Five finalists in this year’s Better Your Best Contest (BYB) contest, the annual competition between MSPs in TMT’s top-tier of membership, wowed the audience on day 2 of TMT’s IT Sales and Marketing Book Camp in Dallas. Each presenter showcased how they successfully implemented marketing and business strategies to skyrocket growth, revenue, and profit for their MSP companies. Attendees at the three-day conference also heard celebrity keynote Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team, who shared secrets on creating raving fans, and TMT founder and CEO Robin Robins, who discussed how to dominate a target market.
Here’s just a few of yesterday’s highlights.
5 Versions of Excellence
This year’s Better Your Best finalists are:
Hunter Farlow, Marketing Director, ComTech Network Solutions
ComTech increased their annual revenue by nearly $600,000 by building a cohesive marketing process, ensuring each piece of their marketing strategy connects to the overall objective.
Rodney Holum, CEO and Founder, Coulee Tech, Inc.
By surrounding himself with other successful people through peer groups, Holum was able to grow Coulee Tech’s net profit by $393,000.
Julio Lopez, CEO and Founder, IT for Education
“Imitate, then innovate,” said Lopez. He credits this idea—and the experts whose footsteps he followed in—with his success, including a monumental $2.5M increase in annual revenue.
Lisa Niekamp-Urwin, President and CEO, Tomorrow’s Technology Today
Niekamp-Urwin has grown her MSP’s net profit an impressive 97% and increased its revenue by over $400,000 by starting small and building on her successes.
Will Snyder, Co-Founder, WTC Managed IT Services, LLC
Snyder scaled WTC and increased his MRR by over $95,000 a month by mastering first a local, then a national niche.
After the presentations, Boot Camp’s MSP attendees voted on their winner of choice for the Better Your Best competition. The winner will be announced tonight, so stay tuned!
Jesse Cole on How to Create Raving Fans
Cole shared how he built the iconic Bananas brand from nothing by doing things differently. The key to his success was his “fans first” mindset, which centers on creating an incredible experience for each individual fan.
“[Fans] aren’t buying because of the product,” Cole explained. “They’re buying it because of how we make them feel. That’s the differentiator.”
Here are his takeaways for MSPs who want to create raving fans too.
Eliminate friction. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and eliminate the friction they experience. Just like Walt Disney used to walk around Disneyland every day to find things to improve, MSPs should go through the sales and onboarding process to look for friction points—and reduce them whenever possible.
Entertain always. The heart of entertainment is to provide enjoyment, according to Cole. “How do you map the journey for your customers, every step of the way, to provide enjoyment and make their lives better?” he said. Think about the little details; there are many stages of the experience of working with you, from first impressions to onboarding. Try to make every stage remarkable. Those interactions set the tone when someone starts working with you.
Experiment constantly. And don’t just experiment—try the exact opposite of what’s normal. Not every experiment will work, but the ones that do have the opportunity to become groundbreaking successes. And people only remember the successes, not all the failures along the way.
Engage deeply. “Do for one, what you wish you could do for many,” Cole said. The Magic Castle Hotel in Hollywood is a master of this tactic as well; their CEO says the key is to “listen carefully, respond creatively.” By creating tailored experiences for individuals, you show your entire fan base that you care deeply for the people who support you.
Empower action. “Stop standing still, start standing up,” said Cole. “None of [the rest of it] matters if we don’t empower first ourselves, and then our team.” To this end, he advised MSPs to not underestimate the power of a thank you—to your team, your mentors, and your clients—when it comes to building raving fans.
Robin Robins: How to Choose Your Perfect Niche
Robins closed out the day with a detailed look at how to select, research, and dominate a target market. Here are a few key takeaways from the session.
Methods to choose an industry vertical to specialize in:
Expertise. If you have experience working in a particular industry, you’ll know how to speak their language and cater to their unique needs.
A Testimonial. If you have a fantastic testimonial or case study where you help someone solve a common problem in a particular vertical, you have an incredible advantage marketing to other businesses in that vertical.
Customer Concentration. Take a look at your best customers; if there’s an commonality between them, such as industry or revenue size, that might be a great place to start building a vertical.
A Strategic Partnership. If you have the opportunity to take on a strategic partnership, that’s a great opportunity to get started in that particular niche. This is often an effective way of gaining leads, at the cost of a percentage of any eventual sales.
Qualities your chosen vertical should have, regardless of industry:
- A common, reoccurring problem you can solve (and they’re willing to pay for).
- Enough buyers in the serviceable available market.
- Prospects that are relatively easy and economical to target.
- A necessary service or good, so they won’t be heavily affected by an economic downturn.
Robins urged all MSPs to remember that who you’re selling to is far more important than what you’re selling. “If you want to make a lot of money in your business, part of what you need to think about is who your customer needs to be. I cannot stress this enough,” she said. “The single biggest asset in your business is your customers—and more importantly, the relationship you have with those customers.”
Stay Tuned for the Explosive Final Day…
Boot Camp wraps up with a bang today. Stay tuned for more industry tips, growth secrets, and exciting news to come, including part two of Robins’ industry vertical deep dive, psychology insights from Dr. Phil, and the Better Your Best winner announcement!
If you missed our coverage of day one of Boot Camp, read about Robin Robins’ force multipliers for your MSP and more here.
