EP138 – The Secret to Building a Pipeline of Profit Part 3 with Ian Luckett and Stuart Warwick

INTRO

In this episode of the IT Experts Podcast, we hit the third in the series of our how to build a pipeline and profit where we talk all about account management.

Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast, the only podcast to help MSP scale to 1,000,000, and if already there get to 5 and go fast at the end of the day, isn't it all about building a business that works for you rather than you for it. I hope you enjoy the show.

IAN

So good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening, wherever you are. Welcome to the IT Experts Podcast today it's myself and we've wheeled Stuart back out again for the third in the series of the secret to building a pipeline of profit, which is all about account management. So good morning, Stuart. How are you doing today?

STUART

Good morning, Ian. Fantastic to be here as ever.

IAN

Good, good, good so let's have a quick recap. We’ve decided a little while ago to put together a podcast for the really important subject of account management. You know, low hanging fruit, client retention, client stickiness, how to extract more and this whole series. This whole 3rd 323 Episode to the podcast. No sales, no marketing, no nothing. Don't have to. Worry about any of that. This is all within your existing client base so, we started off a couple of weeks ago, listening to the episode 136 where we talked about the fundaments of the context of account management, you hear people talking about it, you hear people talking about whitespace selling. What's it all about, what we going to do, you know what's the opportunity and all of that kind of good stuff. So go and listen to that one again and that will give you all the information about how to start putting into practice pretty much some of the tactics, tips and tricks that we share with our clients at The MSP growth hub here.

Then the second in the series, was 137th, funnily enough, and it was all about the strategy. How do you approach this, How do you analyse your clients, Put them into categories, What standards you're working to, How does your packaging and pricing work and all of this kind of good stuff. So we're we're starting to go from like helicopter you getting a little bit more focus now into some of the strategy and today we are going to wrap it up, this is going to be the third in the final series, where Stuart and myself are going to be helping you with the tactics. What are the things I need to do and I don't care about the strategy. I know what it's all about. What do I need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to extract client profitability to get that rule stickiness in and also opportunities.

So Stuart anything else you want to add to you know the opportunity that we've got here is we're bringing this three podcasts in to land here with this account management? We've already said it's massive, but where are people getting stuck with some of the tactics and the things that they're doing that we're that we're seeing out in the channel right now?

STUART

Well, the big stuck piece is actually not prioritising it, not finding the time to do this on a consistent basis. It's sporadic, it's occasional. It's triggered by a client needing something as opposed to or ringing you up to say, hey, I'm off because I need somebody, you know, different other than you and you're the, you know, one of the problems of not doing account management is and one of the fears it's you're the last person to find out, and they're walking out the door. So I think that the biggest challenge and issue is doing it consistently like anything in life. Yeah, whether it's running, dieting, building strength, whatever it is you know, having great relationships, you going to do it consistently and the opportunity that the guys are missing out on is to deepen those relationships, be on the front foot with your clients, be at the table when they're talking strategy. You're one of the first people they call you in when they're growing, when they're changing, when they're needing to. You know, change the direction of the business. You're one of their partners, you know, you are their virtual CTO and the opportunity when you are seeing your clients regulate and having these strategic conversations, these business conversations is we talked about the concept of building a motor around your business. People buy people and business, and so when you've got a great relationship with your clients, when they value you as a partner, you build this Moat around your business that makes it so much harder for other people to scale to get in, and therefore it protects the longevity and with the MSP business model and the recurring revenue model, that is a game changer because the longer you keep your clients, the more it compounds, particularly as you're adding new clients on a monthly annual basis that turns the business model into one very, very powerful.

IAN

And the... brilliant and as you say, Stuart has really it is one of the most powerful things because you don't need all of these sales and marketing techniques, these people all you know like and trust you and they're you know they're in your confidence and it's kind of like yours to lose, isn't it? Because with so many services and solutions coming up, whether it be around cyber, whether it be around, you know, the cyber resilience, whether it be around efficiencies. Whether it be around any of the other the platforms that you're providing, there's so many opportunities here literally on a weekly basis to be having that conversation, telling them that something new is coming up. And if you're not having that conversation, guess what's going to happen? You're not gonna maximize this opportunity.

STUART

And that's the thing about not doing it consistently and proactively, when you don't find the time to do this, you're missing out on a massive opportunity. And so yes, you might say yes, I see my clients from time to time. But how is that conversation structure doing that? This is the thing we're going to talk about today, the tactics of kind of optimising the conversation and you know there's a number of key building blocks for that which we'll go into in a moment, but find the time, do it consistently and it will transform the bottom line of your business ultimately.

IAN

And when you're busy, you know when you're busy being busy whether you're getting caught up in the technical or whatever it might be, this is one of those tasks. This is one of those activities that if you just spend, you know an hour or two hours, you know every single week the difference it will make for your business will absolutely transform. But you need to know what to do. You need to know what order to do it in so the first thing you need to do is listen to the first two episodes of these podcasts, 136, 137. So Stuart, let's get into the tactics. What are, what is the way that we would approach this to start to build in some sort of cadence, some sort of regime, some sort of schedule to really make this work.

STUART

Well, first of all, you've done the strategic bit what we talked about in the last podcast, which is you understand the kind of the ranking of your clients and who needs what when, so is somebody you're probably not going to see them monthly, but who's quarterly? Who's 6 monthly, whose annual, who's a face to face? Who's a phone call? Who's maybe you know nothing. You know who's e-mail only. So you've got your cadence and you've got your ranking and your prior priority list effectively. So that's one thing. The second thing is who. Now for those MSP's that are probably less than 10 or 12 people, it's probably the business owner. But who is responsible for maintaining the relationships and the conversations with your client? If it is you, then what's your plan to do it consistently? Is it in the diary? Is it a recurring meeting in the diary? That's the first thing. If it's somebody else. Have they got that plan in their diary such that they are proactively planning to make sure that they are in touch with those clients when they need to. Now, and the simple ways to do this is to turn it into a process and turn it into a ticket. You know all PSA's allow you to set tickets up for triggers, so if you've got quarterly of 6 monthly, why not have it set up such on that date? It's triggered into a ticket. That way it becomes a robust process that is automated and measurable. The point is, if you've got other people doing it, you'll be able to have a look at their tickets ticket board. And see if they are being moved completed or otherwise. So that's the first thing. It's kind of setting yourself up for success, which is structure, tactical structure and success.

The second thing is then preparation, you know many people aren't seeing the clients mind. I'll just tip up, have a cup of coffee, see if thewant tona buy anything and they leave. There's no planning if you want to plan properly you would sit down with the rest of the team in advance and think, wait, I'm meeting much to social client next week, what's currently going on with projects? Are they completed? Have they started? Should they have finished? Should they have they been talking to finance team, is this client up to date with their Billings? Are they paying us basically, just little things that you need to know then also looking at their road map if they have one. What did you talk about last time? What do you need to talk about next time? Ticket history, wha’ts been going on? So that you go into that meeting prepared, and also you send an agenda. Sending the client agenda to say hey, this is an important meeting, we'll be reviewing what we talked about last time. We'll be talking about what's going on in. The business right now. And there's a whole agenda that we sent out for our clients as a template that just sets you up for success and also it communicates in advance to the client that the meetings coming up is important. Have they got anything in their mind that they want to talk about operationally? Because if they do, you can point that to the, to the Help desk team or to the service delivery manager so that when you go and have that meeting with the client, it's not taken up with distracting operational stuff, which could have been taken care of on the phone or through a ticket. Or you can ring them in advance and get that out of the way so that the meeting focus on strategy, roll them up and all of that then.

IAN

That's interesting. What you say there, Stuart cause quite a lot of time, we hear people say, yeah, well, I've had a chat with client and I don't really want to QBR TB. They don't, really. They sort of said they're alright, they're kind of in. And they know what's going on and they're quite happy with it. But this is obviously a massive opportunity for the MSP to go in and educate and provide more value. What would your response be if someone said that to you.

STUART

It's hard. It's hard changing the behavior of clients that you've already got. For some, it will be easy, some will never see the value of talking to again because they're tactical. They're transactional, but that's just the way it is. When you're onboarding your clients and they are coming into your world and you have a consistent, proactive account management, TBL QBR process setup, they automatically fall into line and you know in, in terms of your process. So Mr. Client, every quarter, every six months. Every year this is what's going to happen, because This is why we do what we do. This is how we do it, because it's all about keeping you safe and efficient and effective, using with the most up-to-date technology. So we are going to have a review on these timescales. Is that OK? Well, it's not even. Is that OK? They will just accept it. Older clients is harder and that's where you're changing the perception of the client to you as a supplier versus a partner. Some, as I say, will accept it more easily than others. Others will never see the value. But you do have to reframe it and say Mr. client are coming in, not to talk about what you've currently got, and to sell your thing, we need to talk about where you're. Going as a business. And change the nature of the conversation and also to talk to them about particularly as you understand their stack of what they are buying or not buying is actually to be able to say look you're you are at risk unless you upgrade to this unless you change this you are at risk and possibly you may actually say not sure if I'm actually able to support you any more going forward because if you're a risk if I think you're a risk then you're a risk to my business as well. And that changes the nature of the conversation.

IAN

Exactly. And as you say, it's around protecting your MSP as much as anyone else. If they're not going to take a particular stack on security, but you're going to insist and you maybe want to do an opt out, you know, campaign or something like that, then they might not be a right fit anymore.

STUART

Yeah, yeah. And the other element about account management is something we talked about last time, which is the education phase where your clients are coming in for lunch and learns possibly you've got regular emails and newsletters. You're using exclaimer the bottom of your e-mail signature to just educate your clients, drip feed, educate them so that when you go and talk to them, they go. Ohh yeah yeah, I vaguely remember you saying something about that or you can point them back to some of those communications in the past. So it's just maintaining the consistency of the relationship and the conversation. So that's the first part.

The second part is planning for it and preparing for it and sending an agenda. So they're clear about what's going on and then it's about the business conversation, not the you know the issues that they might be having or have have had. And then make it memorable, you know. When you have the meeting or the hope, what you can't do, if you have a call, if you have a meeting, take cakes, take merchandise, be memorable, be it the client team, look forward to you coming in because the receptionist loves getting the cakes and taking them around the office, or you get to walk around the office, drop a mug off to everybody and say hello because that again bonds you to the client and also allows you to understand what's going on the ground. That's the first thing.

IAN

I think that that's so key to leave that you know, leave that experience when you're there and particularly with the other people in the office as well because they're part of your client, they might not be the one who's buying the service from you. But they're the one who's using the, like this, and you leave little mouse mats or a few coasters or something like that. And then it reminds them of who you are, doesn't it? An importance of you at importance of what you add to that business?

STUART

Yeah, completely. And the second thing then is when you're having the meeting, whether it's on the phone, follow a framework for the conversation, otherwise called an agenda build report, you know, the conversation starts about then how you getting on, what's going on in your world? Remember and pick up on hobbies, family, things like that, so that you connect with the person before you start getting into the business side of things. So get the conversation going. Then you're into business. How's business. What's going on. You can talk about contextual headlines of what's going on in the in the greater world. You know, inflation, government decisions, vendor, vendor activity, anything that you think might be relevant to their business. That then allows you then to talk about what's going on in their mind, what's been going on in your business. Have you taken on more people. Could there be strategic developments going on, capital investments, growth plans, mergers, acquisitions, you know, keep notes from one conversation to the other and get them talking and that that intro should be about 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the client and the complexity.

The thing about the account management piece, it's an opportunity to be curious, Ian. And yes, you've got data that you can take in about what's going on in the clients systems, which you can talk about. Obviously don't want to get into the operational detail because that's what not this meeting about but the whole thing allows you to talk about what went on last time, what you've done since maybe completed some big projects, some big upgrades, and then you can talk about what you're seeing, opportunity and risks. From a technology point of view, you know yes, cyber is the big thing. AI as a possibility and then you're able to talk about opportunities around what technology could do and so power BI and the way in which you can help optimize the way systems function within the business is a great opportunity for further exploration as is therefore the application of dynamics and even getting people to move and consider as your as the next stage of of their stack, so there's a huge number of things to be talked about, and if you're in compliance industry even more so to be able to talk about ensuring that they are compliant and remain compliant and that's where the value added the strategic value add comes in the conversation rather than talking about the tech and whether they need 10 more laptops or not, because that just comes on the back of going yes, we need to upgrade. Yes, we need a new office, et cetera what the conversation is. So as you're closing that conversation, you're able to then review it and say, well, this is what we recommend. This is what we've agreed rate. We'll have the next meeting in three months or six months. And in between, I'll get the team to make contact with your team. To put all this stuff into action. That's the power of the conversation when it's well structured. The third piece in sort of the tactical side of it is having done the meeting is not then to go ohh, just get round to it when I can I’ve gotta do. A quote Now obviously some MSP's listening to this won't have the team or the process set up yet to be able to hand it over, and it will be for them to do but follow up. Should be as automated as possible, so if we've used ticketing to plan the meetings in first place, which we talked about earlier. When we come back complete the ticket. What were the actions, Set the tickets up for the next activities. They've ordered some hardware. There's a project, get it into the system, get the quote management underway. So that everybody in the business starts to be locked in to the delivery of whatever the next step is, whether it's invoicing, whether it's project quotation and also we want to get a customer satisfaction feedback as well So all of that should be automated ultimately, but if it isn't automated, have at least a checklist so that you can follow that through for yourself, if you're leading the account management process or with your team.

IAN

So, Stuart, you know just briefly before we wrap up, we're talking to clients every week about applying this process. You know, some of the stories that I've heard is one of the guys recalled that he'd sold virtually every client 15% and he never thought he could cause now he got a structure and he got all the, you know, we gave him all the e-mail templates, the agendas and all the bits and pieces. So he literally went in with this pack and what he needed to deliver other people are just reporting back that they've thought, you know, they've now had the confidence to have these difficult conversations cause this at the end of the day, this is asking for money, isn't it? But we're not actually asking for money. Saying can I have money? We're actually asking for money in a round about way of saying I want to add some more value and obviously increase your ability, but what are some of the moments that you've been speaking to some of the guys about when they've had some success with this?

STUART

Well, bottom line is, clients don't care unless you can. So you got to take the lead and when you set clients up, you know, you got to set up the process for care, you know, for caring for them and for them to care about technology. So I think that's the fundamental piece, but the bottom line is by doing this, you give yourself every chance of success to retain that client forever. If you don't do it, it will. Eventually you will become irrelevant because you're out of sight and out of mind, and the opportunity cost therefore is the loss of that client and that revenue. But the MSP model is so powerful that these people could be with you for 20 years and the compound effect of their contribution to your revenues and your profits is enormous. Especially if that's across every client that you take on, the other thing to remember is that assumptions are the termites of relationships. So if you're not seeing your clients and you're going, yeah, they don't need anything or yeah, they've got everything they need. You're making an assumption, and that is just one little chip away at a time at the relationship of then thinking you're valuable for what they need or you're there when they need you. So you I think you going to be really careful to not underestimate the power of this. And then ultimately, you know, just get started, get a consistent process going, do it consistently and then think about bringing in automation and the clever stuff, you know, many of our clients are looking at VCI Toolbox, Cloud radio and verisoft to linking in with cementum and IT quota and connect my cell you know to really automate the process that we talked about earlier.

But you don't have to start there. You don't have to start with all the automation. Just start with the checklist and the process and do it. Because it will put thousands and thousands of pounds into your pocket and keep them there year in year.

IAN

Just start. Just do it.

STUART

Just do it.

IAN

Just start. They're certainly not going to leave unless you've upset them, of course. And then we want to make sure you don't do that beforehand, but Stuart, as usual, absolute a bucket load of value some real tactics there on account management across the last three podcasts. So guys, please pick these three up as you know a strategic tool in your MSP growth toolbox, episodes 136, 137, 138 will go down in history.

Thanks again, Stuart, for your, for your time today and again, if you're curious about you know where your business is right now, I want to scale it. It's a bit clunky. It's not quite working. I'm working too many hours, then come and take the MSP mastery quiz and you can help score your business. And get, you know, a really reckon on where you're at with its ability to score, get a free report tells you what you need to do, tells you the part of the MSP journey that you're in. And it's absolutely going to help you out as you know, kind of a stage one when you start thinking about these things.

So that's it for me today. Thanks ever so much again, Stuart for your time and effort putting this podcast together. I look forward to catching up with you on the next one.

STUART

Welcome. Take care everyone.

IAN

Cheers now.

OUTRO

So I hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, I'd love it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to learn more about how to take your MSP to a million, or if you're already there, go faster then come and join Stuart Warwick and myself in the Scale of Confidence. Facebook group. Link’s on the Show Notes. You go and enjoy the rest of your day and. I look forward to connecting with you soon.