Upcoming 5W50 Webinars

The popular 5W50 series is continuing its great content this fall. Here are some upcoming sessions:

Managing Your Business Through a Slow Economy with Key Performance Indicators on 10/7/2009

Consulting Best Practices on 10/21/2009

How to Create a Lead Generation Campaign that Gets Results on 11/4/2009

Virtualization: Defined. Building your Virtualization Practice and Solution Offerings on 11/18/2009

Leveraging Community and Peers to Grow your Business on 12/2/2009

Should you go Vertical? on 12/16/2009

I am delivering the session on 12/2 around community and peers. Plan now to sign up and join these great sessions. To register go to www.mssmallbiz.com/training and sign up. Take advantage of these - sign up and plan to join.

One More SWOT in the Books

We just finished another SWOT for Evolve Technologies in the Washington DC area. A fantastic team of Cohen Barnes, Robert Lindley and Jeff Adzima joined me at Dave Sobel's business for two days of intense analysis and discovery. As is always the case, there were a lot of expected findings and a few curveballs no one could predict. That is what makes these engagements fun. You never know what will happen until you get in the middle of the discovery process.

We worked the two days meeting with ownership, management and the entire staff. We probed for areas that could be improved and recommended changes and action plans to drive growth and success. We had long days and stressful moments, but we also had time to enjoy each other and learn together. The good part of serving on the team is that you always come home with a few things that can be applied to your own business, and you didn't have to spend your time under the microscope.

Dave now begins the difficult part of the process - execution. Things will be happening as early as next week as he takes our recommendations and puts them into motion. There were some changes we announced as part of our final presentation. There are a lot more that will happen in the coming weeks and months. But the exciting part is that change will come to Evolve and the company will grow and flourish as the recommendations are put into place. That is what makes these events so fulfilling. We are able to help others see things that they struggle to see because of being so involved with the day to day chaos, and provide clarity in how to move toward the future. Few things are as satisfying for me.

If you need a SWOT, let me know. If you want to be on a future SWOT team, let me know that too. HTG is in the business of helping companies experience Business and Personal Growth Driven by Execution. We are always looking for good members. www.htgpeergroups.com if you want to apply!

Can You Spell Free?

Microsoft has announced a special program for SBSC members to get up to $1000 to use on a Ready to Go Campaign. This is part of the vision of re-creating, for SBSCs, a set of benefits that are exclusive, practical and tangible to them: SBSCs get access to this extra funding… just because they are SBSCs.

So, any plans around Launch activities but no money? Here is the beginning of an answer (and more to come).

Check out the link: http://www.mspartnerdirect.com/sbsc

No whining if you don't go take advantage of it. First come, first served and there are limited funds available. Go do it today! And let me know you did - so I can track how many have participated. Not often you can get $1000 from Microsoft. DO it!

And if you aren't an SBSC yet - now is the time to get it done. Is $1000 enough of an incentive?

A Great Video on the HTG and ConnectWise Partnership

Thanks to Aaron Booker and VarVid for capturing and posting a video I created with Arnie Bellini from ConnectWise while at the Microsoft WPC in New Orleans a bit ago. We discuss the vision for our partnership and the value that working closely together will have on HTG members. Check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/varvid#play/uploads/0/jwoYgQ9_Cuo

We are off to a wonderful start in our partnership, and it rachets up to a new level in November when we hold our HTG Q4 meetings in Orlando right ahead of the ConnectWise Partner Summit 2009. Same venue, same week, great content for partners every day. We have our fantastic peer group meetings, and they have some great keynotes and breakouts. There is no other place in this industry to get the quality and value that this week will bring. I hope you will be there, bring multiple people, because there is no way any one person will be able to even capture a fraction of the content on their own. HTG registration is open - get registered now. Looking forward to seeing you all in Orlando in November.

A Coming Resource

Erick Simpson has announced his new book - "The Best NOC and Service Desk Operations Book Ever" which is now available for pre-order.

http://blog.mspu.us/2009/09/preorder-mspus-new-book-the-best-noc-and-service-desk-operations-book-ever-today.html

Erick and the team at MSPU have done a fantastic job of educating the channel around sales and service and all things MSP. And I am confident this new release will be another in their series of must have resources for your bookshelf. Take advantage of the early order discount, and get ready to incorporate some valuable thoughts and ideas into your organization as you learn and leverage this book to help produce growth and success.

The Power of Peers

This is the final post based on the keynote I delivered at the Ingram SMBA in Charlotte in late August. The topic covers the impact of being involved with peers in growing your business and driving growth and success.

We engage other companies in the channel

The first step in getting value out of peer groups is to start. So often I hear interest, but am always amazed at how few actually do something with that interest, even as simple as going to the website to fill out the short application for HTG. http://www.htgpeergroups.com/ That seems to be the norm with many partners in the IT channel. I hear it often when speaking to vendors. Hundreds drop by their booth and talk about getting started in a relationship only to never hear from them again. The world is run by people who actually show up and do something with their ideas. Those are the successful business owners. That is one of the key values of peers - you get engaged and are continually pushed to not only continue but raise the level of engagement.

We share and give openly

Peer groups are based on the Go-Giver model. It is not about me, but about the others in my group and sharing what I have with them. The more I invest in and share with others - the more I will recieve as part of the experience. In HTG we use the SWIPE model - Share With Intent and Purpose Everyday! It is not about what you can take, it is about what you can give. He who gives the most will ultimately win.

We ask for help when we need it

There is a very common misconception among many business owners - that asking for help is a sign of weakness and should never be done. Nothing could be further from the truth. The more mature a business becomes, the more that leadership team realizes that they don't have all the answers and it is much faster to learn from someone who has figured it out or been there and done that than have to make each mistake or learning on their own. Asking for help and learning from peers is a sign of maturity rather than weakness. So often business owners get into the "can't see the forest for the trees" situation. They are so close to the problem and have experienced it for so long they can't see it clearly and determine a new course of action. Bringing in some fresh eyes with different perspective can often take a problem that has plagued a business for many years and provide a solution very quickly. In HTG we use the SWOT process and take a team of peers onsite to help business owners identify and resolve business problems. But the key - you have to ask.

We share our financials openly

My how this seems to get some excited. There are a variety of thoughts around the sharing of financials and open book accounting - but for peers to make a difference they have to have transparency and access to the real information. That means opening the kimono and letting them see how things really are. The numbers are the numbers. If they are good, they are something to be learned from. If they are bad, they provide important information that can help turn things around. But without them, little can be done to really effectively make a difference in a company. In HTG we use Service Leadership's benchmarking tools to help us report and evaluate our financials. It is a critical tool in our program to help us evaluate our status.

We plan together around business and life

I have written much around this topic, and it is definitely core to the value of peers. Part of the process of planning needs to include having others review and comment on the roadmap you have laid out. In HTG we focus on four plans - business, leadership, life and legacy - and you can read about them in older posts on this blog. But the key is to use peers to evaluate the direction and destination you are heading and make sure it aligns with your stated objectives. You also want feedback on whether the steps you have identified as your action plan and strategies will actually get you there. Without solid planning - you can end up somewhere other than where you intended to go.

We execute together

Execution is the achilles heal for most of us that own a small business. It is not that we don't know what to do, we simply choose not to do it. Having a set of peers that will help drive you toward execution is critical. HTG has a goal of driving business and personal growth through execution. We know that by helping our members execute - we will help them move toward success.

We are accountable

Accountability is one of the misunderstood concepts in business today. It is not a matter of sitting back and waiting for someone to fail to achieve their goals so you can whack them upside the head and tell them to try harder. True accountability is when peers take each others goals on as their own, and when there is a struggle, they come alongside and help make sure each achieves the goals that have been set forth. That is the reality of what true accountabilty is. I am vested in and committed to helping others achieve success. When we do that - everyone wins.


There is no question that there is significant power in peers. It requires a deep commitment and a focus on others rather than self, but once that step is made and a person begins to invest in someone else, the good things begin and continue to make an impact for many years to come. HTG is looking for a few good partners who truly understand the value of peers. If you are looking to be involved in a life changing program, fill out the application and get involved today. Just remember that nothing changes until you actually do something. Thinking about it doesn't cut it!

How We Engage Vendors

This is the fifth post based on the keynote I delivered at the Ingram SMBA in Charlotte in late August. The topic revolves around the specifics of how to leverage the vendor resources available to the channel. Many partners don’t take advantage of these tools and miss the opportunity to get their fair share of the vendor investment. Don’t be one of them – take advantage and get more than your fair share. Vendors can help you in many ways, so consider these thoughts:

Marketing Funds (MDF/Distributor/Performance)

Most vendors set aside a significant amount of funding to hand out in a number of ways to their channel partners. Some of it normally comes through MDF (market development funds) that are earned based on sales of the vendor’s products. Distribution funds are provided through distribution and are normally handed out based on a proposal – more of a one off system of funding. Each vendor and distributor has their own system of handling these types of funds. Many vendors also offer funds that are proposal based and funding is based on performance. These funds require a written plan, execution and proof of performance with ROI. Based on that ROI – funding is provided after the fact. In every case literally millions of dollars – many millions – go unused by the channel because partners do not apply for and execute marketing properly.

Technology adoption programs

Vendors call this different things but this refers to the broad bucket of programs where products are placed in live customer environments during development and testing. Some of these programs are funded by the vendor, some are not. They give partners the opportunity to learn technologies early and get a head start on their competitors. These programs can be software or hardware, but always include the possibility of some customer or partner pain as the technology is tested. At HTS we have participated in dozens of these programs and find it is a valuable tool for our engineering team as well as our customers.

Rapid deployment programs

Many vendors also offer programs to drive adoption of new technologies in the marketplace. These can be funded or may just be based on reduced costs to the customer. But these again give a partner a competitive advantage in getting their company up to speed on new technologies and helps customers implement these cutting edge technologies in their environment. Microsoft is particularly fond of these types of programs and HTS has again participated in many of these for the benefit of our team and customers.

Beta programs

Beta programs are a bit more difficult to get involved in. These require a deep relationship with engineering and product teams and a history of performance in providing strong feedback and design specifications. They can be extremely valuable in keeping your engineers engaged and challenged, and the right customers are also excited to be able to help in the development process. It is not for every partner or customer, is seldom funded, and can be something that causes everyone to pull their hair out. But it has been a great way to keep the HTS engineering team challenged and growing.

Case studies – video and print

One of the areas that can be extremely effective in many ways is the creation of case studies on your customers. Vendors love these as it gives them customer evidence that can be used to validate their products and services. But as partners, not only do these help build a relationship with vendors, but they also provide fantastic marketing tools that can be used on websites, print materials and blogs. These are easier than ever to produce with the advent of inexpensive video cameras and quality color print devices, yet so many partners have no case studies in their marketing bag of tricks.

Advisory councils

Many vendors have advisory councils made of active partners in their partner base. These programs vary widely from vendor to vendor, but they are always effective in helping take the relationship much deeper. One does not get selected to serve just by sitting back and waiting for an invite. You have to proactively participate in the vendors programs, get acquainted with the vendor representatives, and show how you will add value to the company if you are invited to serve. These councils are very limited in size so it is not something that all can achieve, but more often than not, if a partner is deeply engaged with selling a vendor solution and works to add value to their partner programs, they can work their way on to an advisory council over time.

Technical and sales training

Vendors spend millions of dollars of field resources designed to help drive sales. These resources are both sales and technical in nature, and are paid to help partners grow their business with the vendor. Too many times partners are unwilling to make their team available for training. This sends a bad signal to the vendor and is not a solid way to build relationships with that vendor. Not only should a partner make their team available for vendor training, but they should be proactive in seeking that training and creating valuable ways to drive that relationship with the field deeper.

On site visits

One of the most important ways to build a strong vendor relationship is to invite them to your office. Take them on customer visits. Help them get the kinds of experiences that will help them grow and bring back value to their company. It is powerful to help vendor reps continue their path to promotion and often some field experience with a partner goes a long way to that end. At HTS we have had literally hundreds of vendor staff – from field sales and technical resources to product development and HR folks – spend time in our offices with our team. We have taken them on customer visits, spent time in roundtable and brainstorming sessions, and provided them the kinds of experiences that help make them better at their jobs. While we don’t get paid for that time, it is an investment in the relationships that takes us up a notch in terms of our engagement and it always comes back to us in many ways.

Sell their stuff

So the real way to take advantage of a vendor relationship really comes down to selling their products and services. The more exclusive or focused you are on them, the more they are willing to invest in you. There is NO substitute to selling their stuff. If you really want to go deep with a vendor – get serious about selling their products. Market it, get trained in it, learn how to support it, but most of all sell it. The more you do the deeper your relationship and the deeper the investment will be in your company.

Vendor relationships are not rocket science. They do involve us getting active and off our fannies and participating and working at it. Vendor relationships are not just holding your hand out and asking them to give you stuff. It doesn’t work like that. It is about understanding their programs, diving in completely and working to help make sure they are successful. There are many other things that vendors offer that we have not covered in this post. But a relationship with a vendor is really just like any relationship – it has to be about giving and realizing that as you give, the receiving takes care of itself. We have found that to be true every time.

Great Article on the Web

SearchSecurityChannel.com posted a great online article on HTG this week. There are a few minor things that are off a bit, but overall Neil Roiter did a great job capturing the facts on HTG. Check it out when you have time. Kudos to Brad Schow and Jeff Howard for helping get the message out.



Still have a few open slots looking for quality partners to get involved with HTG. If you are interested, or know someone who should be involved, apply at

Getting Along With Vendors – They Are Our Best Friends

This is the fourth post based on the keynote I delivered at the Ingram SMBA in Charlotte in late August. The topic revolves around the VAR relationship with vendors. Too often we tend to see it as a confrontational relationship. That is exactly the opposite of the way it should be if we want to succeed. All relationships need to be win-win and this one in particular. Vendors can help you in many ways, so consider these thoughts:

Consolidate purchasing to fewer vendors

There is power in buying from few vendors. A few years ago HTS purchased from 166 different vendors in a given year. It was no wonder our ordering was complex, RMA’s were impossible, tech support for our team was overwhelming, and our bottom line was certainly challenged. By limiting the number of vendors you work with, you can drive more sales which is what gets you noticed by and ultimate supported by vendors. They work with people who sell their stuff. So by consolidation you can help make it a deeper engagement.

Learn who your assigned reps are

This takes some effort, but it can be done. You need to know who supports your account at your key vendors. That includes field resources, inside sales people, marketing managers, and anyone else who is charged with working with your company or companies like yours. This takes a little Sherlock Holmes investigation and persistence, but it can make a huge difference when you are working on a special deal or want some type of interaction.

Understand their compensation plan

The single most important question to ask your vendor reps is how they are compensated. Without that you are shooting in the dark. You need to know if they are aligned though their comp model with your needs. If not you are fighting a losing battle. You need to look for additional resources in the company that do align to your model and customer focus. If so you need to work hard to help they succeed. Everyone responds to success with compensation. People do the things that cause them to be paid more. So find those out and do them.

Participate in their programs

Many partners don’t realize that most vendor reps have a number of areas they are measured in their compensation plan. Often getting partners activated and engaged fits in there somehow. While VARs often see the meetings, trainings and events as very optional, for a vendor rep they often are a significant metric toward their comp plan. So support your rep – find out again how they are paid and make sure you are there if participation is a factor.

Provide them customer evidence

Another area that likely impacts vendor compensation is the ability to generate customer evidence that shows their engagement with partners. Companies need a pipeline of evidence to drive their marketing engine, so it is important to be proactive and provide that to your rep on a regular basis. Strong case studies and evidence also rapidly gets passed up through the management ranks as it makes the field reps look like they are doing a great job out there supporting their partners and joint customers. So take the time, be disciplined, and capture evidence that can help everyone look good. It also makes great marketing material for you to use internally as well so it is another win-win opportunity.

Get your team trained and certified

This is a critical part of building a deep vendor relationship. Most vendors are looking for signs of commitment to their products and solutions and nothing spells committed quite like making significant training investments in your team. Often you can get help from the vendor in defraying the costs, but you need to be focused on making time and availability to get it done and keep it current.

Know their partner success model

Every vendor has a different model for their partners to use in order to succeed. Their partner programs vary and are all over the board in terms of commitments, benefits and requirements. But it is up to us as a partner to understand those programs and leverage them to build strong relationships. Most of the time they are pretty good and lead a partner to success with the particular vendor. So get involved and engaged and learn and follow the playbook.

Spend time planning with them quarterly

It is important to spend time planning with your vendors on a regular basis. I believe an annual plan is critical, and then quarterly reviews to measure and tweak it make it valuable to all. There are many ways to develop these plans. We use an offsite annual retreat to tackle the process. Vendor reps from our key partner organizations are at the table together with our management team to lay out the plan for the next year. We have found that model to be very valuable to both HTS and our vendor partners because everyone sees and understand the focus and initiative we will be following. Having routine follow-up and ROI reporting is critical to keep that going, but it is worth the effort.

So now you have some ideas on how to engage vendors effectively. Make it your intention to build deep and profitable relationships with your vendors. It can make a significant impact on your bottom line and really lead to more success. They truly are not the enemy, and should be treated as a valuable asset to your company.

Distribution’s Role in Success

This is the third blog post based on the keynote I delivered at the SMB Alliance event hosted by Ingram the end of August in Charlotte. The topic of this post is focused around the importance of distribution in the success of a VAR in the IT channel. This is based on our experiences in growing HTS and watching other successful VARs build their companies.

Distribution Was a Key Factor

At SCCI, my original company and parent organization today, we made a strategic decision to go deep with Ingram. Our purchasing is almost all done through this relationship, and our participation is primarily with their programs and resources. This decision was not about price. While their prices are competitive with the market, they are not necessarily the cheapest place to source products and services. On any given day you can call around and get better prices, that is if time is not of any value. The decision was based on value and the exact same fundamentals we preach to our clients every day. Don’t make decisions on price (if you do you probably won’t buy from us) but make decisions based on the value that we bring to the party. That is how we need to approach our distribution relationship. Focused on value.

So What Value Does a Distributor Bring?

For us it was based around four key areas:
1. Resources available
2. Investments made
3. Programs offered
4. People involved

There is no doubt that our “all in” decision has been a huge success factor. We have grown from less than $500K in 1990 when the relationship began to over $16M today and Ingram has been a key success factor in our growth. There is no doubt that we would be nowhere close to our current situation without that critical decision.

So How Have We Put the Pieces Together

Not only do we consolidate our purchasing, which gives us pricing but more important relationship, we take advantage of as many of the services and resources available to us as possible. Here are some that we leverage and have used to fuel growth:

1. Tech Support – our sales model leverages Ingram tech support to quote all our solutions or complex products. Every quote goes through tech support for solution validation. This gives us the ability to return product if it does not meet the customer needs. RMAs are down over 1.5% which is huge given our volume. No more long nights listing open box products on Ebay.

2. Solution Center – Our sales teams have made over a dozen trips to Buffalo or Santa Ana to leverage this resource. Every visit results in immediate and long term sales that are significant. You have the opportunity to expose your prospect or clients to a vast array of technologies in an offsite and highly focused environment and good things happen there.

3. Technology Assessment Program (TAP) – a mid market assessment tool that helps probe for opportunities. We have used this tool with over 50 of our clients and it always generates a long term strategy that leads to significant opportunities. It is the gift that keeps on giving.

4. IMSN – the Ingram Micro Service Network provides a mechanism to expand our service delivery. Both by receiving service tickets that drive revenue, and leveraging skill sets or engineering talent that we are not able to afford or don’t have available. They handle the transactional activity and we just do the work.

5. Communities – Ingram offers a number of these, most notably VTN and SMBA. Our company has grown significantly because of our involvement in these groups. They provide the opportunity to connect with peers and industry executives.

6. Agency Express and CAP funding – Ingram has great resources to help grow our company leveraging marketing investments made by vendors. These programs allow us to expand marketing resources and they work with us to create our own marketing plan. It is valuable and enables us to reach into the market with quality information and campaigns.

7. People – this is definitely the greatest value Ingram brings to the table. They have great people all over their organization that understand the channel and how to help us succeed. We leverage them for help with strategy and planning, procurement and marketing, sales and technical issues. They help us make things happen every day.

Far too many VARs get stuck on pricing and split their purchasing all over the place based on the deal of the day. My advice is to find a distributor you can partner with and go deep. Go all out. Make them part of your team and include them in your day to day business. They really can help you succeed. HTS and HTG are where we are today because of the deep investment we have made in Ingram Micro, and the equally deep investment they have made in us. We have many relationships that go 10 or more years deep and truly bring value that cannot be measured in dollars. So take a hard look at how you are doing business with your distribution partners. Are you really getting all you can from them? Or do you need to pick one and go deep?

Not all Communities are Created Equal

This is the second blog post based on the content shared with the HTG and Ingram SMBA group last week in Charlotte. Today’s topic is about the need for a variety of community experiences.

Not all Communities are Created Equal

There are many different types of communities that are available for technology companies to participate in today. They serve a variety of purposes and actually are very complimentary in many ways. You can’t select one from each area, but you should likely be involved in several of these if you truly want to grow your company. Here are some of the communities that are available for you to participate in. Try them out, find what works, and then get involved. There are definite values each bring to the table. But thinking about community doesn’t do a thing for you. You have to get involved. And the more you do, the more you give, the more you will receive in return.

Distributor Communities

Organizations like Ingram's VTN or SMBA focus on high level strategy and executive vendor relationships. At these events and meetings you are exposed to great content from the best speakers available. The rooms are often filled with executives from around the industry and it is one of the best places to connect with many vendors at one time. They also bring many exclusive offers to their members and work to connect members to the many resources they provide.

Vendor Communities

Many vendors have communities that are often focused around events. ConnectWise does this really well. These communities are typically a mix of content around the vendor’s products and services with some general industry content sprinkled in as well. These types of communities are valuable in that they allow you to get very specific answers to questions regarding specific items from both the vendor and their partners as well. You are able to rub shoulders with people using the exact products you use and can get specific on how to leverage your investment to the max.

Peer Group Communities

Many peer groups like HTG focus on execution and skill building. These peer communities are often the deepest and require the most openness as financial disclosure and full transparency are often the basis of going deep together. Most peer groups play a “peer board review” type of role where they are working in each other’s businesses and lives. HTG has a very focused mission - to help our members grow by teaching them business skills, driving execution and benchmarking performance.

User Group Communities

User groups are normally focused on specific technologies. These groups are typically laser focused on practice building around that technology and look at all angles related to success. User groups bring big value to members by helping resolve technical issues, giving ideas that are specific to selling or marketing the technology, and bringing together expertise around this technology.

Partnering Communities

Groups like IAMCP or Ingram’s IMSN focus on sharing of business opportunities and sharing work. This type of community attempts to bring together partners that have different specializations so they have the opportunity to pass and receive leads from complimentary partners. As the world shrinks and the economy becomes global, we see more and more partners leveraging others to fulfill work on their behalf both at home and in different geographies.

Summary

So there is an opportunity for partners to participate in many different communities as each has value to add to the mix. Each company needs to evaluate which communities can help move them toward success for their organization’s needs. Pick one or two or more, and then get involved – deeply involved. HTG encourages participation in other groups like outlined above while we fulfill the specific business needs of our members and stay true to our mission. No one community can meet all the needs out there, so find those that fit your company and get started today.