When it comes to analyzing your team’s sales compensation plans, figuring out where your latest marketing campaign went awry or what new security tools could help you protect your clients, wouldn’t it be great to ask a genius? IT solution providers will get that chance again at two upcoming meetings: The GTIA Benelux Community meeting, 25 September in Eindhoven and ChannelCon EMEA, 13-14 October in London.
Experts in numerous fields will answer questions and give one-on-one advice in 35-minute sessions. The meetings have proven quite popular, so interested GTIA members should schedule appointments soon because space is limited.
Learn from Experienced Experts
The knowledge shared between the geniuses and participants is a valuable benefit that can help a business plan for future growth or help solve a current business problem, according to said Ashley Schut, channel account manager at Arctic Wolf and executive council member of the GTIA Benelux Community.
“It’s always valuable to gain an external perspective on your challenges and opportunities. These conversations can spark new ideas, validate your approaches, and help refine your strategy or simply offer a sounding board to help refine your strategy,” Schut said. “It’s an opportunity to explore how to leverage partnerships for sustainable growth, turn challenges into opportunities, and transform perceived ‘cost centers’ into business drivers.”
The Business Genius Café also creates an environment of trust—as both IT service providers (ITSPs) and vendors get a unique opportunity to speak openly, one that they may not normally get. “This inspires opens conversations and connections to be made for ongoing support,” she said.
Business Genius Café sessions provide non-bias, insightful content that connects directly to people looking to improve their businesses, said Adam Gittins, president of HTS Ag and a GTIA Member Champion.
“Everyone has something that they are really good at, and spending some time with someone that is good at something is a great way to get better at it yourself. By booking a session, you will have uninterrupted access to someone that has a background in a specific topic and can share what has worked for them. It’s a great chance to take ideas away that can help in your business,” Gittins said.
David Carpenter, IT director at Weidenhammer, a Reading, Pa.-based service provider, met with a cybersecurity genius last year and walked away with actionable advice that he was able to implement quickly.
“We had a discussion about security priorities and it helped me to identify some gaps in services we provide as well as how we protect our own information,” Carpenter said. “Since then, we have partnered with a company who provides a managed detection and response solution and a security operations center as a service. This allows protection for our customers—and us—by providing 24x7 monitoring and alerting.”
Meeting with a genius allowed Paco Lebron, CEO, MSP Owners Group, to turn some operational issues and internal team miscommunications into an actionable plan for improvement.
“It was great to just speak my mind and have the genius help translate what I am asking into a much simpler set of problems to take on one step at a time,” Lebron said. “Not only were we able to leverage personality tests to better understand our team, it allowed us to ensure the culture of the business stood side by side with the client experience we were delivering. I would absolutely suggest MSPs take a moment to visit the cafe to really discuss some of the ideas/and fundamentals they need most.”
Come for the Advice, Stay for the Member Networking
In many cases, the 1:1 sessions glean tips and insights that can start to be implemented into businesses almost immediately, said previous Genius Café participants.
“I worked one on one with MSPs, sharing ideas on how they can increase their revenue by understanding their part in their customer’s ecosystem, and how to identify and leverage partnerships and strategic alliances,” said Greg Plum, director, strategist recruiting, at Bridgepointe Technologies, who served as a genius at the GTIA Communities and Councils Forum (CCF). “While I enjoy facilitating classroom sessions, personal, customized strategy sessions are invariable more impactful for the MSP.”
MSPs scheduling a Business Genius Café session should come prepared with prioritized questions in order to maximize time, said Corey Kirkendoll, president and CEO of 5K Technical Services. “Just remember you get out what you put in. Have a plan and I assure you that you will not be disappointed,” he said. “I got great advice. It was that easy to do and relevant to help us succeed in a real-life marketing issue we were facing.”
The Business Genius Café is a valuable benefit for GTIA members because it gives participants insights into both opportunities and challenges that they may not otherwise see or recognize.
“It was very exciting to talk to our members one-on-one and share experience and knowledge about topics like security services, storytelling, creating new revenue streams and NIS2,” said Schut. “If it was up to me, we’d do more Genius Café sessions in the [Benelux] region and keep sharing experiences.”
“I would definitely recommend that other MSPs take advantage of this offering. It provides a great opportunity to sit one on one with someone to ask questions and get their perspective and feedback on your situation,” said Carpenter.
The more honest you are with a genius, the better response you will get, Gittins said.
“I have enjoyed serving as a genius because I have sat on the other side of that table and listened to others help me get better at things that I wasn’t the best at and was able to get better,” he said. “For me, it’s a way to give back a little for the value I received listening to others. I also get good ideas out of it, because when you start a conversation with someone and share your ideas, you can listen to what they are doing and expand your own knowledge too.”
