Hope everyone is doing well!  We at FusionTek are getting some great momentum.  First thirty days is behind me and the reality of “doing” instead of “teaching” is settling in.  I love it.

So to that end; just as I’ve always preached.  ABI – Always Be Interviewing.  Here’s the scoop on what we are looking for in a Sales Rep.  Remember, have multiple levels of sales folks: Sales Rep, Senior Sales Rep, Account Manager, & Account Executive.  Here’s what we need right now in a Sales Representative:

Sales Representative
FusionTek is looking for the next super star in our company. We are a phenomenal company experiencing tremendous growth. We need YOU! You are:
1. High Octane, High Energy, High Positivity
2. DYING to get into Sales
3. Someone who gets told all the time…YOU SHOULD BE IN SALES
4. HIGHLY MOTIVATED by MONEY.
This is your opportunity to receive training on how to sell and to get out there and SELL. Maybe you’ve done some retail sales; maybe you’ve sold cars or worked at a rental car agency. We want people who can’t wait to see what they can do in the sales world.
We are a mid-sized IT Solution Provider. We are the people that work on your IT at your business. Companies come to us when they decide they need THE BEST to take their use of IT to the next level. Our client list is a Who’s Who in the Northwest, the Northeast, and around the world.
We have offices in Seattle, Washington DC, and Chicago. Our clients span the United States and the globe including Australia and New Zealand. Currently we are approaching our 20th employee. We have the best Sales people, Engineers, Administrators, and now we NEED YOU.
You will be working out of our Alexandria, VA office. Your day to day schedule will include cold calling, prospecting, writing proposals, going out on sales appointments, and LOTS AND LOTS of learning. We know you’re new to sales and we’ll take the time to train you right. You’ll be receiving industry certifications from SonicWall, CompTIA, and Microsoft.
Send us your resume TODAY. Oh, and one more thing, no salary surfers, phonies, or cheeseballs. We want this to be the BEST job you ever have!
Here are the details:
? 0-2 year’s sales experience. I’m sorry that we don’t have an opening for you seasoned folks right now, but keep checking with us!
? Base Salary of $20,000-$24,000 per year PLUS commissions. (YUP, it’s a low base but we know you’ll make more if you can follow our program. We have a written compensation plan that will show you how you can make your money. Remember, this is entry level sales!)
? Must be able to make cold calls! (Be afraid, that’s ok! We’ll teach you how to gain confidence in cold calling and how to get your appointments. If you KNOW you don’t want to cold call, then watch for a different opening at FusionTek in the future, it’s not for everyone)
? Must have a car that you keep clean and tidy and have a valid driver’s license. We reimburse you for mileage because hopefully you’ll be out on lots of sales calls
? Would be great if you have 5 years of work experience AND at least a 2 year degree. Any subject it fine, if you want to get into technology sales, we’ll teach you what you need to know.

OH, and you can reach me at jpeterson@fusiontek.com if you are interested!

Ok people..quick pop in to the old Jo-Sh blog to bring this public service announcement.

I’m selling a car on Craigslist in Chicago.  I love craigslist.  Always some sort of scam but this one caught my attention as just a bad bad decision by Car Insurance Quote (www.carinsurancequote.com).

They send you this email in response to your car ad:

Okay, that sounds good. My husband Josh is actually the one buying it for me.  We agreed that he buys the car for me, if I cover the monthly policy premiums.  I can definitely afford it, but he still wants to see a basic estimate of the cost before he spends a bunch of money on me.

I’m at work right now, and they restrict internet use to company sites only.  Will you do a quick favor, and go to Auto Quotesand just run a quote for me, so I have something to show him?  We’re local, without any recent tickets or accidents.  Just tell me how much the premium is and we’ll stop by once I get off work today, if that works for you.

Thank you!

Michelle

The link in the email take you to their website and you supposedly fill in your info for a quote.  Now, i don’t know what the point of it is but it cracked me up.  Are they selling your info?  Are they actually providing quotes?  Who knows, or are they just driving up traffic so they can sell the site to a legitimate insurance company?

Cheesy!  No point to my post, but it caught my attention.

Well the day has come.  After being with the Taylor Business Group for many many years I’ve decided to get back into world of operating a Managed Services Provider.  Brian Miller and myself began talking about working together close to three months ago and decided that we should be able to make a huge impact in the industry by giving this our100% commitment.

I’ve been fortunate to pass along some great information to my clients and friends over the course of my time at TBG.  Now it’s time to internalize it all and see how well I can do at implementing what I’ve been teaching for so many years.  I’m betting my reputation and career on the fact that Brian and the team at FusionTek can deliver on making us the most profitable and effective IT Solution Provider in Washington DC and Seattle, WA.

I plan on keeping the blog up to date with my transition from consultant to COO.  I’ll share what’s working and what’s not working.  I believe this blog is about to blow the doors off of anything I’ve written to date.  You all will be able to get my insights as I live what you’re living.  Keep sending me those emails and posting your thoughts and questions.

Big thank you to all my clients over the years.  Now get back to work!

Harry B and the good folks of SMB Nation have published the nominees for the Top 150 influencers in our industry.  I’m proud to be a nominee as there are some pretty amazing names up on that list.  If you’ve enjoyed the blog or we’ve worked together, could you take a moment to vote?   I love this industry and appreciate the recognition.  Here’s the link if you’d be so kind!  http://bit.ly/wLyRmP

Also, check back tomorrow for some breaking news!

Author Karl Palachuk to Host 3-Day Online Conference for Computer Consultants

Best-selling technology author Karl Palachuk announced that he will be holding a 3-day online conference for computer consultants in June 2012. The conference will focus on building successful business processes and will feature some of the best business and technology speakers in the U.S.

Sacramento, CA, February 15, 2012 – Best-selling technology author Karl Palachuk announced today that he will be holding a 3-day online conference for computer consultants in June. The conference will focus on building successful business processes and will feature some of the best business and technology speakers in the U.S.

The online conference – Managing for Success 2012 – is the first event of its kind targeting technology providers and computer consultants. The conference registration and information site is at www.smbonlineconference.com.

“We have a great line-up of speakers,” said Palachuk, “Including several international super stars from the worlds of marketing and technical innovation.”

Two of the keynote speakers are Stephanie Chandler and Patrick Schwerdtfeger. Chandler is the author of seven books, including Own Your Niche on the Internet and Beyond (Authority Publishing, 2012). Her Business Info Guide web site –www.BusinessInfoGuide.com – is an extremely popular destination for small business owners. Patrick Schwerdtfeger is an internally recognized authority on social media marketing and the author of several books, including Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed (2011, Wiley).

Other speakers include some of the most influential pioneers and opinion leaders in the world of technical consulting. But this is not a technology conference, says Palachuk. “This is a business focused conference for I.T. Professionals. We want to help computer consultants to be better business people, with a vision for the future and strategies for success.”

“That’s why we named the conference Managing for Success 2012,” he says. “Conference sessions will cover managing a business, marketing a business, creating standard operating procedures, building a strong team, and even buying up your competition.”

The conference is online only and will run 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on June 26-28, 2012. Attendees can choose to listen live or also have access to the recorded sessions. In all, the conference will broadcast eighteen hours of programming in three days.

The online format is new for this kind of conference, says Palachuk. “We’re well into the fourth year of a recession and the large national I.T. conferences just haven’t had the turnout they used to. People have smaller budgets. Consulting companies are stretched thin. So an online conference saves time, travel, and money. It also means we don’t have to charge as much since we’re not paying for hotel meeting rooms and catering.”

Palachuk will start each conference day with a presentation of the “theme of the day” and then provide a discussion of some standard operating procedures related to the theme of the day. Palachuk is a prolific blogger and is well known for his SOP Friday series at smallbizthoughts.com. The SOP Friday series picks one topic each week and explores the standard operating procedures that technology consultants might adopt.

To learn more about Managing for Success 2012, visit www.smbonlineconference.com.

About Karl Palachuk

Karl is an author, speaker, and trainer who focuses on helping computer consultants and I.T. Professionals improve their business practices. He is widely regarded as someone who provides click-by-click instructions on how to be a successful technology consultant.

Karl is the author of nine books (available at SMBBooks.com). His blog – SmallBizThoughts.com – has more than 40,000 visitors a month and is considered a training resource for many I.T. consultants. The blog has experienced an audience growth rate of almost 600% over the last year.

Karl has been named SBSer of the Year by SMB Nation; he has been on the MSPmentor 250 list every year since it was started; and was named to the SMB 150 list by SMB Technology Network (SMBTN) and SMB PC magazine.

About Small Biz Thoughts

Small Biz Thoughts is the training and content division of Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc. Their programs are geared specifically for the Managed Service Provider and SMB Consultant communities. Their focus on future trends has helped them to build a reputation as a trusted advisor to fans and friends around the world.

Media Contact:

Karl W. Palachuk

916-248-4301

sales@smallbizthoughts.com

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Karl W. Palachuk

Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc.

www.SMBBooks.com

www.SmallBizThoughts.com

www.CloudServicesRoundtable.com

www.RelaxFocusSucceed.com

mailto:karlp@SmallBizThoughts.com

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In speaking with one of my good friends, John Christopherson, we were debating about exit strategies for business owners.  He won the argument.  I said, many of my clients feel like they’d like to build something that can be a cash cow without their involvement.  John replied that the best cash cow he knows of is cash.  I love it.  If your company can be built to a position of providing on going cash flow without your involvement then it is certainly worth quite a bit of CASH.  Cash carries no liability.  Cash today is always better then cash tomorrow.  You need only to a Net Present Value calculation to determine the truth in that statement.

So to quote John Christopherson…cash is the best cash flow.  I think I agree!

Alright job hunters, gold has been struck.  A phenomenal opportunity to work for Fernando Zorilla at Everglades technologies in NYC.  In my opinion this is one of the best IT Solution Providers anywhere.  Amazing offices, amazing leadership, and incredibly creative owner!

So, if you’re looking, this is the gold standard.  Here’s their ad; tell them Josh sent you!

FULL-TIME NETWORK ENGINEER

ABOUT US

Everglades Technologies is a mid-size company specializing in technology solutions including high-end customized networks for small-to medium-sized businesses. Located in Union Square the company has provided office network solutions since 2000. As a “one-stop shop” for clients, Everglades Technologies is known for the high-level quality of IT service rendered and an intense dedication and commitment to customer satisfaction.

THE POSITION

The FULL-TIME NETWORK ENGINEER works in-house and at client locations depending on the task at hand.  Our Network Engineers are tasked with representing our company as a polished technical and customer-centric resource, providing high-level customer service and troubleshooting to our diverse pool of over 500 clients in the metropolitan area.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as account manager for assigned client accounts providing the highest level of customer service while communicating technical information to non-technical audiences
• Develop and manage relationships with new and assigned client accounts

• Review and respond to client service issues in line with contracted SLA
• Design and deployment of Microsoft networks
• Install, configure, and maintain Cisco switches/routers/firewalls and SonicWALL firewalls

THE CANDIDATE

A self-motivated individual, with excellent oral and written communication skills to provide outstanding initial troubleshooting and support to our clients, with an ability to skillfully communicate technical information to non-technical audiences which can include upper-level management, business executives or business owners.

Candidates are punctual with consistent attendance, and proactive in inter-communication skills and self-initiators experienced and skillful at assessment, construction, and the problem solving of IT issues for assigned accounts.

Desired experience for successful candidates are a Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of 2 years of hands-on experience working with Cisco routers, switches and/or Cisco/SonicWALL Firewalls, and 2 years of network design and deployment experience with Microsoft client and server OS and Exchange.  Industry certifications should be in line with the Cisco professional level track (CCNP, CCDP) SonicWALL CCSA certification, and passing scores on three or more of the current core exams for the Microsoft MCITP certification track.
Candidates should have a flexible schedule – Our standard office hours are 9am to 5pm and a rotating on-call support schedule is also involved.

FUD…Fear Uncertainty and Doubt. C’mon Managed Services Providers. You guys are too smart to be afraid of the cloud. As we sit here right now on December 23, 2011 at 1:57pm I can tell you the Cloud is nothing but noise. I don’t care about SalesForce, Microsoft, or any other big cloud promoting giant.

One question to your prospect…what happens when you your Internet access is down right now? You can’t get email? You can’t surf facebook? You can’t look at porn? Big deal, pick up the phone and call those folks you need to email, call your friends to see what they’re doing, and walk to 7-11 to get your porn.

Follow up question to your prospect. What do you think happens 6 months from now when your Internet access goes down? Let’s see, still no porn, still no email, still no facebook, but now, no accounting, no CRM, no sales management, no Word, no Excel, no…uhhhhh anything!!

So, Josh, why are you talking about this? You’re no technology expert, you don’t know about redundancy, virtualization, cached versions, document managment, etc. You’re just a guy who talks about management issues. Fair enough! I don’t know a damn thing about that stuff, what I do know is that right at this second I have two Managed Services Provider clients in California and New York whose Internet is down in their offices and they can’t do the work we planned on doing today in building out their ConnectWise. So if two brilliant MSP’s can be left hanging, what about your clients?

Create that FUD, create solutions that work for your clients, and stop crying about cloud, the economy, or about techs that won’t enter their time and just get to selling! Plenty of prospects out there who don’t care about the cloud, go find them and sell to them!

Merry Christmas!

Josh

OK….one last thing to avoid thirty emails from egg heads haters…I know cloud is real, I know it is awesome, I know that’s the direction the world is heading. Just don’t run your business into the ground with a sky is falling (kind of a good pun..get it, sky – cloud, nevermind) mentality just because a new thing is on the horizon.

Sweet holy mother of all things ridiculous.  Please tell me that as a managed services provider you have your contracts ready to go and that EVERY client has a signed contract on file.  Don’t tell me about a credit card authorization form or a signed quote or a signed proposal.  YOU MUST HAVE CONTRACTS.

Let’s go over the basics.  A contract does some of the following:

1. Limits your liability (ie…liability for any provider caused issues will be limited to the amount paid to the provider)

2. Sets forth the payment terms and amount (ie…$2,000 for 36 months due on the 15th of each month)

3.  Describes early termination penalties (ie…client must provide thirty days written notice of intent to cancel.  Remainder of contract value will be prorated

4.  Non-hire/Non-solicitation WITH PENALTIES DESCRIBED (ie…we won’t hire your employees, don’t hire ours.   If you do hire our employees you agree to pay us a penalty equal to one year’s salary of hired employee)

5.  Sets the venue for disputes (ie….requires mediation…disputes will be handled in our state and county)

These are the basics of every contract.  Here are some common contracts you need to have at the ready:

1. Master services agreement (rates, after hours, response times, trip charges, emergency fees)

2. Managed services (what’s covered, what’s not covered, what devices/employees are covered,  service level agreement, response times, etc)

3. Riders to Managed services (anti spam, anti virus, hosted exchange, etc) Continue reading Managed Services Providers Please Tell Me You have Your CONTRACTS!!

Tags: contracts, josh peterson, liablility, managed services, msa

Greetings from Alexandria, Virginia.  This is probably the coolest place I’ve been in a while.  The fact that it’s relatively warm in December doesn’t hurt either.  I’m spending the week working out of the FusionTek East Coast offices and loving the surroundings.

I was visiting with David Spire from United Systems last week when he dropped this bomb on me.  The bomb is Jeffrey Gitomer.  Now, I have to admit that as a consultant I like to fool myself into believing that I know everything about everything.  Clearly this isn’t true but when someone asks me, “have you heard about this guy or that guy?” I am usually skeptical since out industry has an abundance of crap floating around passing itself off as good advice.

When David asked me if I’d heard of Jeffrey Gitomer I applied my usual amount of skepticism and paid little attention.   When I took the time to read his website and excerpts from his books I found myself getting very impressed (despite my best efforts).  This guy is a genius, well spoken, and his experiences are incredible.  Not since I was introduced to the Sandler Selling System have I been this optimistic about great sales training existing out in the world.

So without further introduction, I am presenting you with a snipit of Gitomer’s philosophies.  Do yourself and your sales folks a favor and start devouring what this guy is feeding.

12.5 Values of a Sales Professional

1. The value of creating a difference between you and the competition. The key is perceived value. The biggest difference is the difference they perceive in YOU!

2. The value of knowing the difference between satisfied and loyal. Satisfied customers buy anywhere. Loyal customers stay, fight for you and refer. Will they order again? Will they recommend you to others? That is the measure.

3. The value of your ability to speak and be compelling.  If your sales message is boring, they pass. If it’s compelling, they want to buy. Engage them with great questions and ideas.

4. The (value) of knowing everything or being too busy to learn. Stay a student – every day. All the information you need to succeed already exists. You may not be exposing yourself to it. Continue reading I admit it, I’m impressed with Jeffrey Gitomer

Tags: sales, sales management, selling