DEAR EM ESPY
MSP Relationship
RESCUE
EXPERT ADVICE ON EVERYTHING MSP
Dear Em Espy ,
We all know “ the customer is always right ,” but IRL , I have a customer who is often dead wrong . What strategies can I use to get the right solution in place without wounding their ego , or worse , losing their business ? Signed , Right But Not Self-Righteous
Dear Right But Not Self-Righteous ,
Oh , how we all love to be right ! And there ’ s nothing more satisfying than smugly proving a point . Probably not the best business practice though , LOL . So , I reached out to Don Crawley , a customer service expert and author of The Compassionate Geek for a better way to interact with Mr . Know It All . Here ’ s what he said :
“ When you have a customer who feels like they have all the answers and they ’ re flat out wrong on some of them , you can finesse it by saying things like , ‘ Well , yes , I hadn ’ t thought about that .' . . . Without actually saying , ‘ No , that ’ s wrong ,’ present them with data-driven ideas about what works better for other clients to make the argument that maybe there ’ s some other way to look at it .”
And for the client who stubbornly wants to hang on to ( egads ) something like a Windows 95 , he suggests :
“ Sometimes you have to say , ‘ Based on the software licenses that you have , based on the equipment you have , we ’ re going to run into problems if we try to do that . So here are some alternatives .’ And the key is always to have alternatives so that they never feel like you left him hanging .”
So , there you go , you both can be “ right ”!
Dear Em Espy ,
I get so little attention from my vendors , I feel like I ’ m wearing Harry Potter ’ s Invisibility Cloak ! Am I under an evil spell ? What ’ s the best way for me to be seen and get some love for my MSP business ? Signed , Invisible And Unloved
Dear Invisible And Unloved ,
If I had a wizard ’ s wand , I would gladly wave it , but since I don ’ t , I consulted long-time channel veteran Dave Sobel , who ’ s been both an MSP and a vendor . Here ’ s what he said :
“ The number one piece of advice I can give anybody in this space is stop making it about you and make it about them . When a partner came to me and said , ‘ Well , I need more from you ,’ you know what that is code for ? You need me to do stuff for you , and I have no promise of anything else coming from it .
“ If you want to have a good relationship with your vendor , you need to understand what the vendor is motivated by . Who ’ s your rep ? How are they compensated ? Align what you ’ re doing and what your needs are with their compensation .”
What does that mean ? He advises you to ask your rep how they measure success . If consumption of license units is a metric , ask what percentage growth would be considered significant . If it ’ s 10 %, ask what specifically you can do to achieve that number .
“ Now you ’ ve got my attention , because now you are directly helping me as a vendor hit my goals ,” Sobel says .
Abracadabra ! You are seen !
Dear Em Espy ,
I feel like an AI sandwich ! My SMB customers are pushing me to help them utilize it , and my employees are pushing me for training to keep their skills current . I ’ m still trying to figure out if this is an “ impossible burger ” or real red meat . Signed , AI Yi Yi
Dear AI Yi Yi ,
So tempted to let ChatGPT answer . . . but let me bring in a real human , Steve White , program vice president , channels and alliances , IDC :
“ Partners need to have a position on that , and they need to roll out a service around it . Say you ’ re a small MSP , you ’ ve got a chain of cupcake shops you ’ re servicing , [ you ] are going to want to talk to those small businesses about AI . In every business process , there ’ s going to be an opportunity to leverage AI to improve the way they ’ re doing work . . . . So internally , [ MSPs ] need to get up to speed themselves and they need AI to improve their own processes .”
Now you know . Lay on the ketchup and take a bite !
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