Brad Benner - X-BAR
I’ve been here since Sunday, November 1st – spending the first half of the week with my HTG peers reviewing the state of our businesses and discussing strategies for moving forward individually and collectivity. The new HTG meeting format based on Quarterly Business Reviews integrated with Service Leadership data was great – it was much easier for me to paint a clear picture of the health of my business and get targeted feedback from my group members.
The ConnectWise Partner Summit quickly followed and was a great extension of the work, conversations, and content from the first half of the week.
A few highlights from this year:
Robert Lindley’s session, I Want More Than ConnectWise Reports & Dashboards, blew me away. He showed us how to use the set of free and low cost tools that he has assembled for tapping into and analyzing the wealth of data sitting in our ConnectWise database. I plan to use his tools to create a series of widgets that allow me to better manage the health of my business in real-time.
Kendra Lee’s presentation on how to hire a salesperson was perfectly timed for me. I’ve been thinking about (and struggling with) this topic a while. As I look at my revenue forecast for 2010 and beyond, it’s become clear to me that my ability to scale X-BAR will be directly tied to my success in finding and hiring the right salesperson.
I was glad to see that ConnectWise was able to get Datto into the vendor fair. They’ve been quietly building a data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity platform, and are starting to get some well-deserved attention for their products. I started talking with Datto a few months ago, wanting to explore alternatives to the solutions we’re currently using, and had a few initial technical concerns that were preventing me from moving forward. In the last three months they’ve already resolved most of the issues I had, and are also telling me that they’re putting the finishing touches on a series of other nice-to-haves that I had wanted. When was the last time you had a vendor so responsive to feedback? Watch out, I think we’ll see Datto emerge as a very strong contender in this arena in 2010.
Verne Harnish! How can I talk about highlights without mentioning Verne? The keynote he delivered yesterday morning and subsequent workshop in the afternoon was a much need jolt to my business senses. I found the framework he provided for identifying what was holding my business back (people, strategy, execution, or cash) very insightful. I’m looking forward to reading his book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, when I get back to Seattle next week and putting his suggestions to work.
Brad Benner / Principal
X-BAR
219 First Ave S #420 / Seattle, WA 98104
DIR 206 388 5150 / FAX 206 352 2760
www.xbarit.com
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Good thoughts, we had the same takeaways. Verne’s comments were so inspirational and valuable that I had all of our managers sit and watch the recorded presentation on the CW Partner Summit site. It’s also great to see how some IT solution providers (and many of the presenting vendors) are beginning to embrace – not fear – cloud computing. I believe those who do are the most likely to benefit from it and not find themselves with an antiquated business model.