The best defense is a good offense .
Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.
In wildcard week in the NFL, you will hear these phrases out of every sports announcer. It is the chicken and egg analogy that does not just play out on the gridiron.
Yesterday I had the same discussion about offense and defense for MSP’s. The premise was that 2022 is a new season and vendors and managed service providers alike need to up their game on offense and defense.
First, what does that mean – offense and defense – for managed service providers?
First offense –
We took a look at three ways in which tools for MSPs to go on offense:
- They help MSP‘s sell.
- They make MSP‘s money.
- They help differentiate IT businesses in an increasingly commoditized market.
Then, how do products and services help on defense:
- They help protect the MSP.
- They help protect their clients.
- They help protect or save time and money.
In our conversation, we ran through the X’s & O’s of offense and defense. Check out the full recording here.
https://youtu.be/SXHFCXMBAoM
Here’s the highlight reel:
Brad Gervis a.k.a. the big VEEAM geek from Probax talked about how MSP’s win when they can help clients plan and prepare for disaster recovery, not just in the time of a large crisis. It is key to have a solution and business continuity plan for the much more likely and frequent “interrupter events “like hurricanes, snowstorms and other outages. That is a great defensive play for businesses. It is also a great offensive strategy for MSP’s in helping them sell.
Sean Lardo, VP of partner development for OITVOIP, talked about how communication is key in any business and really for any winning team. The new Mobile-X solution brings some unique features to the field in 2022 to help MSP‘s have another service to help them stand out. And the margins make for great offense.
Jim Lippie, CEO of SAAS Alerts came in strong on defense. Identifying critical threats, automating key alerts, and protecting businesses from the threat of orphaned files were key players. With clear reporting, business owners can easily understand those threats. This makes for a compelling sell. At the end of show wrapup, Jim reflected that looking at services that MSPs deliver as how they help on offense and defense is a solid strategy in 2022. Products that deserve a spot in an MSP stack need to do both.
Tracy Crites, MSP‘s human firewall mentor, from Breach Secure Now falls right in line with strong plays on offense and defense. Breach Secure Now is bringing a new powerful prospecting tool to the party in 2022. They have a baseline employee assessment that will help businesses understand the potential threats that the humans bring to the business. Oh – and yes – they have training tools for employees as all good offense and defense coaches do to help them improve.
We wrapped up the show with Lifecycle Insights’ co-founder and visionary Alex Farling. Lifecycle Insights’ QBR/vCIO platform helps MSP’s with strategy on offense and defense by helping them deliver the QBR‘s their customers deserve. In 2022 we are releasing a customer success platform to help drive both aspects. On offense, it gives insights into stack alignment and opportunity. On defense, it helps reduce churn with customer health metrics. QBR‘s, of course, are the playbook for helping MSP‘s drive and coach their clients on offense and defense.
As we kick off 2022, all of us hope to help MSPs deliver more wins for their prospects and clients.
