Businesses asking - what should we offer
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@DustinB3403 I like the fact that the OP in that post actually directly asks their question instead of beating around the bush.
While iandrewmartin's advice may seem like Captain Obvious, type remarks, I think he does give a clear statement, if not a mostly complete business plan, lol. There's also the chance that the OP really doesn't know how to get past the break/fix type support. Especially if he's not helping his customers do much with virtualization.
You are right about asking their current client base about their needs!
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@dafyre or just doing some research - like having the techs who work with these clients talk about the problems that they see and collect that information.
Or think about how they can improve things for their clients.
Or look at ticket databases to see what issues come up all of the time.
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Wait, OMG, he's local to US!! He's right in our overlapping "local" territory between NTG and @Mike-Davis
SpiceCorps was held in the little town where this guy is based. Okay this makes more sense, this is a rural NY local business. He has NO local business and no local IT people.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Wait, OMG, he's local to US!! He's right in our overlapping "local" territory between NTG and @Mike-Davis
SpiceCorps was held in the little town where this guy is based. Okay this makes more sense, this is a rural NY local business. He has NO local business and no local IT people.
So you're saying I should go down to this guys business and offer him my expertise on expanding his business
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It's a nice little town. If there was work there, living in Auburn is quite nice. I love walking around town at night, it's so peaceful but has great old Upstate NY architecture.
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Auburn is beautiful. I think I know him! I am pretty sure he has been to at least one of the SpiceCorps down there.
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Now that I know he is a document / copier center, not an IT shop, and that he is in Auburn, NY (there are no real businesses to support there) and that he is looking for VAR products to resell it is making more sense why and what he is asking.
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This is basically a Crazy AJ's business but in rural Upstate NY rather than Central America. Sadly, there is far more business opportunity in Central America.
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@scottalanmiller said:
This is basically a Crazy AJ's business but in rural Upstate NY rather than Central America. Sadly, there is far more business opportunity in Central America.
ha.... ha...
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@scottalanmiller said:
Now that I know he is a document / copier center, not an IT shop, and that he is in Auburn, NY (there are no real businesses to support there) and that he is looking for VAR products to resell it is making more sense why and what he is asking.
Actually I know that @Mike-Davis is doing pretty well in Auburn. But he has been in the area a long time and in IT a long time. People know him and trust him.
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I thought we weren't going to be bashing/tearing apart Spiceworks questions on here anymore? It seems unprofessional and undermines the community.
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@Jason This is a discussion about his question not bashing SW.
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@Jason said:
I thought we weren't going to be bashing/tearing apart Spiceworks questions on here anymore? It seems unprofessional and undermines the community.
Yeah I haven't said "Hey Guys look here, this GUY!!"
It's a question of why / how can a business ask others to tell them what they should offer and the frequency to which I've seen these topics.
I would also bring this same question up to any question posted here that matches the same formatting.
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@Minion-Queen said:
@Jason This is a discussion about his question not bashing SW.
No but it seems to bash the OP on the SW thread. it;s like having a hidden topic about the OPs topic.
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I met this guy at the one Spicecorp event I was able to attend. He seemed eager to learn and was asking everyone a ton of questions, most of them good ones.
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@Jason said:
@Minion-Queen said:
@Jason This is a discussion about his question not bashing SW.
No but it seems to bash the OP on the SW thread. it;s like having a hidden topic about the OPs topic.
The discussion being held here, is in no way hidden. It's simply a separate topic, about the OP's topic, that doesn't detract from his own topic.
(Wow say that 5 times fast)
There is no bashing, this is a conversation about "how can a business, expect to ask other businesses for the keys to expanding and success"
Scott is already providing the OP some valuable information.
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@Jason said:
@Minion-Queen said:
@Jason This is a discussion about his question not bashing SW.
No but it seems to bash the OP on the SW thread. it;s like having a hidden topic about the OPs topic.
That's true to a point, except Dustin is likely to invite him over here shortly, so it is a little different in that he could theoretically be seeing it right now and almost certainly will see it today.
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I can honestly say that before getting into the MSP space, I didn't really understand what the space was.
Our initial thoughts were ... hey we know IT, we'll just consult and help people, not realizing what is out there. Mainly just from never having seen it before. Now that I've been in it for a while, it makes complete sense, and I couldn't imagine it any other way.
But I can certainly understand not understanding the space, and not knowing exactly what to offer.
Or, even more so to my own example, going in thinking of offering A, but then talking to others in the space and realizing, hey I really need to offer B.
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I've been talking to him and made sure that he is aware of the thread.
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@BRRABill But at some point, you and the business you worked for said. "Hey we need to offer more or different products, we need to differentiate our business.
To provide more than an single stream of income, and had some kind of a plan.
Sure the plan changed, but in the OP, the topic is specifically asking "What should we do to differentiate". There is no answer that will fit perfectly.
No one can say "Hey we're doing this, if you can do this we'd all win" It's not a crystal ball.
Only from the OP's own conversation with their clients and seeing what they "need" even if they don't know it could the OP (and business) determine a new product line to offer/support.
