MSP Business School

A former MSP owner who successfully grew his business for over 20 years before selling it in 2018, Shawn Walsh of Encore Strategic Consulting knows a thing or two about leadership. In this episode, the guys sit down with Shawn to pick his brain about what makes a good leader and how to develop the skills and qualities needed to lead a team to profitability. 

As one of the leaders and founders of Aligned Technology Solutions – an MSP with offices in both the DC area and Orlando, Florida – Don Sauer has seen quite a few shifts and changes in the industry over the past few decades. In this episode, Brian, Tim, and Robb sit down with Don to talk about his path to building a successful MSP and the pivotal decisions that helped propel Aligned to the top. 

Doug is the CEO of TruTechnology based in Jacksonville, FL.    Doug had a personal situation that caused him to have to delegate more than he had at that point.  T here he learned the lesson many founders find, that by getting out of the way and trusting the team his business flourished.

Zay is the Director of Business Development and Partner at IT Help, Inc.   Zay, a New York based tech firm where COVID hit hardest, had to find a creative way to grow the organization when companies were leaving the city. Starting with an outsourcing strategy to allow for scale and meet the demands of almost any market, Zay has built the blueprint for his company's long-term success.

Today we discuss what is the responsibility of the MSP owner upon exit.  Most look to take care of their team, especially if they are not being retained, but how about our responsibility to your community?  We give our thoughts about an owners community approach after selling their baby.

Dave Hodgdon is someone who truly believes that a company’s success – and therefore its owner’s eventual exit – relies on its people. As the president and founder of PCGIT, an MSP that he began in 1996, Dave has a unique exit strategy that exhibits his faith in his people, ensures his top employees remain with the company, and shows his commitment to making others successful.  1:08 – Dave gives us a quick background on Portsmouth Computer Group and how they slowly transformed over the years from a training company to an MSP, to eventually offering security.  7:09 – The guys ask Dave how his company has handled the work from home phenomenon over the past year, particularly when it comes to security. Dave details the difficulties they’ve encountered as well as the significant increase in the number of risk assessments they’ve conducted. He shares how his team has managed to maintain a sense of company culture while working remotely, and stresses the importance of fostering community in the workplace.  13:20 – Dave shares his incredibly unique, twofold exit and retention strategy. He explains why the venture capital route isn’t right for him and how he’s able to feel like he has more control over his legacy. Dave believes that treating your people like partners is the most surefire way to increase revenue and exponentially grow your company’s value.  20:00 – Dave digs into the details of how his plan works, clarifying some points and making it clear that with his approach, he and his people have skin in the game, and both sides end up winning.  In closing, Dave reminds us that giving the best client experience is the most important thing. He stresses that if there’s an issue that needs to be resolved, or you feel something is off, a phone call or a visit in person is far more effective than an email. 

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This episode of MSP Business School serves as a follow up to last week’s Special Edition episode (episode 45). A few weeks ago, Robb and Tim joined Brian for his monthly learning series at vCIOToolbox to talk about the future of sales in a post-pandemic world. In this episode, the guys answer some follow up questions that came from that webinar and dive deeper into a few important sales topics they come across on a regular basis. 

Prospecting changed dramatically when the pandemic upended our lives and sent most of us to home offices. While sales meetings have been conducted almost exclusively virtually for the past year, this will soon be behind us (hopefully), and a new sales model will emerge. Are you ready? For this special episode of MSP Business School, your hosts Brian Doyle, Robb Rogers, and Tim McNeil discuss the future of sales as a part of vCIOToolbox’s monthly learning webinar series. Robb and Tim talk about the strategies they’re beginning to employ with their teams at OSR and the changes that sales teams should be expecting. They share the steps that every MSP should consider in order to set their teams up for long term success. 6:51 – Tim and Robb share their expectations for sales post-Covid. They talk about their experiences in sales pre-Covid and how those were changed during the pandemic, both positively and negatively. They also discuss which Covid-era practices they see sticking around. 14:53 – Brian, Tim, and Robb talk about the benefits of tools such as email campaigns and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and how they’re being used differently today than they were a year ago. They discuss how to employ LinkedIn most successfully and how they see it continuing to be useful in the upcoming land grab. 29:26 – Tim and Robb go into the differences between how virtual meetings and onsite meetings were viewed pre-pandemic versus now. They dive into how the expectations have shifted and where they see the trend going. 38:50 – Robb and Tim remind us of the importance of building stories around your MSP, giving us excellent examples on how to do that effectively. 47:35 – Robb and Tim tackle questions from an audience member about virtual events and how to implement them, and also about how to effectively use business groups to grow your network.

Jamie D’Agostino is the Founder and CEO of Netology, an MSP out of Stamford, CT. Having been in business for nearly two decades, Jamie is no stranger to the various types of specific and individual requests MSPs encounter. In this episode of MSP Business School, Jamie shares an example from his own life about the importance of setting defined boundaries with your clients.  1:50 – Jamie gives us some background on Netology and how they’ve operated for the past 18 years. He talks about the changes he’s seen in the industry, specifically around the conversations he’s had with potential clients in recent years, and gives us some insight into which partner vendors he sees the most referrals coming from.  7:28 – We talk about the changes the pandemic has had on Netology, including both the negative and positives impacts. Jamie shares that it was a very busy year for them, and that although several of their clients experienced downsizing, they weren’t too negatively affected because of the heavy load of projects they’ve been completing.  15:53 – Jamie tells us about an account he recently lost that had a major impact on his company. He lays out the difficulties they had with this particular client, sharing that the revenue wasn’t worth the amount of extra work they were being asked to do. Jamie and the hosts discuss the importance of boundary setting within a contract, and the even greater importance of keeping those boundaries.  21:14 – We wrap up the episode with a discussion about the parallels between client relationships and romantic relationships, and the telltale signs that a potential new client may not be the best fit. Jamie leaves us with a reminder to take it easy on ourselves, and urges us to remember that even though we’re coming out of the pandemic, it’s been a very tough year on everyone.