MSP University Over 15,000 Readers!
IT and Managed Services Newsletter
MSP University helps Solution Providers succeed...period.
June 2009 |
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| Welcome to MSP University |
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Flag Day
Flag Day is a United States holiday celebrated on June 14th. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. |
| FREE MSP University Membership! |
 Have you created your FREE MSP University account yet? Just browse over to www.mspu.us and sign up to receive access to IT and Managed Services webinars, tools, forms and collateral to help you transform or improve your IT practice with valuable resources in areas of business operations, HR and hiring, sales and marketing and service delivery, project management and help desk operations.
Learn how to:
- Revolutionize your existing business model
- Transition existing break-fix customers to Managed Services clients
- Market to the right prospects and close Managed Services business
- Choose the right tools and technology to maximize your efficiencies as an MSP
- Build closer relationships with vendors and fulfillment partners
- Grow your revenue month after month, year after year
How much annuity-based revenue is your IT practice currently generating?
What is your company worth?
What are your plans for improvement?
Evaluate your options as an MSP with our FREE membership offer - why wait any longer?
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| Join Us For MSP University's Next State Of The Industry Webinar This Thursday! |
 Please join us Thursday, June 25th @ 9am PST as I host MSP University's State of the Industry Webinar. Topic: How to Increase Profits by Providing Free Service to Existing Clients
Does this sound crazy to you? Believe me, it isn't! You can't expect heat from a fire without putting in some logs first. This Webinar will focus on helping your clients during these tough economic times in ways that increase their satisfaction, position you as a "go-giver" and true business partner, differentiate your business from your competitors, and uncover additional revenue opportunities that you can help your clients budget for, to increase their operational uptime and profitability. The techniques and methodology discussed during this Webinar are a tremendous way for you to strengthen your existing client relationships by helping your clients through difficult economic times.
This is truly a win-win all the way around for you and your existing clients - and will open the door to more opportunity!
Our special guest for this unique presentation will be Chad Gniffke, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Kaseya, who will share how Kaseya partners are leveraging this philosophy with their existing clients.
About MSP University's State of the Industry Webinar Series
MSP University's State of the Industry Webinar Series is meant to inform. The more you know about your industry, the products and services available to you and your clients, and how to market and sell those products and services, the greater your opportunities to increase your value to your clients, as well as your business success.
About Erick Simpson
Vice President and CIO of Intelligent Enterprise, a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner, and MSP University, Erick is a recognized industry expert and IT and Managed Services author, speaker and trainer, and contributor to numerous industry publications and events. Author of "The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice - What Every SMB IT Service Provider Should Know...", the definitive book on Managed Services, and the follow-ups in MSP University's Managed Services Series "The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER!" and "The Best I.T. Service Delivery BOOK EVER!", Erick has also co-authored the HTG publication "Peer Power - Powerful Ideas for Partners from Peers".
About Chad Gniffke Chad Gniffke is the Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Kaseya. With over 10 years in  the IT consulting space, Chad has helped design, build, manage, and service over 150 different IT infrastructures world-wide. Chad has a bachelors in business from California State University Fullerton with an emphasis in Information Systems CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
See you on Thursday the 25th!
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| Registration Now Open For Our Next 3-Day Boot Camp On August 12th-14th, 2009! |
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Select Image To Hear What Our Attendees Have To Say...
Just to give you an idea of the value our Boot Camp attendees received, here are their responses to two survey questions:
I would recommend this Boot Camp to another member of my team: Yes 100%
This Boot Camp was worth the investment: Yes 100%
When have you ever attended a training event wherein all attendees overwhelmingly felt this way?
There is absolutely no other organization that can deliver business transformation training to you at this level.
TRACK 1 - I.T. SOLUTIONS AND MANAGED SERVICES SALES & MARKETING
In our I.T. Solutions and Managed Services Sales & Marketing track, you will participate in a variety of multimedia training processes and work with your instructors as you learn through direct presentation, audio and video training, and work with forms and PowerPoint presentations to perform mock Client presentations on Managed Services and other annuity-based products and services, and are judged by your instructors as well as your peers.
Based upon MSP University's successful business, technical and sales and marketing methodologies, our comprehensive I.T Solutions and Managed Services Sales & Marketing Track provides attendees the knowledge they need to shorten sales cycles and close more business.
Give us 3 days, and we'll give you the tools and techniques to transform your IT sales process into an effective, repeatable revenue generator.
Our IT Solutions and Managed Services Sales Track:
- Walks you through each step of your first appointment-and your second, and your third
- Teaches you to conduct a client needs analysis that reveals you as the expert
- Provides you with key talking points and strategic answers to every possible objection
- Clarifies the details of the IT solutions and managed services sales process
- Covers the strategic details of Proposal, ROI Analysis, and Service Agreement - including business-winning PowerPoint presentations
- Allows you to practice your client presentations in role playing sessions with our experts and your peers
- Empowers you to close the deal
Bonus Sales Training:
- How to sell your 3rd-Party Help Desk Services
- How to sell Hardware as a Service (HaaS) effectively
Our IT Solutions and Managed Services Sales & Marketing Track deep-dives into the sales process, and covers:
- The Proper Way to Prospect
- Call Scripts
- Appointment Setting - Objections
- The 7 Step Sales Cycle Part 1
- The First Visit
- The Warm Up
- Qualifying
- The 7 Step Sales Cycle Part 2
- The Second Visit
- Presentation Basics
- Presentation Slide Deck
- The Cost Savings Analysis
- Overcoming Objections
- Closing
- Follow Up
This Track is recommended for: Owners, Sales Managers and Account Managers
TRACK 2 - I.T. SOLUTIONS AND MANAGED SERVICES DELIVERY
If you're like most of our partners, you have already invested in technical staff and tools to deliver services to your clients, and would like to learn best practices to maximize their use in the most profitable manner possible.
Get the most out of your human resource and service delivery tool investments - register to attend this I.T. and Managed Service Delivery Track now!
Based upon MSP University's successful technical service delivery methodologies, our comprehensive I.T. and Managed Services Delivery Track provides attendees the knowledge they need to increase utilization, raise efficiencies, improve client satisfaction and become more profitable.
Give us 2 days, and we'll give you the tools and techniques to transform your IT and Managed Services delivery process into an effective, repeatable revenue generator.
Our IT and Managed Services Delivery Track:
- Teaches standardized, best practices-based project and problem management processes and procedures that can immediately increase your efficiencies along with customer satisfaction
- Provides an overview of Professional Services Automation, Remote Monitoring and Management and Remote Control tool requirements, functionality and interaction to maximize your resources and scale your services profitably
- Dives deep into best practices for SLA management and service request prioritization, escalation and management to increase your effectiveness and client satisfaction
- Discusses the pros and cons of utilizing 3rd-party service desks and how to manage and integrate them successfully into your service delivery offering
- Covers HR tools such as DISC Behavioral Profiles and Personal Talent Skills Inventories to hire the right technical resources the first time
- Uncovers effective techniques to properly conduct interviews, the right questions to ask and how to put together a performance-based incentive plan and offer letter for qualified technical candidates
- Explores best practices for overall Service Management improvement and success
This Track is recommended for: Owners, Technical Managers, Professional Services, NOC and Service Desk Personnel
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD QUICK SCHEDULE (agenda subject to change)
There is simply no other IT Solutions and Managed Services-focused training of this type anywhere!
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| Kate Hunt Joins MSP University |
 Kate Hunt joins MSP University as our newest Partner Support Manager. In this role, Kate will leverage her proven experience in marketing, sales and technical operations to help MSP University Members improve their business' efficiencies, effectiveness and profitability while increasing client satisfaction through our best-in-class business improvement and transformation methodologies.
Kate's prior experience includes employment at several solution provider organizations where she directed their successful transition from traditional "break/fix" IT service delivery to the Managed Services business model, then managed these business units to increased profitability over time. Kate's extensive knowledge of both the traditional and the MSP operational models; as well as her strong background in channel sales and marketing, qualify her to help MSP University members achieve their business goals.
A graduate of Kent State University, Kate holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Industrial Psychology, with a minor in Music Performance. Dedicated to ongoing professional development and business networking, Kate is a member and active participant in many local, regional, and national professional organizations. Kate, her husband, and her daughter currently reside in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.
Welcome to the team, Kate!
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Announcing More Premium MSP University Membership Benefits! |
 Great News!
We understand how difficult the recession has made it for you and your clients to grow your businesses, which is why we have decided to strengthen our business partnership with you by providing more resources, more training and more marketing collateral than ever to help you succeed - after all, we are all in this together...
MSP University is proud to announce that we have increased the value of our Premium Membership by upgrading its benefits with the following new features:
These additional tools, marketing and training resources give you the competitive advantage that you need in order to succeed during these uncertain economic times, and prepare you to increase sales, shorten existing sales cycles and make each and every one of your accounts more profitable - all while increasing client satisfaction!
Imagine all of this for only $99 per month with no long-term contracts!
Fax your authorization form to: Premium Membership at (888) 875-8083.
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Considerations For Addressing Your Clients' IT Maintenance Needs
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As you build your business on selling managed
services, there are several important decisions that must be made that
will affect your organization and its level of profit.
If you are providing managed services to clients,
one of your biggest decisions will be whether or not you plan to handle
all of the service delivery internally, or outsource some of these
responsibilities to a third-party resource. To help make this decision,
there are some considerations you will need to evaluate regarding your
organization first. Remaining Flexible to Client NeedsSome
of your clients will prefer to only pay for reactive repair work,
rather than investing in a proactive maintenance program paid for on a
monthly subscription basis. While it is important to understand your
clients' needs and make accommodations for them in a way that is
effective for both you and your loyal client base, it will be up to you
to illustrate the value of proactive maintenance for these clients - at
least to the point of convincing them to pay for a low-cost network
monitoring, patching and updating "monitoring only" service. This will
allow you to provide a basic level of maintenance and help identify
potential issues before they become work-stopping outages, while
allowing you to bill for any work required beyond the fee you charge
for this basic service. In addition, you will discover up-sell
opportunities by reviewing your service's monitoring reports.
Reasons To OutsourceIf your
organization does not have the internal capabilities or resources to
dedicate to proactively monitoring, patching and updating your client's
networks, you may consider outsourcing this responsibility to another
fulfillment partner or vendor - especially if this decision is more
cost-effective than providing these services yourself.
Third-Party Outsourcing ConsiderationsWhen
you are seeking relevant companies to partner with, evaluate your
clients' and vertical markets' particular compliance requirements, as
these may narrow your choices of fulfillment partners from a geographic
perspective, as well as in other areas. While outsourcing service work
to countries outside of the United States may be the right
cost-effective choice for you than the alternative, in some cases other
considerations may apply, and as the global IT outsourcing opportunity
grows, U.S.-based organizations are becoming more competitive in this
area.
Prepare for GrowthIf you
want to increase your profit margins, you must be prepared to make
difficult decisions that fuel growth in your business while reducing
costs. You can achieve this growth by delivering services through your
own resources in-house, or by creating a solid working relationship
with third-party resources.
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| 2009 Service Leadership Index Solution Provider Compensation Report Available! |
 Find out what the market is paying in the industry's only Solution Provider-specific salary survey. The 100-page report covers more than 40 positions in Solution Providers with infrastructure, application development and Managed Services practices.
The 100-page S-L Index™ 2009 Annual Compensation Report covers more than 40 positions in Solution Providers with infrastructure, application development and Managed Services practices, including:
- Technical Professionals
- Practice Managers
- Sales Professionals
- Sales Managers
- Owners and Principals
The report provides exclusive, detailed insights into:
- Incentive compensation
- Work experience (not certifications)
- Average hour bill rates (to your customers) by technical position
- The level of demand and marketplace availability by position
- Broken out by seniority level and by geography
Employee costs are by far the single largest cost in a Solution Provider operation. Knowing what is a win/win compensation range for a given position is critical to employee retention and sustainable profitability.
For each of over 40 positions, the following analysis is provided:
- Average TAE (Targeted Annual Earnings, i.e. total expected planned compensation),
- % Variable (the proportion of TAE which is expected to be paid in variable, incentive or at-risk pay),
- Degree of Difficulty (the degree of difficulty the participating company is having finding people for this position,
- Degree of Need (the degree of need or demand for this position within the participating company),
- Hourly Bill Rate (the typical market billable rate for this position, that the participant would charge its end customers)
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| MSP University FREE Webinar Course Highlight |
Creating a Successful Managed Services Business Plan
In this training session, we share the unique Managed Services Business Plan creation and execution strategies that MSP University teaches in workshops and boot camps across the country.
This webinar covers the required components of a successful Managed Services Business Plan, integrating your marketing strategy into your Managed Services Business Plan, using your Managed Services Business Plan to forecast and project revenue, leveraging your Managed Services Business Plan to secure financing, and finally, illustrates a month-by-month Managed Services Business Plan execution strategy. If you're serious about growing your Managed Services business, you will want to watch this informative training webinar!
Click here to watch this informative Webinar (log in with your FREE MSP University credentials)
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We Can Build Your Website In Only 7 Days Flat! |
 Does your website really drive revenue, or is it simply a company brochure?
Is your website client-facing and designed to attract your specific target audience?
Does your website clearly identify your prospects' pain and explain how you can solve their problems?
Does your website accurately reflect all of your services and solutions?
There is simply no other organization with MSP University's experience and expertise that can design and deliver a Website solution to you in only 7 days that:
- Is incredibly affordable
- Drives revenue and repeat business
- Is client-facing and attracts your target audience as part of your marketing process
- Identifies your prospects' pain and positions your organization as the solution to that pain
- Showcases every single one of your products and services
- Integrates your PSA solution's existing client login functionality
- Integrates your existing email marketing solution/newsletter registration functionality
- Contains meaningful, relevant content developed by experts in your industry covering over 20 of the most commonly requested services and solutions by end-customers, including Managed Services!
MSP University's 7-Day Website Solution is the answer!
There is simply no other organization with MSP University's experience and expertise that can design and deliver your Website solution in only 7 days that:
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Helps you drive revenue and repeat business
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Is client-facing and attracts your target audience as part of your marketing process
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Identifies your prospects' pain and positions your organization as the solution to that pain
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Showcases every single one of your products and services
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Integrates your PSA solution's existing client login functionality
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Integrates your existing email marketing solution/newsletter registration functionality
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And contains meaningful, relevant content developed by experts in your industry!
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MSP University Industry News |
Here are just a few of the accomplishments MSP University achieved in the month of May:
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If you know anyone that might benefit from reading our newsletter, please forward it to them!
Sincerely,
Erick Simpson
MSP University
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