Karl's SMB Email August 15th

Nothing Happens by Itself

Report from the UK

Greetings!

I have been enamored with the Falkirk Wheel since I first heard about it. (That link is to a video that describes the Wheel briefly.)

So, when I decided to hit Edinburgh on this trip, I also looked into stopping at the Wheel. It's almost exactly halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, so I decided to stop there on the way to Glasgow.

The "ride" itself was fairly mundane, but that's what you want if you're going to be taken up and down a device six stories tall. The real fun was just looking at this massive and beautiful structure.

I found it odd that many people from the UK had never heard of the Falkirk Wheel. They thought it was a giant ferris wheel like the London Eye.

Great adventure. What's next?

-- -- --

Zen and the Art of Travel - Part II

My luggage caught up with me Sunday night, just in time to hop on a train Monday for Glasgow. We had a great time meeting with partners and wandering around the city. I love cities that have lots of building-sized murals.

We did our adventure to Falkirk, met with partners, and then prepared to head to Manchester on Wednesday.

Old saying: Man plans and God laughs.

You Rarely Get to Choose Your Detours - Part II

As Claire and I were preparing to get six train tickets to Manchester, the train listing in the app gradually started changing to "Bus."

There was a one-day strike by train workers. It was scheduled for Sunday, but they decided to do it early.

So, instead, Brian and Claire found a rental van that would take all of us and our luggage. We hit massive traffic because everyone else had the same idea. One detour led to another as a truck carrying sheep was in an accident and there were sheep wandering around the M60.

But we made it. I texted my team and they kicked off the NSITSP meeting without me. I joined a bit late, but I made it. Then I recorded a podcast from my room.

So, it all worked out.

Happily, the crowd I was traveling with was very mellow. One bump in the road after another, we were all of good cheer. No one freaked out. And we all just "rolled with the flow.""

Richard Tubb, Claire Harding (high right-hand handler), and I got together with the Manchester partners and had a great dinner with perfect weather. We enjoyed spending a week of travel with Heather, Brian, and Faith Johnson.

Thanks to Linode for the food and drinks!

Travelling Semi-Post Covid

Overall, travel is about 90% back to pre-pandemic "normal" status. A solid five percent of people wear masks, and no one seems to notice much. The biggest problem is that airlines are overall horribly run. So, in the pandemic, they dismissed or gave early retirement to their most talented (expensive) people. Now they are short-handed on all levels.

This is the kind of behavior you see from people who cannot see past the next quarterly earnings report. You should make decisions that are good in the long term. Seems strange that small businesses are often better at this than large ones.

I will say, for the hundredth time: Hooray for Global Entry! The line for customs at O'Hare was at least two hours long. With Global Entry, I just went straight through, limited only by my ability to walk faster.

If you think you will ever travel outside the US, you'll be glad you had Global Entry coming back. Holy smokes, Batman.

I've attended several events I would describe as "in recovery." ChannelCon was certainly that. Good, but not quite back to normal. Crowds and holiday travel in the UK were pretty much back to normal, with just a few leftover behaviors from the pandemic.

:-)

NSITSP Election Update

to run for office!

Now is the time to file to run for an office in NSITSP. We have more than ten people filed already. You can meet them and file for office yourself at https://nsitsp.org/elections/.

ALL paid members can file to run for office. "Offices" include the Board of Directors and all committees (Finance, Governance, Legislative, and Marketing).

Join us and make this organization as successful as possible!

We are looking for a new logo.

If you are a paid member of NSITSP, please vote now - Last day to vote is tomorrow, August 15th.

So far, there is one leading candidate, but that could all change. Join in and help us pick a good one.

-- -- --

Final note for the week: THANK YOU for reading this newsletter!

I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll look into it. The open rate for this newsletter is growing at a huge rate. We've been around 30% for a long time. In the last month, open rates have gone to 35%, 39%, and 43%!

We're approach twice the industry average for opens. If I knew why, I'd do more of it. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, thank you for reading this. Please pass it along to a friend or colleague who you believe would benefit from my ramblings.

ALSO: Last week's SOP Video hit 8,000 views in seven days. That's never happened before. So thank you for that. And if you haven't seen it, see the link below.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate any feedback you have.

Have a great week.

- Karl P.

:-)

Create a Great Lead Generation Program

You only missed two weeks. They're recorded! Sign up now and join us tomorrow.

Create a Great Lead Generation Program

You’re guaranteed to learn something that will make or save you the price of admission!

Taught By: James Kernan, Author and sales coach

- Five Tuesdays - August 9th - September 6th

- All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific

Learn the industry’s best practices on the overall sales process from Prospecting, Qualifying, Needs Analysis and Assessments, Connecting your value proposition to the customers issues. Tips to get through the Sales Process faster and Closing the Deal!

The MSP Lead Generation and Appointment setting course will include five live training sessions delivered in 60-minute classes. Designed for technology business owners, sales managers, and sales professionals, this training program covers industry best practices for selling contractual monthly recurring revenue and finding new accounts.

All five sessions will be recorded LIVE and delivered with a PDF workbook and related template exercises.

You will learn:

How to create your sales playbook
Appointment setting 101
How to run the first and second prospect meeting
How to make customers for life – secrets to valuable QBR’s
How to create and present fantastic proposals that close
and MORE!

ITSP University Certification:

Meets Certification Requirements for:

Management
Sales and Marketing

This class will be recorded. Each unit is generally posted within 24 hours of the live class. These recorded units will become the On-Demand class and you’ll have lifetime access to it.

Class Content

Unit 1 Creating Your Sales Playbook

Unit 2 Appointment Setting 101

Unit 3 The Sales Process and How to Run Your Prospect Meetings

Unit 4 How to Keep Customers for Life – secrets of QBR’s

Unit 5 Creating and Presenting Amazing Proposals

About James Kernan

For the past 12 years, James has served as a Principal Consultant for Kernan Consulting and provides Coaching, Advising and Mentoring programs to entrepreneurs and leaders. Kernan Consulting offers One on One Coaching, CEO Peer Groups, M&A Consulting and online training programs.

Note: * Members of the Small Biz Thoughts Technology Community attend at no additional charge. See details in the Community

All the Resources That Are Fit to Print

Recent Blog Posts, Podcasts, and Videos

Small Biz Thoughts Blog:

SMB Community Podcast - New episodes drop every Thursday

The Killing IT Podcast - New episodes drop every Tuesday

National Society of IT Service Providers News Blog

Relax Focus Succeed:

Selected Recent Videos and Webinars:

Our YouTube tech channel is now reaching 50,000 views per month (and sometimes more). Subscribe today and don't miss a thing!

A quick guide to my Playlists:

Total: Over 830 videos on the Small Biz Thoughts channel
345+ SOP videos
265+ Relax Focus Success videos

Plus . . .

Training, Courses, Seminars on Managed Services
Product Reviews
and more

You can always check out my YouTube Channel and subscribe at https://www.youtube.com/smallbizthoughts

OR my Relax-Focus-Succeed Channel at https://www.youtube.com/relaxfocussucceed

Community News

SmallBizThoughts.org

Join us live - Monthly meeting this Thursday on Zoom!

I'm back in my time zone now. So I'll see you at the monthly Community meeting on Thursday (it's every third Thursday).

New Members: Please plan to join us. I have a very quick presentation, followed by open forum. We meet weekly on Zoom and these meetings have become a major benefit to many members.

All meetings are recorded and posted with a transcript, so they become a pretty good resource.

Your weekly meeting link is always at the top of your Dashboard.

Also Remember - your discount codes for training via ITSP University is just a click away. As soon as you're logged in, just click the dollar sign next to your name on any page.

Remember: Your Entire Team Saves on Training

As a member of the SBT Technology Community, you can attend classes for free. AND your employees attend for only $99 each - an additional savings of $200. No limits.

James Kernan is teaching an excellent sales course - starting tomorrow. Sign up now!

We have twenty classes now, and will add more this year. So if you're not sure where to start, contact me to schedule a 20-minute Zoom call.

Everyone needs a program customized to their situation, their business, their clients, and their employees. I'm happy to help any SBT member who wants to build a roadmap to greater success.

Remember: We are 100% committed to your success!

That's it for this week. I'll see you at the meeting on Thursday.

Thank you!

:-)

Picture of the Day

Spotted in a pub in Manchester.

Whitney Houston gives advice on timing chains.

oooOOOOoooh, yeah!

:-)

Live Events Calendar

What's Here?

This calendar lists two kinds of things: LIVE in-person events from any organization that focuses on the SMB consulting community; and MY events, whether live, webinar, etc.

If you have live events on your calendar that may be useful to others in the SMB Community, please let us know. We'd be happy to list them.

Of course: Everything here is subject to change based on Covid. Click the links for the latest details. Please send updates so we can post them.