M O M E N T U M Dear Fellow Member, I hope this fall issue of TechSelect Momentum finds you well after a summer of relaxing time off with your friends and family. A highlight this summer for the TechSelect program was our fifth TechSelect University (TSU), which featured some of the best courses we’ve offered to date! The event featured more than 25 vendor partners with more than 100 members in attendance. Held in Houston, TSU included more than $200,000 worth of trainings, all designed to give your staff a competitive edge in the marketplace. Among the valuable technical courses offered this year was VMware’s Certified Professional (VCP), valued at approximately $2,995 per student. This class was so popular that we had to open a second course! Speaking of additions, for the first time ever TSU included a two-part marketing course, instructed by the American Management Association and the American Marketing Association. This course explored the importance of marketing, helping attendees learn how to build effective marketing plans and learn about the exciting world of Web 2.0. In the past, TSU only offered technical and sales trainings, but we found that the marketing course was a welcome addition. TechSelect University continues to be one of the most beneficial aspects of being a member of our Community. Thanks to all who attended! Our next event is the Fall Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. November 13 – 16. Be sure to make arrangements to attend so you don’t miss the relevant business-enhancing workshops, conversations around best practices, engagements with fellow members and Tech Data representatives, as well as exciting entertainment! I hope to see you there! As we move forward with our program this year, I’m pleased with the member interaction and continued momentum of our Community. Remember, the quality of our membership and program depends on us. That said, if you know of a potential member for our Community, please refer them today, either online at www.techselect.com, or by calling one of the program’s business development representatives at 800-564-1843. The more quality members we have to learn from and share ideas with, the more complete the TechSelect experience is for all of us. Looking forward to seeing you in November! Warm personal regards, Sam Ruggeri President, TechSelect Advisory Council Is The Price Right? by Larry Schulze Co-founder and Principal Taylor Business Group Kansas City, MO In my last two articles, we discussed the need to manage service personnel’s time utilization, the means to measure it and the associated profit implications. In this issue, I’ll discuss one of two seemingly emotional areas that affect service profitability: pricing of service personnel. Think about this topic for a minute. How do you decide how to price your service personnel? Let me give you some of the processes we hear from our clients: • We charge based upon what the market will bear. • That is the price our sales people say they can sell it for. • Ownership does not believe we should charge any more than that. Notice that none of these reasons have any basis outside of “we think,” “we believe” and “they don’t want to.” When we begin challenging our clients regarding any one of these three statements, the response is often based on emotion more than fact. How do you price product? I know the answer seems obvious. Take your cost and add the margin you need for profitability. (I hope that’s what you do. If not, we need to talk!) If this is how you price your product, why not price your “service product” the same way? That gets us back to the three responses listed above. We charge based upon what the market will bear. It is amazing how everyone’s market is unique. Everywhere we go, we hear this. I hate to break the news to everyone, but your market is not unique. It’s simple, pricing your service personnel based upon their cost is a profitable business practice. If you can’t make a reasonable profit when deploying your service folks, why do it? That is the price our sales people say they can sell it for. I love sales people. They’re the engine of your business. It’s a hard, hard job. In fact, my position is that it’s the second hardest job in the company. Because it’s so hard, sales people often take the path of least resistance when it comes to selling. Price is one of these paths. Why turn your business over to a belief that we have to sell it cheap in order to get the business? That’s a formula for disaster. Service is an area where you don’t want to discount without a volume commitment or a long-term time commitment. Don’t give away your most valuable assets: your technical knowledge and abilities. Ownership does not believe we should charge any more than that. This reason is the hardest one for us to overcome with our clients. It’s a personal issue of the owner’s or management’s belief system. “I can’t charge my clients that much!” is the mantra we hear most from this response. First, don’t place your personal beliefs in place of your clients’ beliefs. Let your clients make their own decisions. Don’t decide for them in advance. If they think your solution is a good deal, it’s a good deal regardless of the pricing. Secondly, it’s a perception issue. Do you want to be known as the cheapest provider or the highest-quality provider in your marketplace? What type of buyers look for the cheapest provider? Are they the ones you want to deal with every day? Are they the ones who will be loyal to you or will they jump ship as soon as they find someone else who will sell to them at even a cheaper price? Don’t be afraid to offer a price that is fair and reasonable based upon the costs to deliver that service for an acceptable profit. A profit that you deserve! In the next issue, I’ll talk about some of the best practices to use to determine the rates to change for your service personnel. Stay tuned! Larry Schulze is the Co-founder and Principal of the Taylor Business Group, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in providing clients with ideas and methodologies to implement or enhance strategic thinking in their organizations. For more information, visit www.taylorbusinessgroup.com. Fall 2008 Register for the Managing for Profitability Workshop in Washington, D.C. hosted by Larry Schulze! TechSelect is pleased to offer the Managing for Profitability Workshop November 11 – 13, 2008, right before the Washington, D.C. Partner Conference. Attend the workshop and then stay for the Conference! The two-day session is designed to help you understand how to gain the profit rewards you deserve by implementing a roadmap to profitability that incorporates strategic planning into your business, sales, marketing, financial and compensation plans, creating 37 business benchmarks that, if followed, will target an 8.5-percent net operating profit for your technology integration company. Learn how to drive profits to your bottom line by attending this workshop! Seats are limited! If you would like to attend the workshop or need additional details, please contact Justin Eggert at [email protected] or 800-237-8931, ext. 85018. JOIN LARRY IN D.C.
Transcript
M O M E N T U M
Dear Fellow Member,
I hope this fall issue of TechSelect Momentum fi nds you well after a summer of relaxing time off with your friends and family.
A highlight this summer for the TechSelect program was our fi fth TechSelect University (TSU), which featured some of the best courses we’ve offered to date! The event featured more than 25 vendor partners with more than 100 members in attendance. Held in Houston, TSU included more than $200,000 worth of trainings, all designed to give your staff a competitive edge in the marketplace. Among the valuable technical courses offered this year was VMware’s Certifi ed Professional (VCP), valued at approximately $2,995 per student. This class was so popular that we had to open a second course!
Speaking of additions, for the fi rst time ever TSU included a two-part marketing course, instructed by the American Management Association and the American Marketing Association. This course explored the importance of marketing, helping attendees learn how to build effective marketing plans and learn about the exciting world of Web 2.0. In the past, TSU only offered technical and sales trainings, but we found that the marketing course was a welcome addition. TechSelect University continues to be one of the most benefi cial aspects of being a member of our Community. Thanks to all who attended!
Our next event is the Fall Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. November 13 – 16. Be sure to make arrangements to attend so you don’t miss the relevant business-enhancing workshops, conversations around best practices, engagements with fellow members and Tech Data representatives, as well as exciting entertainment! I hope to see you there!
As we move forward with our program this year, I’m pleased with the member interaction and continued momentum of our Community. Remember, the quality of our membership and program depends on us. That said, if you know of a potential member for our Community, please refer them today, either online at www.techselect.com, or by calling one of the program’s business development representatives at 800-564-1843. The more quality members we have to learn from and share ideas with, the more complete the TechSelect experience is for all of us.
Looking forward to seeing you in November!
Warm personal regards,
Sam RuggeriPresident, TechSelect Advisory Council
Is The Price Right?by Larry SchulzeCo-founder and Principal
Taylor Business Group
Kansas City, MO
In my last two articles, we discussed the need to manage service personnel’s time utilization, the means to measure it and the associated profi t implications. In this issue, I’ll discuss one of two seemingly emotional areas that affect service profi tability: pricing of service personnel.
Think about this topic for a minute. How do you decide how to price your service personnel? Let me give you some of the processes we hear from our clients:
• We charge based upon what the market will bear. • That is the price our sales people say they can sell it for. • Ownership does not believe we should charge any more than that.
Notice that none of these reasons have any basis outside of “we think,” “we believe” and “they don’t want to.” When we begin challenging our clients regarding any one of these three statements, the response is often based on emotion more than fact.
How do you price product? I know the answer seems obvious. Take your cost and add the margin you need for profi tability. (I hope that’s what you do. If not, we need to talk!) If this is how you price your product, why not price your “service product” the same way? That gets us back to the three responses listed above.
We charge based upon what the market will bear.
It is amazing how everyone’s market is unique. Everywhere we go, we hear this. I hate to break the news to everyone, but your market is not unique. It’s simple, pricing your service personnel based upon their cost is a profi table business practice. If you can’t make a reasonable profi t when deploying your service folks, why do it?
That is the price our sales people say they can sell it for.
I love sales people. They’re the engine of your business. It’s a hard, hard job. In fact, my position is that it’s the second hardest job in the company. Because it’s so hard, sales people often take the path of least resistance when it comes to selling. Price is one of these paths.
Why turn your business over to a belief that we have to sell it cheap in order to get the business? That’s a formula for disaster. Service is an area where you don’t want to discount without a volume commitment or a long-term time commitment. Don’t give away your most valuable assets: your technical knowledge and abilities.
Ownership does not believe we should charge any more than that.
This reason is the hardest one for us to overcome with our clients.
It’s a personal issue of the owner’s or management’s belief system. “I can’t charge my clients that much!” is the mantra we hear most from this response.
First, don’t place your personal beliefs in place of your clients’ beliefs. Let your clients make their own decisions. Don’t decide for them in advance. If they think your solution is a good deal, it’s a good deal regardless of the pricing.
Secondly, it’s a perception issue. Do you want to be known as the cheapest provider or the highest-quality provider in your marketplace? What type of buyers look for the cheapest provider? Are they the ones you want to deal with every day? Are they the ones who will be loyal to you or will they jump ship as soon as they fi nd someone else who will sell to them at even a cheaper price?
Don’t be afraid to offer a price that is fair and reasonable based upon the costs to deliver that service for an acceptable profi t. A profi t that you deserve!
In the next issue, I’ll talk about some of the best practices to use to determine the rates to change for your service personnel. Stay tuned!
Larry Schulze is the Co-founder and Principal of the Taylor Business
Group, Inc., a management consulting fi rm specializing in providing
clients with ideas and methodologies to implement or enhance
strategic thinking in their organizations. For more information,
visit www.taylorbusinessgroup.com.
Fall 2008
Register for the Managing for Profi tability Workshop in Washington, D.C. hosted by Larry Schulze!
TechSelect is pleased to offer the Managing for Profi tability Workshop November 11 – 13, 2008, right before the Washington, D.C. Partner Conference. Attend the workshop and then stay for the Conference!
The two-day session is designed to help you understand how to gain the profi t rewards you deserve by implementing a roadmap to profi tability that incorporates strategic planning into your business, sales, marketing, fi nancial and compensation plans, creating 37 business benchmarks that, if followed, will target an 8.5-percent net operating profi t for your technology integration company. Learn how to drive profi ts to your bottom line by attending this workshop!
Seats are limited! If you would like to attend the workshop or need additional details, please contact Justin Eggert at [email protected] or 800-237-8931, ext. 85018.
JOIN LARRY IN D.C.
Member Highlightby Gary PattonVice President
Juneau Electronics
Juneau, AK
In each issue of TechSelect Momentum, you will have the
opportunity to get to know one of your fellow members. This issue
features Juneau Electronics’ Vice President, Gary Patton, a TechSelect
member since 2004.
Fifteen years ago, I started my career with Juneau Electronics, located in Juneau, AK. Since then, I have worked my way up in the company the old-fashioned way, starting as an administrative assistant. Having held every position in the company, I’ve become intimately familiar with all aspects of our business, which is a great asset when making day-to-day and strategic decisions concerning the company’s direction.
Juneau Electronics currently has six full-time employees, including three sales representatives, two technicians and one administrative assistant. We sell a broad variety of hardware and software, as well as networking equipment and provide break-fi x services to our federal, state and local government clients plus K-12 schools and the University of Alaska.
A new and exciting initiative my company is embarking on is a collaboration with AT&T Alascom on the roll out of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) wireless broadband Internet service in Juneau.
WiMAX is an innovative broadband wireless Internet service that uses encrypted radio technology to connect computers to the Internet via Alvarion WiMAX modems and signals transmitted to them from WiMAX antennas affi xed to local telecommunication towers. (The Juneau launch is the fi rst in a statewide plan to expand the reach of broadband through WiMAX because conventional DSL and cable technologies have not reached many Alaskan residents and small businesses in remote villages and diffi cult-to-reach rural areas.) Juneau Electronics is providing a sales location within our retail storefront for an AT&T kiosk and we’re providing technical andsales assistance to customers interested in acquiring this new service.
Since we’re located in Alaska, we’re not able to attend many of the TechSelect Partner Conferences, but we still fi nd value in the service discounts and manufacturer exclusives offered through the program. In addition to the service and product discounts, I’m able to stay connected with the Community through electronic communications such as the TechSelect Community News e-newsletter and the newly added social media elements of www.techselect.com.
by Bernie BorgesFounder and President
Find and Convert
Palm Harbor, FL
At Find and Convert, we frequently get asked by our clients about business blogging strategies. “Should we have a blog?”
“How would a blog benefi t our business and our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy?”
A blog is a component of a social media strategy. Social media isn’t rocket science. It’s any Web platform where communities of like-minded people go to contribute thoughts and user-generated content. They “socialize” online and their collective infl uence is very powerful.
So the real question is: “What is your social media strategy?” When considering a blog, you should think about what you want to accomplish. Do you have subject matter experts, thought leaders and the available resources who can be committed to a blog? Many companies start and stop a blog because they don’t get instant results and one reason for that is they don’t commit their resources to the blog. Without the committed personnel to update and keep the information relevant, your blog could lose its credibility.
So, where do you start? Start by being a listener. Before a business starts a blog, they should visit other blogs where their community hangs out. Read about what they’re talking about. Getting involved in those conversations can help you gain valuable insights
from other blogs. People may be talking about your company, your products, your competitors and even your employees. They may be talking about issues your company addresses well, but they don’t know that you do. That’s an opportunity!
What should businesses blog about? Most companies should blog about what they know. Begin by fi nding a person who has an interest in writing and the knowledge (authority) of the subject matter. If a business has more than one person who likes to write, divide up the roles on the blog. It’s okay to have more than one person hosting a blog. They should be able to write in a blogging style; write in a conversational tone (not corporate speak) and always write relevant content!
What are the mistakes to avoid? One big mistake is not being transparent. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Be honest. If you use a screen name, be real behind the screen name. If you’re not, the community will eventually fi nd out and trash you. Don’t underestimate the power of the online community.
How often should you blog? There is no one answer. Just be consistent. For instance, I blog about once a week. Each business blog is unique, but as long as the content is relevant and of interest to your audience you’re on the right track.
So ask yourself, what is your strategy?
Bernie Borges is the founder and president of Find and Convert, an Internet Marketing fi rm specializing in search engine optimization and social media marketing strategies. Bernie is a frequent speaker, blogger and podcaster on these topics and currently is writing a book on social media marketing business strategies. Bernie can be
reached at 727-234-0952 and bernie@fi ndandconvert.com. Follow
Bernie on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay
A Networks, Inc.Bill Minahan, CEO and PresidentHingham, MA
Abacus SolutionsSteve White, CEOMarietta, GA
Aglow Technologies, Inc.Kim Thoo, Vice President, SalesWestminster, CA
Allied Network SolutionsTed Bort, PresidentRoseville, CA
Argon Offi ce SuppliesTina Mark, OwnerSan Bruno, CA
Leverage TechnologyJayne Fitzgerald, COONew York, NY
PCXWade Stevenson, Vice President of Finance and OperationsSouthfi eld, MI
Personal Computer Systems, Inc.Jeremy Waldroop, Vice PresidentLouisville, TN
PME, Inc.Miguel Fernandez, OwnerMiami, FL
South Jersey Technology PartnershipJoshua Fleig, Account ExecutiveSomerdale, NJ
TribridgeDebbie Hensley, AdministrationTampa, FL
NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHTPlease welcome the following members to the Community. These members joined TechSelect between May 1, 2008 and August 9, 2008.
TechSelect’s next Partner Conference will take place November 13 – 16 at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel & Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The conference will include opportunities for you to learn from both your peers and industry experts on ways to improve your operational effi ciency and profi tability. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to establish new relationships with Tech Data’s executives and vendor partners. Visit TechSelect.com or call 800-564-1843 for more event information.
November 11 – 13 Managing for Profi tability WorkshopGaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center Washington, D.C.
November 13 – 16 TechSelect Partner ConferenceGaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention CenterWashington, D.C.
December 4 (Rescheduled) Profi tability WebinarHosted by Larry Schulze, Taylor Business Group
