Sometimes you have to tear things down to the studs to build something beautiful.
When Angie Wittke joined Blue Net, her husband Adam Wittke’s Minneapolis, Minnesota-based MSP, it was struggling with the same issues most other MSPs stuck below $1M face. Luckily, Wittke’s extensive sales background left her uniquely equipped to tear the MSP’s sales pipeline and operating procedures down to the studs and rebuild. Here’s how she did it.
The Keys to Growth: Delegation, Documentation, and Process
In Wittke’s experience, “it’s hard for business owners to start losing control,” she says. But this can severely limit your MSP’s ability to grow. “It’s a good way to hit a ceiling fast,” Wittke continues.
“The faster you can get everything out of your head, out of everyone else’s head, and get it documented and proceduralized in the company, [the faster] you’ll have that foundation where you can start growing,” Wittke says. “It’s really hard to be profitable without having that kind of stuff in place.”
As for why business owners tend to have trouble delegating responsibilities, Wittke believes “it’s a control thing. I don’t think it’s something anyone is intentionally doing. I think it’s just by nature what people do,” she says.
For MSPs struggling with the documentation process, Wittke recommends a few different tried-and-true strategies that she’s used with her husband Adam. “One is taking videos of him explaining to the sales team how to [use a] quoting tool,” she says. “You can take that, upload it to AI, and have it [write] instructions for you.” Another method is to narrate the process aloud with a transcription tool running, allowing you to quickly “write” the procedure down.
Finally, working with an expert to fill gaps in your knowledge can make all the difference. “If you’re [a] smaller [MSP], I would tell you to go get a business coach,” Wittke advises. “I think there’s a lot of technology people out there that are struggling with the business side of the business. Get a business coach to keep you on track [with] things like [delegation].”
A Winning Sales Pipeline Is Critical for Growth
Wittke used her sales background to standardize—and optimize—Blue Net’s sales pipeline. One key element is returning calls promptly; “it’s really important to me if the lead comes in, [that we] call them right away—like in the first five minutes,” she says. “That’s number one.”
Another key element was transitioning Blue Net’s proposal format from a highly technical one, which used to list a prospect’s different options, to a largely nontechnical presentation. They also had “technical account managers at the time. I remember hitting heads with them,” Wittke says.
She explains, “I don’t need technical people [in sales]. I need people [who] can understand value and can speak. Our audience is not going to want to hear anything about our tool sets or anything technology-based. You’re going to lose them.”
Now, the MSP’s sales pipeline begins with the discovery process. “I think [that’s] the most important piece of the whole thing,” says Wittke. “At the end of the day, if you have the [decision maker] in the room, there are three things that are important to them. It’s your job to figure out those three things.”
Wittke’s discovery meetings center on listening, not talking, something she considers a differentiator. “There’s a reason [the prospect] called you, right? I’ll usually [ask] them what’s going on [to kick things off],” she explains. “The majority of the discovery call should be them talking, and then maybe me asking questions. They’ll go through all the things that are wrong. I just take notes throughout, because there’s some specific things that are bothering them. Then when you look through your notes when you’re done, you can see the underlying three things that are important to them.”
Once her salespeople have learned a prospect’s big three issues, Wittke builds their entire sales proposal around those things.
Related: Win More MSP Sales with the Wedge Technique
Culture—More Than a Buzzword
Another area Wittke has impacted is the company culture. “When I first came in, it was a ‘do whatever you want’ culture. People were keeping information to themselves. Once our culture changed, I feel like [we started to] have synergies everywhere.”
There were a few key changes Wittke made to help move Blue Net’s culture in the right direction. One is no hoarding of information. “It doesn’t work for us at Blue Net,” says Wittke. “As we get people in the right seats, everyone is sharing information and making sure everyone knows everything. When you have someone that’s not doing that, that isn’t fitting your best practices, you feel it. As we start getting the right people in the right seats, everything changed.”
Blue Net’s culture now is deeply rooted in processes and operating a certain way. “If someone’s not following the protocols and the processes and procedures that we’ve putting into place, everything breaks down. Then our customers feel it, and they’re not getting the proper support they deserve. That’s not going to fly here,” Wittke says.
As a result, Blue Net is very mindful about who they hire. “You probably have to talk to at least five or six of us before coming in the door, because everyone sees different things,” says Wittke. “It’s so important to make sure someone coming in is the right fit.”
Looking for More?
For more expert advice from Wittke, including successful marketing strategies and how she built a networking group from the ground up, tune into her episode on the My First Million podcast here.
