7 costly misconceptions you cant afford to believe

Posted:
11/02/2015
| By: Craig Fulton

At this year’s IT Nation event, we’re going to demonstrate how to optimize your business success using the ConnectWise platform. Too often, business owners have misconceptions about running their business that can actually be costing them a pretty penny. We're here to help dispel the seven common misconceptions that are costing you money, so you can start to take control and optimize your own success.

1. “If I switch to an MSP model, my legacy clients will feel shortchanged.”

Switching to an MSP model doesn’t have to mean ditching legacy clients. As with any change, you can’t expect 100% acceptance immediately. These things take time. Invest in delivering your early adopters an excellent experience, so that you can use them as case studies when convincing the rest of your user base to make the move.

To really drive the value of managed service home to your legacy break-fixers, present them with a report that shows all of the behind-the-scenes things you’ve fixed with your RMM tool. Then use that data to demonstrate how much more the break-fix model will end up costing them over time.

2. “I can get by just addressing issues as they come in.”

In today’s IT landscape, you need to be proactive, not reactive. Being able to use systems together that automate key tasks allows you to fix recurring issues automatically, rather than sending out a tech to do the work for you. If you fix issues reactively, your clients can get frustrated and your techs often absorb the brunt of the fallout, which could hurt morale and lead to high turnover.

3. “I don’t need a help desk.”

A help desk is the key to your success in service delivery. Giving your clients a place to go to report issues is essential. To stay competitive, you need to be able to identify opportunities automatically and have a centralized database of all issues (past and present) for your techs to pull from. Your help desk can run efficiently and smoothly if you have clearly defined (and easy to locate) processes in place.

4. “There’s just not a lot of profit in managed services.”

Okay, yes, making a profit in managed services is hard. After factoring in hardware costs and hours worked, it’s sometimes hard to break even. But, profitability is out there, and you too can achieve it.

By leveraging automation, and charging for automated fixes performed by your remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution, you can begin to bolster your margins.

5. “I don’t think a quoting tool will help me close more business.”

You’re probably using some form of Excel or Word to create your quotes and proposals. But what sales rep or business owner has the time to create quotes manually? There’s an easier way to generate quotes quickly—and shorten the sales cycle dramatically.

By automating the quoting process, you can generate a quote that contains the appropriate pricing and product information in just minutes, deliver it to your clients online, and have them accept it electronically. This gives you more time to send more quotes, which means you win more business!

6. “My systems don’t need to be fully integrated.”

In today’s technology solution provider world, integration is key. Having a central database that houses all of your client information allows everyone in your company to be up to speed with each client and the issues they’ve had.

When your RMM speaks directly to your business management platform, you don’t have to have your techs manually updating tickets when issues occur. And, now, with the ConnectWise® Business Suite™, ConnectWise Automate® (formerly LabTech) can automatically identify opportunities for a client, have the ticket created in ConnectWise Manage, and automatically generate a quote in ConnectWise Sell® (formerly Quosal) without any human interaction.

Integration is the way to get things done faster.

7. “I need to work 7 days a week—and micromanage my team—to run my business.”

With a suite of tightly integrated products, like the ConnectWise platform, you’re able to get your life back. The suite saves you drastic amounts of time, and keeps you aware of your team’s actions in real-time, so you can spend more time doing things outside of the office.

Join us at IT Nation to hear more about how the ConnectWise platform can help you overcome the seven misconceptions we talked about today. To learn more about the IT Nation event, visit www.theitnation.com.

Recommended