I think we can all agree that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented MSPs with a range of new business opportunities, particularly in the cybersecurity space. Instead of trying to have conversations with prospects about why implementing enhanced security measures is essential, why not have candid discussions with business leaders you connect with on a regular basis?
You may not know this about me, but I do enjoy smoking the occasional cigar. So, during the pandemic, I decided it’d be a good idea to meet up with some friends of mine once a week to sit outside, enjoy the beautiful weather, smoke a socially distant cigar and talk shop.
At one of our more recent gatherings, I began asking questions about how the pandemic has impacted them and their businesses. We went around the circle and discussed some of the changes and pivots we had to make to keep our shops up and running. But, at some point during the conversation, we began talking about our employees and what it’s like having them work from home.
So, naturally, I started asking my friends questions about the technologies they were using, how their employees were accessing their networks, the types of security measures they put in place — and it quickly became apparent to me that all my friends had taken on additional security risks when shifting their employees to remote work.
When I asked my friends questions about how their vendors handled certain security situations or the conversations their vendors had with them around the changes made to their systems and networks to accommodate remote work, my friends moved further and further up in their seats.
Of course, they had no idea what I was talking about.
I finally ended the discussion by finding out how many employees each of them had and what each of them were spending on IT, and used price as a gap to explain why all of them had some maybe serious potential issues.
With the significant changes being made in the way we do business and the ever-evolving IT cyber threat landscape becoming increasingly complex, there are plenty of opportunities for MSPs to uncover pain in a way that business people really understand.
And, oftentimes, your leads are closer than you think. They’re usually sitting around the fire with you.
