Back from BigBIG 2021 with Big Plans!

Both James and I had an opportunity to attend and exhibit at Taylor Business Group’s BigBIG 2021. This is a multi-day event targeted to Taylor’s clients: Managed Service Providers. The event featured keynote speakers, breakout sessions mixed in with an exhibitor hall, award ceremonies, and an opportunity to network through many social events on tap. I know from experience how much effort it takes to pull off a physical event that covers multiple days, and full props to the Taylor team for doing such a great job.

It was the first event I have attended in exactly two years. I can say that as much as we talk about virtual being the future of sales, being in Scottsdale reinforced to me that is no substitute for human-to-human interaction.

Why did we attend?

TekStack was built to serve technology companies; improve revenue operations related to sales, customers, and billing. Over the past year, we have consistently heard from the MSP community that there is interest in improving sales and marketing operations. Working with one of the larger “disti” out there we learned that nearly half of them were not using CRM systems effectively, and most want to focus on improving sales results.

Most MSPs are reliant on ‘owner-led’ sales strategies. It can be tough to get the most out of an owner’s limited effort and time (especially if sales is not an inherent skill), and even harder to scale beyond an owner-led approach. In our conversations with Taylor Business Group, this is a particular area of focus for MSPs and an area many would like to improve.

So, this event was an opportunity to get face-to-face with MSPs and get a better sense of whether or not TekStack is an offering they need or want. It also gave us a great sense of what these businesses are using from a technology perspective today.

What did we learn?

Lots, or a ton to be more precise. Focusing on the sales performance and growth conversations, I sat in on great sessions from MSP owners like Jay Mellon from AtNetPlus; Brian Miller from FusionTek; as well as Taylor consultant Michael Cummings who provides sales coaching. I had a dozen conversations with other business owners who lament about the same challenges that other technology companies are dealing with. I’ll capture some highlights that completely resonated with me:

“If you aren’t closing 50% of your deals, don’t spend more money in marketing”. 

YES!!!! This was from Jay’s session on driving superior revenue growth. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. If you don’t improve your funnel attrition (mostly win rate), you are wasting your dollars. You are burning too much gas. You need to get fuel-efficient in the business. Part of this is better and more deliberate sales execution, but much of it is having a decent market strategy, and having strong differentiators, value proposition, offering, and pricing for your market. Get that formula right before you invest in sales and marketing spending.

“Referrals…Means you are not good at marketing”

Another Jay-ism. So true. I heard the same thing in a Todd Kane podcast recently. You will not grow your business on referrals. And they are impossible to scale up. If 100% of your leads are referrals, it means you need to diversity your funnel-building strategies pronto.

Six Pillars of New MRR

From Michael Cumming’s sales coaching strategies to develop MRR more effectively. The two pillars that resonated most were related to prospecting. Having processes and tools in place to effectively prospect at a 1:1 (Strategic), and 1:M (Volume) level.

Drive for Recurring Revenue

There is a lot of M&A activity in this space, and MSPs seem to be valued on the same metrics as SaaS companies. The importance of recurring revenue to increase valuation is high. MSPs are working towards having 80% of their revenue as recurring (MRR/ARR). The path to get there isn’t always linear and has much to do with positioning a strong product offering. The software market we serve each day has the same strategy as well.

Quarterly Business Reviews

This was an interesting one for me. The long-tail impact of recurring revenue has an even bigger effect on MSPs. The concept of QBRs seems big in the Taylor community. But when you scale to 100s of customers, is it reasonable to hold QBRs with everyone? The answer is, of course, no. But how do you decide which customers to focus on and which to throw into an automated relationship? This is the same challenge every software company has as well. Their needs for hygienic customer information, ability to run playbooks for renewals, to put communication on autopilot are actually amplified in the MSP world because frankly, they are more “CAM” teams than their software company counterparts.

What are they using today?

This was all over the place. Anecdotally, half the conversations were, “We are using the PSA tool to track contacts and accounts, but it’s not very good at CRM.” The other half was, “we bought a market-leading CRM app but are having trouble making it effective because it needs configuration.” So, this is all very familiar to what we hear consistently from technology companies under $10M revenue.

What is next?

With all this learning, James and I came back buzzing! Here is what we are planning to do:

1. Offer an entry point version of TekStack
Cut out some of the features that MSPs don’t need. Just focus on the key features like:

• A simplified but fully functioning CRM that includes the basics like Activity tracking, Accounts, Contacts, and Opportunities.
• Sales Acceleration to automate outbound strategic prospecting
• Pre-configured marketing automation to handle volume prospecting as well as social
• Sales reporting package in Power BI to track progress
• Ability to manage customer information like annual subscriptions and renewals.

2. Change up our pricing to create a lower entry point for the ‘Owner Led’ companies.
Our pricing model is already pretty accessible, but we’ll package up a monthly price that buries the one-time upfront implementation fees.

3. Create a pre-configuration to minimize implementation timeframe
Something that works out of the box, embeds key business processes and can be fully running in 14 days or less.

4. Offer a Marketing-as-a-Service add-on that in addition to tightening the value proposition, focuses on personal brand building and MSP brand building on LinkedIn

If you are an MSP and are interested in solving some of the challenges related to growth in an Owner-Led reality, give us a call, we’d be happy to chat!