Author: Austen Read-McFarland

“Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do – it’s a matter of being different at what you do.” – Michael Porter, Economist

What are your goals? What are your company values? What does your company provide? What differentiates your company from your competitors? These are all things you need to consider when developing your strategy.

Task: Create a marketing strategy. That seems easy enough, however, when it comes to developing an effective marketing strategy, there is a lot of effort, thought, and work involved. Anyone can share information on social media, or send emails. But your marketing strategy should involve more than that.

Here are 4 steps to creating an effective marketing strategy.

Continue reading “4 Essential Tips To Build a Marketing Strategy”

“In boxing, they say it’s the punch you don’t see coming that knocks you out. In the wider world, the reality we ignore or deny is the one that weakens our most impassioned efforts toward improvement.” – Katherine Dunn, novelist.

Continuous improvement in business is very important. If you read my first article in this series titled “Dealing with Industry Change,” you’re well aware that it’s important to keep up with current trends and remain relevant with the times.

It’s not only important to advance with new technology and be open to selling and installing new services and software – it’s equally as important to ensure that your company’s online presence is kept up to date.

Continue reading “3 Tips to Improve Your Online Presence”

Common issues facing channel members today: Issue #2 , Managing Vendor Relationships

Many vendors today end up becoming your competition. We see it happen all the time. You begin working for them, you hand over your database, and before you know it, they’re selling directly to your channel….without you. Suddenly you have to compete against the big guys.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself before deciding to work with a vendor to make sure you avoid becoming their competition:

Continue reading “5 questions to ask when managing vendor relationships”

Common issues facing channel members today: Issue #1, Dealing with Change

Who will you decide to be? Someone who faces change with open arms and continues to succeed, or someone who turns away from it and may become irrelevant in a few years?

According to a write up by intermedia.net, “AMI-Partners says small and medium businesses will triple their spending on remote managed IT services over the next five years. And nearly 70% of the best MSPs now offer software as a service (SaaS) solutions involving email, collaboration and recurring revenue opportunities, according to the annual MSPmentor 100 survey results.” Meaning, the potential for growth is HUGE for managed service providers, drawing more people into the business. However, with this potential for growth, comes some bad news: MSPs need to be able to differentiate their brand, gain new customers, establish a good go-to-market strategy, improve their presence, attend trainings, adjust to changes in technology…and so much more.

Sound stressful yet? Continue reading “How Wildix helps you deal with industry change”