Not a traditional Hallway Conference episode, but rather a livestream that failed spectacularly.  We were able to recover the audio and convert it to MP3, so make sure you take a listen.  If you'd like to see the slides we're referencing in this livestream, head on over to:  https://www.managedsalespros.com/2022/03/09/cybersecurity-sales-leads/

Tracie Orisko was the president of Managed Sales Pros before joining Huntress as their Director of Sales Development.   Between the two of us we have 30 years of sales prospecting experience - most of it in the IT channel. 

Take a listen and use the handy objection handling infographic provided on the Managed Sales Pros website to learn how to triage your leads, save time and close more deals.

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros - Better Leads for MSPs at www.managedsalespros.com

Since the age of 15, Eric has been helping people with IT. From setting up PC’s for friends to owning his own break/fix and managed services companies. He spent four years in c-level management positions between his break/fix and MSP ventures. In 2013 he joined the vendor (dark) side of the channel to run the global SE team and a sales team for the ServiceDesk product at LogicNow (formerly GFI Max). SolarWinds acquired LogicNow in 2016, and he became one of the four Head Nerds. He currently is the Director of Channel Community and Enablement at Egnyte and serves on the Executive Council for the Managed Services Community at CompTIA. In his spare time, he runs the All Things MSP Facebook group and creates YouTube videos for MSPs.

Eric shares his thoughts on the channel, channel events, and the future of live/virtual/hybrid events. 

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros - Better Leads for MSPs at www.managedsalespros.com

Len DiCostanzo was the host of the very first webinar I was ever invited to present on.  This was several years ago, but he gave me advice that has stuck to me to this day, and is still absolutely relevant:

"Don't ever tell the audience you're nervous, or that it's your first time presenting, or that you're hung over from the party the night before at the event.  Everyone here paid to see you speak today, both with their money and their time, and they came here to listen to an expert and you owe it to your audience to give them value. If you start your presentation by saying how nervous you are everyone will question their investment."

Len has built the channel programs for major channel players including Autotask (now Datto) - he successfully exited from his own managed IT services provider before moving into the vendor world. 

On Hallway Conference, Len shares the differences between presenting on stage and presenting on a virtual event.  Learn a little about his consulting practice, MSP Toolkit. 

Learn a little about Len!  If you've been in the channel more than a couple of years, you've surely met him in the hallway!

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros - Better Leads for MSPs at www.managedsalespros.com

Cyber Matt Lee is no stranger to podcasts - he's done dozens of them in the last month alone!

I finally had the opportunity to meet Matt Lee from Pax 8 in person at IT Nation Evolve 2021.

However, I felt like I already knew him - and the beard makes him easy to spot from across a crowded event hall.   

Matt's done an incredible job of evangelizing for small businesses and the need for them to adopt cybersecurity best practices.  He's got a cult following now, which he swears was unintentional. 

I invited Matt Lee to be on Hallway Conference to discuss cybersecurity, but more importantly to talk about how he's been able to create such a large following in such a short time.  In this hour-long podcast, Matt shares his journey and some suggestions for those trying to build a personal brand online.    It turns out Matt wasn't born a dynamic public speaker, and before the pandemic he rarely appeared online. 

Matt shares some tips on building your brand, maximizing that brand at events, and maintaining your online presence!

Stick around to the end - we're plotting for next year's ITNation event, and Matt's got a big announcement! 

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros online here!

Adam Kerrigan has owned a managed services firm, sold an MSP, partnered with another MSP, killed his sales quotas, and moved into the wild, wild world of managed services M&A.

Goal oriented always, Adam is a world champion power-lifter, a top-performing sales executive and an excellent communicator.

Join Carrie Simpson and Adam Kerrigan as they explore Adam's journey from MSP business owner through his exit and career change.    We touch on a lot of topics today, from the stress that owning a business can put on an entrepreneur, through to the creative ways that you can exit from a business...back through to the highs and lows that come from a sales career, and into the buzziest of buzzwords in the technology space today:  "Mergers and Acquisitions".

Adam's done it all, and found ways to improve on it all.  Don't miss this episode of "Hallway Conference!"

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros - Better Leads for MSPs at www.managedsalespros.com

Adam Tomeo met Carrie Simpson at an Ingram Micro Cloud event in Arizona....many moons ago.  Specifically they met when Adam coordinated a group run every morning for the attendees of the conference.  Carrie is a runner, and they built a friendship and networking referral relationship over the next few years.

Adam now works for Cisco, in a different role, but Carrie and Adam connected while Adam was assisting someone in his network who was looking for a new role.  This interaction reminded Carrie of their initial connection and caused her to reflect on how many opportunities we get to interact with one of our peers and friends over the course of our careers.  Adam was a great sport - and was one of our very first Hallway Conference guests  even though it's taken us a little longer to get this one published. 

If you plan events or attend events, you won't want to miss Adam's overview on the most essential component of event planning - planning a holistic event experience instead of planning a conference and bolting on recreation and interaction opportunities.

You can connect with Adam on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamtomeo/

Carrie Simpson is the founder of Managed Sales Pros - a company that focuses on securing better leads for technology companies in the IT reseller channel.  If you need BETTER leads for your MSP, give us a call or email us at [email protected]

Cold calling for MSPs is just one of our specialties and we'd love to help you build, improve and manage your sales and marketing process!

See you next time in the hallway!

Caitlyn has been planning and executing on marketing initiatives in the I.T. channel for over ten years, and she's been responsible for some of the most successful marketing events in our space - including the inaugaral Frankly MSPLive - the last major MSP event we attended before the world shut down in 2020.

Caitlyn shares her process for event lead attribution, measuring ROI from in person and online events, and talks about the best marketing idea of all:  potatogram. 

Don't miss this episode of Hallway Conference, hosted by Carrie Simpson, founder of Managed Sales Pros.

Learn more about Managed Sales Pros - Better Leads for MSPs at www.managedsalespros.com

Tim McNeil from OSR Manage joins Carrie Simpson from Managed Sales Pros on Hallway Conference to share one of their greatest rogue marketing achievements.

OSR Manage provides sales management as a service for MSP business owners who aren't interested in taking on the tasks of recruiting, hiring, training and managing new sales team members. 

In 2015 (or thereabouts)  OSR and Manage Sales Pros both went to the same industry event, as competing entities. The prohibitive sponsorship fees to participate in this channel event often keeps small businesses or emerging companies locked out.  Both Carrie and Tim have found some cheat codes through the years to maximized their investment in it, while lowering their costs - but how did OSR attend in 2015 - for free? 
 
Finding cost effective ways to market your new services business isn't always easy, but
 sometimes you get an opportunity to swing for the fences - with a very low pricetage.  Tim shares about their once-in-business rogue marketing opportunity and outlines how creative participation in one channel event doubled the size of his business almonst overnight. 

Event attenedance alone wasn't enough - OSR had to develop educational content and outbound strategy to support their event attendance.   If you have an hour, spend it with us today - this story is fantastic.

Managed Sales Pros provides better qualified leads for technology companies with no long term commitments.  Learn more about Carrie Simpson and Managed Sales Pros at http://www.managedsalespros.com

Learn more about Osprey Strategic Research at www.osrmanage.com

Download Carrie's book; "The Sales-Focused MSP" here.

James Vickery helps managed IT services providers scale profitably.

The founder of Benchmark360, James supports hundreds of help desk teams 24/7, eliminating the overhead of shift-staffing, overtime and often replacing the need for an in-house help desk (including the management of that help desk!).

As the U.S. continues to experience a labour shortage, and the expense of in-house team members soars, many businesses will look to business process outsourcing (BPO) for activities they may not have considered outsourcing previously. 

Is it time for your business to explore the benefits of outsourcing? 

Carrie and James discuss this and so much more!

Key takeaway:  your time isn't free. 

Many business owners take on undesirable or unprofitable tasks with the misconception that doing these things will save their business money. 

As the highest paid asset in your business, and likely the biggest revenue generator, does it make sense for you to allocate your time in non-billable ways?

James touches on several important concepts on Hallway Conference:

• outsource things that distract you from revenue generating activities
• when the market is reserving their budgets, those who take risks overtake their competition
• now is the time to be investing in client acquisition
• if your ability to service doesn't outpace your ability to sell, outsourcing is a viable and profitable option

We'll see you next time in the hallway!

Visit the Managed Sales Pros website for outbound sales scripts and tutorials for MSPs, cold calling for MSPs and free sales training for MSPs.

Book a call with Carrie here:
www.managedsalespros.com/booking/

Join Carrie Simpson with Pete Busam as they talk about planning events for community engagement,  Pete is the founder of Equilibrium Consulting, LLC, a management-consulting firm specializing in assisting technology organizations in establishing partner relationships, channel strategy, design, and execution.

Organizing an Event Series

Pete is one of the brains behind the Channel Strong Initiative, an outdoor and in-person series of MSP channel event pop-ups. The initiative was pushed through despite the pandemic, with health protocols in place for safety. 

Traditional marketing was used to drive attendance. A third party team handle the outbound calls, delivering packages, and other details. Equilibrium built a website to manage digital engagement. Pete and the team also used social media platforms LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and even rolled it out on Reddit. There, they put teasers to engage as many MSPs as possible. Another thing they did was having partners to drive traffic and help promote the event. It took them six months to plan everything, and as a result, it went smoothly.

Marketing Matters

There is one goal in marketing: to drive up sales and gain profit. The secret sauce, as told by Pete, is in the execution. One example is in the graphic design of marketing materials. The content is as vital as the overall aesthetics of the graphic.

About Pete Busam:

Pete Busam is the founder of Equilibrium Consulting, LLC, a management-consulting firm specializing in assisting technology organizations in areas that have gaps such as Executive Coaching, Sales Mentoring, Marketing, and Demand Generation.

Technology companies looking to develop their mindshare with small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) needed an effective go-to-market strategy. Pete helps them establish the channels that are their strategy to new markets or SMB organizations using best practices to execute their plan.

Outline of the Episode:

[00:27] Pete’s pop-up tent around the states to engage and build community

[04:20] A look into how the Channel Strong Initiative was planned despite the pandemic

[09:28] Step by step process for an MSP to create engagement in multi-city events

[16:14] What is a marketing teaser, and what does it entail?

[17:48] The next thing after landing pages and why graphic design matters in marketing

[20:59] Proponent of a brand archetype against a different marketing methodology

[28:12] Content development evolved over time

[31:38] Best giveaways to give at events and how to measure its effectivity in marketing

[37:35] A people-driven platform that is execution-based and no contract constraints

[43:59] Lose some to gain, spend now to make a profit later

[47:27] Balance between scalable and customizable things; choose where to standardize

[55:16] Lead scoring that is configurable by the end-user

Resources:

Website: https://equilibriumconsult.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petebusam/

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Carrie!

Website: https://www.managedsalespros.com/