One of the first questions I am asked when we are speaking to IT companies about our services is “Why should we work with you? How are you different from your competitors?” The best answer? We’re here. We go where you go. We learn how to sell your solutions and services from the same places that you do.
That’s what took me to Orlando last week for the Microsoft World Partner conference. Our clients – especially our Ingram Micro Cloud Elevate partners – want to aggressively grow their cloud practices this year, and we want to help them!
Now, I would love to tell you that I sat in dozens of sessions, but the truth is, I sat in on three. I didn’t even make the keynote. As a first-time attendee, I went to the newcomer session where I was pretty much told to throw out my agenda, find the green-badged mentors, then introduce myself to partners and sponsors and follow them around all week. So, that’s what I did! (Best newcomer tip: ALL SESSIONS are available for viewing online after the event, so you don’t need to worry about rushing around to get to them live! I’ll watch the keynote from my living room couch this week.)
The other two sessions I attended were about driving cloud revenue, and here’s the condensed recap of what I learned:
- To become a more profitable MSP you need to scale up (better margins) or scale out (more sales volume). Selling cloud should help you do both.
- Selling cloud right now is all about speed. Go first. Go fast. You need to capture new market share NOW. The window for selling new ideas is becoming very narrow – if you miss this window, the only remaining opportunity will come from taking business from other companies. A much longer process that is largely dependent on perfect timing vs. great ideas and execution.
- You need to build stickiness by creating and deploying IP. Your solutions will need to become part of your client’s daily work and life in order for you to retain them long term.
- What you deliver is not as important as HOW you are delivering it. Everyone has access to the same basic toolset. Differentiate. (IP)
- Scalability comes from creating repeatable methodology. What did you build for your last client that you can replicate for your next client? Can you take on new projects for strategic reasons?
- Becoming vertical specific will allow you to increase your focus and accelerate your sales cycle. (See, we’re ahead of the curve here!)
- You should be building five year plans with your MSP clients. Your MSP contracts become most profitable for you (and are the easiest for you to lose) in years 3-5. Show your clients where you’re going, and become their trusted advisor.
- Find partners. Become an expert at delivering one thing and then partner with other companies that are experts at their things. Work together to create win/win/win relationships with partners and clients. Don’t compete, collaborate.
A great deal of my week was spent on the Connect floor, and I had opportunity to see several presentations in the Social Media hub. We are a cold call prospecting firm, and we have built our business quite aggressively using cold calling. We have chosen to focus exclusively on this one thing, and we do it well. We also recognize that you need to meet prospects where they want to be met. The big takeaway? The MSP of the future can’t afford to ignore social media. Looking for some guidance? While we plan to stick to our one thing that we do really well, we’re happy to connect you with some of the companies we met this week who can help round out your marketing strategies!
I usually give a recap of the parties, but this week there were far too many to mention! The closing party saw thousands of partners taking over Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a fun-filled evening that included a custom fireworks display. Ran in to several clients, prospects and new and old friends — hard to do in a crowd that size! And then, this happened:
I have hundreds of follow up calls to make from the week, and that’s just from being an attendee – if you’re on the fence trying to decide if this event should be on your radar for 2016, let me assure you, the investment will pay for itself. I’ll see you next year in Toronto!