mspgrowth

Show Website: https://mspbusinessschool.com/

 

Guest

Name: Greg Sharp https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-sharp-2598713/

Trevor Thoams – https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-thomas-yyc/

Company: ZenContract https://www.zencontract.com/

 

Hosts

Brian Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briandoyl...

Robb Rogers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robb-roge...

Tim McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timmcneil3/

 

Sponsors

vCIOToolbox: https://vciotoolbox.com

OSR Manage: https://osrmanage.com

 

Greg Sharp & Trevor Thomas – Contract Chaos No More 

 

Greg Sharp, a CISSP-qualified IT security engineer, is the Managing Director of ZenContract, a company with team members in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Canada. With 30 years of experience in the IT industry, he has served on advisory boards for Datto, Autotask, Dropbox, Microsoft, and Cisco in the APAC region. Greg is currently on three MSP advisory boards and has been a director of multiple businesses. He built and sold three MSP businesses, including the latest one sold to a division of the New Zealand government for a record-breaking multiplier. This process and systems led to the creation of ZenContract, which allows MSPs to fully own contract and agreement management. Greg leads a dream team of specialists, forming a culture that automates and enhances MSP contract management for all MSPs. 

6:45 – Brian stated that contract management is a key difficulty in MSPs because many contracts become open-ended at the contract point. 

9:51 – Tim’s focused on assisting MSPs in growing their sales departments and dealing with the complexity that comes from big clients. They've been talking with a client about how to get the service manager to work and get an accurate picture of their client base. The discussion attempts to assist clients in improving their sales departments and streamlining their contracts.

11:03 – Greg offered a glimpse of AOR over 12, 24, and 36 months, noting that their MSPs will be evaluated using a multiplier of contracted revenue. As they have contracted revenue for one to three years, this technique creates a sense of stability and assurance. The formula may be a combination of these criteria, offering a reliable assessment of the worth of their MSPs.

15:41 – Greg said that ConnectWise and Auto Task are currently quite well integrated with the system. They are now working on Halo, which will be released soon. The system incorporates price, work kinds, inventory, and other data at the client level. Because the solution does not play in CPQ distribution streams, they must include recurring monthly contracts. The PSA believes it is critical to bring this up for discussion. Halo is another price quoting tool, however, it is not specifically designed for managing recurring monthly revenue.

20:26 – Tim noted the ease with which account managers and VCIOs may access QBR, adding that it eliminates concerns regarding signature difficulties. He recalls incidents in the MSP world where a single signature caused problems.

21:38 – Greg mentioned that MSPs are also employing templates for project variation sign-offs, which allows them to deliver scope variations for signatures in the middle of a project. These templates are immediately saved in the PSA against opportunities or contracts, capturing all components of the solution negotiation process. This tool assists MSPs in managing project variances and ensuring the project negotiation process runs smoothly.

24:22 – Trevor expressed interest in working on the channel because he is familiar with several of the characters. He is looking forward to the pitching program and IT Nation Connect, which will focus on webinar strategies.

 

George Bardissi is the Founder and CEO of three companies: Bardissi Enterprises, an MSP based in Philadelphia, PA; bvoip, a channel-only firm that works with other MSPs around the world in the Cloud Communications Space; and MSP Initiative, which was founded in the middle of the 2020 pandemic, as a community and networking entity to help bridge the gap between IT Service Providers and MSPs to collaborate in new ways. In this episode, they talked about Breaking the Boundaries of MSP Growth

2:48 – George stated that he mastered many of the skills he possessed at an early age largely on his own and that he quickly became involved in them. He started an IT services business when he was still a high school student. He was really apprehended entering the school on a weekend when other activities, such as building an access point in the cafeteria, are taking place.

6:25 – Sade recalls her fortunate accident entry into the MSP world. Someone she had previously worked with in 2017 was in and out of the MSP sandbox. From that point on, George pretty much took her under his wing and just sort of showed her a little bit of everything, and from that point on, she actually began to gain a true understanding of what exactly the MSP land is like.

11:38 – Brian says it's nice to see the community now taking conferences and extending them out a little bit farther, as well as adding other choices for participants to come together and finish the day in a different way.

16:58 – George responds to Brian's question on how to delegate and scale up. He believes the most important thing he can tell people is to see Gary V.

20:36 – Tim says that one of the things that they do on a daily basis is hiring salespeople for MSPs all across the nation, and it's kind of amazing how, just a year ago, the mindset had changed so that candidates suddenly had more negotiating power than they had ever had in interviews. However, he will admit that he does feel like it's beginning to turn back a little bit—certainly not to the extent it once did, but it is unquestionably beginning to turn back.

22:37 – Sade stated that right now, all efforts are focused on the new type of structured events that MSP is holding, namely the MSP Community Mines.