Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast

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Episode 150: This is how to influence your MSP’s prospects Sep 27, 2022

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Episode 150 includes: 00:00 Three more powerful marketing weapons to influence your prospects 08:47 How to best help your staff during the cost of living crisis 19:00 Some great advice about collaboration and time management, as part of the Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event 22:06 A new vCIO revenue stream for your MSP 37:31 A great book recommendation about getting the most out of your day Featured guests: As part of this month’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, thank you to Richard Tubb, the host of TubbTalk, for joining Paul to share the best piece of business advice he’s ever been given. Richard provides expert advice to help IT businesses grow. Richard has worked with the owners of hundreds of MSPs to free up their time, concentrate on doing what is important and make more money. Connect with Richard on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardtubb/ Thanks also goes to Praveen Ramesh from SuperOps.ai and the host of SuperPod, for also joining Paul to share the best piece of business advice he’s ever been given. Praveen handles all things growth and product marketing at SuperOps.ai. He’s super passionate about helping MSPs overcome their go-to-market challenges, and achieve sustainable growth – that’s the reason you will see him sharing everything he knows about marketing and growth throughout many MSP communities. When not thinking about marketing, you will see him binging videos on productivity and cricket! Connect with Praveen on LinkedIn:https://in.linkedin.com/in/rameshpraveen Find out more about this September’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, including the $1000 prize:http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Thank you to Stuart Holtby from GetInSync Strategic Management for joining Paul to discuss a potential new vCIO revenue stream for your MSP. MSPs turn to Stuart when they are fed up with being treated as a faceless vendor caught in the MSP commodity trap. Stuart works closely with MSP owners to differentiate their firms by offering an exceptional vCIO service. Using the GetInSync framework, MSPs gain a clear line-of-sight to their clients’ business drivers and are empowered to craft a game-changing Business-IT strategy for their clients. Connect with Stuart on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartholtby/ Extra show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of creating influential marketing, Paul recommended the book / audiobook Influence by Robert Cialdini: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Influence-Psychology-Robert-Cialdini-PhD/dp/006124189X https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Influence-Audiobook/B00N349QTG Paul mention the UK tax relief scheme for home workers: https://www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/working-at-home Find out more about this September’s MSP marketing podcast crossover event including the $1000 prize: http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Thank you to Adam Wootton from Impact Sales Coaching for recommending the book Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Miracle-Morning-Not-So-Obvious-Guaranteed-Transform/dp/0979019710 https://uk.linkedin.com/in/adam-wootton-b4607015 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh every Tuesday. Paul Green:For MSPs around the world, this is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast. Paul Green:We’ve hit a big milestone this week. Welcome to episode 150 of the podcast, here’s what we got coming up for you this week. Stuart Holtby:Hi, I’m Stuart and. We’ll be talking about how you can take your PCI, practice up a notch and make more money. Paul Green:That’s my guest Stuart Holtby, and he’s here to talk about VCIO, virtual chief information officer. It should be or could be a revenue and profit stream in every MSP. We’re going to be talking about that later on in the show. I’ve also got an idea for you to help your staff. It’s a way of helping them with the cost of living crisis that we’re going through right now, but it’s also a way of showing to them that you really care. It’s a simple idea. Won’t cost you a huge amount of money or reveal it to you later on in the podcast, Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP marketing podcast. Paul Green:Last week on the show, I introduced you to three very clever weapons of influence, and they come from a book called Influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini, a psychology professor who focuses on marketing. Now I’ve got three more of those weapons to tell you about this week. So last week we looked at social proof, reciprocity and commitment and consistency. And the first we’re looking at today is liking. If someone likes you, you will be in a better position to influence them. And just like last week, we were saying all of the weapons of influence we were talking about were essentially core psychology. They talked to our core programming. So too does liking because our core programming that drives us today is the same programming that we had in caves a hundred thousand years ago. Paul Green:And of course, back then we were in the middle of the food chain. So things ate us. There were also no police officers. So people would kill us. Could meet someone one loud, walking down a country lane. If the dinosaurs donate you, some other kind of cave dweller can come up to you and smack you on the head with a club. And there’s no consequence. There’s absolutely zero consequence. Paul Green:So that’s why we evolved the ability to instantly gauge whether or not we like someone or whether we are fearful of them. And we still have this today. When you meet people and you shake hands with them, we do form an instant sort of appreciation of whether or not this person is safe or not safe. We call it gut feel, but it’s actually the thing that’s kept us alive. And of course, because our ancestors back in cave days carry bread, and it’s weird to think that you’ve got family from a hundred thousand years ago that lived in caves. Anyway, you get the idea. So we are the evolution of that sense of feel. That sense of acceptance, that emotional gut feel because obviously we are the survivors and that makes sense from an evolution point of view. Paul Green:So if someone likes you, particularly, if they like you a lot, then you are much more likely to be able to influence them. Now, this is why in your marketing, you need to put you everywhere. I need to see photos of you. I need to see videos of you. I need to learn more about your story and not your boring computer story. I first got an Amigo in 1982, please do write to the usual address to tell me it came out in 1987 or whatever is the case. Paul Green:But I want to know about your real story. Why do you live in the city where you are? What is it about that city? You love show me your other half. Show me your kids. Tell me what you do. What are you involved in? How do you give back to the community? No one can get to like you if you are hiding behind a brand and a website and stock images, you’ve got to show people the real. You know that when you go and sit down with a prospect and you talk about their business, they bond with you in some way, they’re not picking your MSP, that picking you. And they’re doing that because they’ve formed a relationship with you. They’ve realised they like you over a couple of meetings. We can actually start doing that earlier on through our marketing. And it’s why we know that people buy from people, so show the people, the people it’s as simple as that. Paul Green:Now the next one that we’ve got is authority. So people in a position of authority are much more likely to influence. In the old days. This was why doctors, medical doctors wore white coats, because if you had a white coat you were an authority figure. It’s why the police, it’s why lots of people wear uniforms because uniforms set up a sense of authority within us. Now you can build authority as well. And the good news is you don’t need to wear a uniform. But what you do need to do is to act like an authority figure, authority figures write, they create books. They write blog articles. They write on LinkedIn, they write LinkedIn newsletters. They record videos. They do podcasts. They do talks and things. Authority figures are content creators. You can put those two things together. And this has been the case for a hundred years or so. This is not just a new internety thing. Paul Green:It is simply the case that we perceive high quality content creators to be authority figures. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why in my MSP marketing edge program, we give a series of resources to our members to help them catapult themselves into an authority figure position. So for example, we give them an IT services buyers guide, which they can tailor to their MSP and pretend that they wrote it. We give them a book called email hijack, which again, they can put their name on the front. It shows that they are a published author and we give them help doing presentations and talks. And of course, a load of video content as well. So we make it really easy to be an authority figure. People prefer buying from authority figures and are certainly more easily influenced by them. And then we’ve got the final of Cialdini’s six weapons of influence. Paul Green:And that final one is scarcity. When there is only a finite amount of something left, it forces us to make an opinion whether or not we want it. So restaurants will use this against us. They will say, for example, here’s the menu, just a couple of things. This is ours, this is ours, and this, we are down to the last two of those because a good restaurant does run out of dishes. And they’re not just taking out the freezer and microwaving them. And if you have a party of four and a waiter says, “We’re down to the last two of this dish,” all of that party, four instantly thinking they’ve got to make a decision of, do I want that or not? And then there’s that awkward standoff isn’t there, where three people in the party want to have it. And it’s like, no, no, no, you have it I’ll have the Curry or whatever is the case. Paul Green:Now, how would you use scarcity in your MSP? Because the reality is you have very little scarcity. It’s software doesn’t run out, does it? I know the number of licenses run out, but you just buy more licenses. And we’ve kind of had a bit of scarcity with hardware, with the supply chain disruption, but that’s not a long term thing. I prefer to deal in long term stuff in the podcast, because that stays relevant to you. Even if you’re listening to this in the year 2032, welcome to you from the future if you’re listening to this in 2032. If you are, could you email me if I’m not retired or dead or something? Hello at Paul Green’s MSP marketing.com would just be really cool to hear from someone in the future. Anyway, it’s a hot summer evening as I’m recording this, I think the weather’s get into my brain. Paul Green:The scarcity that you’ve got within your MSP, the only scarcity is project time, technician time. So I think scarcity can be leveraged when you’re doing your strategic reviews with your existing clients and you’re talking to them about their roadmap, we mentioned roadmaps last week in the podcast as well. Roadmaps are great because you get someone to sign it or if they’re committing themselves to it. Paul Green:A technology roadmap can also be great for getting them to make a decision. Hey look, you said, you want to do this, this and this. That’s going to be 80 hours of project time. We don’t have that time now, the earliest we can do is three months time. Did you want to do it in three months or did you want to book it in for, let’s say spring next year? And you can actually get people to make a commitment to, if you like, reserve the scarcity, the only scarce resource you’ve got, which is your project time. So please do go and have a look at this book Influence by dr. Robert Cialdini, it’s on Audible. It’s a dry read, but it’s a great read. And there are so many cool marketing and psychology things that you’ll learn from it. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s clever idea. Paul Green:Weirdly considering it was how I made my living for the first few years of my adult career, I kind of try and avoid the news now. And I don’t know about you, but I find the general news just to be very negative, especially at the moment the cost of everything’s going up, inflation’s going up interest rates, no one can afford to buy a loaf of bread. It’s an absolute nightmare. And I just choose to insulate myself from that. So I want to know what’s going on, but I just don’t want the general negativity pushing down on me. Maybe you are the same. I find a lot of business owners are very similar in this way, but of course I am aware of the cost of living crisis. Certainly that’s what we’re calling it here in the UK, wherever you are, maybe you are experiencing a similar thing. Paul Green:I know within the US, there’s a similar thing happening as we in the US just a few weeks ago and lots of talk of inflation and gas prices going up. And the reality is it is having an impact on ordinary people. The cost of living, just being around every day, it’s costing more. And as a side note, I don’t think this is something you should worry about for your business. Even as we go into recessions, I hate saying that recession word, but this recessions are cyclical. They come round. It doesn’t really matter. All the recession means is instead of the growth line being slightly up, the growth line is slightly down. It doesn’t really mean anything. Yes, it’s going to impact some of your clients. Yes. You may use a client. You may use some lose some users as some of your clients shrink down. Paul Green:I see recessions as opportunities, because if you are fast and fun and you’re full of energy and you’re going for it and the kind of person that listens to a podcast like this is that kind of person, I think this is an opportunity. There’s lots of old, slow MSPs out there that aren’t changing. They’re not reviewing what they do and adding new services and keeping up to date. Even in the six years that I’ve been in this world of MSPs in the channel, everything has changed and everything is going to change every, I think, seven to 10 years in our world. So I think if you are staying on top of stuff and you proactively marketing and you’re doing things, you honestly have nothing to worry about. If anything, you are going to take clients, you’re going to win more new clients and you will come out of this recession better and bigger than you were going in. Paul Green:And there are literally thousands of case studies of businesses that were built or grew hugely during bad economic times. It doesn’t all have to be doom and gloom, but that’s a side note. That’s not really what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is the impact of the cost of living on your team. You see, as the business owner, you have the ability to take money out of the business anytime you need to, so long as there is money there, of course. But we do this as busi…

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Episode 149: Claim your share of this $5,000 MSP giveaway Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Episode 149 includes: 00:00 Create amazing marketing with these 3 influential weapons 09:20 Find out about the $5,000 MSP giveaway 12:45 MSP failure advice from the MSP Podcast Crossover 14:40 What is ‘scrappy marketing’ and how you can use it 27:49 A great book recommendation all about knowing your audience Featured guests: As part of this month’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, thank you to Adam Walter, co-host of The Humanize IT Podcast, for joining Paul to share the best piece of business advice he’s ever been given. In each episode of their show, hosts Adam Walter, Skip Ziegler and other industry experts, show business owners, technology professionals and problem-solvers how to excel their careers with a new, more conversation-based approach to IT. Find out more about this September’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, including the $1000 prize:http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Check out the Humanize IT Podcast:https://anchor.fm/humanize-it Connect with Adam on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamswalter/ Thank you to Colt Briner from Scrappy AF Marketing for joining Paul to discuss how smart marketing on a low budget can have huge impact. Colt helps mid-stage organisations apply creativity and strategy to capture market share from industry incumbents and build pathways into new markets. Colt combines rich strategy with deeply practical application – and a bit of humour – to ensure his listeners come away equipped to succeed as better marketers and better leaders. Connect with Colt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colt-briner Extra show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of creating influential marketing, Paul recommended the book / audiobook Influence by Robert Cialdini: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Influence-Psychology-Robert-Cialdini-PhD/dp/006124189X https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Influence-Audiobook/B00N349QTG Find out how to leave a product / vendor revue with Channel Program and earn your share of $5000: https://channelprogram.com/products Find out more about this September’s MSP marketing podcast crossover event including the $1000 prize: http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Thank you to Mike Verret from Verret & Associates for recommending the book Rise & Grind by Daymond John: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Grind-Outperform-Outhustle-Successful/dp/0804189951 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-verret-7027211 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh, every Tuesday, for MSPs around the world, around the world, this is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast, podcast. Paul Green:Hello, superstar. Welcome back to the show. Here’s what we’ve got coming up for you this week. Colt Briner:Talk about strong strategies and creative execution to capture market share from industry incumbents if you’re a small starting business. Paul Green:That’s Colt Briner. He’s a lovely guy, and he’s going to be talking later on in the show about how you can steal market share from the big incumbent MSPs in your marketplace. Paul Green:We’re also talking this week about cash. There’s a big cash giveaway. $5,000 is being given away in total, and you can claim your share of it. I’ll tell you how in a few minutes time. Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast. Paul Green:One of the best business books that I’ve ever read is a fusion of two of my favourite subjects. You’ve got a bit of marketing in it, and you’ve got a lot of psychology in it. And those two things going together made for an absolutely cracking book. The book is called Influence, by Dr. Robert Cialdini, who is a psychology professor, but who specialises in marketing. And he wrote this book, I think it was mid-80s when he wrote it, and it’s quite a dry read. I think if you are really into your hardcore marketing, you’ll enjoy it a great deal. I would definitely start with it on Audible and have a listen to it. Paul Green:You may find it’s a little bit too dry for you if you only have a sort of small interest in marketing and it’s not your passion as it is for me. But, I try and reread this book every year. There’s always, every time I read it, there’s something in it, something that I’ve perhaps learnt before and forgotten and it’s just a good reminder. In fact, I’m going to start rereading it tonight. This can be one of my autumn reads, my fall reads. Paul Green:What I’m going to do this week is I’m going to take you through three of the core principles in this book, so three weapons of influence. And then next week on next week’s podcast, I’m going to take you through the other three. Because in this book, Cialdini gives you six weapons of influence. Now because this book has been around for, what’s coming up to, I guess, 40 odd years, because of that, you will have heard of a lot of these before. But just because you’re hearing about something again and again and again, it doesn’t mean that it has less value. In fact, if anything, it’s the other way around. It has greater value if you keep hearing about it again and again. Paul Green:And the first weapon of influence that I want to focus on that’s in this book is called social proof. Now we’ve talked about social proof a great deal in this podcast. We’ve talked about testimonials, reviews, case studies. Social proof works because, at a deep psychological level, people are motivated, very highly motivated, to do what most other people are doing. And this goes back to when we all lived in caves and we were in the middle of the food chain. So back then, there really was safety in numbers. If you lived with 50 other people in your tribe, in a cave somewhere, and those 50 people started running, you didn’t stop to think about it and to ask, “Hey, what’s everyone running for?” You just ran with them. It was a bit like being a sheep. You just did it. And you didn’t stop to think about it, it was basic programming that’s within you. Paul Green:Now these days, we have social proof, which is our attempt to sort of hook into that. So, when you see a case study, in fact, this is why you need a case study, when you put out a case study of someone who’s used your MSP and they had a problem, and it was a nightmare of a problem, and you solved that problem for them and you made their situation better, and you just smoothed the path for them to greater growth or some of the kind of happy ending, you’re demonstrating social proof in action. Paul Green:And, people are heavily influenced by other people they perceive to be like them, which is why you want social proof from business owners and managers. If you’re in a niche, you’re in a niche or a vertical, then you want social proof from within that vertical. For example, I have about 65 reviews on Google, and they’re all from MSPs, because I only work with MSPs. Kind of makes sense, doesn’t it really? So that’s your first weapon of influence. Paul Green:Now your second weapon is something called reciprocity. It took me ages to learn how to say that word properly, reciprocity, and I can roll my Rs as well. So reciprocity is, when we are given something, it sets up a need, not a want, but a need to reciprocate, to give something back. This is why, if you were pushing consumer goods, you would offer free samples. If you go to the food store, to the supermarkets, what do you see? You see free samples of stuff. That reciprocity really does work. When you give someone something, it sets up that need to give it back. It’s like a favour. Paul Green:This week, as I’m recording this, it’s the school holidays here in the UK. And this week, my daughter’s been at a stage school, learning how to act and stuff. And on Wednesday, I had meetings and other stuff and I just couldn’t take her in. One of the other parents very, very thankfully jumped to help me. And, she sort of had her at her house early in the morning, and then I had her at her house afterwards. And I have this massive reciprocity now that’s been set up in my head that I need to do a favour for that parent now. Does that make sense? So, the other parent hasn’t asked for the favour, and probably never will, but at the back of my head, I have to do something to help that parent, just because they helped me out of a difficult situation. That’s reciprocity in action. Paul Green:How would you use reciprocity? Well, there are lots of different ways. If we think about an old marketing tactic that used to be used by MSPs years ago, which is the free audit, hooking someone in and doing a free audit of their business, maybe there’s a level of reciprocity in action with a free audit. I mean, these days, you do a dark web scan or something like that. That would be a clever way to do it. And there are, of course, lots of great places to go and get those dark web scans done now. But yeah, that might be a way of leveraging that kind of reciprocity. Paul Green:The third weapon of influence that I want to talk to you about today is commitment and consistency. So this is, again, is down, all of this is down to the basics of how we are driven. When we commit ourselves to something, and we do that in front of other people, we tend to be quite consistent in that behaviour. So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you want to get fit, and you go and join a gym. And the chances are high that if you just join a gym on your own, you will do what millions and millions of people have done, and will do in the future, which is you join a gym. You go on day one all fired up. You go on day two, a little less fired up. Day three, yeah, not quite as fired up. Day four, you don’t go, but you keep the membership for another year, even though you don’t go to the gym. Now that’s what happens to people when they go on their own. Paul Green:When someone goes and they have a PT, a personal trainer, or better still, a friend of theirs who goes to the gym with them, both of those people tend to go and train longer. And, their desire to train has tailored off at the same it would if you were just going solo. But what you don’t want to do is you don’t want to be seen to be inconsistent to your friend. It’s crazy, really. You’ve got two people, neither of whom really wants to go to the gym, but they’re going, not to let the other person down. Isn’t that crazy? But you can actually leverage that. Paul Green:So, in terms of your marketing, how would you leverage commitments and consistency? Well, I think here, it’s for existing clients. So when you are doing your QBRs, your quarterly business reviews, or, as I prefer to call them, your strategic reviews, I think, getting someone to sign off a future plan, almost like a roadmap, I think roadmaps can be an important and critical part of a strategic review. And actually sitting with your clients and talking about, asking them about their technology, their growth plans, what’s going to be happening in the next two to three years, that’s a smart thing to do. Put together a roadmap and get them to sign that roadmap. Why do we ask them to sign something? Because someone signing something is psychologically them committing themselves to that. So they are then… No, there’s no actual commitment. No one’s going to hold them to that roadmap. But mentally, emotionally, at a psychological level, they are committing themselves to that roadmap, and they are going to want to be consistent with that commitment. Paul Green:And, that means that they are essentially, they’re not just really signing a roadmap, are they? They are signing a pledge to stay with your MSP for the next two to three years. In fact, I believe you use strategic reviews to stop clients ever leaving. They might not have signed the new contract with you yet, but if emotionally, mentally and psychologically, they have committed for another two to three years, they’re not going anywhere. Paul Green:So next week, we will do the three more weapons of influence. If you get a chance, do go and get this book off Audible. It’s called Influence, by Robert Cialdini. It’s worth the Audible credit that you’ll spend on it. And I think, as I said, you’ll find some fascinating things inside that book. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s clever idea. Paul Green:It’s not so much a clever idea today as a clever way for you to take your share of a $5,000 giveaway. That’s what we’re attempting to do this week, across all of my channels, this podcast, YouTube, my email list, my Facebook group and LinkedIn. I am pushing this and pushing this. It’s going to take you 10 to 15 minutes of work. That’s all. And that 10 to 15 minutes is going to earn you up to $45. And the best bit is, in earning that $45, you’re actually helping other MSPs. Let me explain what’s going on, and tell you how you can get your share of this $5,000 giveaway. Paul Green:So right at the beginning of this year, I had two wonderful guests on the show. It was Matt Solomon and Kevin Lancaster. And they’d launched a brand new thing. It was called Channel Program. You may be aware of it. It’s been growing at some pace this year, really getting onto quite a lot of people’s radars. If you haven’t checked it out yet, just go and Google Channel Program. And for those of you not in the US, it’s Program with one M. So, here in the UK, we spell program with two Ms and an E. Obviously, we’re doing it wrong here. It’s just the one M. So go and Google Channel Program. They launched that in January. Paul Green:And, a couple of weeks ago, they launched a reviews platform as part of that. So they’ve got all the big vendors on there. In fact, there are tons of vendors. We are on there with the MSP Marketing Edge. And, what Matt and Kevin are looking to do now is to build up a huge bank of independent, unbiased reviews about the vendors. So obviously, they just want ordinary MSPs like you to go in and leave reviews about products that they are using. We’ve already got a small number of reviews for the MSP Marketing Edge, which is wonderful, and thank you very much to my members that have left those reviews. Paul Green:But this is where the cash comes in. Because right now, they are rewarding MSPs with $15. I think it is as an Amazon gift card. So you get $15 to spend on Amazon, for every review that you leave. To a maximum of three reviews. Otherwise, I guess you could claim the entire $5,000 yourself. But, what we are doing this week is I’m helping Matt and Kevin to get more of those reviews. They’ve given me a budget of $5,000 to give away. So you won’t get the money from me. The money will come from them. But all you have to do is leave a review. So let me tell you how to do it. Paul Green:You simply go and register yourself a free account at Channel Program, so it’s channelprogram.com, and then you go to /products. Channelprogram.com/products, that’s where you search for… Basically, go and search for your stack. So take your top three favourite parts of your stack, or your top three favourite vendors. Go and look for them in Channel Program, and then go and leave them…

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Episode 148: MSP marketing lessons from this direct mail Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

Episode 148 includes: 00:00 A great example of modern direct mail 14:03 Clever automation with calendar bookings 16:47 MSP planning advice from the MSP Podcast Crossover 19:15 Improve sales with ‘relationship signal intelligence’ 29:37 A great book recommendation filled with MSP inspiration Featured guests: As part of this month’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, thank you to Ian Luckett, the host of The IT Experts Podcast, for joining Paul to share the best piece of business advice he’s ever been given. Ian is a Business Growth Consultant and specialises in helping business owners in the IT & MSP space. Ian has always been a big fan of Personal Development and his passion has spread over the years into the business world. Find out more about this September’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, including the $1000 prize:http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Check out The IT Experts Podcast:https://innovatetosuccess.com/itega-podcast/ Connect with Ian on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianluckett/ Thank you to Jamie Shanks from Pipeline Signals for joining Paul to discuss how to improve sales with ‘relationship signal intelligence’. Jamie is the CEO of Pipeline Signals, a startup SaaS firm that helps businesses scale their pipeline through Relationship Signal Intelligence Monitoring by addressing the most common yet unanswered challenges that most sellers have. For the past ten years, Jamie ran Sales for Life, the world’s most extensive Social Selling training program for mid-market and enterprise companies. Jamie has delivered workshops across six continents for Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Oracle, American Airlines & Intel. Connect with Jamie on LinkedIn:https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jamestshanks Extra show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of creating clever calendar automations, Paul recommended the Hubspot CRM: https://www.hubspot.com Find out more about this September’s MSP marketing podcast crossover event including the $1000 prize: http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Thank you to Cassandra Morgan from White Whisker Publications for recommending the book MSP Secrets Revealed by Mark Copeman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSP-Secrets-Revealed-inspiration-practical/dp/B0875Z2JLF https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassandra-morgan-09b7b9126 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh every Tuesday for MSPs around the world, this is Paul Green’s MSP marketing Podcast. Paul Green:Welcome back. We have got another great show for you this week, and this is what’s coming up. Jamie Shanks:Relationship signal intelligence. Watch who leaves your customers and goes into prospects, and you will be able to create opportunities. Paul Green:That’s Jamie Shanks from Pipeline Signals. He’s going to be here towards the end of the show, talking about how prospects give off information that could be turned into opportunities for you. For example, if someone posts something on LinkedIn that they’ve got a new job or that their business has won a big new contract, you can leverage that signal into becoming an opportunity for your MSP. More on that later on, and I’ve also got a great suggestion for you today from one of our listeners. It’s how you can use your live calendar to trigger off some extra marketing things. A lovely automation, we’ll talk about how you can do that later on in the show. Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast. Paul Green:For years, I’ve been a huge fan of you sending out direct mail items to your prospects and to your leads, and the reason being, when we send something in the post, when we ship something, we mail it, it tends to have a higher proportion of someone’s attention than when we send them something digitally. So, if you think back to like 1997 which was 25 years ago, which makes me feel very old because I remember ’97 very well, got married the first time that year, don’t talk about that marriage, not anymore, but 1997, you had huge amounts of post coming in, physical stuff coming into your house. You had very small amounts of email. 25 years later, completely the other way round. We have a ton of digital things. In fact, the digital overload is overwhelming and yet we have so little stuff coming into our houses in the form of mail. So, when a piece of mail turns up, we tend to give it a little more attention. Paul Green:Now, I don’t get a great deal of good post. Bizarrely, I still get a bank statement from one bank. I’ve tried to switch it off a number of times from a bank called Santander here in the UK, and they can’t figure out which computer is sending me a bank statement every month because I’ve got it all switched off in my accounts. Anyway, so I get that which that just goes straight into the shredding every month. But every now and again, I’ll get an offer of some kind, and I got one a couple of weeks ago which I want to show to you. Paul Green:Now, I say show, I realise you’re probably listening on an audio-only platform. That’s how most people consume this podcast. Now, that’s okay. As we go through this, I will describe everything I’m looking at, but if you want to see it, we do actually do this podcast now on YouTube. So, it’s been on YouTube since we’ve started, but for the last few, I think the last couple of weeks or so, I’ve started doing the podcast on camera. So, if you go onto youtube.com/mspmarketing, it’s exactly the same podcast, but you’ll see me on the camera, and you’ll be able to see anything that I’m holding up. Paul Green:So, I’ve got this direct mail letter and it comes from a company called Bluecrest. Now, Bluecrest is a health, I’ve never actually heard of them, but it’s a healthcare company. The way it works here in the UK is everyone gets basic… Well, actually very, very good healthcare. I was about to say for free. We do pay something called National Insurance which is a very low level tax, but it means that we have something called the NHS, the national health service, and I believe the UK is unique in this, that every single human being in this country is entitled to free healthcare at any level, and it’s all paid for by the government. Paul Green:You can top it up with private insurance. So, I have private insurance with a company called Bupa which sits on top. So, I go and see my NHS doctor, but if I need to be referred for surgery or treatment or something, I can choose to go and have that done in a private hospital. So, that’s the way it works, but because of this, I suspect that… Because obviously, NHS doesn’t have enough money, far too many people, far too many medical conditions. We’re all inconveniently living longer than ever, and you hear every day in the media that the NHS doesn’t have enough money. Paul Green:So, one of the things which I suspect happens in places like the US where you have a private medical system, I suspect that you are encouraged to have an annual health check, whereas we don’t really do this in the UK. We essentially operate a break-fix model. We wait till our bodies are broken and then we go to get them fixed. So, I haven’t had a routine health check actually since I was 40, so seven years ago. I mean, I’m reasonably healthy. I’m pretty healthy actually for a 47-year-old, but there are probably two or three little minor medical things that I could get addressed if I wanted to, and it’s certainly been on my mind recently that maybe I should go and get a health check, just a general health MOT. Paul Green:So, then this company Bluecrest writes to me and they’ve addressed it to Mr. Green. So, they don’t even know my full name. So, they’ve clearly just bought some data from somewhere. But this envelope that it’s arrived in, it says on the front, it say, “A health marketing offer inside for Mr. Green,” and it looks like there’s a stamp on it. I’ve never seen this before in the UK because it’s a proper UK stamp, but it’s actually, it’s been printed on the envelope and that’s been delivered by the Royal Mail, but the beauty of putting a stamp on is it makes it feel more real, and certainly when you’re sending direct mail, if you can put a stamp on, that will be great. Paul Green:Now, obviously this is a healthcare offer. This isn’t selling managed services, but I think this is one of the best direct mail letters that I’ve ever seen. So, I’m just going to take you through some of the elements that work so well. So, first of all, this is a four-page letter. It’s actually a really weird size. I think they’ve done it in a US letter size. Most people in the UK don’t realise that we have a format called A4 which is like the US letter, but A4’s a little bit wider and this actually feels thin, and actually that was one of the things that made it stand out to me. It feels like a weird size. Paul Green:“Dear Mr. Green,” it says. “I’m sure you know how important it is to take care of your health and wellbeing, especially after witnessing the events in the last 18 months.” They mean COVID. “Whilst our NHS has done an incredible job looking after us all at a time of national emergency, don’t we owe it to them as much to ourselves to try and help avoid potentially preventable illness in the first place? But where do we start?” Now, this is a great… This is what’s called a positioning paragraph, and what they’ve done is they’ve addressed right off at the beginning the fact that I don’t pay for healthcare. There is something called the NHS effect here in the UK where people don’t realise how much healthcare costs. Paul Green:When my daughter was born, she was born 15 weeks premature. So, back in 2010, she was born at 25 weeks, 25 weeks and three days, which is insanely premature, and she’s fine now. She’s just turned 12. She’s in perfect health now, and obviously she’s a preteen. She’s a tweenie as they call them, and so, she’s becoming a nightmare. She’s literally becoming a teenager in front of me, but medically she’s fine. But 10, 12 years ago, she was born with no… Literally like an hour’s warning, just like that, out she popped, a Sunday afternoon in a little sort of tiny community hospital, and she ended up staying in hospital for three months, and the NHS paid for everything. I mean, we literally paid nothing. We didn’t even pay for the car parking at the hospital because we had a car parking pass. Paul Green:And when she was discharged, three months later, the staff actually wrote us a letter which I’ve got somewhere up in the attic, and the letter said, “I hope you’ve enjoyed our stay with us here. We’re glad that your child is well enough to go home. Did you know, the letter said, “did you know that if you had had to pay for the treatment you’ve received in the last three months, it would’ve cost you a quarter of a million pounds?” which is around about $320,000. Now, that was the first time my wife and I had realised the cost of medical care in this country. Because in this country, it’s not like you get a bill and then the NHS pays it. You never see the bill. You don’t know how much stuff costs. So, what Bluecrest have done in this opening thing is they’ve positioned it very well. “The NHS has done an incredible job,” they’re saying, “but we almost owe it to them to look after ourselves better.” Paul Green:Now, I’m not going to read the whole letter out to you, but essentially then it says, “All too often, we wait for health issues to arise before addressing them.” Like I was saying earlier, that’s what we do. We have a break-fixed system with our healthcare system. And then they’ve underlined this, “But you don’t have to. Your Bluecrest health MOT is designed to help you understand your health, pick up risks early and help avoid potential problems further down the line.” Now, an MOT is a British thing. It’s something we have to have done with our car every year. It stands for Ministry of Transport. It’s basically a check. It’s like a safety check. Once your car’s three years old, every year, you have to pass your MOT, otherwise you can’t drive your car on the road. It’s kind of like a simple safety check. Everyone in the UK knows what an MOT is. So, calling it a health MOT is a very smart thing to do. Paul Green:And then they’ve gone on, they’ve sort of gone immediately, they’ve said where the appointments are available, and they’ve told me where to go for the clinics. The one, they’re like three miles from my home. So, that’s really convenient and they’re giving me the dates as well. So, instantly I can see if I’m available. Then they talk about how you get peace of mind with a private GP helpline. Now, at the moment, GPs… GPs are general practitioners. They’re the doctors that we go to, like the triage doctors, your general doctor… And because of COVID and just general pressure, it’s quite difficult to get a GPs appointment right now. So, it’s like, that’s a value add. Hang on a second. I can speak to a private GP. I like that. And then it just goes on and on and on, and it basically tells you what’s going to happen in the whole thing. Paul Green:It addresses all of your wants, your needs, and your fears, and this is what makes this piece of direct mail so brilliant. “There are no invasive procedures. You’ll remain fully clothed throughout. You will need to take your socks off,” it says, “and we’ll ask you questions about your medical history. You’ll relax on a comfortable examination couch.” Whoever wrote this is a marketing genius. They talk about painless, harmless electrodes, to record your heart, your bloods, and then it talks you through, there’s like a green, amber, red for your results, and then it takes you through all the different things. And it starts to go a little bit into medical jargon, but not too far. So, it’s enough so that you realise they know what they’re talking about. Paul Green:There is just here, there is a testimonial from Pat Gowie. Pat says, “I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Bluecrest. The staff were efficient, friendly, and helpful, and there was no time wasted.” That’s social proof. Social proof is an important element of it. I mean, no, one’s going to sit and read every aspect of this, but you can kind of flick through, and then it says, “Look, your report is still only halfway through,” and then it tells you all the different things. And then it says the cost, just £129. Surely this should cost more, and then it tells you how come and it kind of breaks it down. So, it tells you the cost of all the different tests and it all comes to £270, but you get a discount when purchased as a package, and so, you get the special price of £129. Paul Green:And then there’s a call to action. There’s a number to call. There’s scarcity. Places are limited to 15 per clinic. There’s a signature. Obviously this has been printed, but there’s a blue signature as if someone’s actually signed it, and that’s from so Alexander Higman who’s got lots of qualifications after his name. Interestingly, he’s not a doctor, I see. But he’s the director. He’…

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Episode 147: MSPs – be an adult when a client fires you Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

Episode 147 includes: 00:00 The benefit to your MSP of identifying a ‘loss leader’ within your service 05:51 The importance of being an adult when a client leaves you 12:54 Great advice about creating measuring objectives, as part of the Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event 15:48 A process expert joins Paul to explain how to easily document the procedures within your MSP 31:38 A book recommendation to help you transition from being a manager to a true leader Featured guests: As part of this month’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, thank you to Todd Kane, the host of the Evolved Radio Podcast, for joining Paul to share the best piece of business advice he’s ever been given. Todd is an accomplished business leader with 20+ years of experience and runs Evolved Management Consulting, helping managed IT companies increase profit and decrease stress. Find out more about this September’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, including the $1000 prize:http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Check out the Evolved Radio Podcast:https://www.evolvedmgmt.com/podcast Connect with Todd on LinkedIn:https://ca.linkedin.com/in/toddakane Thank you to Owen McGab Enaohwo from SweetProcess for joining Paul to discuss how sales can be turned into a series of small simple steps. Owen’s easy-to-use software enables company executives and their employees to collaborate together to quickly document and/or improve their standard operating procedures, processes, and policies. Owen was previously the CEO of Hire Your Virtual Assistant (H.Y.V.A.), a virtual assistant service for small business owners. His specialties include business development, negotiation, operations management, and more. Connect with Owen on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/owenmcgabenaohwo Extra show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of how to handle a client leaving you, Paul recommended reading the book MSP Secrets Revealed by Mark Copeman: https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSP-Secrets-Revealed-inspiration-practical/dp/B0875Z2JLF Find out more about this September’s Ultimate MSP podcast crossover event, including the $1000 prize: http://mspmarketingedge.com/MSPpodcastcrossover Thank you to Shoaib Laher from As.a.Service for recommending the book Leading by Sir Alex Ferguson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leading-Sir-Alex-Ferguson/dp/1473621178 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh every Tuesday for MSPs around the world, this is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast. Paul Green:Hello, and welcome to the show. Here’s what we got coming up for you this week. Owen McGab:Documentation. How can you document procedures and prices for your business? I know you probably have documentation in place for your clients, but sometimes you might neglect documenting how work is done within your company. Paul Green:That’s Owen McGab of SweetProcess, and we’re going to be talking systems today. Systems, processes, and documentation. They’re so important in your MSP, and Owen will reveal later on how to make it easier to document the things that you do day to day. We’re also going to be talking about what happens when a client wants to leave you. It’s so frustrating. But what’s really important is that you are an adult about it, because you never know. That client might come back to you in the future. Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP marketing podcast. Paul Green:Imagine this nightmare scenario. You’re at home, you’re in the middle of a real work flurry, but you need caffeine. You’re desperate for caffeine. So, you nip downstairs. You make yourself a coffee, open the fridge, pull out the milk and give it the sniff test. Oh, it’s gone off. The milk’s off. This is an absolute nightmare. So, you think, right. Okay. It’s not a problem. I’ll just nip down to the local supermarket or the grocery store, and I’ll just get myself some milk. So, you jump in the car, drive down to the shop, jump in, and you go in and you grab yourself some milk. And you chose that particular supermarket because the milk is always cheap there. And you grab some milk and you look at it, and you think, “Great. I’ve got some milk.” And then, by the time you get to the till, there are five or six other items in your hands. Paul Green:You’ve picked yourself up some chocolate, maybe some biscuits. “Oh, need some of that washing powder.” Or, “We’re nearly out of washing powder at home.” You get the idea. You sometimes you might even walk out with a flat screen TV. That’s why they sell these things there. The point is that you nipped into the store to get one thing. A staple, a basic everyday item. And while you were there, you bought other things. Paul Green:Now, shops, smart retailers, know this is how we work as humans, so they work very hard to do two things. The first thing is, they try to attract us in by making the staples that we buy on a regular basis being as low priced as they can be. Even premium stores will make the price of staples low price. So, that milk… And I’ve got to be honest that I would fail the politician’s question of how much is a pint of milk right now. I have no idea. But let’s say a milk cost you 50 pence, or what’s that, about 70 cents in dollars. Let’s say that milk costs you 50 pence. That’s probably got no profit for the retailer whatsoever. Paul Green:And this is known as a loss leader. It’s known as a loss leader because people go in to buy that item, and the store is choosing, in fact, it’s a strategic choice, to lose money or not make any money on that item because the other thing that they’re doing is they’re putting things in front of you that they know you will buy on an impulse. So, that flat screen TV, or those biscuits, or something else, that’s where they make up the profit margin. And, of course, the big retailers are very good at this. Paul Green:Well, the reality is, you could actually do this in your MSP. You could have a loss leader. And I don’t see many MSPs doing this, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that you shouldn’t look at. Because there are lots of different things that you could do as a loss leader. And these are only examples. But if, for example, you were so focused on getting the monthly recurring revenue that you didn’t really care how you went about getting it, because you know that someone who signs a contract is going to stay five, seven years, you just want that monthly recurring revenue. Paul Green:In that situation, you might, for example, discount the project that it takes to get them in through the door in the first place. So, you might have a $10,000 project to upgrade them or move them onto the cloud or whatever you are doing. And you might offer that to them at a discount. You might say, “Look, this is a retail price of $10,000. If you sign a three-year contract, we will drop that down to $7,000. So, essentially, we are not making any margin on that project. That’s our way of investing in you, Mr. or Mrs. Client, because we want to get you on board and obviously get you onto a contract.” Paul Green:And that would be a loss leader, actually losing any money on that project. But I appreciate that projects can be nice profit items. They can be great for cash flow. But they can also be a great way to make sure that you secure that client for the next 3, 4, 5 years. Paul Green:You could apply exactly the same approach to some of your services, like VoIP. I mean, we all know that VoIP is money for old rope, isn’t it? There’s just huge amounts of margin around VoIP. Maybe you could offer that as some kind of a loss leader. You may choose not to because there’s too much margin in it, but actually it’s a commodity product. If it takes “giving away”… Giving in speech marks there. If it takes more or less giving away the VoIP to get the client, so that you can actually make the good margin on all the other services you sell them, maybe that’s worth doing. Paul Green:What we’ve got here is a very clever pricing strategy that you can use to pull people into your MSP. And because most MSPs don’t do this, that’s the opportunity for you. The question to ask yourself is, where are we willing to lose some money in order to gain a client for the next 3, 5, 7, 10 years? Once you can get your head around that strategy and have some ideas ready to roll out, that could give you a huge pricing advantage over some of your competitors. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s clever idea. Paul Green:I know the phone calls or the emails that you dread the most. It’s when a client who you know deep down is not really happy with you drops you that email, or makes that phone call, to say, “Guys, we are done. We’re not going to renew our contract. We’re going to move to someone else.” And I know it doesn’t happen to you very often, so when it does happen, it hurts. Everyone takes this personally. Even if you have a bigger business and you’ve been doing this a long time and you are somewhat insulated from the clients, it’s still personal. Certainly, I take it personally. I’m sure you take it personally as well. I think that effect of us taking it personally shows how, I don’t know, how much we care still about the business. But it is a horrible situation. No one likes being in that situation where a client tells you it’s over, and it is something… It can affect your whole day. Paul Green:I always think, in those situations, you have to, as much as you can, be the adult about this. Because it’s very tempting, when someone tells you that they’re willing to move on to another MSP, it’s very tempting to not be an adult about that. And obviously I’m not an MSP, but I speak to MSPs all the time, and I know that sometimes clients leave because of things that are wrong that they’ve done, and not that you’ve done. And in fact, I’ve got a great quote to read about this in a second. I know in those situations, it’s very easy for you to not be the adult. To say, “Well, you know what? You guys are idiots.” You might not say this to them, but you might think it. “You guys are idiots. The problems you’ve got are caused by you. You don’t listen to our recommendations. You don’t follow our advice. You said you didn’t want XYZ solution, and then you got hacked, and somehow that was our problem.” And all of this is going through your head and your heart when that client says they’re leaving. And that’s a situation where it’s very, very easy to be… I’m not going to say be childish, but to not be an adult about it. Paul Green:Here’s the thing, though. I believe when a client is dumb enough to want to leave you, have to be as professional and as adult as you can possibly be in helping them to leave you, exit, and to hand over to another MSP. And it’s really important that the client sees you being the adult and being the professional about it. Paul Green:Why? Because I believe some of those clients will come back to you in the future, but only if you’ve been an adult at the point that they left. So, if at the point that they left you, you let the service levels drop, you didn’t look after them properly, you didn’t do a proper handover to their new MSP, in six months’ time when they’re unhappy with that new MSP and they’ve got that buyer’s regret, right in their heart they’re thinking, “Oh, we made a really bad choice. Why did we do that? We should have stuck with the last guys.” If you were unprofessional in the way that they exited the business, they’re never going to come back to you. They’re going to think, “Well, those guys weren’t great. These guys aren’t great. We need a third MSP.” Paul Green:But if you were utterly professional, and you were the adult, and you still went above and beyond what it took to help offboard them onto another MSP, it makes it easy for them to come back to you. Because it’s actually a very hard phone call for them. It’s a massive blow to their ego and their pride for them to pick up the phone or to send you an email saying, “Yeah, we made a mistake. Can we talk? We’d like to come back. Can we talk?” That’s a big step down for a former client to do. Paul Green:And I know this does happen for MSPs, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them. You want to be professional, even if it’s they’re going for the wrong reasons, be professional, be the adult. And at the very end of it, send them a handwritten note. This is what I would do. Send them a handwritten note saying, “Hey, Dave. I’m sorry it didn’t work out between us,” or “I’m sorry it didn’t work out more long term with us looking after you. It’s been fun working with you. If you ever want to have a conversation in the future about how we can help you, please give me a call. Here’s my cell number. Here’s my mobile number.” And I think that would be a very, very smart thing to do. Paul Green:So, you offboard them like an adult. There’s always, always, the opportunity that someone will come back. And many MSPs, maybe if you haven’t had this, you will in the future at some point, many MSPs have had clients coming back, particularly when that client has switched to save money. Very often, when a client switches to save money, they realise why the other MSPs service is cheaper: because the service levels are lower. And they suddenly appreciate that the service levels that you had, and the proactive work that you did, and the speed at which you operated, was worth paying that extra money for. Paul Green:Now, I’m going to read you a quote, and this comes from an awesome book. If you haven’t read this yet, it’s a book I highly recommend. It’s called MSP Secrets Revealed by Mark Copeman. Mark’s a lovely friend of mine. I’ve got to know him over the last couple of years. He’s been on this podcast. He wrote this book… I think it was a couple of years ago. This might have been his pandemic project. Yeah, 2020. This is the copyright at the beginning. And I know he’s actively writing MSP Secrets Revealed 2 as we speak and as we record this podcast. Now, the great thing about this book is, he’s gone out and he’s got lots of MSPs and vendors and experts who have contributed content into this book. I’ve got something somewhere in here. I think I wrote about the profit matrix in this one. Paul Green:But I’m going to read you something from page 207 of the book, and this was written by Nathan Maxwell of CCI Team. I’m not going to read the whole thing, but I’ll give you a shortcut. Nathan writes, “Stay classy. Always, always.” That’s like Ron Burgundy, isn’t it? “Stay classy, San Diego.” So, Nathan writes, “Stay classy, always. MSP services are like any other aspect of life: up and down. Sometimes your clients love you, sometimes, well, not so much. Be honest, be real and be classy. No matter what the situation is, be the adult.” And then he writes, “We bend over backwards to provide good service, to keep computers, networks, wireless, firewalls, and all the other gear humming smoothly. And then, we aren’t appreciated. We’re accused of poor quality. We’re blamed for something breaking, when all we did…

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Episode 146: Should you buy a client out of a contract? Aug 30, 2022

Show notes

Episode 146 includes: 00:00 When MSPs should buy clients out of contracts 06:47 The financial numbers that are important to your MSP 18:12 An MSP sales expert joins Paul to break sales down into simple steps 27:42 A book recommendation to help you combine your life skills and business experience to boost your success Featured guest: Thank you to MSP sales expert Fiona Challis for joining Paul to discuss how sales can be turned into a series of small simple steps. Fiona helps MSP’s to overcome one of the greatest challenges they face which is filling top of funnel, winning new clients and having a structured sales process to grow and retain those clients. Find out about Fiona’s course ‘How to win, grow and retain new clients for your MSP’ on Paul’s affiliate link:https://www.mspsalesmastery.com/a/2147515389/iJJozk7q Or use Fiona’s regular course link: https://www.mspsalesmastery.com/onlinecourse Connect with Fiona on LinkedIn:https://uk.linkedin.com/in/fionachallis Extra show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ Find out more about Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Edge: https://www.mspmarketingedge.com/ Thank you to Ben Spector from Zomentum for recommending the book Principles by Ray Dalio: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/1501124021 https://uk.linkedin.com/in/benspector1 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Paul Green:Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. I have got a cracker for you today. This is what we are going to be talking about. Fiona Challis:Most MSPs, we’re not waking up and going, “We need new customers. We need to start marketing.” But they don’t have a process. Paul Green:That’s Fiona Challis. She’s a very good friend of mine and an MSP sales expert. Her particular superpower is breaking your sales down into a series of step by step instructions. And she’ll be telling us more about that later on in the show. We’re also going to be talking about running the business by the numbers. What are the numbers you should be running it by, and how do you get that information? Paul Green:So imagine this scenario. You’ve got this prospect, you’ve had a few meetings, your proposal’s gone in. You are perfect for them and they are perfect for you. They’ve got the right number of users. They’ve got the right attitude towards technology. The price is right. The package is right. It looks like there’s going to be a marriage. However, they are still in contract with another MSP. And there’s a good 6, 7, 8, 9 months left to run on that contract. And your prospect says to you, “Hey, look, don’t worry. We’re not going to sign anything with you now, but we are going to switch to you in nine months’ time.” What would you do in that scenario? Would you hang back and say, “Okay. Yeah, no problems. See you in seven, eight months’ time.” Or would you push for them to sign now, and then just sit and wait? Would you start to do some work with them now? Paul Green:What would you do? Here’s the real question that I want to ask you. Would you buy them out of that contract with another MSP? Now, if I had the cash to do so, I would. I would always buy someone out of their contract. And here’s why. You see, today, if it’s perfect and they’re ready to pick you today, you want them to go ahead with that. Because I don’t know about you, but nine months, even six months, even three months is a very long time for business. It’s a very long time for a decision-maker’s mind and heart to think about things and to ponder on things. And you might be the perfect choice for them today, but you might not be the perfect choice a few months down the line. They may have just clouded their thinking, or their heart may be going off in a different direction. Paul Green:If I had the cash available, I would always, always, always buy out the contract. And in fact, create a closer bond with my future client by saying to them right now, “Look, you are stuck with an MSP that you’ve told me several times you don’t get on with anymore. You don’t feel that they’re right for you anymore. You feel that the service levels have gone down. Why would you put up with that any longer? We are willing to buy you out of your contract. So you can start work with us in a month’s time, rather than in six months’ time or whatever it is.” Now, there are a couple of different ways that you could do this. Possibly the easiest way to buy them out of the contract is they don’t pay you anything. So let’s say it was six months left on a contract. You say to them, “Right, sign here.” Paul Green:“I want you to make a small payment to us because that solidifies the contract, just from a legal point of view.” I’m not sure what the law is, where you are. But if someone has signed a contract and actually physically given you some cash, even if it’s only $500 or 500 pounds, then there is a level of commitment. They’ve given you some money psychologically. And from a legal point of view, in many jurisdictions, people can, it’s a start of a contract. They have given you some money to start that. You may then not charge them for the next six months. So they are paying money to their old MSP, but not receiving the service. That’s one way of doing it. Perhaps the cleaner way to do it is that they start paying you, and you buy out the contract. Paul Green:So let’s say there was 20,000 left, or it was a 20,000-pound or dollar penalty to pay to the other MSP. Again, if you’ve got that cash or if you can borrow that cash or find that cash somewhere, then obviously you give that money to the other MSP. I know that would sting. I know that would hurt. But the bigger picture is, you have won a new client. And I would ask for two things to go into their contract, or I would demand that two things go into their contract to make that happen. The first thing is some kind of clause that if they leave you for whatever reason within, I don’t know, a year, two years, of them starting with you, then you are entitled to ask for that 20,000 pounds back from them. So let me say that another way. So you are giving that 20,000 to the MSP that they have left, but you write it into their contract. Paul Green:That if for whatever reason, you guys split up within a certain time period, a year or 18 months, whatever, then they have to pay you a 20,000-pound exit fee. So essentially, your investment that you’ve given to their old MSP, you will get back if for whatever reason the relationship doesn’t work out. That’s the first thing. I think the second thing is to ask them for a longer contract. So assuming that you’re going to build a good relationship, and they’re going to be a good client going forward, let’s say you normally ask someone for a one-year contract. Then you ask them for a two. Or if it’s normally a two, you ask them for a three. If you normally ask for three, which is nothing wrong with that, then you ask them for a four-year contract. And that’s your way of saying to them, “Hey, we are very happy to take you on board and to pay off your old contract, but we want something in return, which is a longer commitment to us.” Paul Green:Now, you and I both know, the reality is they’re going to stay with you for years and years and years. And this is why you can take the cash flow hit. The short-term cash flow hit is because you know the average lifetime value of that client to your MSP is easily six figures. They are easily going to stay with you five to 10 years or longer. And so you can build that short-term cash impact in over a long period of time. It’s a very smart thing to do. That’s how I feel about this. How do you feel about it? Is this something you’d be comfortable with? Or would you rather not be giving some of your valuable cash to another MSP? Let me know what you think. Drop me an email. It’s hello@PaulGreensMSPmarketing.com. Female Voiceover:(Voiceover) Paul Green:If ever you go and get yourself an MSP coach or any kind of business analyst, one of the things they will say to you at some point is that you should be running the business by the numbers. What does that mean? It means taking the numbers, the KPIs, the key performance indicators for your business, and actually running your business by those. So you are making forward-thinking decisions based on past performance and the trends that seem to be happening within the business. Now there’s two issues with this, because this is sound advice. It’s very sound advice. It’s the kind of advice I would give you. In fact, I am right now. However, the two issues that most MSPs have with this. Number one, which KPIs do we use? And number two is, how do I actually do this? Because a lot of people have a kind of a number blindness. Paul Green:I don’t know if there is some kind of dyslexia for numbers. I know certainly, I struggle. I’ve been in business since 2005, and I’ve been on courses where I know in theory how to read a balance sheet, I know how to read a P&L. And yet I will look at those documents and I have to really concentrate. Because I’ll look at all of the figures. And even though I know how it’s ordered and how it’s all laid out, I don’t know if you know, this isn’t probably not a medical condition. This is probably just the part of my brain that’s supposed to work well on numbers just doesn’t seem to work well. I will look at the P&L or I look at the balance sheet, or indeed any of the numbers. And often I will struggle. And I have to really focus to think, what does this mean? Paul Green:Because that’s really the only thing I’m interested in with numbers. What does this mean? Now I have formed a partnership with my accountant, Rob, over a number of years, where I have come to rely on Rob to interpret numbers for me. He’s an accountant. Where I’m good at words and video and audio and all of this kind of fluffy, tree-huggy type stuff. He’s completely the opposite. He’s really good at numbers. In fact, he looks at numbers and he sees stories. He doesn’t see numbers. He sees facts and evidence and trends and stories. And we’re actually quite complementary in that way. And I’ve been trying to acquire a business for what feels like 718 years. And Rob is one of my wonderful partners in that. I’ve got two other partners in Ben and James, who work with me in this business. Paul Green:And actually as the four of us, we are a very complementary skill set. We have a whole series of complementary skills. But Rob is absolutely critical for me. Because I’ll get the accounts from a business that we are looking at acquiring, and I’ll look at it and I’ll see that, well, they’ve made some money. And then Rob looks at it and four minutes later he says, “Well, no, they haven’t made any money. It says they’ve made money here. But if you look at what they’ve done here, here, and here, they haven’t made any money at all.” So that kind of partnership, whether that’s with your accountant, your bookkeeper, or just maybe someone else in the business, who’s good at analysing those kind of figures and accounts for you. That’s certainly a smart thing to look at doing. But let’s come back to the original question, which is which KPIs should you be looking at? Paul Green:How do you run the business on the numbers? So I’m not going to give you an exhaustive list, but some of the KPIs, the numbers, I believe that you should, at the very least be tracking in order to start to see how they’re trending. You should certainly look at things like your tickets. So how many tickets are you opening? How many tickets are you closing? What’s the average ticket length? I think tickets are an indication of the quality of the service that you are providing, but also how efficient your team are. If it’s taking six hours to open and close a first-line ticket, that either tells you that you don’t have enough resource in the business. Oh, and I don’t mean, by the way, on a specific day or in one week. I mean over a period of time, what’s the average ticket length for a first-line ticket? Paul Green:If it’s six hours, say, and I’m not an expert in this specific area, there are many more experts at this. But let’s say it’s longer than you would want it to be. Then you would expect it to be. Then you’ve either got a resource issue on your help desk, or your staff aren’t being efficient enough. And obviously that figure doesn’t tell you which of those problems you’ve got, but you can go and investigate it further. Looking at things like customer satisfaction, using tools like customer thermometer. And there are other alternatives to that where when a ticket has been closed, someone can click on the smiley face or the un-smiley face, the unhappy face, and send an indication back of whether they’re satisfied or not satisfied. Those kind of figures can be incredibly, incredibly important in tracking the customer satisfaction, the efficiency of your business. Paul Green:Now those are the technical ones I’d look at. In terms of management KPIs, I would look at the number of new leads that you are generating. The number of those that are being turned into sales appointments. Most MSPs don’t generate a huge number of leads. Well, you could track leads, prospects and clients. So leads are people who are in your email system or connects to you on LinkedIn, or perhaps they’re subscribing to you on YouTube or a podcast or something like that. So you would have hundreds, if not thousands of leads, but what percentage of those become a prospect? So a prospect is when someone inquires. They’ve got a specific need or want or problem, or a fear or a worry or something you can take away. The point is that they’re not just a random person stuck in a database, they have engaged with you. Paul Green:They’ve started a conversation. So how many leads are you adding? It’s easy to add leads, relatively easy to add leads. If you think that LinkedIn connections are leads, it’s relatively easy to add them. But it’s harder to get those to become prospects, because you have to get them to take action. They have to inquire to you and have a specific conversation. How many of those prospects then turn into quality sales appointments? So you may have a 15-minute video call with someone, with a prospect. That’s not really a sales appointment. The point of that 15-minute appointment is to qualify them, to check that they could be a good client of yours, and then to push for that proper sales appointment. So we’ve got leads to prospects, to sales appointments. Plus of course, sales appointments to clients, which would probably be very high. Paul Green:I’d be very surprised if you were closing less than 80 or 90% of the sales appointments you were having. Then of course, you should be tracking monthly recurring revenue. So how is that going up and going down each month? That’s almost one of the most critical things to look at. You might track as well, monthly recurring revenue per user per month. That shows you how good you are at selling more things to your existing clients. Because…

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Episode 145: MSPs – the easy way to build SOPs Aug 23, 2022

Show notes

Episode 145 includes: 00:00 How to become an expert at standard operating procedures 08:20 Why your MSP could benefit from creating an ‘authority site’ 15:45 A backup expert predicts what the future could look like 28:41 A book recommendation to help you tackle the most constrained part of your business Featured guest: Thank you to Mike Andrews from NovaBACKUP for joining Paul to discuss the future of cloud back-up as solution for MSPs. Mike is a data protection industry veteran and Software as a Service pioneer. As CEO at NovaStor Corporation, he helped introduce the first windows-based cloud backup solution and has since worked with thousands of Managed Service Provider (MSP) partners to launch successful recurring incremental revenue generating businesses. Mike holds several industry awards and is credited with inventing patents on file restoration. Prior to NovaStor Corporation, Mike founded a Managed Service Provider business and held various executive roles in the data protection and security software space. Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeandrews Show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of creating great standard operating procedures, Paul recommended reading The E-Myth Revisited, Built to Sell and The Checklist Manifesto: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Built-Sell-Creating-business-without/dp/1591843979 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Checklist-Manifesto-Things-Right-Gawande/dp/1846683149 Paul recommended the solution Tango for creating standard operating procedures https://www.tango.us/ Thank you to Al Alper from CyberGuard360 for recommending the book The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884271951 https://www.linkedin.com/in/alperal Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh every Tuesday. For MSPs around the world. This is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing podcast. Paul Green:Hello, and welcome to episode 145 of the show. Here’s what we’ve got coming up for you this week. Mike Andrews:Cloud backup is very important, but there’s a lot of companies out there that lead with, “We’re cloud first,” or, “We’re cloud backup.” And it’s like, no, we’re all in the business for data recovery first. Paul Green:That’s Mike Andrews from NovaBACKUP. He’ll be joining me later to talk about the history of backups and some predictions for where he thinks it’s going in the future. We’ll also be talking about special websites called authority sites. You set these up to give yourself a perceived expertise. I’ll tell you why you do that and how to do it later on. Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP Marketing podcast. Paul Green:So let’s start this week’s podcast by talking about SOPs, standard operating procedures. I think most MSPs recognise that you need standardised ways of doing things for clients. And this is partly about documentation, and this is partly about reducing down your stack so that you’ve only got a certain number of things that you do in a certain number of ways. I mean, documentation, most MSPs, once they’ve been bitten by lack of client documentation, that becomes a major driving factor. And you can look at the rise of documentation software over the last, I don’t know, 10 years or so. IT Glue perhaps being the most famous example of that, but there’s plenty of other software packages available. Paul Green:Once you’ve had a problem with a client setup that you didn’t document properly when you set it up, once you’ve had that, you get bitten by it and you learn to document all of your clients properly. And a lot of the MSPs that I work very closely with in my MSP Marketing Edge program, they are obsessive about documenting everything. Absolutely every little thing with a client, quite rightly too. And in fact, when they onboard a new client, much of their onboarding is about documenting everything. Because, of course, if they know everything, then that just takes out a lot of the stresses and time sucks in the future. That’s that kind of first part of a documentation. Paul Green:The other part is reducing your stack. I know of some MSPs for example, that when they start with a new client, the first thing they do is they rip out old solutions. Let’s take something like wifi. They don’t want to be supporting eight or nine different types of wifi setup. So they will rip out the client’s wifi and they will put in their standard kit, their kit configured their way. Instantly anyone on the team can support that because you only have to train the team to support one kind of setup. That kind of makes sense. Paul Green:So there’s all of this talk around this and lots of action around doing this for the clients and for their setups. And yes, that saves you stress, time, energy, and money. But what about documentation and what about systems for your own business? Because there are a number of books that look at why you need to systemise and document your own business. In fact, if we look at the original of those books, which is called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber, the original is written back in the 1980s. And that talks about why we as business owners kind of fall out of love with our businesses. And often it’s because we’ve set up the business in order to do things our way. Paul Green:So yeah, we set it up in a way for money, but we really set it up for control. And when it’s just us in the business, we have that control. We get to do everything exactly the way we want it to be done until we become too tired from working 100-hour weeks. So we go and hire staff, and then the staff go off and do things their own way because we don’t tell them how we want things to be done. And we don’t tell them the way we want them to do it. So, of course, they just, they fill in the gaps themselves. And you multiply this by two or three members of staff and eventually you’ve created chaos in the business. Paul Green:And Michael Gerber was pretty much the first author to identify this and suggest the solution and the solution he recommends is to just basically systemise everything. He recommends, you put together an operations manual and you treat the business as if you were going to franchise it. Now you’re never going to do that. But if you were to sell it as a franchise, what you’d be selling is the brand and the marketing, but also an operations manual. We have done all the hard work, figuring out what works so you don’t have to, Mr. New Franchisee. And that’s what The E-Myth Revisited is essentially about. Paul Green:And then John Warrillow came along a number of years ago, about five, maybe years ago. And he wrote, Built to Sell, which is just a more updated, modern version of the same thing. It’s still a great book. And in fact, of the two, Built to Sell is the better read. But it’s the same thing again. It’s about systemising and standardising the business so things are done the way that you want them done. And if you want a real deep dive into this, go and read The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. That’s a great read. All of these books have one thing in common, which is, if you want to de-stress the business and still have it thrive, regardless of whether you are there or not, then you have to systemise it, standard operating procedures. This is the way to quote the Mandalorian. Yes. I just got in a Star Wars reference. Paul Green:So where do you get started with this? Because that’s where most MSPs struggle. They know documentation’s important, you’re doing it for your clients, but you never quite get round to doing it for yourself. Well, the worst thing you can do I believe is to try and just sit down and do it as a project. That’s too hard. It’s just too much of a big time suck. It’s too large a project. I think the answer to this is actually to do it one documentation piece at a time as you’re doing something. And in fact, there’s even a tool I can tell you about in a second, which I will tell you about, which can help you document things as you’re doing them, without you ever feeling like you are documenting stuff. Paul Green:We’ve built systems here in our business. We’re not on MSP, but we have tons and tons of different processes now run by, got around about seven, eight people on my team, a mix of part-time and full-time, and there are obviously sometimes numerous people touching the same process and I want it done the same way. So we’ve been through exactly this process and the way that we did it was over a six-month stretch, every time we did that process, we documented it the first time, and then we checked it sort of two or three times after to make sure that the documentation was correct. And often that documentation would have a video run-through of what we were doing, and then we’d break that video down into a series of steps and/or a checklist as needed. Paul Green:And we have lodged all of those in some productivity software called Basecamp, which I can highly recommend. It’s an awesome piece of software. It’s just $99 a month, regardless of how many users or projects you have. But, of course, you probably already have a platform for this. You’ll probably use, I don’t know, Trello or Asana, is it, Adana, Asana, I think, or monday.com. Or, I don’t know, can you do this in Teams or SharePoint? You’ve got the software sorted, I’m sure. It’s not about the software. It’s about the systems. Paul Green:Although there is something I can recommend to you, this thing that will make your documentation easy. It’s called tango.us. And I’ve got a small handful of my MSPs I work with who are using this. The beauty of tango.us is it’s a screen recorder that just records you while you’re doing something, and then sort of allows you to break it down into steps later. So rather than you sitting down and saying, right, I’m going to document something and you do a process and you have to kind of keep stopping and writing it down and documenting it and taking screenshots, with tango.us, you just do it. And then afterwards you go and break it up into a documented system. And the whole point of Tango is it is designed to do that. So it’s there to make it easy. I’m sure there are alternatives to this, if you go and Google them. But to me, that sounds like a pretty smart way to get started on just documenting one simple thing, perhaps just doing one a day or one a week for the next few months. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s clever idea. Paul Green:Most of the time on this podcast, I try and talk about marketing stuff that’s applicable to the vast majority of MSPs. Now this next bit is only really applicable to perhaps about 20% of MSPs because it’s a very specialised marketing tactic, perhaps even a marketing strategy that you can use to really dominate a niche or a vertical, but it’s not something that the average MSP would use. Let me explain what it is, because you might see an opportunity for this. So it’s called an authority site and it is a website that is deliberately set up to be a specific authority on a specific subject. So, for example, let me give you an example from my world. And then I’ll give you an example from your world. Paul Green:Let’s say I went mad tomorrow and I decided to start selling, what did I start selling? Let’s say I wanted to start selling SEO, search engine optimisation for MSPs. I say mad because I have done ‘done for you’ services. I did that in my previous business, which I sold in 2016 and having done that, I basically said, I’ll never do ‘done for you’ marketing services again. It’s a stroke waiting to happen. You think your world is bad enough. Imagine doing ‘done for you’ for clients where actually they don’t just say, let’s go with your stack, which is what happens to you. It’s kind of the opposite that everyone wants something different. Paul Green:Anyway. So let’s say I’ve gone mad. I want to do SEO for MSPs. I would build an authority website and I’d probably buy the domain seoformsps.com, if that is available. And on that site, I would then produce a series of articles, some blogs, some videos, maybe some interactive tools and they would all be about SEO for MSPs. So I would essentially be aiming it at you. And I would want you to go onto that site to perhaps put in your URL, to do like an SEO check in some kind of tool. And then to read some articles about the importance of SEO. Maybe there’d be some updates. Maybe I’d want you to go through some data capture to get the 2022 SEO Guide for MSPs. Can you see where I’m going with this? Paul Green:So I completely immerse you in this thing that I want to sell to you. And as you’re going through those articles and reading it, in your mind and in your emotions, I want you to be thinking A, wow, we’ve really got to get on this, but also, B, this guy knows what he’s talking about. Because, of course, I have created the site for this. And you could replicate that for anything. I mean that’s in my world. I’m not going to do that, by the way, just so you know. Paul Green:In your world, let’s say, for example, you wanted to sell VoIP systems to lawyers in your area or nationally. Let’s say, you’re an MSP in California and you wanted to sell VoIP systems to lawyers in California. So you could do an authority site on exactly that. Don’t ask me what domain name that would be, but you’d come up with something creative, but you could take exactly the same approach. So you might write comparison articles of all the different hardware out there and all the different software, the different VoIP things. You might write about how lawyers specifically use their phones. Because as you know, different types of businesses think that they are incredibly different to all of the others. Whereas actually you and I know that certainly for something like VoIP or just basic cybersecurity, 90% of businesses are the same as all businesses. Paul Green:So they have some differences. Like, lawyers will have probably some legal needs to record calls, or maybe even toggle off the ability to record calls if they’re having a private conference with the client. There might be something to do with the IVR or maybe some kind of… I don’t know. Who knows? And that’s the point. You would find out those details and you would write all about that. So any lawyer, anyone who’s running a legal practice in California, who is looking for a new phone system, if they get onto that site, they realise that you are the authority in that particular thing. Paul Green:Now there is actually a huge SEO benefit of creating an authority site in the first place, which is, if a lawyer in California is… Well, first of all, a colleague might refer them to it. So a colleague might say, “Hey, have you seen, there’s an entire website about VoIP systems for lawyers in California?” That’s the first thing. But also, if they’re Googling in any way, VoIP systems for lawyers and they’re in California, the chances of them getting…

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Episode 144: Your MSP needs a Dream 100 prospect list Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

Episode 144 includes: 00:00 Why speed is of the essence for dealing with prospects 10:59 Identify a Dream 100 prospect list to accelerate your MSP’s growth 19:40 A productivity expert explains how to do 1 hour of work in 30 minutes 46:26 A book recommendation to help you earn an MBA without the associated cost Featured guest: Thank you to Blaine Oelkers, the only Chief Results Officer®, for joining Paul to explain how you can do 1 hour of work in 30 minutes. Blaine is a high level performer with a wealth of knowledge who is committed to helping people achieve results quickly. He brings high energy and ultra focus which is critical to quickly generate amazing results and build momentum in any business. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur in need of a Chief Results Officer, Blaine comes highly recommended. Connect with Blaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blaineoelkers Show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of creating a Dream 100, Paul recommended reading the book The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ultimate-Sales-Machine-Turbocharge-Relentless/dp/1591842158 You can join Paul in the MSP Marketing group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mspmarketing/ Harry Brelsford from SMB Nation recommended his book The Pocket MBA: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pocket-MBA-Instant-Entrepreneur/dp/1733904824 https://www.linkedin.com/in/harryb Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:This is Paul Green’s MSP marketing podcast. Paul Green:It’s another episode of the planet’s most popular MSP marketing podcast. And here’s what we got coming up for you this week. Blaine Oelkers:We can talk about what I like to call 21-second habits. How to create new habits in 21 seconds, not 21 days. If they told you it takes 21 days to create a new habit, someone lied to you. Sorry. We will debunk that here for you today. Paul Green:That’s Blaine Oelkers. He’s my special guest later on in the show, and he’s going to be talking about two things, how you can create a new habit in just 21 seconds and how to get 60 minutes of work done in just 30 minutes. We’re also going to be talking about the Dream 100, exactly what is this, and why must you put it into place in your MSP? Paul Green:Let me give you a very plausible real life scenario. Imagine there’s a business owner in your area. Let’s call this business owner Sandra. So Sandra has, let’s say 10 staff, and it doesn’t really matter what the business does, that’s irrelevant to this story, but Sandra has an MSP. In fact, she’s been in a working relationship with this MSP for around about five, six years. But over the last couple of years, things just haven’t quite been right. It seems to her that they take longer to answer the phone. It seems to her that they are taking longer time to fix problems. More things seem to be broken, every time she rings up, there’s someone new there. Essentially, it’s death by a thousand small cuts. Paul Green:You see, what’s happened of course, is that MSP has changed considerably since Sandra first joined up with them a few years ago. And actually, they’re doing very well. They’re bringing on lots of new staff, they’re adding new services, but she sees less and less of the original founder that first sold to her all those years ago, and Sandra’s starting to feel quite deep down that it’s time to move on. Of course, she hasn’t told this to the MSP yet because clients don’t do that, do they? They tell you at the point they’ve made the decision. But she’s feeling, and notice my use there of the word feeling, often when a client leaves you for someone else, it’s not a cognitive thing, it’s a gut feel. They feel as though things have deteriorated. It’s not always the case. Obviously, if you make a massive mistake, that becomes a cognitive thing as much as it’s an emotional thing, but for the purposes of this scenario, Sandra feels that things are sliding and it’s time to move on. Paul Green:So Sandra makes two phone calls. You see, she is active in the local community and she’s been to her networking groups and she’s been given two referrals of two, what she knows as tech support, IT support companies, because of course, MSP is jargon to her. And as we discussed in last week’s episode of the podcast, jargon is a bad thing. So she’s got two IT support referrals and she decides to make phone calls to both of them and get both of them in to talk to her and to see which she is going to move her business to. Paul Green:The first MSP, the first IT support company that she calls, she picks up the phone, she dials the number. That’s what a British ring tone sounds like, by the way if ever you use landlines. I don’t know anyone that uses landlines anymore, but go with it. Just put your own dial tone thing in there, but it just goes on and on and on. And she’s looking at her watch and they just don’t seem to be answering the phone. And then eventually they do pick up the phone and it’s a 12-year-old technician on the other end. Hello? So-and-so IT. Paul Green:Says the 12-year-old technician. That’s cruel. I know that’s cruel. You know what I mean. It’s a 19-year-old. It’s the person with the least amount of communication skills in the business. In fact, in your head now, don’t say their name out loud, especially if you’re listening to the podcast in the office, but just in your head, think now who’s the last person in your business who should be picking up the phone. And if there isn’t a last person, then you’re doing a great job. But if there is a last person, imagine it’s that person that’s got to the phone. Hello. Paul Green:And Sandra, a little bit put off by this and says, “Oh yes, hi there. I was given your name and your number by so-and-so at so-and-so networking and I’m hoping to speak to you about my IT.” And the 12-year-old says. Oh, you need to speak to my boss. He’s not in at the moment. Paul Green:And cuts it off there. And Sandra says, “Oh right. What time is he going to be in?” Not sure. Probably this afternoon. Paul Green:She says, “Okay. All right, thanks very much. Thank you.” And then she thinks actually, maybe I should leave my number, because they were referred to me. Obviously, this is a horrendous intro call for her, but she says, “Oh, can I give you my name and number, and perhaps you can ask him to call me?” Okay. Paul Green:So she gives her name and number, she leaves it. She puts the phone down. It’s not a great experience. So then she calls MSP number two. This time it rings just once and then someone picks up the phone and it’s a warm, welcome introduction. Good afternoon, so-and-so IT. How can I help you? Paul Green:And for that, put in whatever it is, the words that you want your technicians and your team to say when they pick up the phone. The point here is the phone was picked up quickly and it was a warm well communicated welcome. It doesn’t really matter who picks up the phone, so long as the person who picks up the phone is warm and friendly and they are communicating a great big smile. Not some kind of, “Ugh,” which is a pretty much a sales killer. Paul Green:So Sandra has the conversation. She says, “Oh hi, you were referred to me. I wanted to speak to someone.” Paul Green:“Yeah. No problem at all. Oh, actually you need to speak to Dave. He’s the owner here. He is currently out. I’m so sorry. Let me ask him to give you a call this afternoon. He’s due back in the office about 5:00. What’s your name and number, and I’ll ask you to give him a call?” Paul Green:So we’ve actually got, if you think about this here in this scenario, we’ve got the same scenario. The same thing has happened at each of the MSPs, which is that the owner is out. But at the first one, obviously it was a struggle for Sandra. She’s had to lead the selling conversation. At the second one, then the technician or whoever answered the phone has led the sales conversation, has taken their name and number, has set an expectation for when Dave the owner, will be calling back. Paul Green:Now without doing anything else, if it was just judge just off, what’s happened there from that phone call. And it’s an obvious question, which MSP do you think is going to get the sale? Obviously, it’s going to be Dave’s business. It’s going to be the second business. Here’s the thing and here’s how it could be turned round, because the point of this bit I’m talking about is that speed is everything. What if the person from the first MSP then called back Sandra 10 minutes later? And obviously, as the owner, as the founder of the business, we are much better communicators because we are engaged and we’re passionate and we know the right questions to ask. We ask people questions about their favourite subject, which is of course themselves and their business. Paul Green:So the owner of business number one calls back has a good 20-minute conversation with Sandra. She says she wants to meet with him and he’s like, “Yeah, no problem at all. Hey, I can clear my diary tomorrow morning if that suits you,” which is a great phrase to use, “I can clear my diary tomorrow.” It shows that you are prioritising the things that matter. The reality is that owner’s diary probably wasn’t that full anyway, other than dealing with reactive stuff. But what a great message that sends to prospects. “I can clear my diary tomorrow,” or what might be better is, “When’s good for you? And if I can do it, I’ll clear my diary to make sure I can meet you at your convenience.” There is a balance here between making sure you start off with an equal relationship with the prospect, but for that very first meeting, you do whatever it takes to get in there and get that meeting. That’s the point we’re talking about here is speed. Paul Green:Now, Dave, even the second company, doesn’t call back after 5:00, doesn’t call that evening and doesn’t call till lunchtime the next day. The damage now has been done with Dave’s business because actually his competitor, the one he is up against has not only had a conversation with Sandra already that the competitor has been in and had a meeting with Sandra before Dave’s even called them back in an ideal world, your MSP would answer the phone properly, communicate well, but then be straight back on it. If someone isn’t available, and it does happen, you set that expectation and the owner of the business does everything. If they have to extract their own teeth just to call back that prospect, that’s what it takes. Paul Green:It’s a bit of a weird thing to say, Paul. I don’t know where I was going with that one. The point being at pain of death, you do whatever it takes to call back that prospect when that prospect is expecting a call, because it’s not like you’re inundated with prospect calls, right? It’s not like you get three or four of them every single day and you can pick and choose. You get very low numbers of people calling in because you have been referred to them. So you should move heaven… What’s the phrase, move heaven and high water? Hell and high water? Move lots of things to get back to that prospect as soon as possible. Paul Green:So speed. Here’s the question to ask yourself. Maybe there’s more than speed to ask. If someone rang your MSP, when you are not there, who’s answering the phone? What are they saying? Is there a system in place so that any sales calls coming in are dealt with quickly and efficiently and expectations are set? If there is no system, you are leaving it up to possibly the lowest ability level of communication of whoever sat in your office to talk to your potential future clients. I would rather systemise my business around that than take the risk of starting it in the wrong way. That’s the first thing. Paul Green:But secondly, do you have a system for making sure that you as the owner, when you’re out, you get essentially a red alert call or WhatsApp message or Teams message or whatever, a red alert and the, “We’ve got a prospect. Someone wants to talk to you. This is their name. This is the business name. This is their number. This is their website. They were referred by Bob at so-and-so network. Please, can you call them before 5:00?” Because what would’ve been better than Dave calling the next day when it was convenient for him is Dave calling back at 4:00. She thinks he’s going to call after 5:00 He calls at four o’clock. That is exceeding expectations. And remember, Sandra’s making an emotional decision. She made an emotional decision to leave her last MSP, she’s going to make an emotional decision on which of the MSPs she’s going to choose going forward. And your perceived speed, the perceived speed with which you jump onto a conversation with her is going to make a massive, massive difference, and the good news is you can systemise all of that within your business. Paul Green:I love reading business and marketing books. I’m a prolific reader of them. Actually these days, I’m a prolific listener. I listen to most books now on Audible. I just find it easier to consume more and more books every week on Audible. Every little drive, every little walk, you consume a podcast. Maybe you’re doing that right now, or you can consume a book. And then if it’s a really good book, I will go and buy the paper version to put it onto my bookshelves. And we have bookshelves and bookshelves and bookshelves of great books throughout the house. Paul Green:Now, one of my all time favourites, which is on this special bookshelf in my bedroom, you might think that’s a bit weird, but all of my favourite business books are there in my bedroom and often I’ll look at them last thing at night or first thing in the morning and think, “Ooh, I’m going to give that one a reread.” Well, this is one of those that deserves a reread pretty soon. It’s called The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. It is an absolute classic B2B selling book. So it’s not about selling an MSP, but it is about B2B sales, and about 80% of what you read in there is highly relevant to you. Paul Green:And unfortunately, Chet Holmes isn’t here any more. He died a number of years ago. I think it was leukaemia he passed away from, and his daughter actually took over the reins of his business, which is a terrible story with a very good ending. But this book is such a classic book. I must have read it four or five times. And it’s one of those books that every time I read it, I remember something new, so something I may have read before that perhaps I didn’t act on in some way. Paul Green:One of the core concepts of The Ultimate Sales Machine is to build yourself a Dream 100. What’s a Dream 100? It’s a 100 clients… Excuse me, 100 prospects that you would like to go on to do business with. They’re literally, as it said in the title, your Dream 100, the most perfect people for you. And there’s a number of techniques that Chet Holmes talks about in the book to engage with those people. But the basis of it is that you put all of your attenti…

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Episode 143: Admit what your MSP CAN’T do, to win trust Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

Episode 143 includes: 00:00 The marketing power of admitting your limitations 08:00 Understand the Pros and Cons of using MSP jargon 17:36 A marketing expert explains why email marketing isn’t dead 39:44 A book recommendation to help you create better customer service Featured guest: Thank you to Nate Freedman from Tech Pro Marketing for joining Paul to explain why email marketing for MSPs isn’t dead. Nate is the founder of Tech Pro Marketing, a marketing company specifically dedicated to serving the MSP community. He has been featured throughout the channel in publications such as Channel Marketer Report, Channel Executive Magazine and Channel Futures. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife and two young daughters. In his spare time, he loves watching wrestling (yes, he’s that guy) and his favourite wrestler is the Macho Man Randy Savage. Connect with Nate on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natefreedman Show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ Find out more about Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Edge: https://www.mspmarketingedge.com/ Thank you to Len Herstein, author of Be Vigilant!, for recommending the book I’ll Be Back by Shep Hyken: https://www.amazon.com/Ill-Be-Back-Shep-Hyken/dp/1640953019 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenherstein Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Paul Green:Boom. It’s a brand new episode and here’s what we got in store for you this week. Nate Freedman:There’s a rumour that comes and goes every couple years that email marketing’s dead. It’s not. It’s just like any tactic out there. It’s not dead. You just need to adjust your strategy. Paul Green:That’s Nate Freedman from Tech Pro Marketing. He’s going to be here later in the show talking about how you use email as part of your marketing mix. Specifically, he’ll talk about deliverability, email newsletters, and using email in cold outreach. And we’re also going to be talking on the show about jargon. There are good times to use jargon and many more bad times when you really shouldn’t use it. We’ll explore jargon later in today’s episode. Paul Green:So, I’m the sole parent to my daughter. She’s 12 years old. Her name is Tilda and she’s at that funny borderline of being epic, that pre-teens, tweens, the in-between. She’s at that border of being an epic person and being an absolute nightmare teenager. And I know she sometimes does listen to this podcast on Spotify. Sorry, sweetheart, but it’s the truth. You know it is. You can tell by the growing tension in our house that the teenage years are nearly here, but as her sole parent, it dawned on me a couple of years ago that I am pretty much 80% of her moral compass going forward. Paul Green:So, obviously, her friendship groups are going to have a much greater impact on her in the short term than I ever can, because I’m just the person who pays for everything and drives everywhere and provides internet and food and stops her being murdered. That’s my primary role in her mind, but of course, long term, I am setting out for her moral compass. So, I believe very much that children learn what they live and I’m trying to act in a way in front of her, which is the way I would want her to behave as a teenager and as a fully grown, well-rounded individual adult. Paul Green:Now, if you exclude the facts that I am very, very annoyed when I drive and you can ask anyone who shares a car journey with me, that most other road users, I’m not an angry driver. I’m not a fast driver. It’s just other road users are idiots. But if you take that out of it, the rest of the time, I am trying very hard to act in a way which I believe any responsible adult should act. One of those key behavioural traits is to admit the second that you make a mistake. So, you make a mistake. The temptation, especially for children, is to hide that mistake, to keep it away, to try to mitigate the circumstances. What I have found over the years and I’m sure you have found exactly the same thing is that if you make a mistake and you immediately admit that mistake, that’s the worst thing that can happen. Paul Green:Because once you’ve admitted it, you can then start to deal with the mistake and you can start to actually mitigate the consequences of the mistake rather than trying to mitigate the mistake itself. I don’t mean with murdering people, by the way. Obviously, if you murder someone, you should never really admit to that. You should try your hardest to get away with that. That was a joke. I just need to clarify that was a joke, but for all other mistakes, you should definitely be admitting them. So, I’m trying to teach my daughter that and I think that’s something that could help us in our businesses as well. In fact, it could actually give us a marketing advantage. Paul Green:What if with your prospects you admitted mistakes, admitted errors, admitted things that you were not good at in order to build trust and to increase credibility of the things that actually you are quite good at? So, for example, let’s take cyber security. So, the chances are very low that you have your own SOC for you to really, really be on top of cyber security. I am led to believe by experts, because obviously, I’m not an expert in this myself. I just reflect what I’m told from lots of other people, but to be a true MSP, to really, really be on top of cyber security, you need your own SOC and very few MSPs have a security operations centre. Paul Green:What if, when you are talking to prospects, you educate them on that and you say, “Hey, when it comes to cyber security, we are good at strategy. We are good at knowing all of the threats or the threat landscape and we are good at mitigating that for our clients, but there are elements that we are not good at. And for those, we outsource them, such as for training, rather than us coming and deliver training to you, we outsource that to this specialist training company and they have some software and we’ll provide this to your staff and they’ll go through cyber security training every three, six months”? Paul Green:What if you said to them, “To keep us up to date, we subscribe to a number of threat services because there’s too much happening in the world of cyber security for me and my team of five or six people to keep on top of that”? So, you could take that for cybersecurity. You could do it for something else, but essentially, what you admit to your prospects is that you are not doing everything in house. You do not have your finger on absolutely everything, but you say to them, “We are 80% good on this subject. And for that final 20%, we rely on experts to do the hard work for us.” Paul Green:Now, I’m not suggesting that you name names. I’m not suggesting you tell them the names of the vendors and the services that you buy, but this, I believe, could be a very powerful marketing strategy. Because the people you want to reach, the ordinary business owners and managers, remember they know very, very little about our world and about technology. They’re not buying cognitively. They’re buying with their emotions and they are much more likely to build a relationship with you and ultimately trust you if you tell them something that you are not very good at and then you mitigate how or you tell them how you are mitigating that gap in your knowledge, because ultimately, they’re not going to be able to test you on it. Paul Green:You are telling them that you are not good at something they didn’t even know they needed. I think that’s a very, very powerful thing. I’m having it right now in my house. I’m having a major refurb done on my house and my builder, Andy, is taking responsibility for every aspect of it. I mean, right down to the complete final finishing items. And he has admitted to me that some of that is out of his sphere of normal operations. So, he will outsource it. He’s been very, very open with me to say, “This, this, and this, we don’t do, but I’m very happy to get some quotes in and to pick the person that I believe will do the best job.” Paul Green:And this is a builder of 20 years’ experience. Why wouldn’t I trust the guy that’s been doing it for 20 years to pick someone to finish the job rather than me, who’s refurbed a couple houses but nothing serious to go and pick someone? That makes my bond with him stronger when he admits the things that he’s not good at, because I then just place my trust in him. If there’s a mistake, well, the trust is there and I believe that he will go and fix that mistake. And that trust bond is more important than anything else. Paul Green:So, review your marketing. Review the conversations that you are having with your prospects. Where is something where you aren’t perhaps as good as you would like to be to work in progress and how is the best way for you to tell your prospects about that in a way to leverage that little bit of missing strategy, that little bit of missing ability, and leverage it into a much closer relationship with your prospects? Paul Green:There’s a part of me that wishes I could go back in time and enter my brain and find out what my emotional reactions were when I first started working seriously with MSPs. This was back in 2016. I’d actually done some work with IT support companies years ago. We’re talking like 2009, 2010, something like that, and I’d run a general marketing agency. And we picked up a few what I knew then as IT support clients and we did things like build newsletters for them. I did a bit of public relations, press releases, and stuff, but we never really got core deep into those businesses. But when I sold that marketing agency, which by the time I sold, it was specializing in healthcare. So, veterinarians, opticians, and dentists, terrible people. Paul Green:By that point, I had a non-complete clause. So, the new owner said I couldn’t work with those people for five years. So, I was bored within about 12 seconds of selling the business and I wanted to start another business. So, I looked back at all the kinds of clients that I’d worked with and I remembered, “Oh, IT support, those were nice people. That was fun. I enjoyed the work and I do like talking to technical people.” But of course, from 2010, whenever it was, to 2016, the world had completely changed. The managed service provider had come along. And in fact, that acronym, MSP, was the first bit of internal jargon that I came across in 2016. And I realized there was going to be a steep learning curve for me and you will have gone through this curve yourself at some point. Paul Green:In fact, you will have gone through more of it because yours is all the technical stuff. But if I think, initially, I had to learn what an MSP was, in fact, if you have an early copy of my book called Updating Service Doesn’t Grow Your Business, the early UK versions say, “Paul Green’s IT Support Marketing,” on the front, because that was what the business was originally called. And then I realized there was this thing called MSP and that was actually a better business model and that was the future. So, I changed the name of the business to MSP Marketing. I had to find out what an MSP was. I had to discover what a PSA was, what RMM was. There’s all sorts of jargon. In fact, just I was about to say then, there’s all sorts of jargon in the channel. Even the word channel is jargon. Paul Green:Actually, I have met some MSPs who don’t understand what the channel is, but to anyone outside of the channel, they don’t really understand what the channel is either. It’s our big infrastructure, isn’t it? And then of course, you, yourself, you have so many more acronyms, so much more jargon to learn as part of the technical thing. And then every two, three times a year, some new jargon comes. NCE, new customer experience was a piece of jargon that was thrown at me for the first time probably around about a year ago. And I have a pretty good poker face for jargon these days. When I’m sat with a member of my MSP Marketing Edge and they’ll throw a piece of jargon out like NCE, I’ll just sit there and go, “Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm,” without even breaking eye contact. Paul Green:I’m looking down at my pad and writing down NCE question mark, because it’s jargon and I don’t know what it is. Here’s the thing though. Now I know what all of this jargon is and 99% of the jargon that’s thrown at me by MSPs, I understand. I’m going to put this in speech marks. It makes me an insider because I understand the jargon. That is the key benefit of using jargon and it’s also the key downside of using jargon. You see jargon has its place. It has its purpose. It makes us feel like we are part of something. If you train to be a medical doctor, why would you do that? It seems like too much work to me. Paul Green:But if you train to be a medical doctor, a lot of the medical terms that you learn along the way and the acronyms for the different procedures and the shortcuts in language, all of those things that jargon makes you an insider. And that makes you feel like you belong and feeling that you belong to something is really important because most people prefer to deal with other people like them. So, if you are demonstrating that you’ve got the inside jargon, you are an insider, it’s so much easier for people to deal with you. Now, this works very well when you are in a niche or a niche or a vertical. Let’s say you want lawyers and you want to deal with more lawyers. Why would you want to deal with lawyers? But let’s say that was your vertical. You would be sensible to learn a little bit of their jargon. Paul Green:What is their equivalent of a PSA? It’s about when I worked with vets and dentist and opticians, they called it PMS, practice management system. You wouldn’t say to them, “What software do you use?” That’s not the internal line that they would use in their business. They would say, “Which PMS do you use?” In the same way that you and I now would say, “Which PSA do you use?” It’s internal jargon. That internal jargon can bond you with your prospects and your clients. And the reality is there’s probably only 5, maybe 10 pieces of jargon that you need to understand, that you need to learn. It could be with lawyers, you say to them, “What’s your PMS?” Paul Green:They may have some document management solution, some DMS. I’ve just made that up, but they may have one of those. There may be different words for different types of lawyers. Back when I worked with dentists, for example, see if I can get this right, because it’s been a long time. So, this is in the UK. The dentist would call the building, the business would be the practice, but the room where they drill your teeth, that’s called the clinic. I think I’m right in saying that. The chair where the patient sits is it’s known as chair time. Paul Green:So, if I say to a dentist, “How much chair time do you get done in a day?”, what I don’t mean is them sitting down at their laptop. I mean, them doing things to humans lying on the chair, which essentially is fee ea…

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Episode 142: Your MSP’s marketing advantage: Showing empathy Aug 02, 2022

Show notes

Episode 142 includes: 00:00 Why empathy is the core marketing skill to develop 07:33 Paul’s real life example of why ‘before & after’ case studies matter 12:59 The MSP owner who thinks the tech on-site visit is dead 25:11 A book recommendation to help you build trust within internal teams Featured guest: Thank you to Harold Mann from Mann Consulting for joining Paul to explain why the MSP on-site tech visit is dead. Harold Mann is co-founder of Mann Consulting, an IT consultancy based in San Francisco. Started in 1991, the firm supports hundreds of businesses around the U.S. each year with an emphasis in Mac device management for fast-growing startups. Connect with Harold on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hmann Show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ Register for a free copy of Paul’s book, Updating Servers Doesn’t Grow Your Business http://mspmarketingedge.com/podcastbook/ Thank you to RevOps specialist (and the creator of the Feel-Good MSP) Brian Gillette for recommending the book The Speed Of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Speed-Trust-Thing-Changes-Everything/dp/1416549005 https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-gillette-27884b128 Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh, every Tuesday. For MSPs around the world. This is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing podcast. Paul Green:Hello, and welcome back to the podcast. Here’s what we got coming up for you this week. Harold Mann:And this amazing thing happened. Clients started coming back to the office, and employees of our firm and many other firms like ours said, “I sort of like working remotely. I don’t think I want to have a commute anymore.” They loved work from home, even though customers were saying, “Okay. We’re back. When are you guys coming on site?” Paul Green:That’s Harold Man. He’s an MSP owner in San Francisco, California, and he’s going to be here later in the show, suggesting that the days of the on site IT visit could be dead forever. Paul Green:We’re also going to be talking about befores and afters, how you can demonstrate that you’ve made someone else’s life better, through the things that you do, and how you can turn that into a case study to get even more clients for your MSP. Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Podcast. Paul Green:I’m going to be brave and admit something to you. So, at some point in my past, and a personal level, I may once have had a girlfriend who accused me of not having enough empathy. In fact, it was about 20 years ago, so I can’t remember the exact words, but it was along the lines of, “Paul, you’re one of the least empathetic people I’ve met.” She then called me pathetic. I don’t see the difference between those two things. Anyway, it’s clearly a skill that I have had to work quite hard at in my personal life. Paul Green:What’s kind of ironic is, in my business life, in my marketing skills, empathy is an absolute core skill. In fact, it was something that I learned on day one of journalism school, right back when I was 19 years old. Literally on day one, the very first thing they teach you is that to be a good newspaper reporter, to be a good journalist, to be a good anything in the media, you need to be able to think about the audience that you’re trying to reach. As a 19 year old, I was writing newspaper stories to be read by 50 and 60 year old people. Paul Green:So, obviously, a 19 year old doesn’t know what a 50 or a 60 year old wants to read. So you’ve got to surround yourself with their stuff. You’ve got to put yourself in their shoes. And I had no idea as a 19 year old that that would turn out to be an incredibly good business skill, even if it didn’t actually come into my personal life. Paul Green:Empathy is one of the greatest marketing skills that you can develop. And it really is as simple as looking at the people that you want to reach, and popping yourself in their mind. Well, actually, not so much their mind as in their hearts. What are they feeling? What are they hoping for? What are they scared of? What are the things that they most want from their business? How can you put yourself inside their minds and their hearts and start to understand their world? Paul Green:Now, this is one of the reasons why I’m such a big fan of nicheing, or nicheing, finding a super vertical that you can serve, and it could be CPAs or accountants. It could be lawyers. It could be manufacturers. It could be all sorts of verticals. When you verticalise, I think I made that word up, when you verticalise, you find it so much easier to put yourself into the hearts and minds of the people that you want to reach. Because, let’s say you are super serving CPAs. Guess what? One CPA has the same hopes and fears as most of the other CPAs, in the same way that I just work with MSPs. And obviously, not all MSPs are similar, but you have very similar hopes and fears and desires and worries and things that you want to achieve. And so, it’s a lot easier for me to empathise with my audience, which is you, because I’ve only got one set of hopes and fears, versus if I was serving 10 or 20 or 30 different professions. Paul Green:So verticalising can be a very, very good way of getting into their hearts, and understanding them and what really drives them and what’s really holding them back, because you can read what they’re writing on forums. You can read their magazines. You can go to their trade shows. You can really immerse yourself in their world. And that’s the key to developing your empathy. It’s immersing yourself in their world. But what about if you’ve got a general audience? What about if actually the people that you’re trying to attract are just other business owners and managers around here? Paul Green:Well, that’s where I think doing QBRs, quarterly business reviews, or strategic reviews, as I prefer to call them, doing those gives you that insight, if you can move to a deep level of questioning. Because just as how CPAs all have very, very similar hopes and fears and worries and desires, so do most business owners. They may work in different ways and do different things and have different kinds of clients and rules and all of that. But at the core of it, a business owner is a business owner. We all of us have very similar traits and worries and other things that bond us together. It’s why business owners tend to be friends. If you think about your friendship group, you’ve probably got some IT friends. You’ve probably got some business owner friends, because they’re people like you. So immerse yourself in other business owners. Quarterly business reviews, the strategic reviews are a great place to do that, particularly if you go really deep with your questioning. Paul Green:And by deep with your questioning, I mean asking a question, and then asking a follow-up question, and then another follow up question to that. You might say to someone, “What is it that keeps you awake at night? What are the things you’re most worried about?” And they give you some kind of answer. And then you’d follow that up with a follow up question like, “Tell me more about that. Why would that cause you distress? What is it specifically about that that would concern you or that would really worry you?” And this is, again, this was a skill I was taught at journalism school, to move your questioning down into deeper and deeper layers. And the more that you explore this with someone, the deeper you get, the closer you’re getting to the real answer. Paul Green:When someone asks you a question, or when you ask someone a question, the first answer that comes out tends to be quite a shallow question, unless you’re in the midst of a really detailed sort of questioning. Mostly, people give shallow answers to the initial questions. But as you follow up those questions, you start to get deeper down into what people really think. And particularly, if these people like and trust you, and obviously with existing clients, of course, they like and trust you, because they want you to succeed, because your success directly feeds into their success. Paul Green:So if you want to immerse yourself and empathise more with the people that you are trying to reach, use your existing clients for research. Go deep with the questioning. Get right into what are they scared of. What are the feelings, what’s happening in their heart? And make sure you make notes on that, and reflect on that, and perhaps even talk about it with your business owning friends or with other peers. There are plenty of people you can talk to about it. If you can empathise with someone at an emotional level, you will find it so much easier to persuade them, to influence them, and above all, to take them on as a future client. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s. Voiceover:Clever idea. Paul Green:I’m having a fairly major refurb done at my home right now. We’ve got the builders in. As I record this, it’s week seven or week eight. We’ve had walls knocked down. We’ve had new walls built. We’ve had floors ripped out. There’s concrete. There’s things happening on the roof and lots of building. And, every day, about seven or eight people turn up, and there’s lots of banging and drilling and a little bit of swearing. And, the house just looks a little bit different every day. And it’s really cool for me to track this. I am one of the least capable DIY, the kind of screwing things into the wall or putting shelves up. I am one of the least capable people you will ever meet for something like that. So I am loving watching very capable people knock my house around and turn it from what was an okay house into what is going to be an incredible house when it’s done. Paul Green:One of the things I’ve been documenting along the way is all of the little changes. So every day, at the end of the build, when the builders leave, they all seem to have motorbikes for some reason, but when they all leave, I go out with my phone and I just take photos of everything. And so far, as I say, about eight weeks in, I’ve got 292 photos on my phone of the refurb. And the plan is that, at the end of it, we’re going to do a little befores and afters book. I’m going to actually get a book printed, with some of the photos showing how the house was before, few of the refurb pics, and then how the house is afterwards. Paul Green:And I’m also going to offer that to the builder as a case study, because the builder, Andy, is a really nice guy. He’s got a great business. The only thing that’s wrong with his business is his marketing. It is awful. His website looks like it’s come from 1997. I picked him on recommendation, and I’ve seen his work at some other people in the village, that lots of people recommend him when you ask about him. And his website actually puts you off. It’s one of those websites that’s so bad that you doubt a referral. If your website is this bad, you need to do something about it because it is a real issue. He has very little social proof on his website. Paul Green:Social proof is where people, potential clients, can see that other people like them by, from, and have been delighted with the results from this person. So, for a builder, obviously, you want to see lots of befores and afters. You want to see what the house looked like before, and then you want to see what they turned it into, along with a nice case study quote, a nice testimonial from the person who had the work done. “My house was okay before, but I trusted Andy and his team. They came and did lots of banging and drilling and swearing, and 12 weeks later, wooh, look at the house now. That’s a perfect before and after.” And you should be doing exactly the same thing for your MSP. Because actually, befores and afters are incredibly good ways of demonstrating the difference that you make to the lives of your clients. Paul Green:Now, when I talk about befores and afters, I don’t mean technology befores and afters. The worst thing that you could do is say, “Well, we took them from a so and so switch, and moved them up to an upgraded switch.” No one’s interested in that. That’s kind of technology, boring stuff. What people are really interested in is outcomes. What can your clients do now, that they couldn’t do before they took you on? That’s the question to ask, and the answer becomes your befores and afters. And the right way to display those befores and afters is with a case study. Paul Green:Case studies are epic. They are awesome. You should have a case study for every single service that you sell. And then you should have more case studies of just general clients. And then you should have more case studies for every single vertical that you serve. If you want more CPAs, more accountants, do a case study. If you want more lawyers, do a case study with a lawyer, case studies which are, in their very nature, a before and after wrapped up and packaged together. Befores and afters make it really easy for you to get more clients, because you can show someone what life was like before you. You can show them what it’s like as a result of you coming into their lives, and you can show the outcome. And it’s the outcome that will persuade other people that you are the safe choice. Voiceover:Paul’s Voiceover:Paul’s blatant plug. echo voiceover:Blatant plug. Paul Green:I heard a rumor that you’re the only MSP on the planet not to yet have a copy of my free book. It’s called Updating Servers Doesn’t Grow Your Business. We ship it to you completely free. And it is the quick guide to improving the marketing in your MSP. Let me read you something here from page 24. Paul Green:“Understand this,” I’ve written, “the wrong kind of clients wants an MSP to keep the computers working. The right kind of clients are looking for a partner to help them grow in the future. However, uneducated buyers don’t yet know to think this way.” And I then tell you in the book how to educate those buyers. To get your free copies shipped to you completely free, you don’t have to put a credit card number in or anything like that, you just go onto paulgreensmspmarketing.com. Voiceover:The big. Voiceover:The big interview. Harold Mann:I’m Harold Mann with Mann Consulting based in San Francisco, and we help hundreds of companies with their IT needs around the country. Paul Green:And, Harold, I’m delighted to get you onto the podcast. You and I have had a couple of email conversations, and you certainly seem like the kind of intelligent MSP owner that we should be getting onto this podcast. You certainly join a very good list of guests so far. Now, there was an article that you wrote on medium.com, which I want to talk to you about in a second. But before you do, just tell us a little bit more about you. So, what kind of size MSP have you gotten? What kind of clients do you look after? Harold Mann:Yeah. Thanks, Paul, and nice to see you. Just by way of context, I completely binged your entire back library during COVID, so I’m a super fan. So, our business is mature. It’s 30…

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Episode 141: How this MSP is achieving “crazy growth” Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

Episode 141 includes: How one MSP has driven huge growth over the last couple of years – what they did and why Which business cards have a place in your wallet in 2022? Plus on the show this week, a sales expert with advice to make selling much easier for you Featured guest: Thank you to Adam Wootton from Impact Sales Coaching for joining Paul to talk about how MSPs can make selling easier. Adam has 20 years sales experience ranging from telesales, field sales, key account sales, key account management and leading high performance teams. He launched Impact Sales Coaching five years ago and has delivered results for large corporates and SME’s spanning sectors such as telecommunications, IT infrastructure, finance, logistics, education, manufacturing, recruitment and events. Connect with Adam on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/adam-wootton-b4607015 Show notes: Out every Tuesday on your favourite podcast platform Presented by Paul Green, an MSP marketing expert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-green-msp-marketing/ http://mspmarketingedge.com/about/ On the subject of the MSP demonstrating momentum, Paul recommended listening back to Episode 140: http://mspmarketingedge.com/podcast/episode140 On the subject of using classic marketing techniques (like printed newsletters), Paul recommended listening back to Episode 134: http://mspmarketingedge.com/podcast/episode134 Find out more about Paul Green’s MSP Marketing Edge: https://www.mspmarketingedge.com/ Right now you can watch the extended interview with this week’s featured guests on the YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDRSdM8tZbEBEL1Sh4Z-t3PXKbsW7b4BC Thank you to Luis Giraldo, Chief Experience Officer at ScalePad for recommending the book Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Changing-World-Order-Nations-Succeed/dp/1982160276 https://ca.linkedin.com/in/luisgiraldo In next week’s episode, Paul will be joined by Harold Mann from Mann Consulting to explain why the MSP on-site tech visit is dead: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hmann Subscribe to Paul’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mspmarketing Subscribe to this podcast using your favourite podcast provider: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-Podcast/B08JK38L4V https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast/id1485101351 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/paul-greens-msp-marketing-podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cucGF1bGdyZWVuc21zcG1hcmtldGluZy5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0?sa https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/b03a9638-adf4-4491-93f1-569183e079d7/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/1Hw52ScOg5WvGaBUkaOrI7 https://tunein.com/radio/Paul-Greens-MSP-Marketing-Podcast-p1264893/ https://blubrry.com/paulgreenmspmarketing/ https://deezer.com/show/1512622 Got a question from the show? Email Paul directly: hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com Episode transcription Voiceover:Fresh every Tuesday for MSPs around the world. This is Paul Green’s MSP Marketing podcast. Paul Green:It’s an utter delight to have you back for another episode of the podcast. And here’s what we got coming up for you this week. Adam Wootton:There’s a mindset of, “I am a professional at what I do. Therefore, because I’m good and I’m proven, if I build it, they will come.” And that’s just not the case. So there’s a bit of a shock or reality check. “Oh, yeah. I do need to influence. I do need to work on my marketing and I do need to sell.” Paul Green:That’s Adam Wootton. He’s a sales coach and he’s my guest on this week’s show. Later on, he’s going to be giving you a ton of advice about how to make the sales easier for your MSP. We’re also going to be talking about business cards. Are they still relevant in 2022? Should you have them? And if you do, what should go on your business card? Voiceover:Paul Green’s MSP Marketing podcast. Paul Green:So I want to share a story with you and I appreciate it’s something that as inspiring as it is, isn’t something you may be able to do in your particular business. So I don’t want you to get too hung up on the details of how they’ve done this. I want you to look at the theme, the big picture of what this MSP has done and how you could achieve the same effect in your business. So let me set some context. I run a service called the MSP Marketing Edge, and primarily that delivers marketing content and support. In fact, we make marketing easy for 650-plus MSPs around the world. But one of the things that we do within that membership is we have a small number of peer groups. So we’ve got some that meet up on Zoom and then we have one that meets up in real life every single month. Paul Green:And that meets in Milton Keynes, which is the town where I live. Actually, now it’s a city now. The Queen declared it’s a city just a few weeks ago as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebration. So I live near the city of Milton Keynes. And once a month, I sit down in a hotel in Milton Keynes with the members of my real life peer group. And that is one of the best days of the month for me. Half of the content on this podcast comes out of that day. I kid you not. And the members always joke because it’s the same people that meet up each time. They always joke. They’ll say things like, “Oh. That’ll be in the podcast, Paul.” And they’re not wrong. Every time I write something down, it’s an idea for this podcast. Paul Green:Anyway, we have a bunch of lovely, lovely people that are in that peer group. And I’m honored to have worked with some of them for a number of years. I’ve been tracking what they’ve been doing with their business. And it’s such an honor for me, and to watch them transform their businesses and their lives, which are of course intertwined because as a business owner, our business directly affects our life. And I’m not going to name names in this because that wouldn’t be fair, but there’s a member of this group. Let’s call him Dave. His real name is John, but let’s call him Dave. And Dave was discussing his business and how over the last year or two, they’ve had… And I’m going to quote some direct words from him here. They’ve had “crazy growth”. You can put that in speech marks, “crazy growth”. Paul Green:And I asked him, what’s been driving that crazy growth? And if you cut through all of the different initiatives and the different schemes and projects and bits and bobs that they’ve been putting together, what’s really driven that crazy growth in that business is that there are three owners, three directors in that business, and each of them has taken responsibility for one area of the business. So of the three directors who are equal owners of the business, one of them has taken over control of sales and marketing, one of them has taken over control of operations, and the third has taken control of strategy, stroke, finance. Paul Green:So this business is… Although it’s going through crazy growth and getting bigger, this is a normal size business. We’re not talking here about a multimillion-pound operation. This is a normal size business with three owners that it needs to pay for. So obviously it needs to generate more profit perhaps than just a single-owner business. But this MSP is experiencing crazy growth because it has focus. In fact, just last week, we were talking big mo. Go back into episode 140. We were talking about big mo, big momentum. Well, this MSP’s getting some enormous momentum going and that’s because they are focused. Paul Green:You see, the director who’s in control of sales and marketing, that’s all he does. I’m sure he has various distractions that come into his life now and again because owning a business is full of distractions, but he spends the vast majority of his time focusing on the marketing of the business, generating leads, following those leads up, and going out and doing the sales. That’s what he does. That’s all he has to do. While he is doing that, he doesn’t have to worry about are the clients being serviced properly? Because that’s what the director who’s focusing on operations is doing. All he’s focusing on day in, day out is operations. Have we got the technicians we need? Are we dealing with tickets efficiently? Where are the problems? How can I smooth over those problems? And of course, neither of those two has to worry about the money side of things. There’s someone whose job is to sit and oversee all of the money. And as part of that role, their job is also to consider the strategy. What are the areas that we should be looking at in the future? Paul Green:Now, this to me is a very, very beautiful setup. It’s been done strategically. This isn’t something they fell into. They decided to do this. And I’m sure there’s been some pain for them along the way for doing this, but what a beautiful setup. In fact, what we’ve got here is big business thinking within a small business. Because you think about any big business and there’s always some people right at the top who take responsibility for different functions of that business. And that’s exactly what this small business is achieving here, big business thinking in a small business. Paul Green:Now, as I said at the beginning, I don’t want you to get too caught up about how they’ve achieved this because I appreciate in your business, there probably aren’t three owners, three directors. So it wouldn’t be that simple for you to do that. But you can take the principle here of what they have done, the principle that each of them is able to laser focus on their particular area of expertise without having to worry too much about the other areas of the business. As I say, I’m sure they all probably have distractions. Now and again, one of them is going to take a holiday. And as we all know, when you take a holiday, that has an impact on the other directors. So I’m sure they have to dip into the other areas of the business now and again. But overly, they’re able to focus just on their specific area of expertise. Paul Green:How could you make that happen in your business? If you don’t have a sales and marketing manager or director, how can you find someone of such good quality that you don’t need to manage them on a day-to-day basis? They can manage your marketing and your sales, but they don’t need to be managed by you. That sounds like something to work towards. How could you have someone? Well, it’s a fairly standard thing, isn’t it, to have an operations director within a business looking after all of your delivery for you? How can you work towards the point where you have someone of sufficient quality that you don’t need to manage them day-to-day, that all you need to do on a day-to-day basis is perhaps just check in with your two senior leaders, but spend the rest of your time just keeping an oversight on the finance and thinking about strategy, going for long walks with your dog or playing golf or doing hang gliding or whatever it is that you enjoy doing? Paul Green:And actually secretly working while you are doing these things because secretly, you are thinking about things, thinking about the strategy. What’s the right thing for the business? What should you be doing next? How could you make this happen within your MSP? Because if you can make it happen, it will be a very powerful tool. And maybe you too could achieve crazy growth. Voiceover:Here’s this week’s clever idea. Paul Green:Back in episode 1, 3, 4 of the podcast, I talked about the 2022 marketing power of the 1922 marketing tactic. And I was talking about printed newsletters. Well, now we’re going to talk about business cards. And just as I was getting ready to do this bit, I thought I’d Google how old business cards are. How long have they been used? So it seems that the most obvious forerunner to the business card is something known as a trade card. And those were used in the late 17th century and early 18th centuries where businesses used cards to advertise their location and what they did. I guess we could think of them as early flyers. And they were handed out in public spaces. And then during the late 18th and 19th centuries, business cards turned into the self-promotional tools that we know today. And they were made using woodcut and letter press techniques and they weren’t mass produced. And that allowed businesses to give their contact details out to potential clients. That’s exciting, isn’t it? Paul Green:So this is a tactic that’s been pretty much going around since the late 17th century. So here we are in the middle of 2022 and also post-pandemic. Is there still a value in having a business card? Well, I believe there is, yes, for a number of different reasons. First of all, I say post-pandemic. I appreciate that COVID is still around, but we do meet a lot more people now than we have done over the last couple of years. And even in our digital COVID-y age, I believe you should be putting something into someone’s hands. Yes, you can do digital cards, can’t you? There’s all these digital business cards going around where you have a QR code and that transfers your contact details into their phone or however it works. Paul Green:But you know what? I’m a bit of an old-fashioned gal, me, and I do a physical, printed thing. Give me a good quality business card that you can put into someone’s hands and you are more likely to stay in front of them. And I say that as I’ve got here a couple of business cards from people. They’re literally in my hands now from people I met at an event I did with SuperOps a few months ago. I met a few lovely MSPs on the day. They gave me their business cards and they’ve been sat on my desk ever since. Listen. You hear that? That’s the quality of one of the business cards I was given. It’s been printed on really thick card. In fact, as I’m looking at this card… And Kayla, it’s your business card because I know you listen to this podcast. It’s a really, really good business card. Paul Green:Let me tell you what makes this a great business card. First of all, it’s on thick, thick card. This oozes quality. This is not a cheap, nasty, self-printed business card that’s just been run off for the sake of having some in your pocket. The company behind this has spent money. Not huge amounts of money because printing is really quite cheap these days, but the card is thick. It hasn’t bent. This survived a journey back from London to home in my jeans pocket, in the back pocket of my jeans. And this is a good quality card. The printing is crisp and it’s got some quite small letters on it, but it’s very well printed. It’s just beautiful. It stands out. In a stack of business cards, it would stand out. Paul Green:It’s also got the basic details you need on here. So it’s got the name of the person. It’s got their job title. It’s got the logo of the MSP. It’s got their contact details. There’s the website, there’s their email address, and there’s their mobile number. Now it does also have two other features, which I think you need these days. So it’s got a QR code. And I’m not sure what QR code usage is like where you are. But certainly, here in the UK, since the pandemic came along and all the restaurants had to move over to online restaurants and apps and no one wanted to touch cash or anything like that, QR codes have become a thing. I mean, they’ve been around for years. They’ve been around for what, 10, 15, 20 years, something like that. But they’ve only really caught en masse here in the UK in the last couple of years. And now they have become, I would argue, mainstream. Maybe that’s the same way you are. Paul Green:So this has got a QR code, which is great because I can just… I’m going to open my phone now, bring up my camera. Just point at that. There we go. So look. The camera immediately wants to send me to Chrome on my phone to go and have a look at their website, which is perfect. But there’s something else on this business card which makes it even better, an…

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