This Multi-Million Dollar MSP Tackles Success From 3 Angles
Success is a difficult thing to define, and in all honesty, it’s a joke when someone tries to tell you if you’re successful or not. Success is individual. It’s personal. And it’s subjective. In other words, it is what you say it is.
Therefore, the intent of this blog is not to tell you how to make your MSP more successful – because only you know what that means. Rather, we want to give you a few insider suggestions from an MSP who has fully achieved their interpretation of success.
Let’s take this from three separate angles.
Operations
With a little less than 40 employees, ARRC Technology is situated in the middle of Bakersfield – a city known for Merle Haggard, air pollution, and oil. In 2011, Forbes listed Bakersfield as the 20th most miserable city. In 2015, Time listed Bakersfield as the 3rd most polluted city. And in 2013, Men’s Health magazine listed Bakersfield as the drunkest city in America. At least they win at something, right?
Despite everything Bakersfield doesn’t have going for them, ARRC Technology has somehow managed to stay in business for nearly three decades and become a multi-million dollar company in the process. And according to its COO, Shane Swanson, this feat has a lot do with how they run their business.
“Everything starts and stops with the four Ps – People, Process, Productivity, and Planning. Without the proper alignment of these four critical components, you will have no foundation for growth, no stability, and no feasible way to measure anything.”
Swanson says it’s incredibly important to invest in the right people and to consider creating roadmaps for all new hires. As far as everything else goes, the more you can automate, the better off you’ll be. Build a flowchart and section it off by people, automation, and process action. Play with your processes and adjust your workflow until you’ve managed to push most of the flowchart into automation. After you accomplish this, productivity will become easier to manage, and planning for success and growth will become more realistic.
Sales
As the CEO of both ARRC Technology and CharTec, Alex Rogers is an infinite source of aggressive, yet practical business advice. He knows what works and what doesn’t work because he’s been through most of it himself, and when it comes to selling Managed Services, he’s hailed by many as the go-to industry expert.
“The sales process is intricate and can be time-consuming. If you want things to go smoothly and to remain consistent, you need a salesperson who is wholly dedicated to the process of selling. Not a person who handles the tickets, answers the phones, and moonlights as the sales guy from time to time.”
But, unfortunately, a salesperson doesn’t just ‘happen’ for an MSP. Before you can even consider hiring a salesperson, Rogers says you need a defined product offering, a proven sales process, established presentation material, an effective training program, and of course, some money in the bank. At this point, you have no other option but to hustle. You need the salesperson, but you need those five prerequisites before that salesperson can happen. The sooner you can get all those moving pieces together, the sooner you can grow your business.
Marketing
Selling your products is one thing; marketing your MSP is a completely different thing. This seems like common sense, right? Marketing and sales are two different words with two different definitions that involve two separate degrees in two separate industries. But, oddly enough, many MSPs aren’t able to fully understand this concept. They view marketing as just another opportunity to sell, sell, sell and for some strange reason, this always involves a thousand words that read like an owner’s manual.
ARRC’s Marketing Consultant, Michelle Cobb, says that marketing is so much more than that.
“When it comes to marketing your MSP, it can be difficult. You love your company and you love your offering and because of this, you may feel the need to list out every spec and byte. But you have to avoid this. Marketing is your opportunity to build up your brand, credibility, relationships, and competitive edge. Rarely will this ever involve specs and bytes.”
Michelle’s advice? Research your competition, create a diversified content strategy, become the expert, and stay interesting.
CharTec was birthed from ARRC’s success as an MSP. We train thousands of MSP professionals every year on business operations, sales, and marketing, and in the process, we help these people attain their version of success. If you’d like more information on CharTec, contact us today.