Tuesday, November 24, 2009

5W50 Webcast on Leveraging Your Peers Coming to a Computer Near You

On December 2 at 9 AM Pacific, noon Eastern, you will have an opportunity to view a very action packed webcast as part of the Microsoft 5W50 series. The topic will be growing your company and how to leverage peers as part of the growth process. You will hear from HTG members Amy Kardell, Jamison West, and Dave Sobel as they join me to talk about some of the exciting things that have happened in their companies as they have leveraged their peers in HTG.

Growth is a lot of work, but it can go faster and more smoothly when you learn from those who have done it before. Peers can help you overcome the blockers that cause you to beat your head against the wall. They can prevent mistakes you would likely make if you do it alone. There is much to be gained from running and growing your company in the companionship of a group of people like yourself, and peer groups provide that opportunity. Join me as we tackle that topic.

To register for the event next Wednesday Dec 2, go here. I hope you will take an hour and learn with us about the power of peers!

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Another SWOT in the HTG Books

This week I was in Rice Lake Wisconsin with DCS Netlink, a great company led by Dane Deutsch. On the SWOT team with me were Lyf Wildenberg (HTG2) and Mike Haworth (HTG15). We had a fabulous time as we dug deep into the business and worked to identify some tweaks and changes that will help the team there continue their growth. As is the case for most small businesses, there are a number of plateau’s and blockers that come up along the path to growth. That is the case at DCS, and so we worked to help solidify what the team already knew – they need to grow into a sales organization. This is definitely the most common problem that HTG companies are wrestling with. It happens to many about the same time. You grow pretty well without an official sales plan until you hit 1M – 1.5M or so in revenue. And then you hit the wall. No matter what you try, it just seems like you are stuck right there. Since a lot of us are entrepreneurs that came up through the technical side, we have a dislike for the whole sales process anyway. We can’t figure out why we can’t turn some screwdriver or find some new technical solution that will fix this problem.

The reality is that any business that wants to grow has to become a sales organization. Nothing happens until a sale gets made. It took me a long time to admit that fact. We can engineer the greatest solutions in the world, but if we never sell them, or don't get paid appropriately for them, we will go out of business. It is a pretty simple truth that many never figure out. So sales is not optional – it is essential and needs to come off the list of things you have to hold your nose about. Get over the fact that you think sales people are all like the used car types and embrace the reality that you need to find some good ones if you want to grow your company. But then what? Once you know you need to change from being an invincible engineering company to a sales company – what next? Well you actually have to hire someone to sell. And that becomes a challenge because a good sales person thinks very differently than your typical MCSE. They don’t necessarily understand every detail, or even care for that matter. I personally think it is better to hire someone who can sell before worrying about whether they understand technology or not. Sales is all about relationships, not how much you know about the latest gidgets and gadgets. But that is my opinion and certainly no one looks to me as the expert on this topic. There are some good resources out there in our channel that can help. HTG currently has some classes going on with Kendra Lee around hiring a sales person. Erick Simpson and MSPU has some fantastic resources. If you are struggling - get some help. Don't flounder around here - you need to find a salesperson and get started.

Of course, hiring is probably the easy part even though it does seem overwhelming. Once you have a person on your team, then you have to manage them. There are few things more dangerous to a business than an unmanaged sales person. ConnectWise has great tools to assist in sales management. Again - there are lots of solid resources available to help teach you how to manage sales people. One of the best though is to talk to peers who are successful doing it. There are a number of HTG companies with sales organizations that are making it happen every day because of great sales management. Find them and figure out how to put their practices into your business.

Nothing happens til somebody sells it. Get off the fence and find a salesperson and begin the process of becoming a sales organization. Vision without execution is hallucination - and I see more companies that are hallucinating in the area of sales than anywhere. Sales is not rocket science. It may feel that way, but it really isn't. And without it, you can plan to plateau and be stuck for as long as you allow it to happen to you. You can't grow without becoming a sales organization. Get over it and get on with it!

Thanks to Dane and the team at DCS for a great experience in rural Wisconsin. I learned much and look forward to watching you go through this challenge and on to the next one!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A Couple of Awards Opportunities


There are two big opportunities for partners to nominate themselves or others for some channel awards. The first is for Channel Insider's Bull's Eye Awards. These awards need to be submitted by November 20th. You can find the nomination survey here.


Another opportunity for recognition is available from MSP Mentor. They are taking nominations for their MSPmentor 100 list now through December 11th. You can nominate yourself or someone else here.

Two great opportunities and now it comes down to execution. Vision without execution is hallucination. Let's get companies nominated and win these!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

HTS Annual Vendor Planning Meeting

Today we held our 5th annual HTS planning meeting. We huddled in the KC Microsoft office with our field reps from Microsoft, SonicWALL, Ingram Micro, HP and Altigen. The goal was to review our performance from 2009, evaluate what we could have done better, and then create a joint plan across all our vendor partners for 2010. When we started doing this 5 years ago, there was a lot of question and concern. "You really expect us to sit in a room with competitive vendors and share our thinking and plans for next year?". I have always had a simple answer. "It is up to you. You only have to participate if you want to do business with us next year." This is not an optional activity. It is about partnering and creating solutions across our vendor partners to drive business. No one has ever failed to show up. And each year it gets better and better and the walls have come down and we are working to build cross vendor solutions we can take to our markets.

We come away with joint training plans, joint sales models, joint marketing programs - just a unified approach to making HTS and our vendor partners successful. We started our event last night with a dinner for all our vendor participants to allow some pre-game activity - tailgating if you will to help warm up the crowd. Had a nice time at On the Border eating and sharing about life. Today we dove in early - reported on our YTD status - and shared specific information with our vendors. In fact, we give them all our data on our customers and sales activity. Many would say we are crazy to trust a vendor with the keys to our kingdom. Our feeling is that it is only when we truly partner and work together that we will succeed. Jane Cage, our COO and pivot table queen, is able to slice and dice our data in dozens of ways. Our vendor partners can see things in that data we would never see because they work with many different partners in many different markets. We look to them for guidance and best practices they learn from watching others. It is a very valuable experience and well worth the risk in our opinion.

Our team left today with a list a mile long for us to consider as we write our 2010 business plan. And our vendors left with a list we had for each of them for commitments we expect them to execute for us next year. It is a two way street. Both of us are accountable in this, and we will review mid year to make sure everyone is executing. If you aren't planning with your vendors and distribution partners, you are really missing something special. It truly can propel your business. It will put you in a very elite class of partners - not many are willing to be transparent and go to the work of pulling together an event like this. But it is well worth the effort and can help you grow in ways you will never be able to do any other way. As I say over and over - the differentiator between partners is not sales or technical skills - it is understanding the power of strategic relationship management. That begins with planning with your vendors and disty partners. If you want to be status quo - try and do it yourself. If you want to be one of the elite partners in the channel - get over yourself - reach out and work with the folks who can propel you to the next level!

Monday, November 9, 2009

What a Week in Orlando

This past week HTG members and ConnectWise partners descended on Orlando for the HTG Q4 meetings and the ConnectWise Partner Summit. Both events were packed and very well executed (except for a little AV fiasco you had to be there to appreciate). HTG members spent two days working to drive business and personal growth by holding each other accountable. We have moved to using a standardized quarterly board review template that members use to prepare and present their quarterly performance. From that background information, the other 11 members provide feedback and direction for the future. Feedback on the change was very strong. We are shifting from being backward looking at historical data – to forward looking with strategy and the future in mind. This is a big change for most of us in the channel. Our default thinking is to be focused on the past and present – looking at execution and tactical items – rather than peaking forward at what is to come.

During the ConnectWise Summit, Verne Harnish – the growth guy – challenged all of us to change how we think. We need to become CEO’s if we want to truly lead our company. That means forward looking, future focused, strategy based leadership. It is a shift for many. But driving while always looking in the rear view mirror is a good way to assure you will go in the ditch. So the change is necessary and important. HTG has been focused on that transition for some time, and we are midway through the process using our tools – Service Leadership benchmarking, quarterly board reviews, ConnectWise PSA and a few others. It is a slow and tedious mindshift, but this quarter it seemed that lightbulbs were going on and members were starting to understand the need for the change.

Christy Sacco, Ken Shetler, and Scott Scrogin did an amazing job with our HTG event. Three packed days of content and learning with hardly a bump. The HTG team is top notch and dedicated to making things happen. Our new special interest groups on Wednesday were highly successful and received much praise. Partners want to get together and learn. That is the bottom line. People who are part of peer groups understand the impact and value, and can never get enough. And they know that being a Go-Giver is the key to making that success flow to everyone involved.

I will be writing about the breakout sessions, announcements and other important topics that were discussed in Orlando over the next weeks. For now, as always, execution is the focus. Take that one thing and get to work making it reality for your organization!