All clients are not created equal. That’s a first-hand fact many of us are reminded of daily. Some clients are great, others not so great. And then there are what we at TruMethods call the “inbetweeners.”

Operating your business at the seat of your pants is a recipe for disaster, as many of us can attest firsthand. But, the same goes for running sales meetings with your salespeople. Without a well-defined structure in place, a sales meeting will produce nothing meaningful and waste everyone’s valuable time. Nothing will get accomplished, nobody will be held accountable, and you won’t sell monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price for very long.

When creating strategic initiatives in the myITprocess Strategic Roadmap, it is common to get pulled in the direction of creating initiatives that reference technology versus plugging into clients’ business initiatives. Recommendations can and should be a blend of business and technology suggestions, but should always reference a business case as to why the recommendation should be accepted.

While there’s much debate over how many verticals an MSP should specialize in, the general consensus among IT professionals seems to be that specializing in one or more verticals is typically a good business decision for MSPs. But for how long should an MSP specialize in a vertical market? And what are the signs that point to the need for an MSP to reevaluate the verticals it’s conducting business in? Those are the questions that are typically left answered.

It’s one thing to talk about being data-driven; it’s another to actually bring about that enlightened state. Along the way, you’ll run into all sorts of problems – not enough data, dirty data, too much data, and trying to figure out how to use the data you have. Yet, when you start to put into place all the things you need, you’ll find that your decision making becomes sharper, your outcomes start getting better, and you’ll have a lot more confidence along the way.

You've heard me talk about the concept of ROL, or return on luck, over the years. I first read about the concept of return on luck in the book "Great by Choice,” where Jim Collins discusses the long-term impact of luck events, both good and bad. He found that companies had the same amount of these types of events over a decade. But the companies that were able to react differently to both good and bad luck events got to the top of the industry. I feel the biggest turning points in my business career came from what others called “bad luck” events.

Finding what makes your business unique is what puts you ahead of your competitors and in a better position to generate monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price. What makes an MSP stand out is its Super Power.

Professional development shouldn’t be an afterthought in your organization.

It’s something that should matter greatly to not only you, but also your managers. Developing a plan for continuing education is essential for any MSP looking to generate monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price.

Marketing has always been an area that MSPs have struggled with (that and sales). In fact, this is the reason why many MSPs look for outside help for their marketing efforts, but oftentimes, they don’t know what to look for when evaluating marketing companies.

After we announced IT Glue’s acquisition of TruMethods, many people reached out to congratulate me. (For those of you who did, thank you.) Some even suggested that I must be proud of my accomplishment — launching, growing, and selling yet another company. While I appreciate their thoughts and understand their intentions, I actually have a different take on what it means to be proud.