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!

2009 HTG Award Presentations

This year marked the first year we have presented the HTG Awards to our membership. We have some of the greatest partners in the IT Channel, and we were able to recognize them on Tuesday evening as part of our HTG Summit in Dallas last week. Here is the list of winners:

Award - Name - Recipient Company
Group of the Year - HTG2 - Facilitator Nate Austin
Rookie of the Year - Amy and Peter Kardel - Clever Ducks
Facilitator of the Year - Erik Thorsell - Success Computer Consulting
Vendor of the Year - Zenith Infotech Ltd.
Spirit Award - Robert Lindley - Innovative Systems, Inc
Leadership Award - Dan Hay - ISOutsource
Founder’s Award - Lyf Wildenberg - Mytech Partners
Friend of HTG - Paul Dippell - Service Leadership, Inc.
Excellence in Partnering - Aaron Booker - Hardlines Co.
Best Practice/Great Idea - Mitch Miller - Dynamic Computer Solutions
Best Practice/Great Idea - Alex Ziogas - AZBS
Best Practice/Great Idea - Andre Vittorio - Idealogical Systems, Inc.

Group Members of the Year
HTG1 - Dan Shundoff - Intellicom
HTG2 - Lyf Wildenberg - Mytech Partners
HTG3 - Steve Riat - Nex-tech
HTG4 - Garrett Brucker - Solve IT
HTG5 - Cohen Barnes - TBC Net, Inc.
HTG6 - Dave Rodman/Jeremy Kurth K&R - Network Solutions
HTG7 - Chris Bates - The Computer Hut
HTG8 - Roy van Norstrand - Usherwood Office Technology
HTG9 - Gary Stein - Netlink Systems Inc.
HTG10 - Randy Biggs - VACS
HTG11 - Raja Pagadala - The Final Step Ltd.
HTG12 - Jamison West - JWCS
HTG13 - Steve Winter - ERGOS Technology
HTG14 - Don Bentz - Preferred IT Group
HTG15 - Amy and Peter Kardel - Clever Ducks
HTG16 - Tom Fox - Tech Experts
HTG17 - Greg Gurev - MySherpa
HTG18 - Ben Rife - Integrity Networks

Congratulations to the winners. We are proud of you!

The Power of Cooperation

One of the great things that happens when partners get past the fear of competition is that true partnering can happen. A couple of our HTG partners, Erik Thorsell at SCC and Lyf Wildenberg from MyTech, did a very unique event cooperatively to drive business. These two companies compete in the Minneapolis market. Both are in HTG - SCC in HTG3, and MyTech in HTG2. As is the case for most - the fear of competition is really based on lack of understanding and relationship. These two companies have worked over the past year to learn about each other, understand where the strengths and weaknesses are in both companies and become true go-givers with each other. They have done an exchange day where staff spent time in the other business to see how they run their business. They are doing joint telephone cold calls together through an IBM campaign - did you catch that - their sales teams sitting together in the same room. Their success has been based on open sharing - but between competitors in the world's view.

Most would say the culture of HTG is crazy - to open up a business completely to 11 other companies. And in this case - to be transparent even to another company right in the same market. The world would say "bad decision". But these guys have proven the power of peers. They have recently held a joint marketing event. Each invited their own customers plus they marketed to drive prospects to the event. In prior years each had done their own pretty successful event. But this time, by working together, they hit a home run. They had more people than either would have drawn on their own, much more vendor participation, and most importantly, both companies are energized and growing. Of course a lot of the success comes from the top - leaders who get what it means to be go-givers. They communicated clearly and set expectations. It didn't just happen, but it was a powerful example of what can be when people live out the power of peers in community.

Stuart Crawford recently did a blogtalk radio show with these two. I encourage you to take time to listen and see how the culture of HTG and the power of peers can make a huge difference. Check it out at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2008/09/05/The-Art-of-Coopetition.