Channel Voice

Momentum at the RSPA and why content and education are a marketer’s best tools, how community shapes a business leader’s worldview, bouncing back from bad decisions, why publishers and VARs are still in business, hiring slow and failing fast, a POS provider’s greatest challenge and how it’s overcome, the legalities of running your business into the ground, and much more.

The easy math MSP leaders refuse to do, why cyber security is bigger than managed services and how to get in on the action, how to let the math tell you when it’s right to hire your next sales person, engineer, or admin, how many independent consultants can the IT channel handle, what makes them all work together in unison, and much more.

Bitcoin, silk road, and the darkening of the dark Web, why credentials are such a hot criminal commodity, sextortion specialists and Nigerian princes—how to spot them both and how to teach others to do the same, what the hell does a cryptologic linguist do, whether MSPs are capable of cyber security or whether they need the third S, whether we’ll ever take the offensive against cyber criminals, and much, much more.

Why LinkedIn is likely the most underutilized tool in your sales and marketing toolbox, how professional social networks are particularly valuable to channel businesses, the differences between leveraging social media as an individual versus as an organization, teaming up with colleagues to divide and conquer sales leads, a handful of steps you can take before 5:00 today to strengthen your profile, build your network, and empower your sales organization, and much more.

How a kickboxer, yoga instructor, and stay-at-home mom turned into an IT services sales & marketing dynamo, why VAR and MSP leaders are terrible telemarketers, why telemarketing sucks as a job, yet remains a requisite prospecting tool and how long that might remain the case, how Simpson's company spun up a one-of-a-kind call center in under two weeks, what IT service provider execs must do to embrace telemarketing and win with it, and much more.

The value of industry associations and peer groups, the IT business leader’s persona and where it falls short, what solutions are hot in 2019 and how to avoid “shiny object” syndrome, the ill-effect of vendor dependency in marketing and the IT service provider’s responsibility there, why business development hires are more important than techs, the legacy of Alan Weinberger, and a whole lot more.

Personal and professional reflections on 2018, balancing career, a large and busy family, and channel guru status while pursuing an advanced degree, why 96 percent of IT service providers never grow beyond ten employees, why 70 percent of IT services business owners are seeking to sell out and what it means for the channel, and Jay McBain’s five predictions for 2019 (and slightly beyond).

Building tribes of clients and building tribes of MSPs, scalability and national footprints, an MSP marketing retrospective, why 94 percent of MSPs never see a million dollars, self-awareness and corrective action, what if you don’t get anything back for your marketing? What if you do? Education as the ROI on failure, everything’s easier with a set of plans.

Live from the Software Executive Forum in Brooklyn, Channel Voice gets the inside dope on channel partner/vendor relationships from Valiant Technology's Tom Clancy, Compliancy Group's Mark Haskelson, Force Management's Paul DeMore and Vend's Butch Langlois. Listen in for an entertaining and transparent dialog about what’s right and what’s wrong with vendor/channel partner relationships.

Why most MSPs don’t treat their business like a business, the dangers of ambiguous contract language, the business, financial, and personal repercussions of legal action, how to avoid sales-slogging contract language yet remain protected, best practices for legal risk mitigation.