MSP 2.0 Business Building: 7C

Showing posts with label 7C. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

7C Discovery Process

The 7C discovery process is a way you are able to find out the customer’s needs in a very efficient and meaningful way.

The goal is to get to know the client’s challenges, business models, existing IT practices, the level of IT management and the complexity of the processes of the client.

It begins with the filling out of the ITcQ questionnaire. It gives you the basic overview, what key issues the client is facing regarding IT and IT management.
You prepare the custom report for them, highlighting the issues, stating your questions, and checking the hints and tips for further clarification, stories, expelling aids which you can use during the conversation
You conduct the reframing workshop with the 7C Canvas, Post-it, the Report, checklists while keep asking questions
You summarize all the knowledge in the 7C Action Plan builder
You present the 7C Action Plan to the client and look for feedback, prioritize the issues, and give a longer term plan
You put together the first quarterly action plan from the priorities
You present your MSP 2.0 service offering to make the action plan and long term goals happen

Of course, every client and every case is different. However, you can be pretty sure this is a process you have to go through. Keep in mind that the vast majority of the time fast is slow, slow is fast. So get the pace right to avoid to seem pushy or too slow.

See:

Sales techniques:

vCIO researches:

What is Virtual Chief Information Officer / Virtual CIO?

Thursday, November 28, 2013

7C Methodology

The overall goal of the 7C is to give the end client a competitive edge with IT. Competitive edge entails 3 things:

better service or product with IT to generate more revenue
lean processes, automatization with IT to decrease costs
information security, business continuity to maintain credibility

The clients seek competitive edge in every possible way. Our research shows that the IT field has the most reserves. So, 7C aims to unleash these potentials with the help of the existing MSP. The methodology measures and manages these areas which support the three main building blocks of competitive edge:

Continuous: What is the level of IT security?

Data security
Information security
Vulnerability checking
Preventive activities

Competent: How efficient and professional is the IT ecosystem?

Professionalism of the service provider / internal admin
End-user efficiency
Reliability of IT devices
Responsibilities of the IT management

Charge: How proactive and responsible is the IT ecosystem?

Quality of the IT service delivery
Problem management
Proactive behavior

Conscious: How strategy and business-focused is the IT ecosystem?

Quality of the IT strategy planning
Quality of the IT strategy
Quality of IT operation plan
Quality of execution of the IT operation plan

Controlled: How measurable, governable is the IT ecosystem?

IT performance management
Initiatives and development management
Audit, compliance, quality management
Organization of the IT operation

Clear: How transparent, clear is the IT ecosystem?

IT reporting
Transparency of IT department
Efficient, transparent system in place
Cost transparency

Cost effective: How cost effective is the IT ecosystem?

IT procurement management
Lean IT management
IT budget management

7C is a systematic approach with the following items

Methodology
Software application
Education, certification
Shared learning
Business building process

To give you an opportunity to build up your MSP 2.0 practice.

See:

Sales techniques:

vCIO researches:

What is Virtual Chief Information Officer / Virtual CIO?

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I hate sales

We do too. Classical sales practices are lame. Techniques, strategies, scripts, manipulation are all part of the dark side. That is why we have developed the 7C Methodology for 5 years.

We believe in asking questions, understanding the clients’ problems, contexts, industry, challenges, people, operations and everything, to be able to help them. Our duty, though, is not to find out what is the best IT solution to them. This is the IT consultants' job. They come and talk and advise and leave. Nothing is happening at the end of the day.

We have to keep asking questions, be curious all the time, and have a meaningful conversation with the clients to be able to find new ways together. It is not about us, it is not about the solutions we can sell. It is about the possible results of the synergy of our relationship. It needs time to open up and have the necessary personal and professional trust. We have to show results from small amounts to be able to get higher commitments. It is a process between the people.

We have to see the problem by digging deep, find some possible solutions, walk around, keep asking questions and only after, can we do something about it and provide our service or offer a product.

This is what ReframeYourClients is all about. It is about the reframing of the relationship, the possibilities, IT in general, our expertise, their capabilities….

But just imagine:

With ReframeYourClients you are able to

offer long term solutions instead of band-aids because the client understands the concept
keep asking the questions which matter
find out the pain points quickly
be accountable on the results and build trust
let the sales happen without effort

As you begin with the initial survey reports and workshops you will very quickly get the idea why people call it an eye opener, or thought-provoking.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

What can we do if our clients put us in the "techy" slot?

The existing customer base is truly a good start to grow. Your mutual past will determine what the opportunities could be. As you have provided several services to the client, he puts you in a slot. He can put you in the IT geek slot, in the IT advisor slot, the IT department slot, or whatever slots they have in mind, and whatever services you have been doing for them.

The problem is that the slots are limiting your options. If you have been doing remote support, monitoring and backup, it is quite hard to come up with ideas about Cloud strategy or a CRM implementation project. The MSPs usually start the job by doing technology related things, so they put you in one of the technology related executor's slots in their heads. They are expecting expertise in the things you have been doing.

Would it not be strange to get an offer from Starbucks for a fine Steak, or for a bottle of wine from CocaCola? These are offers are from the same industry, but from different segments. So you have the slots in your head already.

This is what branding and reframing are all about. “Reframing” means to change the perception of the client about your capabilities. This reframing is not about telling you how good you are or having better marketing materials.

It is about experience. They have to experience that you are different from what they have thought. It shouldn’t be some slight difference. It has nothing to do with how many things you can offer. It has to do with how high-level a business-related partner they could have.

This has to be a real eye opener, a thought provoking experience, to make the change and put you to a more valuable, interesting slot in their heads.
After that, the conversation and the respect will be different.

But just imagine:

With ReframingYourClients you are able to:

shake up your clients with a thought- provoking questionnaire
facilitate a fun, engaging, eye opener workshop with very special tools in place
act like a business coach, asking the right questions, and helping them to think
tell stories about business opportunities achievable by IT with a gorgeous Info graphic report and with your personal analysis
formulate short, medium, and long term IT plans for the global IT strategy of the company
align everybody to execute those action plans and strategies

As you move out of the techy slot, the perceived value grows, and the billable hourly projects or recurring revenues can rise as well.

See: Trusted Advisor or Technician, What Pays More?

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

How to increase the brand value?

Your brand is you and your colleagues. So if you are professional, your brand will be known by your clients. However, it is very hard to convince someone that you are really professional without having the experience.

So, that is why, we let your clients and your results do the work for you.

How ReframeYourClients can help you to increase brandvalue?

there are multiple opportunities for your client to share their experience during the process through social media
there are multiple opportunities for your client to give referrals to you
every collateral they meet during the process can be white labeled to your brand
you can earn badges, rankings that show your expertise which you can share
you can build testimonials with a wizard from your client's results and share it in social media

See:

Sales techniques:

vCIO researches: