IT CHANNEL INS IDER
How ThreatLocker Is Making Cybersecurity Easier For MSPs And Harder For Criminals
Using Humor In Sales
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How Webroot Is Generating HUNDREDS Of Hot Web Leads In 2021
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Negotiate Like A Pro Page 7
Danny Jenkins, CEO, ThreatLocker
May 2021 | Volume 3
A Big Red Media Production
Digital Marketing Corner
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What do you do when live events are scarce and company travel restrictions haven’t loosened up yet? For Webroot, you do a hard pivot into digital marketing with a proven partner in “MSP Success Magazine” and replace the lack of booth traffic with a steady stream of hot web leads. And while most channel companies continue to rely on their own web traffic and simply retarget visitors, Webroot chose a different route by partnering with a proven source of high-qual- ity MSP traffic to generate NEW leads week in and week out. The No. 1 Secret To Their Success? High-quality content. We- broot is cranking out great new content every month. The example co-branded ad drives visitors to their brand-new “2021 Predic- tions” video (https://mspsuccessmagazine.com/predictions) with a landing page converting MSP visitors to leads at a 40%–46% rate! The combination of high-quality content that MSPs want, a high conversion landing page, and the established credibility of “MSP Success Magazine” are a winning combination every time! How Webroot Is Partnering With MSP Success Magazine To Drive Hundreds Of Highly Targeted Digital Marketing Leads In 2021
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How To Use Humor To Drive More Sales
By Mike Stodola, CMO
First, an amusing story … One day a doctor, new to town, began attending church services at the small-town chapel. The pastor was delighted, and it wasn’t long before they were helping each other in their work. The pastor referred people to the doctor for their physical ail- ments, and the doctor referred people to the minister for their spiritual issues. One day, a person whom the pastor had never met came into his office as a referral from the doctor and asked for the pastor’s last four sermons. Delighted, the pastor fished them out, and, while making copies of them for the potentially troubled man,
People like a laugh, and it’s a good way to initiate a conversation. 2. Use Humor To Deepen Relationships: I know a very successful businessman, Bob, who is in the business-to-business space selling computer networking hardware to large companies and is doing something most would never dream of: dressing up in ridiculous costumes for his monthly mailed client newsletter (did you catch that I said mailed … as in snail mail)! Most would say, “I can’t do that in my industry,” but not Bob. Instead, he humanizes an otherwise mundane and commoditized business so that his customers have a relationship with him. So, while others have to rely solely on price to compete, Bob knows that by providing excellent service and a good relationship, his clients won’t jump ship just to save a few bucks. Similarly, Deanne, a good friend of mine, used to be a pharmaceutical rep. She would dress in costumes for Hal- loween, St. Patrick’s Day, and really any other time she could work it in while selling to doctors. She said that they liked seeing her because she put a smile on their faces (along with their staff and any patients in the waiting room). She instantly stood out and often got to meet with the doctor much quicker than when she just showed up in “proper work attire.” 3. Use Humor To Generate Repeat Business And Refer- rals: One of the best ways to get more repeat business and referrals is to keep in touch with those you’ve already done business with. Studies show that your current clients are the most cost-effec- tive and most likely to do more business with you. But the issue is, how do you keep in touch? While I already mentioned newslet- ters, not just e-newsletters, we do highly recommend a weekly email. And while
he asked what ailed the man. “Insomnia,” replied the man.
A smile, a laugh, or a chuckle can be worth far more to your business than you may have ever realized. I can’t recall a single book on sales or marketing that talks about humor as a way to increase business, even though it tends to be one of the most effective tools for relationship-building. Here, we’ll go through three ways to use humor to get new customers, deepen relationships, and generate repeat business and referrals. 1. Use Humor To Get New Customers: I was walking down the street the other day and saw this sign outside of the “General Store.” I later learned the store had been there for a year and a half and was just a few minutes from my house, but I’d nev- er thought about going in until I saw this sign. Turns out they make killer coffee drinks, and it’s a nice change from Starbucks.
While I see tent signs all the time (most with generic messages like “25% off select items” or worse, “C’mon in, we’re open”), what got my attention was the fact that they used humor, and I wanted to check out the store to see who the comedic genius was behind this sign. One of our longest running Facebook ads that’s responsible for hundreds and hundreds of leads has a comic that our prospective clients can relate to (pictured on Page 6). It gets hundreds of comments and engagement, which drives down the cost, and even shares (FREE ADVERTISING!). The point is this: Can you do something in your marketing to be original, funny, or attention-getting? Or are you satisfied looking like the rest of your competition?
A smile, a laugh, or a chuckle can be worth far more to your business than you may have ever realized.
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IT Channel Rock Star Profile
“How Do We Stop It?” That was the question Danny Jenkins was asked regard- ing the serious cybersecurity problems clients were expe- riencing. Hearing the question repeated is what ultimately led Danny to found ThreatLocker, a global cybersecurity leader providing enterprise-level cybersecurity tools for the MSP industry. Danny’s fascination with computer security began long before it was an issue. In high school, as a “short person,” he used his computer skills as “muscle.” “I’d write mal- ware applications to delete people’s homework,” Danny said. In 1997, at 16 years old, he became an apprentice at what today is known as an MSP. Extremely technical and ambitious, he moved to Ireland and went to work at Kingspan, a multinational, $4-billion company, where he rose quickly to become the head of IT infrastructure by the time he was 21. Kingspan was acquiring companies nearly every month. With malware coming into play as all the new companies joined together, Kingspan needed stan- dards and secured infrastructure. “It became my responsi- bility to set and implement the standards,” Danny said. “I implemented the anti-spam, email filters, and corporate firewalls. I got a lot of exposure to security as I traveled around the world, implementing global networks.” At 24, he founded his first company, MXSweep, which provided cloud email security and was eventually acquired by FuseMail, a worldwide provider of outsourced email. In 2009, he started another email security company, which he slowly built up and sold. After selling his second company, he began consulting, which led him to two clients (one was the private school his kids attended) who needed help to stop cyber-attacks. Sami Jenkins, COO and co-founder of ThreatLocker, manages Lake Forrester Prep’s IT department,” Danny said. “She was looking after the school’s IT, and they were constantly getting malware. The school was sending out emails with pornography, and the teachers were clicking on everything. It was a big problem.” An MSP in Australia also called for help with a ransom- ware case. “A small insurance company had been encrypt- ed with ransomware — every file, every claims database, every email, everything ,” Danny said. “They told me, ‘We paid the ransom, and we haven’t gotten the data back. The key doesn’t work. If we don’t get the data back, this company is going out of business.’” Danny worked on the problem for weeks. In the end, the CEO wanted to know how to stop it. “I told them the only way to stop it was to deny by default,” Danny said. “While there were products out there that did this, they were all focused on the Department of Defense and big enterprises like Bank of America, not small businesses.” Believing there must be a better way to stop the attacks on these smaller organizations, Danny looked everywhere for a solution, but it didn’t exist. So, he decided to build it himself. “We deployed it in the school in this pre-concept
How ThreatLocker Is Making Cybersecurity Easier For MSPs And Harder For Criminals
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Danny Jenkins Presenting On Stage At The 2021 Producers Club Meeting
The Secret to ThreatLocker’s Fast Growth Danny credits his success to two major factors. 1) His Willingness To Invest In Getting In Front Of The Right People At Events “Marketing is not cheap, but we’re trying to change the world,” Danny said. “The only way we can do that is if everybody in the world knows what we do. My theory on marketing is that if it’s a reputable event in the industry, you should do it. If it doesn’t give you a re- turn, don’t do it again.” At his first Robin Robins/Technology Marketing Toolkit event, he not only added names to his prospect list, but he also made sales. Results have continued to get better and better. “Throughout 2020, Robin’s platform was the most successful for us,” Danny said. “Partly because of the platform but also because of Robin’s team. Her team is critical because of their passion. The account manager assigned to us, Drew, is able to come up with scenarios where we meet our ob- jectives. We speak on the main stage. We talk to people. We can educate people on everything we do, how we do it, and why it’s important. We give people value, and that’s been incredibly important for us and helped us grow rapidly.” Being a sponsor has also helped him create trust, spend time with MSPs, and get in front of new MSPs at each event.
stage,” Danny said. “They went from having multiple pieces of malware every month to zero. Nothing got through.” However, Danny wasn’t fully con- vinced it was a tangible business idea until May 2017, when one of the worst malware attacks in history occurred. “I wasn’t fully committed until the Wanna- Cry ransomware happened,” Danny said. “It was really bad. Ambulances were turned away. Surgeries were canceled. Banks were shut down. But ThreatLocker blocked it.” At that moment, everything changed. “We said, ‘We need to get this into the hands of as many companies as we pos- sibly can,’” Danny recalled. Going all in, he hit the gas in every di- rection. ThreatLocker took off. “It’s been like trying to hold on to a rocket,” Danny said. “We hit goals in half the time and double the income. Every projection we put forward to investors gets blown out of the water.” Today, ThreatLocker has over 2000 partners and thousands of clients. Serving companies who are serious about security, they partner mostly with MSPs, such as Vector’s Choice and Re- sponsive Technology Partners, but also clients such as JetBlue and big financial companies. Their growth is staggering — tripling revenue every 3 to 6 months since 2017.
“It’s been massively productive,” Danny said. “We continued doing virtual events throughout 2020. Although the results are better at live events, even the virtual events have been successful. Despite being kneecapped in 2020, we still man- aged to double our expectations.” 2) The Support People Receive Af- ter The Event “ We call our support team ‘Cyber Heroes,’” Danny said. “You can reach them on the phone, in a live chat, or on Zoom within 30 seconds, 24/7/365.” On a mission to change the way people think about cybersecurity, Danny plans to continue showing up at events and talking to everyone he can. “Cybercrime has grown by 2-3 times in 2020,” Danny said. “I want to change the thought process of security from trying to hunt down and catch the bad guys to just assuming everyone is bad and blocking by default. The reality of cy- bercrime is that it’s constantly growing. The cost of it is going up and up. It’s not just the amount of it that’s growing, but who is being targeted is growing. It is more profitable to be a criminal, and I’d like to change the scale so it’s extremely hard work to hack and costs criminals money to do it. But that means people can’t pretend things are secure. We plan on continuing to educate MSPs at Rob- in’s events and partnering with them to provide tangible solutions that are extremely effective and create a barrier.”
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that sounds easy enough, most people struggle with what to say, and that’s where humor comes into play. Two weeks of the month, it makes sense to send something around your business, like a special promotion you’re doing or the latest news that your target market might be interested in receiving.
But every other week, it helps to have humor, and I recommend simply finding a funny clip on YouTube and sending the link. I’d make it relate to your industry or have some other kind of tie-in so it doesn’t seem totally unrelated. For example, if you were an accountant and you send a funny video about dogs, you can say something like, “While I hope you found this video about ‘Man’s Best Friend’ funny, we all know taxes aren’t, and that’s why I’m here …” See, we can even make taxes fun! So, you can do this too. As you start injecting humor and personality into your promotions and communications, you’ll find that you attract more leads, retain more partners, and get more referrals than you ever have in the past. Mike Stodola is the Chief Marketing Officer at Technology Marketing Toolkit, where he brings his passion for marketing and sales to its mem- bers and customers. Mike founded, grew, and sold two of his own service businesses outside of Chicago before seeking to take his experience to thousands of other entrepreneurs by working with companies that focus on them. In his free time, you’ll probably find him eating his way through his new home of Nash- ville and posting photos of his food-journey on Instagram.
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Big Red Media | A Robin Robins Company
From MSP Success Magazine’s June 2021 edition
Negotiate Like A Pro: 3 Steps To Finding Out If You've Left Anything On The Table
Introduce yourself and reintroduce yourself. Get your name out there. Make yourself a person. If you’ve been dealing with someone for a while, it never hurts to put your name back in their mind again. It’s a good refresher. You might also want to sprinkle in some self-effacing humility, which is a form of empathy that elevates your counterpart in a way they appreciate. You’ll also want to use their name sparingly — but not too sparingly. A few years ago, after giving a session on negotiation at an As- sociation for Financial Professionals (AFP) conference in Denver, an attendee taught me a brilliant insight I hadn’t known before. He suggested that when your counterpart says that’s right, they are confirming that you’ve hit the empathy bull’s-eye. When you’ve gotten the that’s right , you’re ready for the next step. Step 3: Provoke The Response With A Killer Label TM "It sounds like there’s nothing more you can do, like this is out of your hands. It sounds like you’re powerless here. It sounds like there’s nothing I can say to get you to make this deal." When you’ve gotten your that’s right , it’s time to use La- bels™ to get more information from your counterpart. Labeling is a communication skill that allows us to attach a tentative iden- tification of the dynamics, emotions, or circumstances implied by your counterpart’s words, actions, or demeanor. Such labeling shows that we are attempting to gain an understanding of the position they are in, who they have to influence, and challenges they face. When used effectively, labeling becomes one of the most powerful skills available to us because it helps us uncover the factors that drive the counterpart's behavior. Do not ask a question here. Say the Label gently, then go silent, keeping a supportive and approachable look on your face. Let them respond. If they do have latitude, this is when you’ll find out. This is how you both figure out what’s what — and when you work to leave them in a positive frame of mind about the interaction. If they can’t do anything more, you’ve at least made a deposit in the karma bank, and you never know when that might pay a dividend in the future. Never underestimate the power of Labels. People hate being powerless. I once had a customer service agent offer me a concession that I hadn’t even considered in response to this: It sounds like you’re powerless here . And doing so made them feel that much better. When you’ve got your concession, thank them for their gener- osity, leave them with a smile, and make it rain!
“How do I know whether I’ve gotten everything I could have out of a deal?” This is one of the most common questions people ask me. To be fair, it’s a great question — and one that nags at all of us. What if I told you that you can make sure you haven’t left any- thing on the table by following a simple three-step process that requires very little energy on your end? Here it is: Step 1: Create A Positive And Playful Environment People are six times more likely to make a deal with someone they like. A few years ago, the great Tom Girardi — known as the top trial lawyer in California and of Erin Brockovich fame — told my negoti- ation class at the University of Southern California that the key to getting what you want in a negotiation is to be “nice and gentle.” Tom knows that, in order to get what he wants, he needs to cre- ate an environment that immediately encourages the other side to lean in his direction. This is another version of one of our rules around The Black Swan Group: Never be mean to someone who could hurt you by doing nothing. In every negotiation, your ultimate goal is to find out whether the other side can help you even more than they already have. You’re looking for every inch of latitude they could possibly give you. At the same time, you need to see far enough ahead to un- derstand how you want to leave them before your next interac- tion. When the conversation is over, you want to make sure your counterpart is in a positive place. Research tells us that people don’t remember things as they happened. They remember the most intense moment of an encounter, and they also remember how things ended. As we say here, the last impression is the lasting impression . That’s why we have to orchestrate our interactions so we control the end — and can then ensure that the end is positive. The flip side to this is that we also know our brains work up to 31% more effectively when we’re in a positive state of mind because, quite simply, we’re smarter when we’re in a positive frame of mind. It doesn’t hurt us, then, to make our counterpart smarter, too. After all, we want them to come up with the best ideas that help us and enjoy doing it! Step 2: Produce Empathy In any negotiation with your MSP clients or prospects, your goal should be to produce empathy and make the other side sym- pathetic to you and your goals. So, kick off a conversation with an apology. Nothing gets someone’s attention faster. They’ll wonder what the heck you’re apologizing for. Believe it or not, this approach has the phenomenal effect of totally breaking the other side’s train of thought (in a nice way) and putting them in a position to be riveted by the next few words you say.
Christopher Voss is the CEO of The Black Swan Group, a firm that solves business negotiation problems with hostage negotiation strategies. Chris is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business and Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business where he teaches business negotiation in both M.B.A. programs. https://www.blackswanltd.com Author, “Never Split The Difference”
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