At a recent Genius Network event I was asked to speak at, I met the amazing Peter Thomas. Peter is a serial entrepreneur who has started and successfully exited over 7 businesses and invested in dozens of others. Most notably, he was the founding partner and chairman of Century 21 Canada Ltd., a real estate company he built to $9 billion in annual sales, employing over 8,000 sales representatives from 400 franchises. The largest real estate network in the country.
At the event, he told the following story…
A wealthy retired man, living in a beachfront property, noticed there was a man who would show up to the beach every morning to look out upon the vast ocean before him from the shoreline. He was poorly dressed and was clearly not there to enjoy the beach. But every morning for years this man would show up, gaze upon the water, apparently looking for something, then leave.
One day, curiosity overcame the retired entrepreneur, and he decided to go down to the waterfront to confront the man and ask him what he was doing. He said, “I’ve seen you come down here every morning for years, looking for something. Can I ask you what you’re doing?”
The man replied, “I come here every morning looking for my ship to come in.”
The retired man thought about that for a minute and then asked, “Sir, exactly how many boats have you sent out?”
The man looked down at his shoes and muttered, “None.”
This is very often the story of MSPs struggling to get more clients – they aren’t sending out ANY boats. No personal outreach, no prospecting, no networking. Candidly, no effort because there’s no focus on it. I know this sounds overly simplistic, but you cannot get new opportunities coming IN if you have no consistent prospecting efforts going OUT.
I recently was reviewing the outbound efforts reported to me by 10 outsides sales reps working for our MSP members, none of whom were hitting – much less exceeding – their quotas. Keep in mind these are full-time, dedicated sales professionals hired to work a 40+ hour week and goaled on generating more sales.
In reviewing the numbers, I learned that most are not even prospecting 20 prospects a week. That’s only 4 a day. FOUR! That’s less than 30 minutes of work – and I’m being generous at that. What the hell are they doing with the other 39 hours they’re working? I can tell you what they’re not doing – sending out “boats.”
Back when I started TMT, I sat and made no less than 50 outreach calls a day, followed by e-mails, to every person I knew or had in my database, looking for an opportunity, a connection or a referral. As I built the company, I systematized the processes of “sending out the boats,” hiring people to do that as their full-time job.
Even today, I’m sending out the boats daily, talking to people about ideas and opportunities. This is why I took 4 days out of my life to attend the Genius Network event run by my good friend Joe Polish, where I got to meet Peter along with a number of other great entrepreneurs, leaders and experts.
A few weeks ago, Kevin O’Leary was staying at the Four Seasons where we were hosting the Roadshow event. I was able to grab a few minutes with him before I had to hustle back to our session. We talked about me selling the business and the dozen or so NEW deals he’s working on right now, including how he’s monetizing his social media platforms in a big way, his watch business and a few other deals I cannot mention. ALL with the potential to deliver multiple millions of dollars.
I’ve followed Kevin and have watched him at multiple events – I was even on the set of Shark Tank, twice. He’s got meetings lined up from early morning until midnight, discussing ideas, looking at investments and having conversations with leaders. Sending out boats.
If you find yourself not achieving the growth you want, ask yourself candidly if you’re sending out enough “boats” to look for opportunities.
I don’t know how many will return loaded with riches…but I do know that NONE will come back if NONE go out.
Just like growth won’t happen without consistent prospecting, your business won’t benefit from AI unless you start engaging with it now. Our quick AI Survey is your chance to “send out a boat” to see how you stack up against other MSPs, discover where the opportunities are, and chart a smarter path forward.
