Invarosoft™ would like to say a big thanks to Continuum and all the MSPs that attended the Continuum Australian Partner Day 2018 at Doltone House, March 20th.
Event Recap
The event was an amazing success with some great speakers providing valuable insights into how to run a successful MSP. A huge thank you to Continuum and special thanks to Director of Sales, APAC, Frank Bauer who did a wonderful job of hosting.
Invarosoft got to meet some amazing Australian MSPs all keen to grow and be more successful. There were approximately 100 people in attendance and our VP Success, Jessica Ross, and VP Product, Dean Turnbull had some great conversations with local partners at our booth.
Keynote Recap
For those that may have missed the Invarosoft presentation we have a great summary of the ‘Pyramid for MSP Success’.
Presented by Invarosoft’s VP Success, Jessica Ross, the ‘Pyramid for MSP Success’ was a summary of what CEO, Jamie Warner, believes to be the ingredients to growing a successful MSP business. Jamie grew his MSP, eNerds, from $3M to $7M in revenue in 4 years organically using their flagship product ITSupportPanel™ as a differentiator.
These ingredients represent the areas you need to focus on and include;
Gold Nugget #1: Many people ask larger MSPs the same question. ‘What was the one thing that lead to your growth?’ It’s a fair enough question BUT the answer is that it’s never just one thing, it’s an alchemy of many different things, hence why we define it as a ‘Pyramid’. Read ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins and learn more about growth ingredients.
#1 – Business Model
Are you a ‘break fix’ or ‘managed’ MSP? We recommend being managed for the recurring income. It’s less stress and it matches your monthly costs of salaries, rent, utilities etc. Just sign up more than you lose each year and watch your business grow.
Gold Nugget #2: Switch your clients to Direct Debit. It’s absolutely the best way to run a business. Also, distributors are now starting to direct debit licensing such as O365 to you. Remember; “Revenue for Show, Profit for Sanity, Cash is King!”
#2 – People
People are obviously the platform of any business, so you need to focus on getting the right talent, culture and understand your org chart as you grow.
Gold Nugget #3: As you grow your MSP needs different departments. 1-10 staff it’s the owner, engineers and admin. 11-20 staff add a service desk, inside sales, project engineers etc. 21-40 staff add a dedicated sales manager, a management team and maybe off-shore. Read 5 Dysfunctions of a Team it’s awesome.
#3 – Systems
Do you have all the right systems such as; PSA, RMM, NOC, BDR, Sales, Finance, Documentation etc. Have you considered replacing email with an App?
Gold Nugget #4: You need to get your stack right to drive operational efficiency. We believe email support needs to be replaced in the stack with an ‘app’ to provide a better customer experience and drive more productivity. Read why email is not a great solution here.
#4 – Product
You need to ensure you have the right product mix for your MSP such as Managed Support, Consulting, Procurement, Internet, O365 etc. However, do you lead with Managed Support and only take clients who sign up on a monthly fee?
Gold Nugget #5: With a limited sales team you need to decide what your core service is and sell that. We only sign up clients on managed support because it’s the most profitable. Then we sell them everything else once they’re on board. Focus is important.
#5 – Marketing Strategy
What is your marketing strategy? Do you focus on a vertical? What is your sales strategy to sign up new monthly support? How do you get your leads?
Gold Nugget #6: Focusing on a vertical makes marketing so much easier. You can be much clearer in your messaging and use case studies etc. We recommend you always sell ‘good, better, best’ with your managed support. Read Monetizing Innovation to learn how to do this.
#6 – Vision
Why does your MSP exist? Why do you get up every day? Where are you going? Asking yourself this question and being clear on this helps move the ship in the right direction.
Gold Nugget #7: Create a one page ‘painted picture’ which outlines your mission, vision and values for your staff and ensure everyone is on the same page. Alignment is crucial to achieving your goals.
#7 – Purple Cow
Finally, how do you stand out? Remember every MSP sells the same thing, uses the same technology stack so what are you doing to be memorable when you’re selling?
Gold Nugget #8: Our MSP used ITSupportPanel to differentiate our services since 2009. It was a point of difference that actually added value to clients. They loved it. Our conversion went up! Read Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
Further Reading
Hope this helps. To read more on how Jamie grew his MSP from $3M to $7M in 4 years click here.
Ready to Replace Email with an App?
If you’re ready to replace old fashioned email support with a remarkable new desktop & mobile App book a demo of ITSupportPanel.
