Big news in the MSP world today as well-known industry remote monitoring and management (RMM) player, N-Able, announced in a press release, that it is being acquired by SolarWinds for $120M.

It would appear, from the press release that SolarWinds is looking to enhance its already robust product line to gain more traction in the SMB MSP space, and increase its cloud customer foothold.

The acquisition is supposed to be completed by the end of the month, which brings into question how current customers will be transitioned and affected. According to reports, current N-Able CEO Gavin Garbutt will be retiring but will leave the rest of the staff to remain in their current positions.

All of this may have current customers concerned. With the number of RMM options in the MSP space, it is likely that other vendors will utilize the news to offer customers a reason to switch. Other high profile product acquisitions have seen customers flock to other services in the past, which would lead me to believe that we may see an exodus of current users moving to other providers.

The news makes sense now as N-Able has been very quiet over the last few months. At the beginning of the year N-Able announced huge worldwide growth in 2012, making the company even more attractive to the now known buyer.

With the transition it is also not known whether N-Able’s Global Partner Summit, set for October 23-25^th will still take place. For the time being it should be business as usual for the company, though I am sure the news will come with an increase in inquiries from current customers.

As we all know there are some customers that will just never be pleased. No matter what you do or how you treat them there will always be an issue. In some rare cases walking away from a customer is necessary, but firing a customer should always be the absolute last resort. There are a number of things that can be done to save a broken customer relationship before breaking up.

1. Never Apologize – I know this one sounds harsh but the reality and my philosophy is that apologies are overused. Just think about the amount of times you say or hear the word sorry in a given day. “I’m sorry” or “I apologize” should be saved for when someone dies or when you have really screwed up royally enough to make it sincere.
2. Take Action – People don’t want apologies they want to know you are taking action. We covered this in an earlier post but it goes hand in hand with creating loyalty.
3. Over Inform- You have only updated a customer too much when they tell you to stop, and if that is the case you are doing your job. By keeping customers informed you will make sure that they are aware of the situation and that they will be kept in the loop with any status change. Software tools make this easy, but it is just as important to communicate via phone as well.
4. Communications – Communications are probably the number one reason customers are unhappy or look to other services. Some might argue it is price but the reality is if you are in regular communication with your customers there is no reason for them to look elsewhere for services plus they will usually let you know if there is an issue with your price.
5. Make it About Them- Every conversation that you have with your customer should be about them. It is ok to have things in common with your customers and have mutual conversations, but be aware, when you dominate the conversation the focus is on you. Practice asking questions conversationally to master this technique. Asking questions immediately takes the focus off of you and puts it on the customer.

Turning an unhappy customer into a loyal customer is all about the relationship you have with them. The better the relationship you have with the customer the easier it will be to deal with issues as they arise. A lack of communication will always lead to an upset customer, so over communicating will definitely help.

Running and growing a business for SMB IT providers can be tough. It’s hard to know when to hire more people, how to keep them working, and how to keep a steady flow of revenue coming in. More and more vendors are introducing “done for you services.” These services allow MSP’s and IT companies to focus on selling, while the vendor handles all backend work, installation help, and billing. There are a number of reasons these done for you services are good for MSP’s.

If you haven’t noticed there has been a large number of vendors in the space moving to direct models. These companies are ultimately cutting out the middleman to seek out higher profits and revenues. This leaves MSP’s searching for new solutions and relationships. The done for you model is a happy medium for businesses. It can take a lot of the burden off of the MSP, allowing growth and higher revenues with minimal costs/overhead.

A number of industry experts agree that the future of the MSP or IT business is in service aggregation. This means that rather than labor intensive server installations and hardware projects, companies will become providers of a number of services. The list of products and solutions could be a stack from 50 products/vendors to 200 depending on the needs of the customer. The model tends to look a lot more like a general contractor, home, or pool builder. These companies aggregate many services, personnel, and contractors to reach an ultimate goal for the customer.

You can see how utilizing done for you services looks very much like the model just explained. In this model, the MSP maintains the relationship, designs solutions, manages vendors, and reaps the rewards. MSP’s are able to run their business very lean, as the priority becomes growing sales and consulting teams that are usually commissioned based. This makes for maximized profits for the business.

Got a stockpile of old computer, networking gear, components, and other gear taking up precious space in your office? If you are like most you probably do. Being it’s just about the end of spring, a little spring-cleaning might be in order, either that or an intervention. There are number of ways you can create opportunity while purging out of the accumulation of stuff.

1. Sell it – There are a number of ways to put a few extra bucks in your pocket. If you have a retail storefront create an old-fashioned sidewalk sale. This can increase visibility and drive traffic into your store.
2. List it – This goes along with sell it but specifically you can list your items for sale on sites such as craigslist or ebay. The key is to not ask too much, remember it was just sitting around collecting dust anyway.
3. Donate it- Schools; homeless centers, non-profits, and women’s shelters are all good candidates for a little community outreach. Donate a small amount of your time to setup a couple workstations and help your community at the same time.
4. Smash it- Nothing like a good ‘ole fashioned stress reliever for you and the team. A sledge hammer, gloves, and safety goggles are all that’s needed for some team bonding.
5. Leave it – Of course there is always this option, the one you have been doing for years, letting this pile grow, you know what you are.

It is safe to say that if you haven’t used that ISA Token Ring NIC by now you probably never will. You do know that there are shows about this hoarding issue right? Take some time and go through the pile. Make a few bucks, give it away, or throw it away, no matter what you will have a better workplace, happier employees, and you can finally no longer be a candidate for “Hoarders –Electronic Fanatics Edition.”

Most successful business owners and entrepreneurs got that way by working hard and taking lots of risks. “Sometimes you just have to go for it,” is a saying I have heard over the years from a number of these success stories. It seems to be true, as you hear the stories of how so many made their fortunes, rarely do you hear that it was all based on calculated moves, overanalyzing, or overthinking.

Far too often in the IT industry we are faced with owners that are less about taking risks and more about the latter. Though this may afford a moderate life financially and emotionally, it may never allow their business or themselves to reach their full potential.

Obviously we can’t just go for every idea we have, but the real point is we have to learn to listen to ideas and sometimes take some risks. Over the years I have had some good ideas and some not so great ideas. I have been lucky to have had bosses that were willing to listen, and sometimes take risks based on these ideas. It still gives me great satisfaction to know that some of these ideas have brought great success to companies I have worked for, and even spawned off brand new businesses.

As a business owner you may be surprised at how many of your employees have and are willing to provide great ideas for your business. It is easy to solicit these ideas from them by creating an open door policy and letting them know that you are open to ideas.

Though having ideas and listening to employee ideas is one thing, moving them forward is the step that most people have a hard time with. This is where most businesses miss out. Whether it is your employee or yourself, make sure to write down every idea you have. I use “notes” on my iPhone as I tend to have ideas all the time, in the most random places, and they sync to the cloud. It is always fun to go back and look at the ideas or share them with others.

When you have a great idea is when you must take the next step. Just go for it! When it feels right you should know and the worst that can usually happen is it fails. Find the most cost effective way to make it work. Challenge employees that have ideas and give them a very limited budget to make things happen. You may just be surprised at what people can do when they are passionate about something.

MSP’s and IT companies often find comfort in large vendor products and solutions. For some it is name recognition, while others it’s that happy feeling they get knowing the company has been in business for many years. Intel is one of those companies that gives you the warm and fuzzies every time they attend a channel event. Over the last few years they have been looking for a way to work directly with channel partners in the managed services arena.

Their first solution that I can recall that was directly marketed to MSP’s was a remote management integration with VPro technology, where they were marketing a number of partnerships to push VPro technology while signing up partners for monthly services such as LogMeIn. The overall goal was confusing and Intel pulled back their efforts to market it to the channel.

That is until the Intel Hybrid Cloud solution came along. The hybrid cloud, a Hardware as a Service, server based solution that integrated the best of a monthly service model with a host of cloud based applications had a lot of promise early on. Having worked with a company that developed white box servers for the platform and being a part of early negotiations, I had a lot of experience with the concept.

The timing for the solution was definitely right. With cloud solutions being a big part of conversations amongst IT companies and MSP’s, and with the as a service model already having taken hold, the mix of something that was oh so familiar, the server, and the cloud was a match made in heaven. So what went wrong?

Intel announced through a letter to partners that they are discontinuing the Intel Hybrid Cloud solution and the AppUp service, essentially leaving partners out to dry, with MSP’s left to face customers alone without any recourse.  This swift and abrupt termination would seem to be a usual approach for large vendors, who can often times seem heartless in the face of such partner difficulties.

Intel has cited slow growth and adoption as the reason the service was discounted. In my opinion it was an issue of legalities, licensing, pricing, marketing, and slow growth/adoption that lead to its demise. It seemed that Intel couldn’t figure out if they were a hardware company, a software company, a cloud services distributor, or a bill collector when it came to the hybrid solution. Multiple hardware vendors created servers, all with different pricing and specifications and their own process for billing, shipping, receiving, and hardware support. AppUp services weren’t much different and the MSP was left to figure out who to contact for installation, support, or questions.

I wish I could say I hadn’t seen the writing on the wall, but the bigger surprise for me was that this hadn’t been announced sooner. I do feel for the partners who must scramble to provide new solutions and potentially lose customers over a vendor’s decision. But take this as a lesson that large vendors are not always as reliable as expected and can pull the plug at any time on a solution with no remorse.

As more and more software manufacturers and Line of Business application vendors move to software as a service models, the need for on-premise servers would seem to become less necessary.

As an IT salesman for many years, the number one sale I made was for networked servers. This single device allowed offices to share files, collaborate, centralize their email, and work more efficiently. The server was also the entryway to a vast array of services our company could provide, with managed services as the go to option for taking care of the server hardware and small business employees.

The server has been losing a lot of traction in the current SMB environment. Microsoft has discontinued its very popular SBS (small business server) solution essentially spelling out the future for IT companies and small businesses.

Of course the answer to all of this for vendors has been to create and provide cloud solutions for the IT channel and customers. In the SMB environment the biggest needs for a server was usually attributed to the requirement of email and calendaring, as well as business specific applications.

Hosted Exchange has provided a platform in which a server is no longer necessary for business centric communications, this allows businesses to collaborate without having to make large investments in software licensing, shrink or grow staff as necessary, and access information across multiple types of devices from anywhere.

This provides a huge advantage for small businesses where every dollar counts. As for Line of Business applications, vendors are becoming increasingly aware of the demand to provide solutions, which include software, maintenance, and updates in a single monthly priced solution.

LOB’s can be the number one reason that users must continue to maintain a server, but the numbers are dwindling. The second reason that customers continue to hold on to server environments is based on bandwidth. In discussions with IT providers, especially outside of major cities, the public and private infrastructures can be a hindrance for moving SMB customers to cloud solutions.

Most other server functions have also been replicated in cloud services. Whether this is file sharing, business management, accounting, security, or even voice solutions, the cloud is providing an easy alternative to traditional technologies.

For IT providers, the expectation should be to have a solution for any need. It is now less about a cookie cutter approach and more about bringing together a host of solutions that will provide the customer with the right tools for their specific business. This may include traditional components such as servers alongside cloud services and mobile solutions

It should be no surprise that there are two ways new customers are likely to reach out to you. This will be in the form of an email, or in the form of a telephone call. It may however be a surprise that the latter, a telephone call is still very much a popular means for people to gather information especially when they are looking to setup an appointment, need service, or have an immediate need.

Getting an actual human on the phone is becoming more difficult as MSP’s and IT companies have increased their use of technology and automation in their businesses. This automation however, though implemented to save businesses money, may be having an opposite affect in driving away potential new customers.

Most companies will argue that the majority of calls on any given day come from solicitors, and this may very well be true. As a business owner it may not be worth your time and effort to have to take calls and deal with people, solicitors, vendors, etc. This is OK but if it isn’t you, someone needs to be put in place to answer the phone.

The reason is simple. You spend money on marketing, to get new leads, and ultimately new customers. If a customer wants your service and they cannot reach you they will go somewhere else. That is it! You may never know that your marketing actually worked. This goes for email as well. If someone actually fills out the “super annoying” contact us form, that most MSP and IT companies use on their website, you better be sure to email or better yet call them back.

When it comes to vendors the one thing vendors tend to hear the most from partners is that they “don’t reach out enough” or “aren’t kept in the loop of new products and services. “ Many vendors have implemented programs to address this concern. Often times they create active social media environments, regular blogs, and even personal calls to keep the information flowing.

For vendors it can be very discouraging to rarely get a call back or even get someone on the phone in the first place. Our company recently held a free four-hour live workshop training for businesses. The information was well planned and thought out and provided a great value add for partners and the community. The only thing we asked of attendees was to provide feedback when we called to ask their opinion of the event.

After ten calls, and only one person who had answered their phone, my discouragement became concern. With only two ways for people to communicate with businesses, and one of those ways yielding almost no results, what is the likelihood that potential customers are facing the same issue? I would think pretty high.

If new business is important, man your phones. Your current customers will be happier and new customers may very well become clients. Don’t let marketing dollars or worse yet a potential customer go down the drain because of a missed call. Answer your phone!

So there’s this thing that has gone around in sales training for some time that condemns the use of the phrase “to be honest with you” and boldly accuses anyone of using that phrase as being a liar. This has been a tough notion for me to swallow given that in so many conversations, the phrase is used.

You see, I just don’t think everyone is lying when they use this. The phrase itself tends to be filler when talking, and is used kind of like um or uh. Usually these fillers are used to put together thoughts or reactively speak. Filler words or phrases are hard habits for salespeople to break and often times the person using them doesn’t even realize that they are.

Filler or reactive words are often brought on by objections or questions from customers. Immediately reacting or trying to answer a question can easily get you into verbal trouble and make you seem less honest. It is always best when answering a question or objection, to take a short pause, think about the question, and answer to your best ability. This gives you time to formulate a thought and provide a concise and well-executed answer.

This is why in sales it is also imperative to not only practice your presentation skills, but to also record yourself in role playing situations. Words like um and uh, and phrases like “to be honest with you,” become very apparent under your own scrutiny. You may be surprised at how many of these fillers you use in any given conversation.

The key to fixing these verbal flaws is to be aware. Once you are aware of the words you use, you can consciously make an effort to minimize their use. As for “to be honest,” I still find myself using this from time to time and I am always immediately aware when someone else uses it on me. The thing is, it doesn’t lead to me to believe that the person is lying, and to be honest, it just doesn’t bother me…

Canned or automatically generated responses are one of the most common ways that businesses introduce automation into their process. For customers this practice has become expected, however it can also lead to frustration.

A canned response can be described as a general response that is sent out based on an action. One of the most common examples is an email out of office notification. This customized and pre-set response is sent to anyone that emails a person letting him or her know that the person is out of the office. This is a great use of a canned response and provides people with useful information.

Some other good places to apply canned responses are notifications. For instance letting a customer know that a message, an order, or a ticket has been received and is in process is a welcome way to reassure and provide pertinent information.

There are also bad uses for canned responses, and this practice is more common than you may expect. Many companies employ canned responses for everything. Amazon for example seems to be really bad at this. A recent transaction I had with them where I was trading in a cell phone speaks to just this point. They rejected the trade-in sending a canned response that read no more than “Not Resaleable.” After having waited 2 weeks with shipping and internal processing of the unit, this is all the information I get?

Companies that provide support often fall into this practice as well. Understandably it saves time for employees to copy and send a canned response, but often times it can lead customers to frustration or additional questions. This is where canned responses could be potentially bad for a business. If the canned response is going to lead to a call or additional tickets, the canned response has just increased the cost of support.

The best way to evaluate if a canned response is the right way to respond is to ask yourself if you would be ok with the response, or if it would be acceptable to you. In the example I provided above from Amazon, had the person creating the notification asked himself or herself these questions, the response may have been very different. By sending “Not Resaleable” it immediately led me to question everything and pick up the phone to call them leading to additional cost for the company. Instead had the notes of their findings been sent, I might have been more inclined to understand and accept the decision.