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.
