Implementing LTBPCS to solve VAR challenge

I’m creating acronyms now – LTBPCS – Long Term Business Process Cloud Sales.

I base the following argument (and well.. a multimillion dollar business behind it) on talking to some of my successful partners that are really at the top of their game. Here is what you’re saying:

Things are great, we are really busy and we would really like to get started offering some of these solutions but we’re too busy and the margin isn’t there. Plus there is no love in the cloud with everyone trying to sell directly behind our back. Then there is the cost of billing, support and everything else, it’s hard to build a business around it.

This is something I hear from the partners that are really successful selling the cloud. When you focus on the actual itemized cost of a cloud service it is not a huge component of the overall VAR invoice – but when you look at the amount of new business brought in due to the cloud offering – it’s the #1 growth driver across these providers!

So here is the dillema – You want to use the cloud to bring in the new business, but you don’t want to deal with the low margin cloud business. You want the high end managed service advisory services and NOC management but it only seems to come as they look to outsource/remove in-house server mess. You can’t have it both ways and your sales guys are throwing the baby out with the bath water when they don’t want to pursue Hosted Exchange or Offsite Backups or SharePoint or low-margin (or low commission) cloud services. At the same time you’re not going to comp them the same for the cloud as for the other sales but you know that it will be a more and more relevant part of your business.

Did I get that right?

Major vendors are looking to offload your technical services – outsource your helpdesk, outsource your NOC, outsource your management – everyone is fighting to get the really profitable (at scale) parts of your business but nobody seems to want to take a part in trying to actually make you money.

I don’t know if we’re just nice (we’re not; we’re in this for the $) or if we’re just way ahead of everyone else but here is what we’ve been working on.

End To End Cloud Sale and Implementation

Of course, it starts with Shockey Monkey.

You can embed the storefront on your website, dictate the pricing and all the other stuff right off your portal.

Once the form is filled out, it comes to us (and you) in Shockey Monkey as a pending case:

Staff can review the order and start the sales and implementation process. Yes, the implementation is a part of sales, it tells us all the other stuff we could sell them once we’re “in the account” so to speak.

Review their order and start the process of delivering the cloud service:

The client gets a welcome message saying:

<Generic Welcome Text>. Our goal is to roll out your service correctly the first time without surprises and delays.

   Step 1: Verify the order

   Step 2: Confirm basic service requirements are met

   Step 3: Outline service rollout and deployment

   Step 4: Schedule and deploy the service

In most scenarios this can be done on a single phone call in just a few minutes.

All under your name.

All done by our staff representing your company.

All done from your own web site with no licensing components to worry about, software to support or solution to figure out. We handle it all.

Long Term

We’re going direct. As you.

Over time this will create a revenue stream large enough for you to hire dedicated sales with their own commission structure and get them involved in upselling to the end user.

In the meantime, you don’t have to worry about billing, support or service – they are still your client and you still collect the commissions but you now have new opportunities and revenues.

Here is where it gets really really cool – Kate and I have been talking to other IT vendors in the industry (if you haven’t spoken to us contact me immediately) who want their stuff sold through this process as well.

Your catalog of potential solutions is exploding and you don’t have to sit there and figure them out!

This isn’t just another take on the “Master MSP” concept or the telemarketing sales outsourcing.. this is the extension of your business process to take on the cloud and cloud services without having to deal with all the sticky pieces.

This also isn’t a reduction of your business into just making you a sales guy – it creates a whole division of your company that can be used to bring in new business (cheaply) and use it to fuel existing business lines of everything else you sell.

Just think of Shockey Monkey as an app store for MSPs.

Like I’ve been saying ever since Shockey Monkey launched… it’s not a PSA. And you ought to expect a lot more. Who loves ya?