’m suggesting: It would help if you had the same focus and urgency in Q1 as you did at year-end. You need to set goals to determine actions and have an accountability system. This is how we make the best use of our time.
I have watched time go by in this industry for 25 years. I’ve seen some people make fantastic use of their time while others have only made modest progress toward their goals.
Managing your customer base isn’t only about delivering customer support effectively. Sometimes you need to do things on the backend to ensure your business keeps running.
For instance, how diverse is your customer base? Is everyone paying the right price for your services, or is one customer the bulk of your portfolio? Also, how are you addressing customer challenges? Are you constantly looking for ways to help your customers overcome business hurdles?
Here are five must-read blog posts to help you better manage your customer base in 2023.
Has your “face time” been reduced with customers? Do your vCIOs prefer Zoom meetings over in-person meetings? You can’t underestimate the impact of face-to-face time with customers. I know it’s easier to be remote and sometimes it may seem more efficient — but there is a cost.
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. However, not always for the better.
You have a lot of choices as an MSP in terms of priorities. You can focus on trying to be more efficient with professional services or support, re-evaluate sales, add tools and standards, and so on. The list is endless. However, there is one thing that can make a difference in your business.
I want you to think back to before the pandemic began in March 2020. How have your customers’ needs changed? What are you doing for them today that you weren’t doing then? What tools have you added to your stack? What security process and governance have you added?
Hey-yooo! Another Schnizzfest is in the books. This year marked our 11th Schnizzfest, and with more than 600 people in attendance, it was the largest Schnizzfest in history.
We held Schnizzfest 2023 and Q1 TruPeer meetings in late January in Phoenix, AZ. The temperature in Arizona was a little cooler than most people would have liked. However, the work we did together all week was HOT.
As usual, we packed the event with:
Live music, educational keynotes and interviews with leaders who made the event possible.
Breakout tracks for sales and marketing, accelerating growth and profitability, and strategy and tactics for Technology Success.
Nightly festivities.
The primary goal of Schnizzfest is to rethink how you feel about yourself and your team. We want you to believe that you can dream big and bring it to fruition. We aim to make your teams feel like they’re part of something special. We want you to pick your head up and see what’s coming.
Through Schnizfest, TruPeer and many other efforts, we’re building a unique community of MSPs where everyone can rely on one another for advice, encouragement and accountability. I’m most proud of how everyone has come together over the years.
If you attended, please take a moment to complete the Schnizzfest 2023 Post-Event Feedback Survey to help us improve future events. The energy and enthusiasm at Schnizzfest were contagious. I’m excited about the year ahead, and I hope you are, too.
Thank you to everyone who invested their time and money to attend, especially those from outside the U.S., and all the TruMethods and Kaseya employees who put the event together.
Managed services providers (MSPs) that want to grow their business in 2023 face significant challenges when differentiating themselves in the current market. Many prospective customers already have some IT support in place and likely don’t see a pressing need to switch providers or augment their internal resources (whether this perception is accurate is another story). Not to mention, MSPs are constantly competing for the attention of busy decision makers bombarded by various news and information sources, business related and otherwise.
If your marketing or lead generation efforts aren’t paying off, it’s easy to blame a salesperson or a marketing vendor. In some cases, they may be contributing to the problem. But it’s also possible that it could be time to evolve some of your practices.
The Big Switch
The fundamental change that MSPs must address is that buyers today tend not to be first-time shoppers, but MSP switchers. They aren’t deciding whether they need IT services; they more likely need to figure out whether their current provider is sufficiently addressing their evolving business needs, and if not, who can?
The Awareness-Consideration-Decision buyer’s journey has changed for these customers. First, they face spiraling costs and lagging productivity and need guidance to help determine if their technology, processes, people, or all three need to change. Then they must decide which MSP will provide the necessary value to accomplish their goals.
Barracuda MSP recently hosted a webinar with Derek Marin, founder of Simple Selling, focusing on this MSP switchers buyer’s journey. He noted that there are several common reasons why clients want to switch their MSPs, including:
Poor responsiveness and execution
Service offerings that aren’t tailored to their needs
Lack of specific technical skills
They don’t trust the MSP to deliver on their promises
Lack of vision and strategy
They feel they are not getting enough value from their investment
Most of these reasons have nothing to do with product portfolios or technology. Therefore, well-written white papers, sales brochures, or blog posts won’t draw these customers in.
Timely Tips to Reach Prospective ‘MSP Switchers’
First, make sure your marketing messaging is aligned with actual customer needs. The challenges they face have evolved over time and are more complex – they are worried about security, compliance, productivity, incompatible software, inaccurate data flowing across disparate applications, cloud migration, and more.
Second, understand that landing a new customer will take many interactions. This is a journey that will involve multiple assets and touchpoints.
Third, insource your marketing content. Most of your content should be squarely focused on meeting real customer needs, which will mean reconfiguring how your subject matter experts and content creators interact. For example, your potential customers want to hear about things they are worried about, and your subject matter experts likely have a lot of good stories about solving those problems.
Customer quarterly business reviews (QBRs) are a good source of this information – give your content creators access to the stories shared during those so they can translate them into narratives that appeal to prospective customers.
And having a content marketing manager on staff is critical for this process. Make sure you have buy-in from the services team on how this approach to content creation will work, and get marketing directly involved in QBRs in some way.
Leverage social media selectively. Most companies are not very good at social media and trying to improve performance across every platform is a mistake. Instead, start with one platform – LinkedIn is an excellent first option since it was designed for B2B interactions. Once you have some mastery there, shift your attention to the others.
You also don’t have to abandon traditional marketing approaches. For example, technology tips, telemarketing, and pay-per-click services can still bring in decent leads. As long as you’re keeping an eye on the cost-benefit ratio of your marketing activities, you should experiment with your mix until you have a grasp on what is performing best.
To grow in 2023, MSPs need to realign their marketing with what potential clients are looking for. That means moving away from educating them about the need for an MSP or the benefits of a specific technology. Instead, MSPs should be selling services based on how they can address real business challenges and help prospective clients navigate an increasingly complex IT and cybersecurity environment. This approach will generate higher-quality leads and conversions in the new year.
As Director of MSP Marketing, Americas, at Barracuda, Lindsay Faria is dedicated to empowering Barracuda MSP partners to grow their businesses by providing tools and information to make marketing and selling their data protection services as effective, fast and easy as possible.
We are a few weeks into 2023. Here are a few action items to complete to ensure this year is filled with positivity and growth.
Sales
Have a direct conversation with the prospects in your pipeline. Ask them if they’re going to buy. “Hey, we’ve been talking for a few months. Are you planning to move forward as we start 2023?” Also, review all the prospects that didn’t buy from you last year. Touch base with them, and you’ll find at least one opportunity.
Service delivery
Be sure to schedule any projects you can complete at the beginning of the year or before the end of Q1.
People
Make your employees a priority. If you planned on doing year-end reviews and still need to complete them, set aside time to do them in Q1. Communication with employees is vital to success in the new year.
Planning
Look at your 2022 plan and see how you did against your annual initiatives and goals. At this point, you should already have your 2023 business plan completed or close to completion. Don’t wait to start in February or March.
Time blocking
Now is a great time to use a time-blocking technique for your business and personal commitments. Look at your to-do list — both business and professional — and the remaining days, and block your time accordingly.
Now is an excellent time of the year to do what I call “taking stock.”
Taking stock means assessing your career, life, health, relationships, financial state, and overall mindset.
Here’s the thing: Life is like a wheel, and that wheel has spokes, many of which you’re familiar with, including physical, emotional, financial, career, family, and spiritual. When a spoke breaks, the wheel starts to wobble. If two spokes break, the ride gets rough. And if another spoke weakens, we tend to ride into a ditch.
We’ve all been in that place where things pile up and affect each other. If you stay in the ditch, that’s called depression. Many things in life that are out of our control impact our wheel. My mom used to say, “No one gets through this life unscathed.”
When taking stock, look closely at the things you can control. For example, my career has been a consistently solid spoke in my wheel, which I’ve protected from other spokes that inevitably failed from time to time.
This time of the year, I like to think about what I can do to strengthen my wheel — and you should do the same. Of course, be realistic.
Like a business plan, you can only change a few things at a time, so I’d recommend picking one or two. Focus on something outside your career that could make a big difference and keep your wheel from veering you off the road.
Taking stock can make all the difference in the new year, so ask yourself, “What can I do in 2023 to stay on track successfully?”
It’s true — you’re in the technology business, but what business isn’t a technology company these days? The only way to grow and generate more monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price in the new year isn’t by focusing solely on technology; it’s by understanding how you can be a better business owner for your customers and also your employees.
If I had to guess, you started as a technician, not a business owner. With no business experience, you’ve had to learn a lot. But what matters is you stay curious about what it takes to be the best business owner you can be.
Here are seven must-read blog posts to empower your business mind in 2023.
Does Mindset Really Matter? Sometimes, we think nothing can be done. It’s even harder to believe that just changing your mindset could be the catalyst for change. However, it’s true.
Are You Prioritizing Mental Health? We usually — and unfortunately — overlook mental health when running our businesses. Instead of caring for ourselves and our employees’ mental well-being, 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.
If Nothing Changes, What Will Change? 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.
Employee Burnout: What You Should Know There’s been a lot of talk about employee burnout recently. With the labor shortage not improving, employers are demanding more from their employees, negatively impacting employee morale and productivity. Identifying employee burnout and preventing it from happening in the first place can make all the difference.
5 Things to Consider When Creating Your Business Plan Do you have a business plan? If so, do you have one that’s making you do something differently? If not, success will be out of reach. An effective business plan is actionable. It provides you with steps to achieving your goals. It also provides a way for you to achieve not only your personal financial goals but also your company’s financial goals. There are several things to consider when building your business plan.
MSPs, Here’s Your Reality Check Please think back to before the pandemic began in March 2020. How have your customers’ needs changed? What are you doing for them today that you weren’t doing then? What tools have you added to your stack? What security process and governance have you added?
Is Time Your Friend? I’ve mentioned this before, but I like to archive all the notes from my audio messages. I’ve been doing this since I started recording weekly audio messages for TruMethods members in 2009. At the beginning of this year, I decided to time travel.
Whether on the road or in my office, I make it a point to speak with as many managed service providers (MSPs) as possible. By doing this, I get a better grasp of what they’re struggling with, what TruMethods and its peer groups can do better to assist them with overcoming those challenges and how the industry can adapt to changing times.
Sometimes, we at TruMethods even interview our members for the TruMethods blog. Many of the interviews have received overwhelmingly positive responses from our members.
Here are the top three TruMethods member Q&As you may have missed in 2022.
MSPs are usually hesitant about joining peer groups. They question the value, the time commitment and the time requirements. We are at a pivotal time in the MSP industry. Things are changing fast, and business leaders need more knowledge and perspective. Now is a great time to consider joining an industry peer group. In this interview, Adam M. Casgar, president of Coastal Computer Consulting, LLC, a Brunswick, Georgia-based MSP, shared why MSPs should join peer groups if they want to work smarter, not harder, and why peers are the furthest thing from multilevel marketing (MLM).
While TruPeer may mean something different to each one of its members, those who get the most out of TruMethods’ most popular peer group find they’re strategically aligned with TruPeer. During this conversation, Ed Lukacs, CEO of 2Fifteen Tech, a Salt Lake City-based MSP, revealed how his business has benefitted from TruPeer, how it is different than other peer groups in the industry and what he’s learned from fellow TruPeer members.
“What you put into life is what you get out of it.” — The same can be said about gym memberships, music lessons and TruPeer. In this interview, Roger Michelson, CEO of BNMC, a Woburn, MA-based MSP and TruMethods member, explained how TruMethods and its TruPeer program have helped him overcome business challenges, what MSPs should know about Smart Numbers and the importance of proper business planning.
Elevate your service desk and effortlessly track strategic projects
Congratulations! Your client has accepted a project you recommended based on out-of-aligned areas you found in their business. Now, your responsibility is to deliver this service smoothly and efficiently. By automatically creating Autotask Opportunities from client-accepted projects in myITprocess, every project can be seamlessly managed and executed within Autotask, with no manual work required.
Gain complete visibility into strategic projects in your PSA tool
myITprocess helps you identify technology risks in your client’s environment. You can then easily add these risks to a roadmap while ensuring they align with client-approved budgets and timelines. Once a customer accepts your project, you can automatically turn it into an Autotask Opportunity on the same screen without jumping into your PSA tool.
With this feature, you can automatically turn client-accepted myITprocess recommendations into Autotask Opportunities, so you can clearly see their progress and ensure the lifecycle of any project is seamlessly handled and consistently executed in time, every time.
Everyone on the team, including service desk technicians, can have a comprehensive overview of your client’s IT environment and risk status by bringing myITprocess recommendations next to the rest of your Autotask Opportunities. This feature makes the entire experience, from client approval to project implementation, effortless, making you more efficient in providing your clients with the best service.
From planning to action in one click
With myITprocess, you can automatically start working on identified technology risks with 1-Click Ticket Creation available for Autotask, BMS and ConnectWise. As you complete a technology alignment review, quickly loop in technicians and enable them to take action immediately.
With this feature, you can reduce ticket volume and avoid escalations by proactively creating tickets from out-of-alignment issues as you review your client’s IT environment.
Visit our Knowledge Base for more details and step-by-step instructions on how to set up Autotask integration.
