MSP Success - Volume 2 Issue 5

MSP SUCCEESSS MAGAZINE

How Your Employees Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Marketing Efforts — And What To Do About It

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5 STEPS TO BUILDING AN ‘EXTRAORDINARILY’ SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS AND LIFE Words Of Wisdom By Dr. Nido Qubein, Award-Winning Speaker, Author, And President of High Point University

Mission Critical: The Huge CMMC Opportunity For MSPs

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Success Secrets For 7-Figure Growth: How To Profit No Matter What The Economy Does

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SEPTEMBER 2021

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VOLUME 2.5 SEPTEMBER 2021 CONTENTS 16 22 10 Surefire Ways To Destroy A Quality Lead 24 3 Ways For MSPs To Make ‘No’ Work For You 26 Be Inspired

4 From Success To Significance 6

12 How To Acquire A Large Number Of Customers In The Most Efficient, Expedient Way Possible 14 Why MSPs Should NEVER Give Away Free Cybersecurity Services 20 Success Secrets For 7-Figure Growth: How To Profit No Matter What The Economy Does

Mission Critical: The Huge CMMC Opportunity For MSPs 8 How Your Employees Are Secretly Sabotaging Your Marketing Efforts — And What To Do About It 11 Back To School: Top 5 Certifications For MSP Technicians

Five Steps To Building An ‘Extraordinarily’ Successful Business And Life

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LETTER FROM THE EDI TOR

From Success To Significance

According to Dr. Phil in his book “Self Matters,” you can trace who you’ve become in this life down to three external factors: 10 defining moments, seven critical choices, and five pivotal people. In some cases, these are negative experiences, choices, and people who have forever left their stain on you. In other cases, like for me with the man in this month’s cover story, they are intensely positive and have inspired, led, and mentored you to become the best version of yourself. I first saw Dr. Nido Qubein speak at a marketing conference back in 2008. At the time, I was in the early days of getting my business started, and I ran into a client, Jeff Johnson (who now leads our Big Red Media division), who was also attending. I nearly skipped Dr. Qubein’s evening session because I had never heard of him before and thought to myself, “What could I possibly learn from the president of a university?” Dumb, I know. Thankfully, Jeff convinced me to stay, assuring me that this was prob - ably someone I’d really like to see — and he was right. For the rest of Dr. Qubein’s presentation, I was mesmerized. He had such an endearing and compelling way of engaging with the audience, and his message, “How To Be A Godiva In A World Of Hershey Kisses,” was both profound and entertaining to see. I knew I needed more.

Founder And CEO, Technology Marketing Toolkit, Inc.

From there, I made a point to learn from and engage with him in various ways, starting with buying and reading his books, bringing him to speak to my clients on multiple occasions (they NEVER tire of his message), enrolling in his mentoring program, and bringing groups to High Point University to see his brilliance in action. He never disappoints. In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and spend time with dozens of high-performance people, from all the Sharks on “Shark Tank” to icons like Buzz Aldrin and sports legends like Mike Ditka and Peyton Manning. Out of all of them, I can tell you that I have never met a more intelligent, high-in - tegrity, hardworking, and generous entrepreneur than Dr. Qubein. He is a gift to this world and on my personal list of the five most pivotal people I’ve met in my life. One of the key lessons I’ve learned from him is to set a higher standard than “success” for myself and my organization — one of significance . To do that requires you to develop yourself and your organization to inspire excellence by being excellent. To be transformational to the people I work with and for, not just transactional . To elevate myself from a “sea of sameness” and never settle for mediocrity in anything or “good enough.” If you ever get the opportunity to go to High Point University, take it. I guarantee it will be one of the most inspirational experiences of your life. Bonus: I’ve posted a video clip of Dr. Qubein onstage at the 2019 Boot Camp where he last spoke

Dr. Nido Qubein, inspiring the audience at the 2019 IT Sales And Marketing Boot Camp

that I believe you’ll find inspiring at MSPSuccessMagazine.com/qubein. n

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ON THE HOR I ZON

Mission Critical: The Huge CMMC Opportunity For MSPs

Protecting Your Business From Total Annihilation.” “The new battles are being fought in cyberspace, and America relies on the supply chain that can be at risk of cyberattack. At the end of the day, the CMMC helps protect us from our enemies.” Full implementation into all new Department of Defense (DoD) contracts will take five years, but in the meantime, an interim rule kicked in on Nov. 30, 2020, with tough require - ments for all new and renewing contracts: * A self-assessment, reviewing implementation of 110 cybersecurity controls defined in NIST SP 800-171 * A System Security Plan (SSP) that provides the details of the environment and implementation of the controls * A Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) that defines which controls are not addressed and specific time frames and plans for implementation CMMC compliance is particularly important to MSPs that work directly and/or indirectly with the U.S. federal government. Many of the organizations that these requirements apply to are often small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) without the internal IT resources to perform the assessment or prepare the documentation. Roll it all together, and CMMC compliance could play a big role in helping MSPs mitigate their own cyber risks while also doing their part to protect the United States. “Compliance isn’t just an opportunity for MSPS, it is the oppor- tunity,” says Mike Semel of Semel Consulting & Semel Systems. The Ground Floor Opportunity For MSPs MSPs that are paying attention have a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this development and expand their compliance offerings. If MSPs have any clients that currently do business with the DoD, they now have serious new IT assessment requirements related to their cybersecurity practices that need documentation. And if they don’t have any clients in the DoD supply chain, the estimated 300,000 businesses that make it up will create a demand for compliance services that will certainly outweigh supply in the immediate future. The CMMC is broken down into five levels that build on each other. It is estimated that about half of all DoD contracts will only require CMMC Level 1 because many contractors do not store

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requires the approximately 300,000 defense industrial base (DIB) contractors to improve their security posture in order to earn contracts with the U.S. federal government. Even more recently, President Biden’s executive order on improving the nation’s cybersecurity specifically mentioned the need for IT service providers to bolster their cyber initiatives. Ultimately, the CMMC injects more defense contractor accountability into the protection and privacy of sensitive government contract information. “Being cybersecurity-ready is mission critical for these businesses, and MSPs are in the thick of it,” explains Leia Shi - lobod, CEO of InTech Solutions and author of “Cyber Warfare:

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Opportunity 2: CMMC Document And Artifact Creation A key component of any compliance program is documentation. If organiza - tions can’t prove that they do (or did) the right things at the right time, they will fail an audit or assessment review. MSPs and MSSPs won’t be able to certify their own clients due to conflicts of interest. But clients will see a great return on the time and money they invest in their MSP to prepare for the independent assessment by a C3PAO. Opportunity 3: Ongoing CMMC Compliance Management While SMBs will undoubtedly need assistance in obtaining their certification, an even bigger opportunity is in helping them maintain compliance during the three-year term of their certificate. In addition to adding many more con - trols to the certification requirements, Level 3 also states that a contractor must have an ongoing assessment and review of its security performance in place and must maintain ongoing documentation. The current requirement under the NIST SP 800-171 certification is for periodic review and updating of the System Security Plan as well. “MSPs that have committed to deliv - ering their IT and security services more efficiently through documentation can now take their documentation to the next level and monetize it through a Com - pliance-as-a-Service offering,” says Max Pruger, General Manager of Compliance at Kaseya. “By helping SMBs navigate the evolving CMMC guidelines, MSPs can build their businesses while keeping organizations safe from cybercriminals.” Getting Support The certification process involves many layers and can feel overwhelming and time-consuming. MSPs don’t have to go at it alone and should leverage the guidance of solutions providers working in the space to navigate the process and ensure documentation is aligned with actual environments. It may feel cumbersome, but there is tremendous opportunity for MSPs as demand for compliance services surges. MSPs will also be doing their part to protect the country, and themselves, from potential cyberattacks. n

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Contractors storing or processing CUI will be required to comply at Level 3 or above.

Tools To Help Kaseya’s Compliance Manager for CMMC automates the rigorous security assessment process laid out by the Department of Defense. MSPs can now help their clients navigate Levels 1–3 of CMMC and the NIST 800-171 interim rule. The CMMC IT Documentation Toolkit from inTech fills in the policy gap. They will assess your systems, configurations, policies, and procedures for alignment with NIST 800-171 and the CMMC Level you need to certify and provide a remediation plan to close the gaps. Their simple yet effective documentation and policies are just what you need to protect your customers — and yourself. To shortcut your success and get your entire company on board quickly, check out “CMMC for Profit,” which is available from Semel Systems. It includes hours of training videos, templates and checklists, an interim rule scoring tool, policies, and other things you can use to quickly be seen as an authority in this space.

Level 1 – BASIC CYBER HYGIENE includes 17 of the NIST SP 800-171 cybersecurity controls and is intended to safeguard FCI. It requires basic cybersecurity controls but does not require them to be documented. Level 2 – INTERMEDIATE CYBER HYGIENE is considered a transitional step toward the protection of CUI. It includes the Level 1 require - ments plus 55 more, for a total of 72. Documentation is required. Level 3 – GOOD CYBER HYGIENE is the lowest certification level required to protect CUI. It includes all 110 practices in NIST SP 800-171, plus 20 additional practices. Level 4 – PROACTIVE (156 PRACTICES) AND LEVEL 5 – ADVANCED/PROGRESSIVE (171 PRACTICES) include additional practices designed to protect against advanced persistent threats (APTs). It is expected that a very small percentage of contracts will include requirements at these levels. Opportunity 1: CMMC Readiness Service Each prime contractor — and all its subcontractors — will ultimately need to achieve at least CMMC Level 1 certification (and most are at a Level 3). The demand is going to be huge, well beyond the supply of Certified Third-Party Assessor Organizations (C3PAO) required to perform the independent certification assessments. And when the time comes for the independent assessment, contractors who are more prepared will experience a faster and less expensive assessment. There are very specific cybersecurity requirements that must be met, and there needs to be documented evidence to prove it. While only an independent C3PAO can provide the certification, clients will be relying on their MSPs to perform the initial internal “readiness assessment” and to gather up the evidence of compliance.

MARKET ING INS IGHTS

How Your Employees Are Screwing Up, Sabotaging, And Sinking Your Marketing Efforts — And What To Do About It

E arlier this year, I bought a beach house on the Florida panhandle in an area that the locals call “30A,” which is the name of the road running through all the little beach towns between Panama City and Destin. The house was newly constructed and came semi-fur - nished. Wanting to change some of the furniture and buy a considerable amount more, I contacted the designer who was hired by the builder to furnish the home. Of course, I didn’t get a live answer but voicemail, so I left a message. Not hearing back, I made a point of driving to their retail store to see if I could get help in ordering additional furniture. Upon entering, I was not greeted by anyone and walked around for a good 15 minutes before finally tracking down someone who worked there (I almost wrote “who could help me,” but you’ll see why I changed the wording in a minute). She said I would have to talk to the actual designer for my specific house, and she couldn’t know who that was(!). She gave me a number to call where I could find out, leaving me to walk out empty-handed when I had come in ready and eager to buy. Stunningly stupid. No name captured and no attempt to try and sell me something — a ready-to-buy customer who drove to the location seeking to buy furniture. Easy pickings. Perhaps she’s not been told or taught that

— and certainly no training for how salespeople put on the showroom floor to sell should handle prospects walking in. Since the store visit, I’ve called twice, leaving messages, with no response so far. I’ve since given up and gone elsewhere, spending roughly $100,000 with a competitor. Now, maybe they’re so successful they don’t need the business. Maybe . Or perhaps you think this is just my luck, since I seem to run into all kinds of businesses out there that seem to go out of their way to make it difficult for me to give them money. However, I can assure you this scenario is one that’s played out again and again in various types of businesses I’ve attempted to buy from: salons, restaurants, doctors' offices, banks, you name it. It’s rampant . Selling — and following up with prospects — is, at best, treated like an afterthought in most companies and a major inconvenience in others. The owner forgets that the purpose of the busi - ness is to bring in clients and sales, not just “do the work.” Left unchecked, this total lack of structure for selling robs you of untold profits. It suppresses the return of every marketing dollar you invest and lowers your net worth. If, like me, you want to reach financial independence and true wealth as fast as you can, you’re a fool to not pay attention to how new prospective customers are greeted, handled, and followed up on (minimum). Are you lacking a strategy for maximizing every lead, every customer, and every everything in your business? The first step in fixing this is an acceptance that it’s your job as the owner to ensure all employees are told, trained, and managed to ensure that new opportunities, leads, prospects, and even clients are handled properly so that

that’s her job to actu - ally sell to customers who come in. My guess is that there’s been zero thought put into what should happen

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NO opportunity is missed, overlooked, or BURNED . Now, here’s a list of ways your employees are sabotaging your marketing and your business. 1 Ignoring Your Procedures, Processes, Scripts, And Rules And Doing Whatever THEY Want To Do I often remind my sales team that there’s not 100 “best” ways to close a sale, overcome an objection, or book an appointment. There’s one best way — let’s find out what that way is and rinse and repeat. Since we’ve already done a lot of testing and refinement to find a system that works, I do not want you to come in and deviate from that recipe unless we are doing so as a controlled test to see if we can beat the best methods we have. Not innovate, not “sort of” say things that way, but follow the process. Of course, a lot of people don’t want to be that disciplined in their speech and methods, and those people need to have their futures freed up (fired). 2 Telling Prospects And Customers Your Prices Are Too High Twice, I’ve had a salesperson look me in the eye and whisper that I ought to go buy from a competitor, and/or they give me an alternative place to purchase what I was thinking about buying. The other day, while in a cosmetics store, another customer commented to her husband, who was standing next to her, about the prices being high. The clerk, overhearing what she said, snidely replied, “The owners love to mark the prices up on everything around here and take pride in overcharging everyone,” implying she agreed with the customer and that the owners were greedy bastards who

found glee in “sticking it” to their clients. Another friend of mine was sitting in a dental practice when he overheard a patient complaining about the fees he was being charged. The secretary replied, “I know. I have a friend working at another dental practice that doesn’t charge anywhere near what we charge and does just as good a job, but the doctor just bought a new Jaguar and has to pay for it somehow …” No, I’m not kidding. And if you don’t think that conversation is going on somewhere in your business, with your techs and even your salespeople, you’re grossly mistaken. It does happen and will happen, unless you are on the watch for it. 3 Treating Inbound Leads And Calls From Pros- pects As An Annoying, Bothersome Interrup- tion That Should Be Ignored (If Possible) Or At Least Dealt With As Swiftly And Plainly As Possible They are not eagerly jumping to answer the phone but letting it roll to voicemail. If they happen to pick up, their annoyance with the “interruption” is obvious in their voice. They make no effort to capture the name and full contact details of the person who called and don’t try to facilitate the sale by booking a consultation or appoint - ment and promising to send out follow-up information by email and mail. They answer the questions fired at them as simply as possible, offering the laziest “I don’t know” and “I can’t help you with that” answers, and hang up. The end. Remember, your hottest leads are going to call your office. If you’ve not scripted out what’s supposed to happen, formulated answers to frequently asked ques - tions, and trained theperson answering the phone on the best way to handle that opportunity, start there.

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4 Hiding Incomplete Work And Skipped Steps: Fol- low-Up Calls, Documentation, Sending Information, Making The Calls They Said They Would Make, Etc. This is where a good CRM/marketing automation platform and dialer comes in handy. If you ask a salesperson if they hit their prospecting quota (and you have given them one, right?), they will almost always give you an enthusiastic “Yes!” Go check. Years ago, when I was working in sales at CGI Systems, the manager hired a sales assistant to help me and the other reps by entering inbound leads into our CRM, organizing, and cleaning them for us to follow up with (back then, we received a lot of fax-back forms and direct mail response forms). One day, she quit without notice to sell Herbalife, so I went through her desk to pick up the pieces. What I found was two big draw - ers of paper leads from prospects that were not processed and not entered into the CRM, but stuffed into a drawer to be forgotten about. Both drawers were so full I could barely open them. This may seem like an extreme example, but over and over again, I see salespeople skipping steps, not making calls, not following the script, not leaving notes, etc. I recently had to fire a rep because she simply refused to follow the steps and cost us two sales, and if it’s going on in my organization where we train, script, and manage tightly, I can absolutely guarantee this is going on in your organization too. 5 Falsifying Sales Statistics This is similar to the above but worth noting. I often get told a campaign “isn’t working,” only to find out that the sales or marketing team is outright lying about the >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28

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