Selina A. Poynter @selinaapoynter - Tumblr Blog

Generate New Managed Services Opportunities as Clients Return to the Office

Change often creates new revenue generating options for MSPs. When companies shift priorities or disrupt practices and workspaces, the process interruptions can have a ripple-effect across the organization and increase the need for additional support and solutions. Many businesses will pay a premium for IT services that can minimize their pain and shorten the transition timeframe.

MSPs savor those roles. There is value and margin in the “mysteries” that IT services professionals address each day—even more so for firms with high demand specializations in cybersecurity and certain vertical markets. The more you know about the business processes that technologies drive, the greater your worth to the clients who rely on those solutions. That value proposition keeps managed services contracts growing and generates tremendous revenue for highly skilled providers.

Focusing on the right things at the right time helps drive MSP success. Clients may expect your team to be clairvoyant and predict which problem may occur and determine the optimal solutions before the dust can settle. Working from similar mindsets and vantage points is the ultimate objective.

Sounds easy, right? The problem for MSPs and other business owners is that the world is full of uncertainties. Who could have predicted the events of the past two and a half years? While managed services providers emphasize data backups and disaster recover plans to help clients survive unforeseen situations, few develop contingencies for a global pandemic. The ongoing supply chain and inflationary concerns add more complexity to the situation, leaving many business owners wondering how to prepare for whatever might come next.

The Transitioning Work Environment

With strong signs that the pandemic is waning, organizations are hedging their bets on a return to normal. Many companies adopted work from home (WFH) or hybrid environments over the past two years to maximize employee safety and keep most, if not all of their operations running.

Those arrangements will continue for many organizations. Some businesses saw increases in productivity and employee satisfaction after moving to the WFH model. Making that transition permanent, even on a part-time basis, allows organizations to reconfigure or eliminate office space and significantly trim expenses.

On the other hand, there are many companies that still need (or at least prefer) employees to spend some, if not all their working hours in a corporately controlled space. Whether their workers interact directly with clients or require constant oversight, or managers want all their team members in one place, those who have not transitioned back will soon make the move.

Back to the Office Refresh

Change often spells opportunity for MSPs. That’s why it’s a great time for reassessing clients’ systems, solutions, and support programs, including more recent investments for enabling remote work teams. During the pandemic, many managed services providers spent more one-on-one time with clients, formed tighter relationships and gained more intimate knowledge of their operations and workflows. That level of insight, combined with greater trust and business value gives MSPs the leverage they need to pitch more comprehensive strategic plans to help boost those companies’ future success.

Building more robust and secure solutions to support today’s workforce should be a top priority. That means providing businesses with the best of all worlds—the ability to work securely from a central office, home environment, or other locations. With clients’ employees returning to the office, now is the perfect time for MSPs to add solutions that boost efficiency and productivity—and overhaul clients’ existing infrastructure and systems.

PC/laptop refreshes. If your clients have not invested in computers since before the pandemic, now is the perfect time to pitch a replacement plan. Systems that are secure and free from issues (i.e., missing or sticky keys, glitchy monitors) help boost productivity concerns and employee satisfaction. While continuing supply chain issues may limit availability of some devices, it’s good idea to begin the planning and ordering processes sooner rather than later.

Phone systems. Your clients need the latest communications solutions to remain competitive today. If relying on traditional phones or a self-hosted VoIP application, it’s time to upgrade them to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), providing their employees with video and text, as well as mobile device options. Even if everyone works from a central office, these applications save valuable time and empower collaboration among team members.

Printing apparatus. MSPs often overlook the devices that create the most stress in an office—printers and copiers. However, upgrading your clients’ printers and copiers and adding management solutions that reduce ink and paper costs are invaluable services.

Routers/network upgrades. Advances in technology can provide major benefits to your business clients. Organizations that are returning to the office should jump at the chance to have an MSP assess and improve the strength of its backbone (networks and internet providers). These are core channel skills that can bring new project revenue to IT services firms.

Physical security. From video and access controls to entry and lighting management applications, MSPs can better protect their clients’ employees, businesses, and data. Most of these systems are IP- or app-based and provide the perfect complement to an IT services firm’s portfolio of network offerings.

Strengthen Your Bottom Line

The options above are just a few of the many solutions you can provide your business clients. Those upgrade opportunities can also generate higher revenue and margins for MSPs and drive a variety of additional consulting and support services. Enhancing your cashflow is a nice bonus for your team’s extra work.

Which options would help the transition back to the office for your clients? Now is not the time for business as usual. MSPs should consider pitching solution that boosts customers’ efficiencies and drive down costs to offset rising expenses. With so much uncertainty, including skyrocketing inflation and hiring challenges, providers can deliver new applications and support options to ease some of the anxiety.

As you provide solutions for your customers, don’t neglect optimizing your own business with efficiencies that can lead to cost savings. ConnectBooster is proven to save MSPs 8-20 hours each month formerly spent on manual accounts receivable tasks. Request pricing and see how ConnectBooster can save you time and money while helping you get paid faster.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/generate-managed-services-opportunities-return-to-office/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/06/01/generate-new-managed-services-opportunities-as-clients-return-to-the-office/

Does Your MSP Need a New Growth Strategy?

IT services are an area of major opportunity today. Invigorated by activities in the SMB community over the last two years (and more), including the pandemic-inspired shift to remote work and rising concerns over cybersecurity threats, the MSP model is stronger than ever. With more companies looking to outsource a greater part of their technology needs due to greater business needs, skills shortages and rising IT wages, the potential profit opportunities appear to be everywhere, with industry forums and channel event discussions reinforcing that good news.

The escalating demand for proficient tech professionals should keep experienced MSPs busy for quite some time. Unfortunately, those same market forces driving the high demand are also working against IT services business owners.

The ongoing supply chain issues and hiring difficulties that drive interest from prospective clients may also limit revenue and profit opportunities and create a number of other problems. MSPs without efficient processes and sound business practices in place may struggle to keep pace with competitors and maintain the level of profitability needed to grow. A desire to support additional business prospects means nothing without the resources, willpower, and planning abilities to make it happen. Building and following a well-crafted strategy improves your chances of success.

Reexamine Business Plans

The business environment significantly changed. Consequently, your MSP may need to develop a new strategy or, at a minimum, reevaluate your current approach. Continuing to build from an outdated (or now broken) premise will likely result in a disappointing outcome. Every business owner needs to “check-in” periodically to see if their original mission and objectives, the reasons their plans were first constructed, are still intact. If not, it’s probably time to revise or redraft your plan and adjust your goals.

Sometimes the best way for a business to move forward, especially when sales are strong, is to take a step back and look at all the key factors that may have changed over the past year or two. Evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Determine if specific current activities should change or be eliminated altogether.

Growing an MSP in today’s challenging business environment requires more planning and effort than ever before. However, the opportunities for scaling IT services sales and monthly recurring revenue are also at an all-time high, creating the ideal situation for fully staffed and enterprising tech organizations.

Consider the following when evaluating if your MSP needs to devise a new strategy or revise its existing plans:

Client support needs. Have changes shifted their priorities and requirements over the past couple of years—like work from home (WFH) and the growing adoption of cloud solutions?

Technology changes. Your clients may need (or want) more advanced systems and applications than you currently provide. Many MSPs are adding high-level cyber threat protection solutions to their portfolios to reduce the risk of ransomware attacks, and IoT-driven technologies to control energy costs. And offering a secure payment technology will help your clients mitigate payment processing vulnerabilities and cybercrime risks.

Economic conditions. Shifts in the economy (and business spending) can have a major impact on IT budgets (and your ability to drive solid margins). Offering cost-effective and productivity-improving options is a good way to change the technology narrative from “expensive services” to “wise investments.”

Buyer landscape. Have clients’ decision-making processes changed? Are the same people in place, or are there new methods and influencers in the mix with different preferences? What seems like minor changes can significantly impact MSPs’ ability to sell additional services and grow wallet share.

Internal efficiencies. Sometimes internal inefficiencies are the bottlenecks that prevent or stymie growth. Especially when an MSP is on a growth trajectory, hiring or employee retention issues can cause slowdowns and result in poor customer service and service delivery or even delayed payment. Process efficiency and automation may not cure every ill, but those steps can reduce pressure while improving margins. MSPs that are more operationally efficient capitalize on the right technologies, integrations, automations and best-practice methodologies.

For example, MSPs who leverage full-cycle billing automation have an easier time collecting payment and achieving healthy cash flow to afford additional tools, resources, or staff to scale.

Talent pool. The ongoing shortage of qualified technicians, sales professionals and other skilled (and non-skilled) workers may be one of the biggest threats to MSPs’ growth objectives. Developing a strategy to enhance your firm’s image as a top-notch workplace is a great place to start. With an increasingly competitive environment for skilled talent, especially in the IT community, MSPs need to ramp up recruitment efforts and reevaluate compensation packages. Are wages, benefits and workplace policies aligned with prospective employees’ expectations? Better yet, can they attract experienced professionals from outside the normal talent pool?

Is your firm positioned to grow?

Can you provide high-quality support for an increasing number of clients?

Does your firm utilize the right technologies for its internal, administrative practices to keep overhead costs low and to keep up with a larger client base?

Expanding portfolios and increasing wallet share while onboarding new customers offers the best of all worlds—driving more revenue and tightening key business relationships. Those situations help increase client retention and long-term MSP success.

ConnectBooster helps MSPs achieve healthy cash flow that supports adding tools, resources, or staff to scale. As you examine your growth plan, position your MSP to scale by optimizing your billing, collections, payment processing and invoice reconciliation processes with an all-on-one tool that will save you time and money. Get pricing and learn how you can achieve healthy cash flow with ConnectBooster.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/msp-need-new-growth-strategy/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/05/06/does-your-msp-need-a-new-growth-strategy/

5 Best Practices for MSPs to Keep Pace with Inflation

Prices go up in the best and worst of times. Inflation is ever-present and a cyclical event, rising and falling as economic conditions change and the demand for dollars ebbs and flows based on a variety of factors. The concept is fairly simple to understand: the government measures the price of selected goods and services over a determined period and calculates that rate. The higher the percentage, the greater the decline in purchasing power. That economic formula has a long tail, affecting numerous business activities and the bottom lines of many organizations.

With robust demand in many sectors, including the automotive, real estate, and, yes, technology industries, and supply chain difficulties still causing issues, costs are skyrocketing in some areas and affecting virtually everything else. The March 2022 inflation numbers reflected the largest twelve-month increase since December of 1981 at 8.5%, up from 7.9% in February. Those price increases are hard for any company to absorb without taking action.

Successful MSP owners understand the need to pass on most, if not all, of those rising costs to customers to prevent margin and cash flow concerns within their own organizations. Timing truly is everything. Clients might jump ship if they feel your firm raises prices every time there’s a blip in the market, but rate stagnation can put your business on shaky financial footing if your internal expense costs rise faster than income. Finding the balance between the two extremes is critical.

That division doesn’t need to be equal, and MSPs should be able to more than compensate for the rise in their own expenses. Finding the right mix may not be easy. Some providers provide a low-cost value-add to soften the blow of proposed increases or offer some discount to clients for agreeing to adjust payment terms, sign a longer-term contract or adopt other processes that favor the IT firm. Most clients won’t complain as much about paying higher monthly fees if the services provide value. With unchecked inflation, few will object to price increases from business partners that deliver continual efficiency improvements in their operations.

Turn Challenges into Win-Win Opportunities

MSPs often get paid to address bad circumstances. Dealing with all the pandemic-related restrictions and business challenges of the past two-plus years clearly demonstrates the capabilities of the greater provider community. IT services firms admirably stepped up to drive, secure, implement and deliver ongoing support for remote and hybrid workforces in a matter of weeks (if not days, in some cases).

That same types of consideration and support should go into developing a 2022-2023 pricing strategy. How can you continue developing and better securing your clients’ IT systems without hitting them too hard in the pocketbook? At the same time, what steps can you take to boost your company’s financial situation—or at least ensure your margins don’t slip? Here are five proven MSP best practices to help you keep pace with inflation:

Increase Prices with New Value-Add In the current economic environment, no client should be surprised when an MSP announces new pricing. However, providers that create more of a win-win proposition by delivering more services along with that price increase typically receive less negative feedback and enjoy an easier transition.

Most business owners and managers understand the situation today. If their IT provider delivers an additional solution that will improve their efficiency or security posture along with a proposed 5-10% price increase, that extra “value-add” may partially, if not completely, offset the additional expense. For example, an MSP could add services such as dark-web monitoring or password management with contract renewal or implement technology refresh programs that bring higher margins (instead of raising rates). The key is keeping the cost of those extras or portfolio changes below the rise in your expenses.

Successful MSPs understand the things their clients need and provide new services to justify price increases, helping inflation-proof their businesses while boosting support levels and capabilities.

Review Expenses This may seem like a “no-brainer,” but with so many activities in a typical day, some MSPs don’t take the time to periodically assess their cost of doing business. Evaluating the highest cost items such as rent and mortgages, insurance, and personnel is the perfect starting point. Like their clients, MSPs may choose to adopt virtual or hybrid environments to minimize, if not eliminate, expenditures for buildings, utilities, and insurance. To offset rising gas prices, some companies are downsizing vehicles or leasing EVs.

Regularly evaluating everything from software and phone systems (VoIP is a cost-effective alternative) to software applications and internet providers helps ensure your operations run efficiently.

Automate! Every IT services business owner should know how valuable properly implemented, and supported technologies are to an organization. For MSPs, that means PSAs and RMMS to streamline client management and integrate with a host of other critical tools. On the financial side of the MSP business, eliminating manual steps in the quoting, accounting and collections processes can save a tremendous amount of labor. With the shortage of talent and the high cost of hiring and training employees, the ROI of automation tools is rising, so MSPs should continually seek new opportunities to deploy these types of solutions.

Enable New Efficiencies Strong IT services partners are invaluable—even more so today than before the pandemic and rise in cybercrime. Similarly, your clients are looking for ways to trim their expenses to avoid passing on huge price increases to their customers. Like the value-add strategy mentioned above, MSPs are the innovators that can leverage their ingenuity and beneficial technologies to create new business efficiencies. WFH and hybrid environments are great examples. Encouraging clients to downsize offices and better enable remote workers can significantly lower costs. That money can be reinvested in sales, marketing, and other technologies that drive additional revenue, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce employee turnover.

How does that help MSPs counter inflation? Those technology investments allow providers to reconfigure monthly payments and augment IT contracts, with an opportunity to boost revenue and margins. Also, it’s in your best interest to suggest efficiencies that keep your customers profitable and in business so they can continue to invest in your solutions.

Encourage More MSP-friendly Payment Terms and Processes No one likes a price increase. Understanding client motivations and decision-making processes make it easier for MSPs to soften the blow on those announcements and create mutually beneficial proposals. Many providers leverage price increases as part of the bargaining process, offering a smaller bump if clients agree to adopt certain practices, financial terms, or technologies. For example, the new contract might include a different collections process that requires payment within ten days of invoicing with a secure payments gateway like ConnectBooster to streamline the process.

MSPs may incentivize or penalize clients to encourage the adoption of these cash flow-critical solutions. Providing a discount less than the inflation rate will be less costly (and easier) than having your team call, email, and otherwise track down clients seeking payments for overdue invoices. Instead of increasing their monthly fees by 10% or more upon renewal to compensate for inflation, MSPs can propose a lesser increase (for example, only 3-5% increase) for those who agree to use ConnectBooster and enroll in autopay.

What is your strategy for countering inflation? Planning is critical. With the right approach, MSPs can mitigate their own rising costs while delivering broader and deeper support to their business clients and communities. The key is building a win-win strategy that everyone will understand and appreciate.

As inflation drives costs up, your clients might expect a rate increase. You can minimize your clients’ financial strain by incentivizing adoption of your ideal payment process—autopay. ConnectBooster makes it simple to get paid on time, every time, with rule-based, variable billing and two-way data syncing between your accounting system and CRM/PSA. Contact us to see how autopay with ConnectBooster can help you achieve consistent cash flow.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/5-best-practices-msps-keep-pace-inflation/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/04/22/5-best-practices-for-msps-to-keep-pace-with-inflation/

Boost your MSP’s Security with a PCI-Compliant Payment Vault

MSPs are no strangers to security protocols. Security is often the “bread and butter” of their business as they spend their days defending and protecting their customers’ businesses from threats. Despite this, payment security is often an after-thought. Consider this:

Does your MSP collect checks from customers?

Do you store customer payment information on sticky notes or in an excel document?

Do customers send their payment information to you via email or text?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, your MSP is not prioritizing the security of your customers’ payment data. All of these are vulnerabilities. You have good intentions—no MSP intends to put their customers’ information at risk. This simply doesn’t cut it when it comes to the high stakes of payment security and confidential information.

Most MSPs sell cybersecurity and privacy packages within their services. And yet, what could be less secure than requiring your client to send a paper check by mail or storing sensitive information on sticky notes or unencrypted files? Cybercrime just keeps increasing at a startling rate; even the most security-conscious businesses are on edge.

Don’t you want to be able to assure your customers that you secure both their businesses and their confidential information? How embarrassing would it be, not to mention costly, if you suffered a breach and their credit card information was compromised?

You can accept customer payments with less risk—even recurring payments—and in less time.

ConnectBooster transforms outdated, insecure collection methods with industry-leading technology that makes it convenient and secure for your customers to pay on time.

ConnectBooster’s secure payment portal encrypts a customer’s credit card information through the whole payment cycle. The PCI-compliant vault holds and protect customers payment information for recurring payments, while the patented 3-step redirect ensures that no sensitive information is ever stored on your server which minimizes your risk for a data breach.

Best of all, your customers will love it. The ConnectBooster portal delivers the security they expect, as well as convenience, line-item billing transparency and a variety of digital payment options to suit their needs.

Trust is everything when it comes to customer payment data. Don’t just protect your customers’ businesses, protect the sensitive data they trust you with too. It’s time you upgrade your billing and collections process to match the caliber of your other offerings. Schedule a ConnectBooster demo to get started.

“We have used ConnectBooster for over 2 years now, and they have been an invaluable asset to our company. Before ConnectBooster, our accounting staff literally spent several DAYS per month, manually billing credit cards in QuickBooks, dealing with getting and updating cards, re-processing failed payments, and more. ConnectBooster has allowed us to fully automate that process and never have to touch a user’s credit card. (PCI Compliance … Done!) The clients like it because they can directly enter their credit card information without having to call, fax, or risk email, and they can see their invoices. The icing on the cake is we saved enough money in fees by working with them to easily pay for the program and then some!”

– Chris Amori, Network Depot

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/7d9n38e0wf.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/boost-msp-security-pci-compliant-payment-vault/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/boost-your-msps-security-with-a-pci-compliant-payment-vault/

Leverage Automation and New Partnerships to Overcome Supply Chain Issues

The IT industry has become a fine-tuned machine over the past thirty-plus years, fueled by a collaborative community that designs, manufactures, and delivers a variety of goods and services. MSPs and the companies they support have grown accustomed to a comprehensive portfolio of IT options and a plethora of delivery options over the years. “Order today, install tomorrow,” had become a reality for virtually everything tech professionals would need to keep their clients’ businesses fully operational.

The industry had confidence in the efficiency of the supply chain until two years ago. As the pandemic swept through countries and then continents, suppliers and manufacturers’ operations were slowed if not completely halted, causing a ripple effect of shortages throughout the world. While the pandemic appears to be easing across most parts of the globe and those shutdowns are lessening significantly, delivery delays and wild price fluctuations continue.

The war in eastern Europe is amplifying that problem. Approximately 374,000 businesses (90% based in the U.S.) relied on Russian suppliers before the invasion, with Ukraine providing goods and materials to around 241,000 organizations (93% based in the U.S.), according to Dun & Bradstreet. While the world works to resolve that conflict and stop the pain and suffering, the market will have to adjust and absorb the diminished capacity.

Those supply-side challenges are more difficult in areas where product demand never subsided. When added to other unexpected quirks in production and distribution, including the recent earthquake in Japan and COVID-related preventative measures in China, the availability of IT-related supplies is sure to be a spotty proposition for months, if not longer. Those regions are a major source of semiconductors, hard drives, transistors, network cables, rare earth minerals and other key resources companies need to manufacture their products.

The reality is, supply chain issues go much deeper than a computer chip shortage. So, what can MSPs do to overcome those concerns and best support their clients’ IT ecosystems?

Get Visibility into the Supply Chain

Clear insight into pricing, availability and delivery times is essential when proposing new projects to clients and prospects. Businesses can leverage data-driven automation to empower their sales teams and optimize supply chains. Identifying which distributors and vendors have the inventory and the pricing and capability to deliver those products to their clients at the right time is crucial. The great news for MSPs is that IT services-specific quoting applications and integrations can easily make that happen today.

Automating the data collection and communications processes ensures that the information companies use to make supply chain-related decisions is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. IT services-specific tools help make the proposal, ordering, delivery, invoicing and payment processes quick and effortless with little, if any, manual intervention. Integrations with hardware vendors, distributors and the latest generation of online suppliers—like Amazon Business and other e-tailers—provide MSPs with access to an almost endless number of options.

That leverage is critical with the ongoing supply chain constraints. Unfortunately, suppliers are struggling to keep up with the high demand, especially with difficult-to-find devices and materials, so IT services companies need to work harder and smarter to secure the things their clients need most.

Automation breaks down information silos and gives MSPs’ sales teams the ability to research every potential source in a matter of minutes, not hours. Industry-specific tools simplify the proposal and communications process to reduce deal closing times and speed up project timelines. Integrations with invoicing and accounting packages like QuickBooks and Microsoft Dynamics GP and payment tools like ConnectBooster help MSPs get paid faster.

Leverage Larger Networks

Before the pandemic, many providers relied on one or possibly a few suppliers without running into delivery and pricing issues. The onset of international supply chain challenges forced MSPs to add new distributors and vendors to meet rising client expectations, especially with the sudden shift to work from home environments. Many providers have been expanding their supplier networks to locate and secure products ever since. Adding vendors and distributors to your partner ecosystems reduces the risk of backorders and delayed shipments.

Those growth and diversification strategies can slow down the proposal process if not combined with automation. Whether leveraging new vendors and distributors or e-commerce sites, without the proper search and communications tools, sales teams end up spending more time searching for the optimal prices, products, and delivery options. That inefficiency can hurt new revenue opportunities, company profitability, and customer satisfaction.

Expanding supplier networks lets you commit more time to service and support and more adequately meet your clients’ expectations, even in the midst of so much uncertainty. Diversification and automation are critical in times of surging demand and supply chain disruptions. Those actions can trim product and shipping costs, boost your margins, and provide ease of mind to your team and business partners.

MSP-centric quoting, procurement, and financial applications can be an invaluable part of the solution. With real-time supply and demand visibility and minimal manual effort, these automated platforms will alleviate or at least minimize many of your current supply chain, hiring, and pricing concerns.

Efficiency and automation are critical for MSPs. ConnectBooster is the payment solution that thousands of MSPs trust for automated billing and collections and improved efficiencies. Schedule a demo to see how ConnectBooster can simplify your processes and save you time.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/leverage-automation-partnerships-supply-chain-issues/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/04/01/leverage-automation-and-new-partnerships-to-overcome-supply-chain-issues/

Transparency, Ease & Convenience of 24/7 Payment Portal

In a crowded, competitive market, it’s no secret MSPs must operate at peak efficiency and continually satisfy their customers. Of course, customers care about the value of your services, fair prices, timely responses and resolutions to their issues. This is the baseline. To stand out among your peers, the customer experience must be more than adequate. Every interaction has the potential to fall short of, or exceed customer expectations.

One of the most important but overlooked parts of the MSP/customer experience is how and when a customer pays you. This process is often confusing or even downright difficult for customers. Consider this:

If a customer has a question about their bill, how do they get answers? Do you offer convenient online access to view their billing and payment history, or are they required to contact you for clarification during your office hours?

How have you asked your customers to make payments? Do you offer multiple easy and secure ways to make a digital payment, or do you primarily accept checks in the mail or credit card information over the phone?

Making it difficult or inconvenient to pay a bill, or using outdated technology (hello, checks!) is frustrating for your customers. These oversights create barriers between your customers and their ability to easily and consistently give you money. They are the primary causes of late payments, which leads to other issues: poor cash flow, slower growth, and an urgency to go out and find more revenue in all the wrong places.

Is this the payment experience you want your customers to have, or your business to suffer through?

There’s a better way—a payment technology solution specifically designed for MSPs that’s efficient, convenient and transparent, and makes your customers happier.

ConnectBooster transforms your outdated payment process and makes it convenient for your customers to pay on time. Its white-label portal, branded to your MSP, enhances your professional image while giving your customers a more sophisticated and immediate way to pay their bill no matter when your business is open.

Your customers will appreciate 24/7 access to your payment portal through ConnectBooster where they can manage their own payment preferences, add, change and securely storing payment methods, schedule and manage monthly autopay, and view their entire itemized invoices and payments history. This is the level of ease and transparency your customers expect from a technology solutions provider.

Offering your customers a 24/7 payment portal and transparent online view of their invoices and payment history has several benefits. For starters, they won’t be able to make excuses regarding “missed” invoices. You’ll even be able to see when they opened an invoice. This on-demand portal brings transparency, security and convenience to your payment process.

ConnectBooster’s secure payment portal also automates dunning and eliminates awkward collections calls which means your conversations will remain focused on what matters: your services.

Best of all, the easier it is for your clients to pay you, the more likely it is that they’ll pay their bills on time.

The complete customer experience is more important than ever. Schedule a demo to see how ConnectBooster can increase your customers’ satisfaction and help you get paid on time.

“We consider it [ConnectBooster] to be a “must have” for any partner who accepts credit cards. We completely underestimated how much our customers would appreciate the convenience.” – Michael Creed, Mega-Byte Computer Services, LLC

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/l4pg8rgsqg.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/transparency-ease-convenience-24-7-payment-portal/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/25/transparency-ease-convenience-of-24-7-payment-portal/

Eliminate MSP Bookkeeping Double-Entry with Automatic Invoice Reconciliation

Every MSP owner and their accountant knows the struggle of variable billing and the collections process. Reconciling invoices with payments (or worse yet, partial payments!) is a time-consuming, continuous struggle. Even with the best-case scenario—MSP sends out a monthly physical invoice with a return envelope, client remits payment likely via check, MSP deposits the check, MSP manually matches the payment to an invoice in the CRM, MSP updates the invoice as “paid” in the accounting software—the effort it takes to get paid and reconcile invoices with accounting software and your MSP’s CRM or PSA is too much.

And that’s if every aspect of billing and collections goes right!

Partial payments or payments sent without an invoice number might require all-out guesswork. And if payments are overdue, additional time is spent sending reminders, dunning notices, and making collection calls. As your business scales, the time it takes to manually reconcile full and partial payments only increases to an unsustainable level. It’s no wonder most MSPs have an average outstanding accounts receivable well past 30 days.

MSPs get stuck in an endless game of “match the payment to the correct invoice in the accounting package.” But getting paid isn’t a game—it’s your livelihood. It shouldn’t be this hard.

Your billing and payments process will make or break your business. Having a time-intensive, manual system for collections is not just an expensive and time-consuming burden, it also puts you at risk for human errors and billing problems down the road that may damage customer relationships.

You need automatic invoice reconciliation.

With ConnectBooster, you can stop playing a losing reconciliation game. ConnectBooster connects your CRM with your accounting software so you save time on bookkeeping, eliminate double-data entry, and reduce human-error. You can reclaim your time and let ConnectBooster automatically match and reconcile invoices upon receipt of payment.

After adopting ConnectBooster, most MSPs report saving 8-20 hours per month previously spent on manual billing-related tasks. Schedule a ConnectBooster demo to see how your MSP can save time and resources with automatic accounting reconciliation. Your bookkeeper will thank you!

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/itg4p3rjmc.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/automatic-invoice-reconciliation-eliminate-double-entry/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/19/eliminate-msp-bookkeeping-double-entry-with-automatic-invoice-reconciliation/

Take Co-Managed IT to the Masses, Not Just the Enterprise

Technology is more complex and more critical than ever before. After two years of dealing with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, including the rapid mass deployment of WFH solutions amidst massive supply chain issues, most business owners have a much higher appreciation of their IT resources. Consequently, the value of the people and companies that deliver innovation and support critical IT infrastructure will be significantly greater in 2022.

What does that mean for MSPs? First of all, some clients known for throwing out pricing and other objections may be complaining a little less today. Many companies are seeing their MSPs in a new light—as real partners in their success. Sales are growing at significantly higher rates than before the pandemic as cybersecurity and inflationary concerns cause businesses to rethink their technological investments. Protection and efficiency are no longer “buzz words” for your clients.

The increasing value of skilled managed services providers makes now the perfect time to assess your business strategies. Despite all the past challenges, industry experts expect MSPs will be in an even better position to increase their revenue streams in a post-pandemic world. Building new plans to increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR) will drive the cash flow your company needs to fund additional expansion.

Increasing “wallet share” with your current clients is one logical step. Adding new technologies and tools that boost their efficiencies and capabilities or supplement existing cybersecurity protection create a “win-win” situation for all parties. These services provide incremental revenue streams for your MSP while strengthening and better securing your clients’ infrastructures and businesses.

Take the Next Step in IT Support

While the SMB is the standard target for most MSPs, the advancing technical needs of organizations are creating many new market opportunities. Larger organizations are going through the same WFH/hybrid workspace challenges as their smaller counterparts and struggling to support a growing number of remote workers. Combined with hiring difficulties and many in-house IT team members’ lack of experience working outside the corporate firewall, it presents an entirely new opportunity for MSPs.

Dealing with all the issues that arise when making extreme workforce transitions can tax any business. Now add in the ongoing support and cybersecurity requirements, and it’s easy to see why many companies in the mid-size to enterprise space could benefit from teaming up with an MSP in a co-managed IT experience.

Freeing corporate IT teams to focus on the corporate network and systems and handle any onsite technology needs and handing offsite work to capable IT services firms optimizes mutual skillsets. MSPs could also augment cybersecurity and deliver 24/7 operational support. Many larger organizations can benefit from working with outside IT professionals, whether filling gaps with the client’s existing resources or providing new or specialized services and support.

Of course, those are not the only areas where MSPs can deliver value in a co-managed IT relationship. The slate is clear when pitching prospects with in-house IT teams, so it’s important to evaluate options and pitch creative and flexible proposals. Creating doubt in the status quo and getting sales prospects to consider new ideas are top priorities for your sales team. Can you easily and cost-effectively tailor support programs to meet that organization’s specific needs?

With certain tech specializations, such as expertise in advanced cybersecurity, O365 applications, or POS (Point of Sale) and payment technologies, MSPs will find it easier to leverage those skills to open new doors. Those “ins” allow providers to build and strengthen relationships with decision-makers and make it easier to discuss and explore additional current and future opportunities. Developing strong alliances with internal tech professionals and management teams is also essential for securing renewals and longer-term support contracts.

Co-management comes in many forms. From basic tech support in the off hours or when the internal tech team needs time off to a full-blown collaboration in many areas of the IT ecosystem, MSPs can carve their own space when and wherever businesses express a need. Cybersecurity is one of those high-value opportunities.

Pick a Starting Lane

With a strong combination of internal and external technical expertise, MSPs can help even the largest companies fortify their defensive strategies and meet increasingly demanding compliance requirements. A wide skillset and extensive cybersecurity resources are needed to protect today’s corporate infrastructure, including the WFH and hybrid workforce environment. With all the new and unique challenges of the past two-plus years, business leaders find themselves looking for solutions to address these different problems.

Co-managed cybersecurity creates a win-win in these environments—from the ever-increasing regulations and compliance requirements to the continually escalating threat of cybercrime. From the SMB to the largest enterprise, organizations without the right mix and depth of tech resources can benefit from working with an MSP today. With access to a diverse and highly skilled team of tech professionals, they can better support and protect their people, infrastructure, and reputations.

Co-managed opportunities are everywhere. With the bandwidth to support and augment internal IT teams, MSPs can increase their recurring revenue streams, cash flow, and profitability while sharpening their teams’ skillsets.

ConnectBooster is committed to payment processing for MSPs, with industry-leading payment security to bolster and complement existing cybersecurity efforts. Whether enabling your company to accept clients’ payments or giving you the ability to extend similar capabilities to those customers’ businesses and grow your MRR, our team can make it happen.

Are you ready to take advantage of all the opportunities associated with payment processing for MSPs? Contact us. We can’t wait to help you get started.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/co-managed-it-for-masses-not-just-enterprise/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/17/take-co-managed-it-to-the-masses-not-just-the-enterprise/

Automated Dunning Notices Free MSPs From their Least Favorite Chore

If you’re like most MSPs, simply sending your customer their monthly invoice for your services rendered and calling it a day isn’t enough to get paid what you’re owed. Most customers need payment reminders. And when accounts become inevitably overdue, so begins the dreaded dunning notices.

Most assuredly, you send invoices to your customers on time, and then spend after-hours and weekends sending dunning notices when you’d rather take much needed time away with your family and friends. You probably even make awkward collections calls and send follow-up emails, always careful to toe the line between good customer service and asking for what’s owed. You feel exhausted from continuously working in the business rather than growing the business and stressed about your complete lack of control over when customers will finally pay.

It doesn’t take long before you hear every excuse:

“I didn’t get an invoice.” “I lost the invoice.” “Payment is tied up in the billing department.” “The check’s on the way!” (but it isn’t)

All the while, your MSP’s outstanding A/R continues to creep up. In the best-case scenario, situations like this keep MSPs trapped in their own status quo and unable to afford additional tools, resources or staff to scale. In the worst cases, owners anxiously choose between making payroll and missing a mortgage payment, simply because they aren’t getting paid what they’re owed for services that have already been delivered.

No one enjoys requesting overdue payment. As a result, these calls and emails are often pushed to the bottom of the list. Some MSPs intentionally shy away from sending payment reminders out of fear of aggravating customers and losing business. The reality is when payments become overdue, manual intervention is required. Fortunately, there is an easier way.

With ConnectBooster, you can configure dunning notifications to automatically send if a customer is behind on payments. These can be specified to send according to any timeframe. For example, set ConnectBooster to send payment reminders at 15 days and again at 30, then dunning notices can be triggered at 30, 40 and 50+ days past due. With a few clicks, you can even exclude specific, special customers that you do not want to receive notifications. Dunning is highly sensitive; with ConnectBooster you configure the timing and craft a friendly and polite message, and the software handles the automation.

Each automated notice from ConnectBooster includes a “Pay Now” option that links to a secure payment vault, so it’s easier than ever for your customers to make payments around the clock. Best yet, when owners and bookkeepers are relieved from keeping an eye on payment deadlines and spending time and mental energy continually asking for payment, time is freed up to take care of other more pressing tasks in daily business.

“ConnectBooster was the best business choice we’ve made in years. It completely changed our receivables. We no longer spend time tracking down people for their late payments. It saves so much time doing our least favorite job of calling people that owe us money. We can spend our time doing other more productive work. Highly recommended.” – Howie Brounstein

Aren’t you sick of chasing down payments? With ConnectBooster, you can finally stop doing your least favorite chore once and for all, and instead use your time to grow your bottom line.

Request a demo to see automatic dunning and ConnectBooster’s other features in action.

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/pdvcchiwqy.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/automated-dunning-free-msps-least-favorite-chore/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/12/automated-dunning-notices-free-msps-from-their-least-favorite-chore/

Zero-touch AutoPay for Fluctuating Monthly Bills is Your MSP’s new BFF

Most MSP owners started their businesses because they saw opportunities to use their knowledge and skills to provide solutions to help their customers. With the average outstanding accounts receivable for most MSPs well past 30 days, owners didn’t anticipate becoming fulltime collections agencies, too.

Collecting payment on variable billing each month consumes a lot of human effort—separately updating your CRM or PSA and accounting package, sending invoices and reminders, and making follow-up phone calls to customers—all while toeing the line between providing customer service and asking for what’s owed. When payments are manual, it’s more likely they’ll be late and burdensome to collect. How many hours of manual labor does your MSP spend each month attempting to collect payment?

As the business grows, and the MSP’s own bills pile up, the effort required to get paid becomes unsustainable, especially when collecting and reconciling payments takes time away from growth opportunities within the business. When customers are slow to pay, cash flow is inconsistent, and revenue is trapped in A/R. You can’t scale your business with A/R; you need money in the bank.

Too many MSPs resign themselves to late and arduous payments as “just the way it is.” They presume the nature of variable monthly billing agreements make it impossible to set-up truly zero-touch autopay.

With ConnectBooster, billing and collections is no longer a time-consuming chore. Thanks to dynamic autopay and two-way data syncing with tools you already use, even varying monthly agreements require virtually no effort to get paid.

ConnectBooster automatically collects the exact dollar amount generated by your CRM/PSA’s invoice from your customer’s securely stored ACH or credit card, and then updates the correct data in your accounting package.

For example, when you document in your PSA that your client added three new employees this month, ConnectBooster intelligently and automatically pulls the correct amount from your customer based on the fluctuating terms on your contract. With no extra effort, you get paid on time, every time.

Meanwhile, your customers will feel confident they’re only paying for what’s owed through complete line-item transparency in the payment portal (which can be branded to your business). The portal gives your customers control while promoting on-time payments. Your customers can add, change and securely store payment methods, schedule and manage monthly autopay, and view their itemized invoices and payments history. When you integrate ConnectBooster with your tools, you enable your customers to pay your monthly bill in the same way they pay their phone bill—set it and forget it.

ConnectBooster’s zero-touch autopay could be your new best friend so you can spend less time on collections and more time growing your business.

Schedule a demo to see how zero-touch autopay with ConnectBooster could help your MSP get paid on time, every time.

https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/3x2ssn4491.jsonphttps://fast.wistia.com/assets/external/E-v1.js

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/msp-zero-touch-autopay-fluctuating-monthly-bills/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/05/zero-touch-autopay-for-fluctuating-monthly-bills-is-your-msps-new-bff/

The Value of MSP Documentation Tools

The most successful managed services providers are masters of chaos. Those tech professionals bring order to the confusion for their clients in the form of the latest solutions while managing a multitude of people, processes, compliance requirements, files and documents behind the scenes. While savvy MSPs leverage automation tools and integrations with key management systems to speed up processes and improve efficiency, the astronomical number of tasks and information under their control would astound those in other industries. The work is much more difficult and costly without solutions like MSP documentation tools.

Less is definitely more in IT services operations. Therefore, two of the most important goals for providers include lessening the complexity and, whenever possible, eliminating the human element. Operational efficiency and structure, including documentation, allow MSPs to work faster and scale their businesses more effectively with fewer resources. Those capabilities help boost margins and make it easier to attract clients and investors, especially for those looking at M&A opportunities or designing short-term exit strategies.

When employees are forced to use multiple systems and siloed information to perform their jobs, it lessens the time available to work with their clients, heightens anxiety and often leads to more keying errors and other mistakes. Partner management portals and centralization can alleviate many of those concerns, as can integrations and automation tools. The most productive MSPs provide their employees with better and more intuitive controls while eliminating as many manual tasks as possible. Those changes make it easier to scale the operations, deliver better and more consistent client support, and retain every company’s most valuable assets—its employees.

The proven “tools of the trade” allow MSPs to successfully mature, providing more oversight and reporting capabilities, and making it easier for owners to sell their businesses. An established operation with properly optimized and authenticated processes and contracts is worth significantly more to a potential buyer than a poorly run organization with few, if any controls.

MSP documentation give managers more leverage. Whether proving the value of their business during M&A discussions or highlighting problem areas and solutions, these systems allow IT services firms to attain a higher level of operational maturity.

Target Easy Access and Control

MSPs need fast and easy access to more tools than ever before, including those that run their operations, as well as every managed client and computer. From business and vertical market-specific applications to professional services automation platforms (PSAs) and remote management and monitoring (RMM) solutions, juggling all the credentials and login procedures can be quite a chore.

IT documentation applications simplify that process. They collect and provide secure access to vital information across the IT ecosystems and help manage all of an MSP’s contacts and assets, all from one central repository. Authorized personnel can review client notes, service tickets, and system performance data and access password vaults for various customers. Documentation platforms provide a cost-effective and intuitive management system for modern-day IT services firms.

One of the most valued features of these applications is a flexible and easily navigable integrated dashboard that provides users with instant access to their specific tools and information. These secure and adaptable tools empower individual employees with the things they need to successfully complete all the various aspects of their jobs. No more and no less.

Documentation Power in the Pieces

Every business owner likes leverage. The exponential power MSPs (and their employees) gain from IT documentation platforms lets them focus more time and effort on existing and prospective clients, training, and operational improvements. The collective controls of the various features increase the capabilities of individual workers and the entire team. The core elements of an IT documentation platform include:

Knowledgebase – this is the crux of an IT documentation system. Instantaneous access to all the articles and documents available within an MSP’s ecosystem, including all information related to clients’ IT environments, is invaluable. An easily searchable knowledgebase simplifies system management and makes it easier to address potential problems.

Central dashboard – this feature provides each employee with a personalized view of their business applications, contacts, lists, credentials, activities, and other job-critical information. Users can organize actions and details by dates, priority, or other important factors.

Configuration manager – manually entering details of each new device set-up can be a time-consuming and error-prone activity. IT documentation platforms can use templates to enter and update configurations and prevent unauthorized individuals (including users) from making changes.

Integration portal – MSP-focused IT documentation platforms should offer extensive integration options, allowing providers to connect and automate a variety of business-critical applications. For example, PSA and RMM integrations let providers quickly and seamlessly access client service tickets and account information and respond to support requests more effectively.

Asset management – knowing the location and status of IT equipment is critical for MSPs and the businesses they support. A valued IT documentation platform should track wireless and network devices, virtualization hardware, server components and other IT and non-technical resources.

Standard and customizable templates − each organization has different processes, requirements, and solutions mixes. An effective IT documentation platform will include both pre-designed and flexible templates so MSPs can accurately document configurations for each client.

Secure data backup – business continuity begins and ends with information control. MSPs must have sound and highly secure backups for each client and their own businesses, and a good IT documentation platform will provide administrators with that level of control. According to Statista, more than 55% of U.S.-based organizations store data in the cloud, and most of that information contains sensitive material. Preventing outside parties from accessing that information should be a top priority for MSPs.

Password management – MSPs hold the literal “keys to the kingdom,” with credentials providing access to all their clients’ systems, networks and everything in between. A secure password vault protects those lists and helps monitor and manage updates and changes.

A Cost-Effective Way to Improve Operational Efficiency

Improvement typically comes at a price. For MSPs, technology is generally a cost-effective investment, especially when the solutions increase productivity, sales, customer satisfaction and retention. IT documentation platforms deliver a good ROI for channel partners, especially considering how many different areas of an IT business and processes they optimize and strengthen. From the back-office operations and support teams to ensure the protection of client environments, these applications support virtually every business objective of MSPs.

Managed services is a competitive endeavor, and any solution that can give providers an edge over their peers should receive close attention and a full evaluation. IT documentation platforms like IT Glue, NinjaOne, PandaDoc, and N-able Passportal (and several others) help bring order to that chaos, especially when MSPs leverage integrations with other valuable business tools, including ConnectBooster. Interlinking these platforms creates an automated network that can share new information and update data across the IT ecosystem with little if any, manual intervention.

Best of all, the documentation MSPs need to manage both their clients’ and internal business systems effectively remains secure from unauthorized personnel and cybercriminals. Building and maintaining a successful IT services firm is never easy. Still, by leveraging the power of automation and the top tools of the trade (including integrations), that job is a lot less complicated and stressful.

Greater efficiency is critical for MSPs to remain competitive with their peers, and can propel profitability. ConnectBooster is the payment solution that thousands of MSPs trust for greater billing and collections efficiencies. Schedule a demo to see how ConnectBooster can simplify your processes and optimize cash flow.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/value-msp-documentation-tools/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/the-value-of-msp-documentation-tools/

Seven MSP Sales Techniques to Speed Up the Closing Process

Continual growth in monthly recurring revenue and cash flow should be a primary focus for every IT services business owner. Each forward movement helps boost the company’s financial position and more than offsets any anticipated losses due to client churn or seat reductions. Increasing the amount of MRR in new contracts and renewals help turn those aspirations into reality.

Close rates are critical. Moving prospects from lead to a signed contract in the least amount of time is not just a sign of sales success and efficiency, but it demonstrates your MSP’s financial strength. Boosting the speed and rate of closes increases profitability. Sales-related expenses are typically smaller, while MSPs can convert projected revenue for those accounts more quickly into bank deposits. That money, in turn, can pay for hiring new techs and expanding sales and marketing activities, fueling even greater growth for the business.

What better way to fund the rapid expansion of your MSP than with your own money? No interest fees, closing costs, or paperwork. Accelerating the lead-to-close-to-cash cycle gives you more financial freedom and rapidly increases the value of your business to prospective buyers or investors.

How can MSPs speed up their sales closing process to realize those benefits? Like any worthwhile business improvement project, you start with a plan.

Continually Revise Your Methods

Process efficiency is key in today’s competitive environment, and IT services companies need to be at the top of their game. Converting marketing efforts into leads for the sales team are just the initial steps. Every MSP should have a playbook or list of potential activities for transforming prospects into new clients, a well-honed system with proper oversight that the team periodically reviews and updates.

Think of your sales processes as an engine. Frequent adjustments help optimize performance and efficiency, and with a little tinkering and ingenuity, you can usually coax even more horsepower and speed from virtually any machine. Modifications to your sales playbook can have a similar effect.

Transforming leads to new clients is a “tunable” process, and MSPs must work continually to simplify, enhance, and speed up those activities to optimize sales closing rates. Not all of those changes may be easy, but persistent improvements can strengthen MRR, grow new revenue streams, and help fund expansion plans.

Here are a few best practices for “speeding up” the closing process for your managed services business:

Identify the issues and opportunities.

Conduct a quick but thorough evaluation of each potential client’s IT environment, business objectives, and compliance requirements. Your sales team can quickly and effectively assemble preliminary plans and value-driven proposals to move the conversations (and relationships) forward with that information in hand.

Focus on key decision-makers.

Every MSP needs a customer relationship management (CRM) tool today. From the initial lead to the final signature, your team should be collecting names, titles, and responsibilities, as well as personality traits and personal details. Collect information that will allow the sales team to build bonds with decision-makers, which, in turn, can help build trust and speed up the closing process.

Know your competitors

Spend time learning about the other MSPs and IT services providers in your area. Study their portfolios and messaging and identify pricing and any possible advantages. That will be useful when conveying your firm’s differentiators and discussing potential solutions with prospects. This will allow your team to more readily focus on key benefits and improve the odds of landing their business.

Quickly recognize and address concerns.

The “dance” is one of the most time-consuming parts of the sales process. Identifying real and perceived objections can be a slow and painful progression for both MSPs and prospective clients. A solid sales playbook can help with questions and ideas for eliciting feedback and gaining buy-in on specific technology or business concerns. Proactively develop thoughtful responses to possible objections. Employing trial closes and an automated proposal system can also help MSPs identify objections and gain contract approvals much faster.

Control your message.

Beginning with the initial assessment, MSPs must carefully meld their talking points to match their clients’ needs with the available portfolio of services. You may need to pitch new offerings to address specific requirements since the ultimate goal is to best support that business, including its operations, employees, customers, and long-term objectives. If the sales team can align messaging to address their pain points and aspirations, closing the deal will typically take less time.

Leverage sales tools.

Automation helps MSPs thrive. The sales process is no exception, with various management tools available to help you better manage the chaos from lead generation to the close. PSAs and RMMs help your team manage the day-to-day operations, and connections with accounting and quoting applications eliminate many manual tasks. Automation helps MSPs speed up their sales processes while maximizing MRR and cash flow opportunities from each lead.

Train!

Many small business owners hire experienced sales professionals and only offer a basic education on products and services before setting them loose. MSPs must continually nurture and train all their team members, especially those who play a critical role in driving revenue and cash flow. Investments in third-party training and coaching programs, in addition to a well-rounded understanding of the value of your products and services, can positively impact the speed of your sales process.

Track Your Team’s Performance

MSPs have a lot of sales tools at their disposal. From CRMs and lead generation applications to PSAs and other management systems, it’s easier than ever to automate the processes and monitor almost every step of your operations. Generating reports on those activities can be just as simple.

Setting and monitoring the speed and rate of sales closes allows you to assess and improve the process. You can experiment with training programs and new tools and adjust and streamline procedures to gauge the impact of each on the sales team. Performance may be measured using many variables; however, the most impactful numbers typically involve your bottom line. Faster closing rates mean nothing if MRR, per deal revenue, margins and cash flow don’t also move in a positive direction.

Orchestration and oversight are crucial to your success. Monitoring the impact of each change in sales tactics through financial reviews and employee discussions can simplify the decision-making process, giving you an easier way to differentiate the good options from the bad.

Getting more sales should always be better. Just be sure not to compromise pricing or contract duration to get a quicker signature on a new contract. The obvious goal of sales is to close deals, but it’s also about providing value. With a fine-tuned sales process in place driven by value, expedited close rates should follow.

Revenue is the fruit of faster close rates and increased sales. Real revenue is found in an MSP’s bank account, not in accounts receivable. Further set up your MSP for success by communicating clear payment expectations and collecting with ConnectBooster—an automated variable billing and collections tool that saves MSPs time and effort. Request a demo to see how ConnectBooster can help you achieve effortless cash flow from your newly closed deals.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/seven-msp-sales-techniques-speed-closing/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/02/11/seven-msp-sales-techniques-to-speed-up-the-closing-process/

Guide to Selling Managed Services to New Verticals

Creating a Specialized MSP Practice Can Be a Long, Yet Profitable Journey

In any sport, the best players are the true masters of the game. They dedicate their hearts, minds and bodies, building up the right muscles and skills through specific exercises and endless practice sessions. Success typically comes to those who put in the work and sweat the details.

It takes a similar mindset to build a new IT services specialization. MSPs must devote a significant amount of time and energy learning workflows, regulations, common IT requirements and the key priorities of various players before joining the conversation with business owners in any prospective target markets. Your team must appear credible in these discussions. MSPs have to earn the right to implement and manage technologies for clients in different verticals, acquiring the knowledge, business expertise and terminology to go toe-to-toe with peers already supporting these communities. Most of all, you must deliver the performance and results those companies need to accomplish their own short-and long-term objectives.

Like any new business endeavor, building a new specialized MSP practice requires a good plan and even better execution. Identifying and exploring the best market opportunities are just the initial steps.

Select the Best Vertical for Your Managed Services Business

In the past, many industry sales consultants told MSPs to focus on the “low-hanging fruit,” meaning the easiest or fastest ways to close prospects. However, simple and quick doesn’t always drive profits. When looking at new markets, a better course of action is to create a standard (or ideal) client profile. That gives the management team a baseline for assessing the different attributes for each prospective vertical, including the number and types of devices to manage, profit potential, systems complexity, and support requirements. This forethought could save an MSP from taking on clients that could lower their average margins and increase their management costs and headaches.

Most managed services firms focus their expansion efforts on complementary verticals and industries with more local players. That approach reduces the investment requirements for sales, marketing and training programs and typically lessens the time to ramp up a new practice. Selecting a specialization that complements or closely aligns with an MSP’s current business model, when that option is available, carries less risk than venturing into a completely different vertical.

For example, IT services firms with strong medical support practices may wish to explore business opportunities in the dental, chiropractic, and optical fields. With similar workflows, compliance requirements, and “vocabulary,” the learning curve should be shorter, and investments will likely be minimal.

Retail-focused consultants could investigate opportunities with companies with similar business operations, including restaurants, hotels, and a variety of hospitality-related businesses. Their Point of Sale (POS) and payment technologies expertise, along with experience developing and supporting customer relationship strengthening solutions, could readily transfer to those other complementary verticals. The more common the technologies, business processes, and consumers, the less heavy lifting it will require for an MSP to enter that market.

What are the best verticals for selling managed services? Most MSPs start with broader categories, such as SMBs, and build a niche, and then, after establishing a beachhead and enjoying success, they expand into the next closest specializations. Here are a few of the many industries where IT services firms have the greatest success:

Construction

Health care

Legal

Banking/finance

Education

Local/state government

Hospitality

Real estate

Restaurants

Retail

After determining which sector offers the most opportunities, the real work begins—building and executing the business plan for a new vertical practice. The key elements of that strategy may seem daunting to an outsider, but experienced MSPs conduct some of these activities every day.

Speak the Language

How do you communicate your value to an unfamiliar audience? Selling and marketing to new verticals require a solid comprehension of their terminology, jargon, and pain points. MSPs must understand what motivates prospective clients and, most importantly, the decision-makers and know how to “connect all the dots” with clear and concise messaging. While the technology may speak for itself in many cases, IT sales teams can “lose the room” quickly by misusing the industry’s everyday acronyms and terminology.

While some may cringe when they hear, “you can’t walk the walk if you can’t talk the talk,” that phrase carries a lot of weight in the business community. MSPs earn respect and close more deals when they can effectively communicate with potential clients. The sales pitch must connect the types of service with the business requirements of each prospect.

To sell managed services to new verticals, you need to bring your entire team up to speed on the industry terms, acronyms and common phrases. Some MSPs acquire those language skills through research, industry-specific courses (i.e., a basic online course on opening a construction business), or by hiring an experienced sales professional or consultant in that particular field. Cutting corners on this step can quickly undermine your efforts at building trust in the chosen new vertical community. There is a real opportunity for MSPs with a dedicated sales pitch, solid technical background and knowledge of the industry.

Learn Workplace Nuances

Like the language subtlety concerns, MSPs must have a solid grasp of workflow and a good feel for the customer expectations in each market they serve. Before selling managed services in a new vertical, a common best practice is to spend time inside one or more prospective clients’ businesses or bring in someone with that expertise.

For example, you could hire or contract with a former CIO of a health care organization to manage the practice and educate your team on the nuances of various types of medical facilities. From front desk operations and billing to the flow of patients and the tasks performed by doctors and nurses, understanding the staff’s responsibilities is critical to selling managed services to these organizations.

Understand the Tech Needs

Which systems automate or help prospective clients manage their workflows? While most organizations employ the same base technologies, including email and office-enabling applications from Microsoft or Google, the line-of-business applications differentiate the verticals.

For example, when selling managed services to restaurants, MSPs should be able to skillfully implement and support POS and kitchen/order management solutions. Those clients would naturally expect and rely on your expertise at supporting these systems if signing a contract—though you could partner with others to deliver some if not all of those specialized services. To prevent misunderstandings later, MSPs must be careful not to misrepresent their capabilities or technical details when entering a new vertical. Can you support the specific cloud solution, security services, or infrastructure management programs that their current service provider employs? You may wish to avoid developing business relationships in industries with a complex list of needs and technical requirements.

Be true to new and current customers. The worst thing an MSP can do when selling managed services to a different clientele is to leave technology or support gaps or not be capable of addressing cybersecurity issues. IT firms with operational maturity that offer a wide array of tools, security solutions, cloud computing capabilities, industry expertise, and a solid services delivery model, will be in the best position to expand their customer base.

In today’s tech-savvy environment, where decision-makers have more IT-related insight than ever before, the worst thing your sales reps can do is fake their way through a conversation. Your team must have a firm grasp of the technologies needed to succeed in new vertical markets.

Generate Demand

Unlike the movie “Field of Dreams,” you have to do much more than build a new specialization to ensure its success. Prospects will only come if they know about your MSP’s expertise and ability to address a true need in their operations. Effectively telling the story of how your solution or expertise will help a new audience is essential, but first, you have to get their attention.

Start by leveraging your current customers and networks. Reach out and share the news of new vertical expertise with respected business professionals who can provide recommendations to potential customers. Create a referral program that incentivizes people in your network to make a simple introduction to targeted businesses’ key decision-makers, including previous clients. Whether that means offering a free cybersecurity assessment, a one-month 50% discount, a $250 gift card or another enticement, the goal is to encourage positive engagements between acquaintances.

Effective IT marketing activities (i.e., advertising, social media campaigns, newsletters) should also be part of the demand generation plan. An MSP that builds an effective sales funnel will engage prospective customers with their specific pain points through the stages of the buying journey: awareness, interest, decision, and action. Selling managed services to new verticals can energize your team, boost customer retention, and even increase your security business or other offerings.

Close the Deals!

No new IT services practice can succeed until it generates more revenue than expenses. Creating an effective sales process for each business unit is essential. For that point, the most important step when selling managed services to a new vertical is closing the first, second and all subsequent deals, creating strong cash flow to pay the bills and invest in future projects. It’s all about creating the best business outcome and client satisfaction.

Sales success is all about the links. The opportunity becomes real when you connect the dots between a prospective client’s potential issues and business objectives and your core and specialized services offerings. What your sales team does from that point will determine whether your new practice succeeds or fails.

If your MSP is ready to explore a new vertical, you’ll need cash flow to propel your efforts—to invest in marketing and acquire new tools, training or staff. ConnectBooster is trusted by thousands of MSPs to automate billing and collections to achieve effortless cash flow. Request a demo to see how ConnectBooster can help you convert outstanding accounts receivable into real revenue in the bank—all while saving time and money.

source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/selling-managed-services-new-verticals-guide/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/01/28/guide-to-selling-managed-services-to-new-verticals/

Nine KPIs that Can Raise (or Lower) Your MSP’s Value

Do you know what your IT services business is worth? That may seem like a loaded question, and the answer may vary based on a variety of factors, but relatively few MSPs can provide an accurate, instantaneous assessment of their firm’s true market value. Would you know the difference between a fair and low-ball price if someone made you an offer right now? The truth is, many business owners in…

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source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/nine-kpi-raise-or-lower-msp-value/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/01/13/nine-kpis-that-can-raise-or-lower-your-msps-value/

Boost your MSP’s Cash Flow in 2022 with ConnectBooster

The new year is a natural time to evaluate your business, take stock of challenges and opportunities, and develop a strategic roadmap for growth. As you review the previous year and make plans for the months ahead, make sure you set yourself up for success. Adding a new service, winning new clients or entering a new vertical may be key components of your strategic plan, but they likely require…

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source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/boost-msp-cash-flow-in-2022/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2022/01/06/boost-your-msps-cash-flow-in-2022-with-connectbooster/

Setting Up a Winning MSP Business Model in 2022

The managed services market is hot. Experts predict this segment of the IT industry to eclipse $350 billion by 2026—a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, according to MarketsandMarkets research. Demand is strong and, thanks to the growing technology needs of the SMB and SME and lack of skilled professionals, the opportunities for new MSPs should continue to escalate for many years.

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source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/winning-msp-business-model/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2021/12/30/setting-up-a-winning-msp-business-model-in-2022/

5 Hot Cybersecurity Trends for 2022

MSPs make their money on support. As hardware and software/cloud margins continue to decline, or at least no longer offer the promise of years past, IT services firms must differentiate and rely on new business opportunities to keep up the positive momentum. To keep and grow robust revenue streams, MSPs need to continually invest in their portfolios, building out and strengthening the services…

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source https://www.connectbooster.com/blog/2022-cybersecurity-trends/

source https://entrepreneurpodcast44227047.wordpress.com/2021/12/21/5-hot-cybersecurity-trends-for-2022/

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Selina A. Poynter