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Have you ever considered the parallels between running an IT Managed Services company and being a professional musician? C’mon, there’s nothing in common here, right? You’d be surprised.
Those who know me well know that my side hustle is music. I’ve been performing on stage as a lead singer in a rock band and/or with my own acoustic solo act for 40 years. When I thought about this topic, I decided to have some fun with it and was surprised how relevant it was!
From my first-hand knowledge as an IT channel expert AND a pro musician, here are some super-relevant tips to improve your MSP business.
The surprising parallels between running an IT Managed Services company and being a professional musician
When you think about it, MSP business owners AND professional musicians both need to:
- Hone their crafts!
- Stand out from the crowd!
- Perfect their presentation skills!
- Invite collaboration!
- Focus on the crowd pleasers!
By the way, if you’re looking to add new customers, watch this video to learn about one simple strategy to skyrocket your new customer acquisition this year.
5 Best Tips to Improve Your MSP Business from a Pro Musician
Ready for the show? Let’s rock on…
1. Hone Your Skills
To be successful, you need to be good! And that means lots of practice:
- Pick something you know you can be good at and put the practice time in!
- Practice may take the form of learning a particular technology, mastering a sales process, perfecting an elevator pitch, learning the fundamentals of finance, etc.
- It takes 10,000 hours to master a particular skill, so block the time in the calendar and focus.
2. Stand Out From the Crowd
Musicians need to make their mark, so to stand out in a sea of competitors, you need to showcase your own unique value proposition. Here’s my advice:
- Take the time to understand your competitive advantage; if there’s something unique about your skills, technology focus, expertise, customer service philosophy, go-to-market approach, capture it and build your sales and support strategy around it.
- Align your marketing to properly communicate your unique competitive advantage for your customers.
- Ensure everyone on your staff understands your unique value proposition and can effectively articulate it to customers and partners.
3. Perfect Your Presentation Skills
For a musician, delivering a sensational performance is essential when trying to impress an audience! As it turns out, it’s also important in business.
- Communication skills are critical in business; in my opinion, all things being equal, those who communicate well will outperform those who can’t.
- Nailing a presentation could mean the difference between you winning or losing that big customer or big investor, so put the effort in.
- Develop the script, practice it over and over, and keep working it until you’ve mastered it!
4. Invite Collaboration
Performing solo is fine, but things get way more interesting and fun when you invite special guest stars on stage…or into your office!
- Be humble and welcome input and feedback from other experienced performers who can share wisdom.
- Exchanging stories and ideas can be a rewarding experience for all parties and can definitely lead to seeing situations and solving problems from a fresh perspective.
5. Focus on the Crowd Pleasers
The audience loves the greatest hits! That goes for musical audiences and business audiences!
- Quickly figure out the things your customers love about your company and do more of that!
- Quickly figure out the things you’re either not very good at, people don’t care about, or even worse, people just don’t like you doing these things, and STOP DOING THEM.
- Don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a few new wrinkles to keep things fresh, but in the end, stick with what works.
Conclusion
Hopefully you’ve gleaned some great tips from these musical examples. Who said business can’t be fun and entertaining, just like great music. Keep rocking.
For more advice on how to build a strong company destined for the top of the charts, watch this video.
