Subscription Selling Is More Than A Monthly Bill

The move by many businesses across many different industries to engage with their customers on a subscription or recurring revenue basis, rather than perpetual, has had a profound effect on the overall customer sales engagement model, not just the billing model of monthly subscriptions. In this article we look at the differences between the traditional … Continued

Reassessing Sales Incentives for MRR

We’ve recently worked with a number of companies who needed help redesigning their sales incentive programs to drive sales of Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) through XaaS, Cloud and Managed Services, rather than traditional CapEx IT. While there may not be a single perfect incentive model for all organisations, there are certainly some valuable lessons you … Continued

How to Shift from Selling Products to Selling Services

Only a few years ago, most software companies sold seat licenses for their products, charging customers on the basis of head count. But today, software is typically provided using cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) models that charge customers fees for consumption. Technology companies have spent billions on the innovation necessary to achieve this product shift. In this … Continued

Getting Annuity fit – What a Gym Can Teach The IT Industry

As the IT industry moves further towards an annuity, subscription based model, it is worth having a look at other industries where this business model is more mature as an insight to a possible future landscape for MSPs. One such industry is surprisingly the gym and fitness industry. There are many similarities between the two … Continued

Lessons For MSPs From a “Free” Phone App

I’m fascinated by some of the games available on phones nowadays (which is kind of interesting given that I don’t play them). But what I find interesting is not the game itself, but rather the business model behind how it makes money for its developers. One of my favourites is Candy Crush – a “free” … Continued

Partner Management In The Cloud Era

We are currently working with a range of clients (vendors and distributors) who have business models that are moving to be more Cloud, annuity or XaaS orientated. In working with these clients, our research findings are suggesting that using “traditional” partner engagement used for “perpetual” products will not give partners the skills necessary to successfully … Continued

Why Your Services Business Might Shrink

It’s interesting that a marketing concept introduced 30 years ago can have implications for an IT industry transitioning to an “as a Service” model today, but that is exactly what is happening. In 1986, Regis McKenna presented the concept of the Whole Product in his book “The Regis Touch”, which was later popularised by Geoffrey … Continued

Moving to the Cloud? … Change your Comp Plan

Over the years, I’ve had several sales managers tell me their sales people are “coin-operated”. In other words, they are motivated purely by their pay packet. So all you need to do is give reps a sales target, give them a commission plan, and set them loose (and the good ones will deliver the results). … Continued

What Customers Expect From Their MSP In 2016

If you are a regular reader of our newsletter, you would have seen that Channel Dynamics has been working with global not-for-profit channel association CompTIA to establish an ANZ IT Channel “Community” to advance the industry through education, research, networking events and professional certifications. Last year, CompTIA worked with research firm After Nines Inc to … Continued

Selling To The Right Person In A Cloud Driven World

As you may be aware, Channel Dynamics has been assisting the US based Industry Trade Association organisation CompTIA to establish a local ANZ channel community. While CompTIA is best known for its training and education, it also conducts primary research. Today we drill down into the findings from a recent CompTIA survey to understand more … Continued