I ’ m an implementer , so when we spent money we didn ’ t really have on this program , I was going all-in . I would stay up night and day implementing and putting a marketing plan together , and then we started to see leads come in . Once we started to see leads come in , we were like , “ Okay , we ’ re not closing any of them .” I was basically telling the prospect , “ These are all the things we ' re going to do for you . This is why we ’ re such a great company .” But nobody was buying . I remember Robin saying , “ You need to change your mindset .”
I thought no one in Rochester was going to pay this big lump sum of money every month . People would only call us when there was a computer issue . But we changed our mindset , and she taught us the value of this intangible thing . It ’ s a service , and we learned from her that at the end of the day , people want peace of mind that your company is going to take care of their IT so they can focus on their business . Once we got the lingo going and the sales process down , we just started to mature . We were maturing in both our service processes and sales and marketing , so when we brought them together , we really started to see our business take off .
Between the mergers and everything else , you ’ ve had a fantastic year . What was the big thing that happened this year ?
It ’ s really never one thing . It ’ s the whole system . It also starts with the mindset . We want to think bigger , so every year , we ask , “ Okay , how do we surpass last year ’ s goal ?” And it gets harder and harder , right ? For example , to get bigger , it just can ’ t be us out there selling . It can ’ t just be us out there doing all the marketing .
We hired a lot of salespeople first , but it didn ' t work out . So , we were like , “ Okay , it can ’ t just be limited to me selling . How do we scale this ?” So , what we ended up doing was hiring a sales administrator who was a junior sales person right out of college , who shadowed me for nine months . Then we sent him off on his own , so that ’ s the model that ’ s been working for us lately .
What are the top three metrics you use to measure your business and why ?
Early on , we decided that managed services and MMR were where we wanted to focus . MMR is the gift that just keeps giving . So , if we get a prospect that tells us about a project only and there ’ s no MMR potential , we actually don ’ t even take it on because having that laser-sharp focus on the MMR goal and what number we need to hit is really the driver in us achieving .
We are also very , very sales- and marketing-focused at this point , so we put effort into making sure we are doing enough outreach . We have been with Robin since 2009 , and we ’ ve implemented all her marketing principles . We do some offline , online , and a mixture of both . We ’ re constantly putting ourselves out into the market by doing seminars , getting on boards , getting on nonprofits , and organizing things . Being out in the community has really helped us gain recognition . It ’ s out of our comfort zones . Most of us are engineers . We ’ re introverted people , so I think the more we stretch ourselves out of the comfort zone , the more we are a growth-oriented company . Our whole culture is built around growth , so I think that helps a lot .
Third , we implemented the EOS traction operating system five years ago , and we really run our entire business with that concept , including the Level 10 meetings and setting the 10-year , five-year , and quarterly rocks . We ’ re all aligned with it , and we know what priorities we ’ re working on .
We also have the accountability group that I ’ m in with Robin and HTG , which has evolved . It really helps us to be with likeminded business owners in noncompeting markets and share what ’ s working for who instead of reinventing .
Do you have an impactful business or thought leader who has influenced your style ?
It is Robin . We didn ’ t even know what managed services was when we first started . It was just break-fix . And the vendors — we had no idea who Kaseya was , who ConnectWise was , or who any of these people were . Because we started to get more clients , we needed tools to manage them . We couldn ’ t do it manually anymore . Then there are the speakers she brings in , like Nido Qubein . I do all my seminars modeled after the way he does his . With all these little tidbits I ’ ve picked up from the speakers she ’ s brought in , I think she ’ s revolutionized the whole industry .
Do you have any words of wisdom you ’ d like to pass on ?
So , I ’ ve been getting out of the comfort zone and into celebrity status . A couple years ago , when I came to Robin ’ s thing , there was Nick Nanton and that " American Pickers " guy , Mike Wolfe . Mike Wolfe basically said he ’ s had his antique anthropology shop for years . No one ever came to it . Once he got his cable show and became a celebrity , there ’ s been a line around the corner to come into his antique store . Again , for a little introverted engineer , that was not easy for me , but I said , “ Okay , these are the people who are telling us what to do .” So , I started putting a focused effort on becoming a minicelebrity in my area , and that ’ s when we started to see the marketing pay off even more .
I do everything from speaking engagements to this thing called RochesterRockstars . com , where I go out and interview other success-minded people for short , 10-minute videos and profile them . The local business journal picked them up . They called me and said , “ We saw you do this thing . Will you blog about it on our Sunday ’ s business section ?” So it has really grown .
The more you put yourself out there in the community , the more it all pays off . I think the big thing is that people are always looking for their shiny penny , but you should focus on what you already know ( the fundamentals ), put in the hard work , and go for the stuff that makes you uncomfortable . It builds a great business . n
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