Articles By Jim Roddy
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From ASCII Columbus: How To Stand Out In A Crowded Market
5/30/2014
I liked the tactic AVG used for its presentation May 29 at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH. They correctly assumed the nearly 100 channel executives in the room were already aware of AVG’s RMM platform, AVG Managed Workplace, so they used their 25 minutes on the main stage to educate the attendees.
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From ASCII Columbus: Channel Trends — And Anti-Trends — To Watch
5/29/2014
Gary Bixler provided many interesting insights during his “2014 Industry Outlook and Trends to Watch” presentation May 29 at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH. And something tells me the trends he outlined will carry over into 2015 as well.
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How To Sell Backup? Stop Pitching Fires, Floods, And Famine
5/29/2014
At the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH, Rob Rae, vice president of business development at Datto, offered advice on selling backup and business continuity during his keynote presentation May 29.
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MSP Questions For Quantifying Objectives And Risks
5/29/2014
During StorageCraft’s keynote presentation May 29 at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH, Mark Crall, senior channel account manager, presented an interesting — and very specific — line of questioning for MSPs. Asking these questions will help solutions providers quantify their customers’ objectives and risks in regards to data recovery and help MSPs sell Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) and Offsite Backup-as-a-Service (OBaaS).
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From ASCII Columbus: MSP Marketing Golden Nuggets
5/29/2014
Helping solutions providers create and execute an effective marketing plan was the focus of Herman Pool’s May 28 seminar at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH. I detailed his Super Easy Marketing Plan Template in this BSMinfo.com article, but I also wanted to share with you other golden nuggets of Pool’s marketing wisdom.
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From ASCII Columbus: Creating An Effective Marketing Plan
5/29/2014
You’re a total solutions provider? Good for you. Your customers are thrilled with your products and services? Good again. So why are you struggling to grow? Probably because you’re great at IT and a novice at marketing.
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7 Great Quotes From The Smart VAR Healthcare Summit
5/8/2014
An avalanche of valuable information was shared all day at the Smart VAR Healthcare Summit, powered by ScanSource and Business Solutions, on May 6 at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, NJ. One of the highlights of the afternoon session was a four-person, healthcare end user panel titled, “Take The Guesswork Out Of Healthcare IT: Learn What Healthcare Providers Need From VARs,” moderated by BSM Editor-In-Chief Mike Monocello.
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Book Review: The Trusted Advisor
4/7/2014
Our industry — both reseller and vendor executives — would benefit if we all followed the principles outlined in The Trusted Advisor by David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford. Successful channel companies try to help their clients; mediocre companies are just pushing products.
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Are Retail VARs Missing The Customer Experience Bandwagon?
1/21/2014
BSM's Jim Roddy reports two trends from Retail’s BIG Show, hosted by the NRF in New York City last week: one, the top issue retailers care about today is enhancing the customer experience, and two, channel executives told me they believe more than 90 percent of retail resellers aren’t helping their clients enhance the customer experience.
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Recommended VAR Reading: The Challenger Sale
11/18/2013
I read The Challenger Sale about a year ago and have been testing its principles and techniques whenever I can. I think the business-to-business sales methods taught in this book are the real deal and could have a significant impact on VAR organizations as they strive to be trusted advisors.