TA's goal at the MSP World show (and all our interactions with MSPs) was (and still is) to learn the answers to the following three questions:
1. Is it realistic that MSPs will take on carrier services and sell them to their IT customers in a volume large enough to make MSPs a credible channel for carrier services vendors?
2. Is it realistic that MSPs would make good partners with telecom agents to share or trade leads with?
3. How easy, difficult or valuable is it for telecom agents and master agents to pick up the skills and resources necessary to become MSPs themselves and offer MSP services to their existing carrier services customers.
Well over the past several months we've learned what we think are the answers to these three questions and we're going to publish the answers within the next several weeks in a MSP industry report we're creating for telecom vendors, agents and partners.
QUICK BOTTOM LINE?
When IT guys migrate their SMB customers from "break fix" (only bill when something breaks) to the "managed model" (bill a flat monthly fee to keep everything running) telecom guys can pretty much forget about having any serious "final say" on influencing future telecom decisions the customer makes. The IT guy who "owns" the customer's local area network gets to give the final thumbs up or thumbs down on any voice or data decision. This is obviously a bad thing for telecom guys.
Fortunately there's lots that telecom guys can do to get back into their customer's inner decision circle for telecom and technology decisions and that's what we'll be sharing in our forthcoming MSP report.
FIRST STEP?
Eat, drink and sleep MSP. In the six months or so since I learned how to spell "MSP" I've learned an awful lot about what it is they do and how they do it. It's all come from studying them up close and by surfing the net. If you're a telecom agent that's serious about staying in business I STRONGLY advise you to do the same.
Start by talking to your customers. What do they have to say about the IT folks that help them keep their local area network and all their computers running? Study the websites of your local computer guys and take them out to lunch. Do any of them have active sales programs or all they all 100% referral sales people?
NEXT STEP?
Join the MSP Alliance at www.MSPalliance.com. They offer a free membership to and there's an awful lot to learn by just reading everything written on their website. You can also join www.MSPpartners.com for as little as $49 per year. Both organizations have a faithful following of real MSPs that I've met in person. I can't say if one is better than the other but there's really no reason you can't join both.
BEST STEP?
Go to MSP functions. I went to the MSP World convention in Vegas last month and then a MSP Partner "MSP Business Simulation" event a week later. Both events were great because they were both full of living, breathing, hoping MSPs who were only to happy to talk to a telecom guy about being a MSP. You really can't learn about the ways of an MSP without interacting with them directly. This "becoming one" with MSPs is critical because to stay successful in the SMB market over the next several years, telecom agents will need to either partner with MSPs or become one.
SECRET STEP?
Help MSPs get more MSP customers. Don't lead with "Sell telecom & make more money!" - they know all about that. Lead with, "I've got a lot of telecom customers who I'm sure need to be MSP customers..." - your telecom sales will come right after that if you deliver.
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