Balancing the Controlled Burn vs. the Forest Fire
This week I have had bouts with managing my time between scheduled items that are improvements to our infrastructure and the “Hey, this is the single most important thing in the world to me” items. I know it’s the nature of the beast. So, I guess I have to figure out how to balance the politely ignore unimportant request versus putting a DND sign on my door.
So this balancing act gets extra tedious in non-ownership management roles. Because in this case, you have items falling on you from above, sideways, upwards, and diagonally. They will come in all levels of importance and from seventy different directions. They will come far and wide, from your boss, from employees, from clients, from vendors, from fellow managers. All while in the middle of a fire. How do you say? “Not now”. That part is easy, but how to say it without sounding like a complete subhuman species of ill manners.
Here’s my concern, folks will appear to be ok with pushback but most deep down feel like they are getting blown off merely because you don’t want to do what they ask. When in reality, however big you perceive your problem to be, the one I am working on instead, is just ever so slightly bigger. And not only that, I find myself in this pattern: If I stop what I am doing, then my controlled burn can quickly turn into a forest fire that I then have to put out myself!
How do you handle this?
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
It’s That Time Again!
It’s that time again…Promo Time!!! Check your mailboxes! We are running a promotion for Valentine’s Day that will be active throughout the entire month of February!
We love our partners so we are going to “Spread the Love” and offer our wonderful partners yet another great discount this month!
We are quickly approaching the switch to Exchange 2013 so this promotion will reflect the LAST chance to get our Hosted Exchange platform at this great price. Each account that is created within this promotional period will be grandfathered in at that price for the duration of the account.
The promotion will be valid from February 1st – February 28th! Get the coupon code from the promo card that you will be receiving or contact me directly and I will give you the code! Always stay tuned to the ExchangeDefender Promotions page for the latest promotional offerings.
DON’T MISS THIS PROMOTION!!!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com
The Disillusion of Business
Let’s start out with a very simple question: By observing the image below, which line is longer?
Most of you recognize this as the Müller-Lyer illusion and know through education that both lines are the same length. However, you would be wrong. If you notice in the image below, you will see that I changed the length of one of the lines.
I would venture to guess that the majority of you didn’t notice the change and proceeded to answer the question they way you were indoctrinated. You did not stop to think that a change could, or would, or should be made. You saw what you thought was the Müller-Lyer illustration and answered accordingly. However, if you would have stopped and preformed a quick calculation, you would have noticed the change in line length. This leads me to my second, and more important, question: Are you making the same uncalculated decisions in your business?
Business, technology, and education are all constantly changing. It is important for you to realize these changes and adapt to them in order to maintain relevance in today’s market. By going on what you have always believed to be correct, you will inevitably be incorrect. Although from a fictional movie, a line from Men In Black can easily sum this up: “1500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the Earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.” The business world will change the rules on you every time—and at any time. Learn to recognize these changes and adjust your business accordingly. Retrain your mind into performing quick calculations on items it already believes to be evident. Because if you don’t, you could go from reading a blog about measuring lines to standing in the unemployment line.
Michael D. Alligood
Partner Sales & Support, ExchangeDefender & Shockey Monkey
michael@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x707
Rescaling & Redesigning Services
Sucks! <end of blog>
I touched very lightly on the fact that we are making a lot of backend changes in the coming weeks and months. Things are moving in an excellent direction. But every time we step back and look at what we have and find glaring holes here and there. Holes that don’t cause problems but if they are not changed one day they may. These things pile up. Think of it as important Windows Updates piling up at the same as you “fixing” your registry, but in a much a grander scale.
So this makes you reassess everything in front of you. And it gives you the a moment of clarity. Before you become an engineer, you should really put in some time as a janitor. The root cause? We love our customers and as long as what they’re asking for doesn’t break our entire platform, we will try to squeeze in their requests. So what’s left? A trail of crumbs that somehow turned into a feature, but now these features should probably get a good face lift for the sake managing the entire platform with ease. Otherwise you get stuck with the old “I know this code in here …. SOMEWHERE.. “.
We will continue to push hard to ensure that we’re ready to deliver quality services to your current clients and scalable enough to service your future clients.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
Driving Customer Loyalty and More Sales through Testimonials
Testimonials have always been a great way to feature your product or service while providing validity to your company. You can typically see customer testimonials on marketing materials and websites to provide the biggest impact for potential customers.
It is always great to get an outstanding email or letter to use as a testimonial, but waiting for that to happen is no longer necessary. Video testimonials are one of the most effective testimonial strategies and are easier than ever to get.
As an IT professional it is imperative to visit your managed customers on a scheduled or regular basis. When visiting a client it is as easy as saying to a customer, “I would like to feature you guys on our website and was wondering if you can say a few words to describe your experiences with our service?”
You might be surprised at how easy this is and how many people will oblige with great things to say about your business, especially when put on camera. It is no longer necessary to hire a video production staff or cameraman to get candid shots of your customers to feature them on your website.
Most everyone in our industry carries some type of smart phone that includes an HD camera. All of these cameras provide video recording capability with a high quality output. Getting a short testimonial whether you are at a customer’s site, they are visiting your office, or a scheduled visit is a good way to gain additional customer loyalty and sales.
Sites like Youtube and Vimeo allow you to easily upload your footage which can be embedded in your website, providing links to both your company as well as to the company of your customer. This is a win/win situation for everyone as it provides an advantage for all.
The next step is to get out there and get some testimonials!
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com
It’s That Time Again…
Over the past 6 months our growth pattern has exceeded all of our projection figures by a wide margin! While this is good news for the “Vlad Ferrari Fund” and the business as a whole, for us folks in the Support side of things, it means “It’s That Time Again…”. So over the next 60 days we will be doing a ton of infrastructure updates, upgrades, and build outs.
Thankfully, the way we have designed things in the past year or so, we are built for pretty much painless scaling. So we will be adding a ton of infrastructure for our Exchange clusters as well the hardware to roll out the new 2013 cluster. ExchangeDefender will be getting more power! We will also be improving our failover plans across the entire portfolio, spread around the globe.
We will be providing NOC updates for everything as we move along including expected client impact, which again on paper should be minimal to none. But, I would be a liar if I never saw a plan fail in some way. You will be kept updated if anything has even the slightest chance to impact your clients.
Carlos Lascano
VP Support Services, ExchangeDefender
carlos@ownwebnow.com
(877) 546-0316 x737
Don’t Forget About Managed Messaging!
With the recent introduction of new features like ExchangeDefender LocalCloud and the release of Shockey Monkey v.3.0 our ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging product hasn’t been receiving the attention it deserves! The New Year is now here and we would like to do everything we can to make it your most profitable year yet.
Earlier this year we introduced a brand new product called ExchangeDefender Managed Messaging. Our Managed Messaging product comes with our full Hosted Exchange platform plus the SharePoint offering, which also includes ExchangeDefender, ActiveSync, and a copy of Outlook 2007 or 2010. As part of the Managed Messaging service we handle the clients’ email migration, Outlook deployment, and SharePoint setup. Support for Hosted Exchange/ExchangeDefender and email is also included. You will not have to worry about billing either; we will be responsible for billing as well; making it nice and convenient for you.
So how does this benefit you?
You maintain the current relationship with your clients and provide them with additional services and support, we handle their email. We will NEVER take on the client directly or interfere with your relationship with the client, in any way. Managed Messaging is a standard flat rate per month and as the referring partner you receive a 25 percent commission from the deal. The goal of Managed Messaging is to help our partners lighten their workload so that they can generate additional business from existing customers while also being able to generate new business!
If you have any questions at all about our Managed Messaging service please contact me directly: Anastasia@ownwebnow.com or 877-546-0316 x739.
Anastasia Wiggins
Partner Communications Manager
(877) 546-0316 x4739
anastasia@ownwebnow.com
Facing & Overcoming the Fear of Rejection
Sales can be a tough job for those that are overly sensitive or have a fear of rejection. The latter has created bad habits for all too many IT professionals. What I mean by this is that a fear of rejection creates reactive ways of doing business or approaching potential sales in a way that minimizes the risk of rejection.
For instance every time we send an email proposal, do not make a follow-up call, or otherwise do not take action, we are reducing rejection. Though the price of this reduction generally comes at the risk of success. This is the inherent problem with the fear itself.
Fear is the cause of these bad habits and fear is what needs to be overcome. IT professionals tend to be tech-minded individuals, most would say introverted, and for some not always relatable. Having run many sales trainings with individuals that meet the qualities mentioned, it is not that any of these are bad qualities, instead they bode well to their specific duties and most of them make for great technicians.
The problem is that these qualities do not always equate to good sales people or business people. Many IT professionals start their own businesses based around these specific qualities, many so they can be their own boss, “geek” out on the latest technology, and many to follow a passion of computers and technology.
This usually means that business, marketing, and sales are not at the core of the business owner’s strength, hence the bad habits we were talking about earlier. SO what can be done? Really there are two paths that can be chosen for the tech minded business owner. One path is self-improvement and the other is hiring/outsourcing.
It can be argued that you should always do what you are good at, and leave those things that you are not to someone else. A good example of this is our vehicles. Though every one of us could probably learn how to work on a car, it is so much easier to leave the work up to a well trained individual or team of individuals that can get the job done.
This is the same in our industry and the reason businesses and individuals call on us to help with their technology needs. If you look at your business similarly, it is easy to make a case for hiring qualified people for each required skill, sales, marketing, etc.
This might be easy for some but the reality is it takes time to grow and build a business, especially to the point of hiring qualified and/or seasoned professionals. What this means is that to overcome fear, improve sales, and become more business savvy, self-improvement is not just a want; it is a requirement.
Simple Steps to Overcome
A simple step to overcoming the fear of rejection is to always question your self and to not take the easy road when it comes to sales. For instance, if a customer asks for a proposal and you create the proposal, ask yourself “should I email this or take it to the customer?” Don’t think of what “you” would rather have, instead ask, “What would make a better impression and potentially get me the sale?” The answer is to always take it to the customer’s office providing an opportunity to discuss, go over the proposal, as well as answer any questions that they may have.
Which leads to another simple step, which is to always ask questions. It is easy to nod or shake your head but in questions you can always dig further, understand more, and even overcome objections/rejections. There is a great book call QBS “Secrets of Questions Based Selling” by Thomas Freese which I would highly recommend.
Of course the real help will come by getting out to industry events, finding training organizations that can help with sales and marketing, and lots and lots of reading…
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com
Make More Sales with Simple & Effective Proposals
There is a lot to be said about the process of a sale and the art of a salesman. There are many steps from getting a lead, setting up a meeting, proposing a solution, through to the close of a sale.
In IT sales, presentation can be a very important step to standing apart from other potential bidders. This is why great sales professionals put a good amount of time into building and perfecting their proposal template.
A proposal template can either make a company look very professional or have the complete opposite affect by making a company look completely unprofessional.
Think about this in your day-to-day life, you have probably been presented with countless proposals; now think back to the ones that stood out. These stand out proposals may have provided just the edge, whether consciously or not, to buy from the company.
There are some simple tips to provide the most effective proposal:
1. Customize Cover Page with Customer’s Logo and a Picture of Their Building – These can be easily retrieved usually from the customer’s website and provides a custom feel for your template.
2. Use Pictures or Stock Photos throughout Your Proposal for a More Professional Design – Text only proposals are boring and don’t stand out, by placing images throughout the proposal it breaks up the sections and provides a place for the eye to go when flipping through.
3. Create a Template– This may seem apparent but uniformity and standardization equates to professionalism. Be careful not to leave previous customer information on a template as this can have the opposite affect and appear unprofessional.
4. Never Put the Price Page in the Proposal – Many customers will flip directly to the back of the proposal to see the price. If they see the price without hearing the presentation many times they will just tune out anything you say further and are completely focused on price. Keep the price separate and present after you have gone through the contents of the proposal.
5. Utilize Inexpensive DIY Binding to Give the Proposal a Professional Look – There are many ways to make a proposal standout, utilizing inexpensive binding and clear plastic coverings provides a finished look for the proposal.
Creating a simple and effective proposal can be easy, however if you are uncomfortable or don’t have the time to create a professional looking proposal; outsourcing is always an option.
You can get a very professional proposal template created from a graphic designer fairly inexpensively. This will assure you get the look and feel that you are looking for without all of the work. Just make sure if you go this route, you negotiate pricing upfront, ensure that you will receive ownership/rights to the document, as well that the template is in a format that is easily modified by you and your staff.
Frank Gurnee
VP, Channel Services, ExchangeDefender
(877) 546-0316 x4777
frank@ownwebnow.com
Your Choice!
Does your marketing work for you?
If your website only gets a tiny amount of traffic, it is not the internet’s fault; it’s yours!
If your marketing emails and outreach efforts fail to motivate people to pick up the phone and give you a call, it’s not their problem; it’s yours!
A business can only be successful in promoting themselves when they take full responsibility for the results. If a business were to place blame on the marketplace for their lack of sales, they set the further development of the business out of their own control. If instead they focus on improving the areas of their business that they can control, they will then put themselves in the driver’s seat of their business.
BUT, and that is a big but, if they decide to blame the economy or the marketplace or their competitors or etc. or etc. or etc. for their problems, they will then put themselves in the passenger seat of a car that they don’t even own on a very rather frustrating trip that leads to nowhere.
Nothing changes if nothing changes! Meaning, if something that you are doing is not working the way that you intend it to, change it! Try something new and the choice – Is yours!!
We at ExchangeDefender are making the choice this year to be even more involved in helping our partners be more successful than ever before!!! We have a lot of new and exciting things coming up on our roadmap in 2013! We are adding great new features to our solution set, sponsoring and traveling to a lot of tradeshows and industry events to meet partners, running great promotions to entice more sales, and introducing some great training! So stayed tuned for those announcements to come!
In the meantime, check your mailboxes and checkout the ExchangeDefender promotions page, www.exchangedefender.com/promotions.php for updates on all of the promotions that we will be running this year! And as always if there is anything that we can do to help don’t hesitate to ask!
Stephanie Hasenour
VP Marketing, ExchangeDefender
stephanie@ownwebnow.com