SMBA Keynote - Community is Important

Ingram’s SMB Alliance group just ended their annual event in Charlotte. It was a very well executed and valuable event for the couple hundred partners who attended, and in that mix were a number of HTG members who took advantage of the membership they have in SMBA because of the HTG-Ingram relationship and partnership. I was honored to deliver a keynote on Friday morning as part of the event, and would like to share a bit of the content I shared since many were not in attendance. I would encourage you now to put a hold on August 29-31, 2010 for the next event to be held in Orlando.

The first topic is the value of community.

HTS (our VAR reseller company) has grown to our present state because of our participation in community. We have been active in Ingram’s VTN, HTG, Exchange, CompTIA and others. Community gives us a lot of value and has been key to our growth. So what kinds of things do we get from spending time with our peers?

Community has provided perspective. Without it you don’t know what “good” is. So many partners operate their organizations in a vacuum and have no way to know if they are doing well or not. Both SMBA and HTG offer benchmarking opportunities provided by Service Leadership for members to be able to compare how they are doing with their peers. That information is critical to be able to make adjustments in how you run your business. Without it, you are guessing at best. The opportunity goes further in a peer group when you really “get naked” with each other and openly disclose and discuss those numbers and benchmarks in complete and total detail.

Community has provided relationships. Because of our participation in channel communities, we have been able to build deep and valuable relationships with key executives and staff at our distributors, vendors, peer organizations, subject matter experts and media folks. We would never have had the opportunity to even meet many of these people if it weren’t for the opportunity to connect through community.

Community has provided guidance. Without it the ability to stay relevant is more difficult. Through community we have been able to share and receive many best practices from companies that have already figured out the problems we were facing. There is no reason for anyone to figure out every mistake on their own. We need to learn from one another. In HTG we talk about the go giver version of SWIPE – share with intent and purpose every day.

Community has provided growth for us at HTS. We have completed 5 M&A’s as a result of relationships in communities we participate in. Good things happen when you spend time with others. It allows for sharing of values and life, and provides the opportunity to get acquainted with other business owners and find those compatible and interested in working together or even joining forces. The risk goes way down because there is a great trust level and deeper understanding of each other.

Community has provided success. That is the bottom line. Our company would be nowhere close to where it is today if we had not got involved in community. It takes work. It requires time. It costs money. But all things that matter do. And the more you invest, the more you will receive. Community is where the Go Giver mentality really works best. But thinking about getting involved, wishing you would take the step, pondering what it might do for your company – none of that matters. You have to take the time and be part of community to gain the benefits. Thinking about it doesn’t count.

Next Up - Ingram SMBA in Charlotte

Next week three of our HTG groups - 6 - 18 - 19 - will be holding their Q3 meetings in Charlotte ahead of the Ingram Micro SMB Alliance event. HTG has had a strategic alliance with Ingram now for over a year, and our participation in this event is an exciting part of that continuing to grow to fruition. We will have 50 or so HTG green shirts in attendance at the event on Thursday and Friday and will experience a great agenda filled with content.

Over 200 partners from Ingram's SMBA channel will be on hand to share and learn together. We will hear from key industry leaders like John Fago and Ryan Grant from Ingram Micro, Mike Parrotino from HP, Justin Crotty from Ingram Seismic, Paul Dippell from Service Leadership, David Russell from MANAGEtoWIN and many others. There will be dozens of vendors on hand to connect with and understand how we together can succeed. Breakouts will cover all sorts of timely topics and feature industry experts. I even get some time on stage to talk about the power of community and how peers can make a difference during these challenging times.

I often get asked about the value of communities like VTN or SMBA compared to that of HTG. My answer is always that they are designed to do different things and are complimentary in nature. HTG is focused on business skills and peer mentoring and accountability. Channel communities are typically focused at a higher altitude and provide significant connections to vendor and industry relationships as well as high value educational content from speakers that HTG cannot afford nor fit into our peer focused agenda. So there is plenty of reason to be part of a peer group like HTG and a channel community like SMBA, thus our strategic alliance. They give partners two legs up on competitors who are trying to run their business in a vaccum and are struggling to know how to survive.

I hope to see many of you in Charlotte at the SMBA event Aug 26-28. I know the HTG and Ingram teams have been working hard to be prepared to offer unprecedented value to those who attend. If you are in the crowd there - no tomatoes or heckling allowed. Wear those HTG green shirts on Thursday, and let's have a great time learning, sharing and go-giving together.

A Great Week at CompTIA

The CompTIA Breakaway event has ended this week after three days of great content, partner engagement, and vendor interaction. Scott, Ken and I were in Las Vegas to man the HTG booth as part of their vendor fair, and I was privileged to moderate the lunch session on Wednesday which focused on success stories and lessons learned from partners. There were over 500 partners on hand, along with almost 100 vendor companies and a variety of other folks. Grand total was over 1000 people registered and on site for the event. That is encouraging in and of itself. Many of the IT channel events have been well down in attendees if held at all. But this event gives one hope that the economic impact is slowing and the attitude in the channel is regaining some positive steam. Overall the people we met with were upbeat and feeling pretty good about things. While there are certainly pockets of real economic distress, the general feeling was that customers have money available, but have been waiting for some solid direction that things have stabilized and are headed back toward better days. There weren’t many folks that felt we were sliding more deeply into the arms of a recession, but most said they see positive signs of recovery that should lead us to higher ground.

The event was a unique mix of folks and content. Lots of focused meetings tackling a variety of topics and issues mixed with briefings from vendors and great content from leading speakers. I was able to sit in on Verne Harnish’s presentation on planning and get some firsthand exposure to his Gazelle system. I met with a number of media folks to talk about the HTG story and mission as well as update them on our future direction and goals. We had 20 or so HTG green shirts in the crowd, and I am sure there were others on hand I missed. But our presence was felt and seen with those shirts. HTG was the buzz in the places I spent time and the interest is high and the demand to get involved in peer to peer community very strong. The partner attendees are a bit unusual at this event as the mix is all over the board from the largest in the channel down to the SMB. Most conferences are targeted at a particular type of partner, but CompTIA serves the entire channel and that was evident by the attendee list. It was a great place for us to recruit from a different pool of prospects than the normal places we connect.

HTG was the focus of lunch on Wednesday where I moderated the session of discussing successes and lessons learned by three companies in the channel. Jeff Anderson from BulletProof in Canada, a member of HTG10, made us all proud as we walked through the changes in their organization over the last 8 months or so. Jeff and Rene Sloos have merged their companies and created a new one that now includes Stuart Crawford as well. I heard from many that his section of the interview was filled with value and great insight. Thanks for making all of us HTGer's proud Jeff!

HTG will be working to identify ways we can work more closely with CompTIA in the days ahead. They certainly have a class organization that provides a lot of value to members in the channel. HTG wants to leverage their vast resources across our membership so we can participate with and take advantage of the quality programs and activities they are serving up. There is new leadership at the helm, and a fresh perspective on how they can engage the channel and drive the best interests of all involved. HTG is proud to be recognized as a leader in the channel and to partner with CompTIA to continue to help the ecosystem succeed and serve our collective customers the best way we possibly can. So a big thanks to the CompTIA team for a job well done and for allowing us to be part of your event. We look forward to much more in the coming days.