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Sales Best Practices: How We Grew our MSP [FREE Webinar Download]

Watch Our Free Sales Best Practices Webinar: Lessons Learned from Building our MSP Back in action with another webinar geared towards Managed Services and IT Services Providers, the Growth Team at ...
Watch Our Free Sales Best Practices Webinar: Lessons Learned from Building our MSP Back in action with another webinar geared towards Managed Services and IT Services Providers, the Growth Team at BrightGauge recently shared the tips and tricks they used to grow their MSP 10x in 5 years. Featuring our co-founder and CEO, Eric Dosal and joined by our Director of Sales, Larry Garcia, this 35-minute tutorial is another popular topic in our ongoing BrightGauge Educational Webinar Series. As the duo talks about ways to increase your closure rates and unlock growth at your MSP by implementing a sales process, they'll cover several topics to get you started today on an implementation at your company: Implementing a simple process that works How we increased our closure rates by 40%+ with our process Leveraging the "Rainmaker Approach" to sales The key metrics you should be following Locking in customers to 3-year contracts with annual increases Review of our simplified contracts To download click the image above or this link
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Larry Garcia Promoted to Director of Sales at BrightGauge

On behalf of the entire BrightGauge Team we are extremely excited to announce the promotion of Larry Garcia to Director of Sales! Before BrightGauge After graduating from Florida State University, Larry moved into regional sales positions for mutual fund subsidiaries at Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. It was during this time where he realized his first (business) love - connecting with customers and advising them on their financial needs. When the need for change came calling, Larry spent a few years following another passion of his, teaching. His first stint in education brought him to Zamora, Spain where he taught high school English before heading back to Florida to instruct 7th grade Civics classes in Miami. While Larry enjoyed teaching, he also realized that he wanted to get back to the business world and was looking for an opportunity to jump into sales. [Enter BrightGauge.] The BrightGauge Era Larry started at BrightGauge as a Business Analytics Specialist and quickly worked his way up, becoming our Lead Business Developer. A man with many hats, Larry spent that time helping us build out our sales process, lead our roadshow events, and helped drive our sales campaigns. So, it was natural that when Larry’s experience at BrightGauge was combined with his unique ability to connect with customers, all signs pointed in the right direction… we knew he would be the perfect fit to become our Director of Sales! Looking forward As Director of Sales, Larry will now be fully responsible for the sales performance of the BrightGauge team including our customer acquisition strategy and revenue growth. And since teamwork is at the core of everything we do, he will also work directly with our Marketing crew to build our growth strategy. After-hours... When Larry is not following up with prospects and customers or crushing demos, you can find him enjoying the outdoors with his wonderful wife Celine. Larry has a passion for traveling and enjoys visiting Colombia, Spain, and France when the opportunity arises. Larry is also an avid triathlete and endurance athlete. Please join us in congratulating Larry as he grows with the BrightGauge team!

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Amanda McCluney joins BrightGauge as Marketing Coordinator

BrightGauge is excited to announce the latest addition to our Growth Team, welcoming Amanda McCluney as Marketing Coordinator! The Early Days Born and raised in North Carolina, Amanda packed her bags and headed for sunny skies in 2008, searching not only for better weather but also a more exciting place to live. But let’s back up for a minute and note that prior to the move, Amanda graduated from The Art Institute with a major in Interior Design. After school, she joined well-known design house Brunschwig & Fils but a few years in the industry came with the realization that she wanted to focus on other career opportunities. After a brief stint with a sports-industry publisher, she hit the road to Florida. Fast forward to the last few years where Amanda’s most recent adventure was Marketing Coordinator at AFS Acceptance, an automobile finance company in Fort Lauderdale. She loved the opportunity to build their social media platforms, manage internal and external communications and launch their business blog - but she also knew she wanted the opportunity to dive further into marketing. Especially if that opportunity came with a focus on the inbound methodology. Then BrightGauge crossed her path.... A New Chapter at BrightGauge Amanda’s days as Marketing Coordinator at BrightGauge will focus on creating our brand strategy and content. She looks forward to the opportunity to continue polishing her writing skills and helping us achieve our growth strategy. When we asked her about the best part of being a member of the BrightGauge team, it was clear that she’s excited about our close-knit group, learning an industry that’s new to her and also using some incredible resources and tools to accomplish her marketing goals. On a Personal Note Outside of the office, you’re likely to find Amanda making the most of all there is to do in South Florida. There’s always a new restaurant, a beach, an art event or a new wine bar/brewery to check out! Amanda also enjoys donating her time to volunteer efforts in our local community. Her time at home is always filled with entertainment courtesy of her nosy but well-meaning dog, Nina. We’re happy to have Amanda on board with the BrightGauge team and look forward to seeing her accomplish big things here!

Kristian Munoz joins BrightGauge as Customer Support Specialist

The Team at BrightGauge is excited to welcome Kristian Munoz, our new Customer Support Specialist! Pre-BrightGauge Kristian was born and raised in Miami, FL and is currently attending Florida International University pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information Technology. Before his days at FIU, Kristian graduated from Doral Academy Preparatory School, where he later worked as a Computer Lab Supervisor/Mediator assisting students with their virtual courses and basic computer needs. His time at Doral Academy inspired Kristian to pursue his passion for computers and so he began working as an IT Support Specialist for NetaCorp Technologies. Here he provided contract technical services to a gamut of customers ranging from K-12 schools to corporate accounts. The gig gave Kristian the opportunity to immerse himself in the technological world, but more importantly he also gained hands-on experience in the customer service aspect of his career! Being part of Team BrightGauge As a recent addition at BrightGauge, Kristian looks forward to broadening his career into the software application portion of the IT world. While he’s hustling to earn his chops, Kristian will also work with our clients to provide support and guidance for all their technical needs with BrightGauge software. His favorite part about being on Team BrightGauge is getting to work alongside such a diverse team that strives to serve others just as much as he does - while still growing stronger together in the goal-oriented and family-style environment that we’re proud to keep in our office. After office hours When he’s not anchoring the BrightGauge Customer Support team, Kristian is a very family oriented young man with a passion for music and craft beer. If he is not spending time with his girlfriend or family, you will most likely find him attending/participating in music events or visiting local breweries here in south Florida. We say Cheers to Kristian and welcome to the team!

Part 2: Lessons Learned from Starting, Growing & Selling our MSP

This is the 2nd post in a series of 6 based on a talk I gave titled 6 Lessons Learned from Starting, Growing and Selling my MSP Practice which has become my most popular topic when asked to speak. You can read about the first lesson here and download the complete slide deck here. Lesson #2 is on the importance of Investing In Customer Success. Customer Success was at the core of our growth strategy at our MSP and continues to play an important role at BrightGauge, especially during our biweekly team meetings. Customer Success may seem like a cost center but done properly it can be an incredible revenue generator and dramatically cut down churn. In this 8 ½ minute video I dive deep into how the main goal of Customers Success is to exceed customer expectations and how they can help grow your revenue. Video Timeline 0:00 - Introduction 2:48 - Investing in Customer Success 7:00 - Resources to Learn More

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Part 1: Lessons Learned from Starting, Growing & Selling our MSP

Last year I gave a talk on 6 Lessons Learned from Starting, Growing and Selling my MSP Practice and it has become my most popular topic when asked to speak. Several people have asked for a copy of the slide deck (you can download here) but I took it one step further and recorded the presentation to share with our BrightGauge community. The entire talk is pretty long so I broke it up into sections and below is Lesson #1, Put a Sales Process in Place. This is a topic I’ve shared before on this blog when I wrote about the 4 Steps of a Successful Sales Process and its a main theme in our Sales Best Practices Series. In the video recording I expand more on the topic sharing about how we turned this sales process into a machine for us to grow. To learn more best practice tips on how we grew our MSP 10X in 5 years please join us for our upcoming webinar => Sales Best Practices on May 13th at 11:00AM EST

5 Key Details You Need For Every Sales Opportunity

An opportunity without all the necessary information and data points is NOT a true opportunity. I’ve written before about how important a sales process is for your organization, and here is one of the next steps you need to take to elevate your sales process to the next level. Removing the "clutter" from your sales pipeline helps you more effectively evaluate the opportunity and helps you identify the most lucrative and well qualified leads. I've always managed my pipeline in the same way, and it's been extremely effective for me. One of my cardinal rules is all the data for an opportunity must be completely filled out before I consider it a true opportunity. Let me break this down a bit more with 5 critical components. Opportunity Type This is a critical piece of data. If your team is very good at predicting closure dates, you should be able to better plan your delivery capacity. Another way to track this information is to look at how this type of revenue has closed historically. Getting a feel for the trend information about this specific opportunity is a good way to determine future outcomes. If you need a refresher on revenue types, check out an earlier blog post on why revenue by type is a KPI you need to monitor, which details how we leverage that information effectively. Opportunity Amount In order to effectively fill in this type of data, you may need some help from another team member or resource to get the most realistic price points. For example, you may need some engineering support to help you scope the amount of hours for an infrastructure upgrade or back-up software deployment. You also need to determine if the opportunity is reasonable and realistic. I used to have a sales rep who would list out "Network Upgrade" because he constantly heard that buzzword during the meetings. Unfortunately, an upgrade could cost over $20,000, depending upon the sophistication of the network, so until the amount is better qualified it’s tough to judge it’s validity. Opportunity Next Step In an earlier post, I described how creating and enforcing a sales process that included a next step increased my closure rates by 40%. In my experience, this is the most important part of the opportunity. Opportunity Status You need to be well aware of the status and progress of every opportunity within your sales process and be able to identify when an opportunity might be "stuck". Some companies create a complicated process with a ton of steps, but I believe you can streamline this process into four steps, Connect, Qualify, Evaluate, Decision. Opportunity Expected Close Date Have you ever reviewed the opportunities in your pipeline and realized they all have the same month's end close date. If and when the deadline passes, you or your sales team simply updates the Expected Close Date to the next month's end. If you're not experiencing this then your sales team is meeting every close date and is the greatest on the planet. I know its difficult to predict close dates, and the power tends to lie in the customer's hands, but it's important to have estimated close dates. Accurate estimated close dates help you better manage your long and short term resources. None of these steps are rocket science, but they do require discipline and organization in order to ensure all the steps are completed properly and the data points are filled out. If nothing else, these simple steps will encourage your sales team to input only real opportunities, force your sales reps to properly qualify the opportunities by investigating and documenting the right information, and be more thoughtful before slapping a bunch of random items into your pipeline. Organizing your sales process takes a little planning, but eliminating excess information and clutter from your sales pipeline allows you and your sales team to focus on the most qualified opportunities.

6 Ways to Make Metrics Useful to Your Business

With the increase of measurement processing, recording and entry into databases, metrics have become integral for every business. Metrics applied to measuring customer acquisition, retention rates, service efficiency, and time entry give businesses information to act with confidence. With so much information, having the right tools to interpret data is extremely important. Metrics, often overwhelming, are usually relegated to big companies with big budgets and mathematicians on staff. With the right software, metrics do not have to be overwhelming or require programmers and engineers on staff. Companies like BrightGauge offer solutions that provide the following six ways to increase the usefulness of metrics to your business. Access your businesses data: Servers, cloud hosting sites and many other programs generate data. The right software will bring all these data streams into one location. Consolidate data: Data can be overwhelming. The right software takes the different measurements, statistics, and single pieces of information; it organizes the data so that you can use it. Allow for customized metrics: Applying different metrics to data quickly and efficiently is one of the most powerful aspects of high speed computing and big data. Intuitive metric management: Customized metrics can overwhelm the average user if it is not managed intuitively. Software that manages metrics needs to be intuitive so that small businesses can tap into their data without excessive training fees or staffing. Create unique, custom visuals: Humans process most of our information visually. To communicate from a data to a human, the metrics need to be presented visually. Good software will make metrics visual to the user. Generate useful reports: Visuals are enhanced greatly when data is organized and reported. With the right tools, your business can make use of the data that your current software and management tools are generating constantly. To be able to access, organize and review data is highly valuable. Metrics do not have to overwhelm you, there are many solutions available to give you the tools to use metrics to your advantage. To learn how you can Improve Your Business with KPIs please download out latest white paper:

Managing the Flow of Tickets Between The 5 Important Stages

In our last Service Operations Best Practices we discussed the definition of the 5 Most Important Service Ticket Statuses Every Team Needs To Manage but now let’s turn that into practical action on some tips on how to best a ticket that flows through each of the statuses and what it means. For those of you that are Connectwise Partners you can also use these statuses to manage your SLAs, to learn more please download this slide deck New => Assigned - the first step in the process should be to move into the Assigned status. Moving the ticket from New to Assigned allows you to respond to your customer acknowledging their request (SLA). This communication can (and should be) automated so they know you’re aware of their issue. Its important to track the time between New to Assigned or 1st Response. Below are two of the most popular examples of how you can track it, either with a Number Gauge (that changes colors based on thresholds) or if you want to see a longer term trend: Assigned => In Progress - once a team member is ready to work on a ticket they should change the status to In Progress. A small subset of customers will introduce an automated communication to their customer when this change happens. The challenge with this step is many times team members will push back saying they can’t keep “updating tickets” every time they start and stop working on an issue. The reality is this is true and therefore the data should be reviewed carefully. For those of you using Connectwise, below is a sample on how you can monitor the amount of time before a ticket gets worked on: Any Status => Resolved - Once the work has been fully completed on a request the ticket should be moved to a Resolved status indicating the work is complete. This is a great communication point to notify your customer that the work is completed and ask them for confirmation. Measuring the amount of time it takes to Resolve tickets is one of our most popular metrics and this is a metric you’ll want to monitor over the longer term as well (see screenshot of 30 day trending average). Any Status => Pending - A ticket should be in the pending status when its “pending” some other action and that action may be in the hands of the requester (waiting for feedback or for them to return) or from your team (waiting for help or escalation) or 3rd party (waiting for a part). If you are managing your team with SLAs then this status should “stop the clock” if its anything besides waiting on your team. Meaning if the pending is not controlled by your team then it should stop the clock. It’s important to be aware of this distinction and just know how your system is set up so you don’t run into issues. The most important part of this process is to make sure it’s documented and shared amongst the team so everyone is on the same page.

5 Most Important Service Ticket Statuses Every Team Needs To Manage

This is a the 2nd post in a series of posts based on our Best Practices for Service Ticket KPIs. You can read the first post here: Open & Closed In this post we’re going to dive into Ticket Statuses and how this critical component of a ticket can provide tremendous insight into how your team is performing and if there are any bottlenecks in the process. But first, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page regarding the different types of Ticket Statuses and what they each mean. With over 10 years of experience running customer support teams that have ranged from 1 person to 30+ people, I have found that the more simple your ticket statuses are the more value you will get from the data it provides. When I meet with customers and review their Service Team Metrics I’m shocked at the number of ticket statuses companies have. In my experience a ticket can only be in one of 5 statuses at any given time and the closer you keep the statuses to these 5 simple ones the easier it becomes to manage all the tickets (note, these status types are not just for service tickets it can cross over to any type of work). The 5 statuses are New, Assigned, In Progress, Pending, and Resolved. Every other status that you have on your tickets right now are simply sub-statuses from these main ones. New means the request has been submitted but your team has not responded (key for those that track SLAs) and most probably has not reviewed it either. Every request begins in this state. Assigned means the request has been reviewed and “assigned” to someone to begin working on it. This should be the first step in the request’s journey through your process and allows you to confirm with the customer that you are aware of their request (think response times for SLAs). In Progress means the request is actively being worked on by one of the team members. The number of “In Progress” tickets does not need to equal the number of team members, i.e. everyone is working on a single ticket, because the reality is team members may work on multiple tickets (that’s ideal). Pending means that the person working on the ticket is at a stopping point waiting for some action to occur before continuing working on the request. The most popular reasons for this status are (a) waiting for feedback from the requester (b) waiting for a 3rd party (i.e. vendor to ship a part) or (c) waiting for help from one of your team members like when escalating to someone else. Resolved means the request has been completed and no more work is required. Best practice is to confirm this with the requestor but more often than not it's unrealistic to expect this to happen. Each time I run into customers with over complicated statuses I remind them to get back to basics and focus on each of these main statuses to help ensure tickets are swiftly moving through the process and customer’s requests are getting addressed and resolved as quickly and as efficiently as possible. To learn more about how you can drive more Efficiency and Profitability thru Service Management, check out our webinar recording on the topic here: Download Webinar

MSP Key Performance Indicator: Open and Closed Tickets

My two favorite gauges when it comes to support are Opened and Closed counts for a given time period. In the top left corner of every service dashboard I have ever had, which is where we instinctively first look, is the Open and Closed ticket count. Here’s a screenshot from our service dashboard right now: The number of Open and Closed tickets can give you a wealth of information in a split second. For the sake of this example, let’s assume the time period is “today” meaning we’re looking at tickets opened today and also tickets closed today. Count - The actual number is a great indication of the overall volume of tickets for the day. You know the time of day it is and as you get used to seeing the number you will naturally begin to know if the ticket count is high or low for the day based on the trends. That will help you determine if there has been a spike of activity or not. Comparison of the two Counts (i.e. Open vs Closed) - The dream of any service team is to close more tickets than are opened during a given time period, bringing the service backlog number down. So for this example, we would want to close more tickets than are open for a given day. However at any given time when you look at the two numbers and compare them that’s when you get a snapshot of whether the team keeping up. Below are two examples of Open and Closed Tickets that I took from our own internal service dashboard yesterday, as you can see from the first image from 2:30pm, we were behind: Then we had a quick huddle to figure out what was going on and how we were going to attack the problem. We got another team member assigned to help out for a few hours and here is how we closed out the day: If your team is not keeping up with the tickets being opened every day and that pattern continues you may put yourself in a position where the backlog of tickets becomes too large and difficult to recover. That’s why it’s important to regularly monitor your Service Backlog which is simply the difference between your Open and Closed tickets. Below is a screenshot of how that looks: Next time I’ll share some best practices we used to do at Compuquip and still do at BrightGauge to help with Service Backlog Management. In the mean time, to learn how you can Improve Your Business with KPIs on Dashboards please download out latest white paper:

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