Grow your MSP's security practice with the ConnectWise Partner Program

Posted:
05/18/2021
| By:
Clint Maddox

2021 is the year of cybersecurity. Analysts are writing about it constantly, which means your clients are reading about it constantly—and growing increasingly concerned. In fact, research conducted by Vanson Bourne shows that cybersecurity is the top priority for 42% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. today, with 89% saying it's one of their five priorities. What’s more, a staggering 95% of SMBs would consider switching to a new managed services provider (MSP) if they offered the right cybersecurity solution—and on average, they’d even pay up to 33% more for it.

That makes cybersecurity a solid market opportunity! With potential for growth and profitability for MSPs who want to both attract new clients and improve retention and satisfaction among existing ones. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be in the cybersecurity business, your clients will hold you responsible if something goes wrong, so it’s important to position yourself effectively and make this a profitable part of your business. But for those who are just starting out with selling security solutions, it can be a challenge to get things off the ground and increase the size of your business. Even if you’ve already started selling cybersecurity solutions, how can you expand your practice—and grow your profits?

To help our partners achieve greater business growth—and to help you better support and protect your clients—we’ve developed the ConnectWise Partner Program. Designed exclusively for our partners to help you grow your security practices into a profitable line of business, the program aims to provide a blueprint for success. Since selling cybersecurity is a little different than some of the services you may be more familiar with, we’ve leveraged our vast experience and expertise in the cybersecurity game to curate all the resources, information, and support you need to take your cybersecurity practice to the next level, so you can protect more clients—and make more money.

The ConnectWise Partner Program is designed with our partners—and your clients—in mind. In this blog post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about joining the program—and what it can do for your business.

What cybersecurity solutions are available from ConnectWise?

To protect your clients and make cybersecurity a sustainable, profitable part of your business, you first need the right tools. ConnectWise offers a full suite of robust security solutions that simplify cybersecurity, so you can protect both your clients and your own company from breaches and malicious threats.

Our ConnectWise Fortify™cybersecurity stack is designed to elevate your threat detection and response strategy. After running risk assessments and identifying cybersecurity gaps, you’ll have all the tools you need to address them—including a 24/7/365 security operations center (SOC), security information and event management (SIEM), and endpoint, SaaS, and network threat detection, powered by Perch Security,  a ConnectWise Solution. Our security ecosystem also allows you to develop a comprehensive and layered cybersecurity strategy with best-in-class solutions like Bitdefender and Webroot that integrate seamlessly with your other ConnectWise tools.

These tools put the power in your hands, so you can tackle cyber threats head-on. But before you can protect your clients, you first need to sell them on your security offerings. That’s where the ConnectWise Partner Program comes in.

What are the benefits of joining the ConnectWise Partner Program?

The ConnectWise Partner Program is an investment in our partners’ success—because at ConnectWise, we believe that when our partners succeed, we succeed too.

This is not your average channel program. We assign every partner in the program a dedicated and highly qualified Partner Development Manager (PDM) to help you quickly build out your cybersecurity practice, accelerate growth, and sell to clients and prospects. Our structured practice-building journeys, built based on feedback from our most successful partners and expert colleagues, provide a blueprint for success. Your PDM will be your main point of contact in the program, providing ongoing support and connecting you with other subject matter experts as needed. With their step-by-step guidance and best practices, you’ll be able to:

  • Get your house in order - Before you begin selling cybersecurity to your clients, you need to make sure your house is in order and effectively secured.
  • Start selling cybersecurity to your client base - You’ll work closely with your PDM and your marketing concierge to lay the groundwork to start selling to clients and establish your sales and marketing readiness.
  • Expand your cybersecurity offerings to new logos - With half of your client base on board, it’s time to expand your business with new logos—new customers.
  • Scale a strong, proven cybersecurity practice - With your confidence growing and your cybersecurity practice built, it’s time to move on to the final stage of the journey. Here is where you start scaling your cybersecurity business.
  • Navigate the structured cybersecurity journeys, so you can move your practice in the right direction.

Additionally, we’ll pair you with a dedicated marketing concierge to help you run lead generation campaigns. We’ll also provide a library of co-brandable assets, market development funds (MDF), and more, so you can build a solid foundation for your practice.

While partners can self-manage cybersecurity practice-building efforts, hiring resources, designing marketing assets, and building out a cybersecurity practice can take up to two years and involve costly near-term investments and trial and error until you get it right. We’ve made the investments in people and technology for you, so you can hit the ground running and start making sales. Not only do we provide you with co-brandable assets, we even provide a free marketing automation platform built inside our robust partner portal with pre-built email and social nurture campaigns to drive leads and awareness and help your team sell your new security offerings successfully.

Of course, every business is different, so we won’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. The ConnectWise Partner Program is built around our partners, taking your unique goals, bandwidth, and client base into account. It’s your roadmap to success, not someone else’s, which means it has to be built around your business.

I’m ready—how do I take the next step?

The first step to joining the ConnectWise Partner Program is reaching out to our team. They’ll talk you through the details, eligibility, benefits, and more, so you can make the right decision for your business.

If you qualify for the ConnectWise Partner Program and choose to enroll, your PDM will get you started with a team kick-off call and launch you into our structured practice-building journeys. Together, we’ll figure out where you are in your cybersecurity journey, where you want to be—and how you’re going to get there. 

There’s never been a better time to partner with ConnectWise—so what are you waiting for?

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