Lessons Learned at Zenith's Executive Workshop - Lessons #3-4

The Zenith Executive SmartStyle Workshop, held Dec. 8-9 in Pittsburgh, attracted 40 Zenith Infotech MSP (managed service provider) partners from across the country to discuss ITaaS – IT as a Service. If you're not familiar with ITaaS, make a New Year's resolution to learn everything you can about it. There isn't a technology or vertical market that hasn't been affected by this trend already.

Maurice Saluan, Sr. Vice President of Sales, Zenith Infotech

Day 1 of the event divided the attendees into small groups where they were asked a series of detailed questions about their business – their successes, their challenges, and their expectations for the future. On Day 2, the group leaders presented their findings from the day before. One attendee described the event as "a brainstorm in a peer group environment."

Here are two lessons from the Zenith workshop that will be helpful to solution providers aiming to grow their business:

Lesson #3 – Stop neglecting marketing: One of the best aspects about the Zenith Executive Workshop was that nobody pulled punches. Here's what David Roberts, founder of solution provider Ascend Technologies, told the group during his presentation on marketing: "Marketing is not about having all the answers, it's about doing something. And most of you (solution providers) are doing nothing. Why do you assume you can do nothing and customers will just show up on your doorstep?"

More tremendous and challenging quotes from Roberts:

• "The industry in turmoil is the best industry for you, a trusted advisor, to be in."
• "If you suck at presenting, hire someone to present your stuff. They don't have to be the expert."
• "How many of you have a custom, kick-ass background for your PowerPoint presentations? You have to get one of these. They cost just a couple hundred bucks."
• "You don't write marketing campaigns for the 988 people who are going to delete your email. You write for the 12 who might email you back or call you."
• "I killed myself trying to learn everything about social media, SEO (search engine optimization), and all that stuff. And in the end, I did nothing."
• "Don't go back after this event and try to do everything. Just try to do freaking something."
• "There are MSPs in this industry who are outrageously successful. The reason they're not just marginally successful is they provide great customer service with a great process and they spend money on marketing."
• "If you disagree with me, I don't care. I don't work for Zenith."

One other bit of advice Roberts provided was that all solution providers need to develop a first-rate company name, logo, color scheme, and legitimate mantra that never changes. Ascend's mantra is "Solutions Outside the Box." To see their logo and super-slick website, go to www.ascendtechnologies.com.

Lesson #4 – When talking cloud, coordinate your mouth and your client's brain: A statement repeated often at the Zenith event was that customers are aware of cloud computing but don't have clarity about it. And when they first begin to comprehend cloud, their internal alarms go off. "The cloud right now it a lot of things," said Mike Smith of Ironlogix. "But when you boil it down, it's still their data, it's just somewhere else. That doesn't give them a warm, fuzzy feeling because they don't know where it is. I hear sometimes, ‘How do I get my data back?'"

Many clients first hear about cloud from a friend or advertising. Almost everyone – including my mom – has taken notice of Microsoft's "To The Cloud" TV commercials such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HRrbLA7rss. Advice from the attendees at the Zenith workshop was to learn what the client is looking for and talk about how the solution meets that need. Attendees said most clients are looking for: access to data from anywhere, a better user experience, mobility, security, reduced risk, increased reliability, and a reasonable price.

Here's a statement that attendees said helped their current customers get comfortable with the concept: "You don't have to worry about third party providers. If you're with us, and something breaks, it's my responsibility. I'll replace it and fix it. In fact, here's one now."

When you are converting your offering to cloud computing, an early step should be partnering with a strong customer of yours. (The customer you choose should be a manageable size – don't start with a big customer or you'll get overwhelmed.) By "partnering" we specifically mean offer them an introductory price (less than the premium you plan to charge down the road), tell them there will be bumps along the way, and let them know that some of their systems may need to change. Total up-front communication works best. One attendee said, "Tell your customer you'll slowly bring them up to best practices. Manage their expectations that the first 4-6 months will be the worst."

Bonus Lesson! BSM/MSPtv Webinars will focus on the cloud in 2011: Business Solutions and MSPtv will cover cloud computing in-depth in 2011. Watch for these upcoming Business Solutions Lunch-and-Learn Webinars on MSPtv (www.MSPtv.net) and the Business Solutions Managed Services Resource Center (www.BSMinfo.com/msp):

• Where Is Your Place In The Cloud?
• How To Find Customers For Your Hybrid Cloud Solution
• Selling The Cloud (Or How To Pitch IT-as-a-Service)
• How To Bundle Hybrid Cloud Into Your Managed Services SLAs
• Security & The Cloud
• Have Mobile Workers? Why You Need To Cloud

For additional lessons learned at the Zenith Executive Workshop:
Lessons Learned at Zenith's Executive Workshop – Lessons #1-2
Lessons Learned at Zenith's Executive Workshop – Lessons #5-6