WIN
Business is a battle, and we came here to WIN!
Carrie and Ian Richardson are partners and serial entrepreneurs who specialize in strategic growth and exit planning for SMBs.
Every week, we ask business owners and leaders two important questions:
"What's Important Now?"
"How are you winning?"
Created by entrepreneurs who love strategy, sales and strategic selling, we interview business owners and sales leaders at all stages of growth across multiple industries.
Learn from experts sharing their strategies and the tactics they use to identify and pursue opportunities.
Take away actionable ideas that you can use to help you scale and/or sell your business.
Learn more about Fox and Crow Group at https://foxcrowgroup.com
WIN
MSP Event Planning - How the MSP Initiative Creates Winning MSP Events
Winning MSP Event Planning with Alec Stanners
In this episode, we dive deep into what it really takes to plan MSP events that create community, drive real ROI, and elevate vendor relationships beyond the trade show table.
Featuring Alec Stanners, VP of Business Development at Bvoip and a core leader behind the MSP Initiative and MSP Block Party, we explore how grassroots strategy, thoughtful sponsor integration, and movement-based design can turn a basic gathering into a channel-defining experience.
With a discussion around Pax8 Beyond’s intentional structure to the anatomy of a successful block party, this conversation is packed with tactical insight for event organizers, vendors, and anyone serious about building meaningful moments in the managed services space.
Read more about this interview on the Fox & Crow blog here:
foxcrowgroup.com/insights/how-to-plan-msp-events-that-actually-work
Carrie Richardson and Ian Richardson host the WIN Podcast - What's Important Now?
Serial entrepreneurs, life partners and business partners, they have successfully exited from multiple businesses (IT, call center, real estate, marketing) and they help other business owners create their own versions of success.
Ian is certified in Eagle Center For Leadership Making A Difference, Paterson StratOp, and LifePlan.
Carrie has helped create and execute successful outbound sales strategies for over 1200 technology-focused businesses including MSPs, manufacturers, distributors and SaaS firms.
Learn more at www.foxcrowgroup.com
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Good afternoon everybody. My name is Carrie Richardson. I'm a partner at Fox and Crow and your host for the WIN podcast. With me today is Alex Stanners, the VP of BizDev for Bvoip and a veteran channel event organizer and attendee. How are you doing today, Alec?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:I'm doing really well. Always a pleasure to get on with you and, always happy to talk about events, so this is gonna be fun.
Carrie Richardson:You guys have been doing something interesting for the last 10 years, which I'm sure was not well received at the beginning, but it's just become"de rigeur". Tell me about that transition.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:I've done a lot of events with very big vendors, which is always fun and cool and great to be at the top of the chart there with all the, resources. And then I've been on a startup side and events are expensive and it's not always easy to stand out, so we took the startup mentality and did sweat equity. we put hard work into it and make it, make something fun happen where we can bring everyone together that was born and really evolved into MSP Initiative, which is our secondary company. goal There is networking, education and really just fun. can we bring a community together? Can we let everyone connect? And we heard time and time again. Hallway chats are the most valuable thing for the msp. So can we create another area for them to chat in?
Carrie Richardson:So I had actually forgotten about the bus until just right now. I remember seeing you guys in Michigan. Yep. When you camethrough in the bus in 2020 or 2021?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:20 through 22 actually.
Carrie Richardson:Yeah, that was a good time. It was a little different.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:So different but a lot of fun. we still today are meeting MSPs that met us on those tours Just such a great time for us. The world stopped and, those hallway chats are what drives this industry so much. MSPs are struggling with one thing or another and how to position something. it's not always the vendor's education that hits on it. sometimes another MSP from across the country gives you some tips and tricks and help you get there. So when we saw everything stop, getting that tour bus going was our answer to it. It worked out really well and we just had a lot of fun with it.
Carrie Richardson:Tell me about the block party. We've had the block party on a yacht in Miami. It's been
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:in Dublin. It's been on Darling Harbor in Sydney. More times than I'd like to count in Orlando. We've rented out LIV the Fontainbleu and we've done lots of fun excursions there we've gone to so many shows and there's always that weird empty night, a couple of us will take out a prospect or two, or a partner or two, and that's always great. I love those intimate kind of, interactions. We still have those, but there's so many people who don't know where to go or don't have someone that they can go and meet with or have a crew that they can connect up with. So for all of them, it was kind of, oh, I'm just gonna float off down the street and go to a chilies and get a bite. Now it's all right. let's give them something fun and something real connected and central to do. bringing everyone together in an easy to go to platform. where there's security and no safety risks it's really come out to be a nice program.
Carrie Richardson:Well, you outgrew Blue Martini.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:it's really incredible to watch what's grown. Blue Martini was pretty large for what it was. It was year one, it was eight or 900 people, in the building. then we exploded into the next year with, BB King's. And Opa and, and then that whole kind of crowd up there. And then that company, unfortunately, collapsed during Covid one big management company owned pretty much the entire second floor. There was a third bar OPA was separate BB Kings. And then, there was another little one that was a kind of a Italian dimly lit, fun vibe. We worked with them and then Opa and, finally over to ICON Park when we outgrew it. And really what we had said was we wanted to bring in an act and that was the next evolution of it. And that's been incredible. We've done a hurricane party with the All American Rejects. Pretty big main stage party with both Ezra Hart, which was Sugar Ray better than Ezra and Tonic. last year was Flo Rida.
Carrie Richardson:I missed that.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:He was great. Pure entertainer, absolute stage show. we'll see if he makes another appearance down the road. he does live at the Fontainbleau
Carrie Richardson:really
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:He won an$86 million lawsuit against Celsius or not reporting their income to'him.
Carrie Richardson:And now he lives at a hotel
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:and now he lives there full time.
Carrie Richardson:Amazing.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:that is the dream.
Carrie Richardson:His career has been exemplary.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:He's really just put out an unbelievable amount of hits. we talked a little bit before this about how do we pick an artist? And that's such a process and it really starts early in the year because these people book out. More so now when we started and it was still a little covid. It was a little bit easier to get talent, but now you're definitely booking way out. obviously everyone's got their own personal taste, so you have to remove that from it and you're going to Spotify. When we did that, we were like, oh my God, the amount of hits that he had and the amount of views he had were just incredible.
Carrie Richardson:I was on the vendor pre-call for PAX 8. And they were saying, this year the party's gonna be on the main floor. There's not gonna be any issues with the floor.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:That was a good one. They did a nice job. they had Nelly the year before and he was great. He was a lot of fun too, I guess Rob had said to me he was only supposed to play for, I believe, 45 minutes. and he ended up playing like 75 minutes.
Carrie Richardson:that was nice.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:he loved the crowd and loved the energy. So he just kept going.
Carrie Richardson:Are you doing something similar at Beyond this year? Is there going to be a block party?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:there's not gonna be a block party at Beyond this year. our next upcoming block party, we have Dattocon Dublin, and then we teamed up with the team over at Rewst to do their flow conference. I've got Dattocon shortly after that as well over in, Miami. quite a few of those coming up, in the spring into fall.
Carrie Richardson:So what should we expect from Bvoip at Beyond this year?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:We've been having a lot of fun with the PAX 8. we've teamed up with them on different sales initiatives, which has been great. PAX 8 never fully jumped into the communications arena, until they had their Locate, program. we've taken that to a different angle with all the integrations we provide. it's been a great time working with their operations team. So it's a little bit different from your traditional VoIP route. we're speaking a lot more to what the MSPs are doing from taking that communications, bringing into the tools they're using every day to run their business. And then, How can they use all of that to make their business more efficient?
Carrie Richardson:So you're a member of the PAX eight marketplace.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:We are. Yeah. Absolutely. We launched in August of 23.
Carrie Richardson:So for first time attendees of Beyond, how should they, approach the event to maximize their time and learning on site?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Yes. I hope you booked your room. Because it's just a massive property. and the last thing you wanna do is be shuttling back and forth, but, it really is a cool event. It's very well done, very well polished. they do a brilliant lounge, which is a nice place that's probably the underrated, spot of the event they made really great pockets of these unwind areas. We need five, 15 minutes to answer emails or call back home. they did a really nice job of that and just really thoughtful throughout the process. it's a big agenda. There's a lot they're covering. they always do really great job with the keynotes. So like that's number one on, on your list, the party as we just touched on. Don't miss that. Look at the tracks, understand what's most important to you. Are you the Microsoft expert or are you the business owner? What's going to do best for you and what are you gonna get the most value out of? But they do a nice job at spliting that up and making sure everyone's covered in the business. that would be my focus is take the time now. Iron out your schedule, if you can pre-sign up for, breakouts, things like that? I would do it. I would arrive early. Most of'em are generally standing room only, so if you wanna sit, if you wanna actually get in the room, get there early.
Carrie Richardson:I've even seen that at the keynote, like the keynotes are standing room only by the time, the stage lights up. And they always do such a great job with the AV there. Their content team is just extraordinary.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Eric Boles had started that film program with them and, he's unbelievable, with that kind of stuff. you continue to see them watch, and take it up a notch the beautiful presentation of the LED wall and the graphics they just do a really nice job. I'm excited to see what they have this year. every year they bring something different, something new, and this year they'll be here and in Amsterdam, which is fun. Mm-hmm. it's cool to watch their global footprint keep growing, so I'm sure there'll be some info on that. we work with our Australia team pretty regularly and that's been growing steadily, so it'll be fun to see.
Carrie Richardson:how about for first time sponsors? what do we do to get a better return on what is a fairly pricey sponsorship.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Sponsorships in general have gone up a lot. And like the world we live in, everything's gone up in cost. So what can you do to make the most of it? I would say, first of all, look at the people you're sending. you want the personable person. You want the person that's gonna connect, they're gonna smile, they're gonna draw people in. they're not gonna go to bed early. On the other side of it, just be present. wear your brand. Understand the minute you step onto that plane until the minute you step back off at home, you're representing your company. So wear your brand. Be a part of that. Have your pitch down, make sure everyone that's going has that pitch down and can explain the value that we're providing. I'll give a shout out to, the team over at Cyber qp. I remember a couple years ago when DattoCon was happening at the three different Miami hotels. Everyone was worried about how that would impact, their lead gain They sat on the bus. They had two people that just rode the buses between the hotels. They ended up having another 30, 40, 50 conversations.
Carrie Richardson:That's brilliant.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:But you have to be outside the box and ready to pivot. I see it too often where people come in they're a new vendor and they're excited to be with each other, and I totally get that as a remote company employee myself, I'm excited when I see my coworkers and we love going out together and grabbing food, Leaving as just your team and getting dinner is a missed opportunity. grab MSPs with you. Don't spend six hours at the steakhouse. Eat the meal, come back, go to the lobby, buy a drink for some partners and prospects. Have a good conversation. Hopefully lead to, good connections and tell the world what you do. when buying these sponsorships you gotta look at it from that standpoint of how many people do we need to talk to? Have a goal in mind, and be ready to hit that goal. if you're not hitting it and realize you're not hitting it, what are you gonna change on site to get there?
Carrie Richardson:How do you know what the goal should be if you have no KPIs from previous years to measure against? How do you set up a realistic target for your team on site?
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Yeah, totally fair. so I'll give a big shout out to Beyond here. I think beyond's been really great with their numbers. Not all events are. you and I have both encountered that over the years, beyond's one of the ones that I think are really on with the number, which has been great. So I think start with that, right? How many people are supposed to be there? How much do we pay for it now? understand what your average sale price is. Now, how many of those do I have to sell to break even? figure that number out. If it's cost me$20,000 to be here, there's a thousand people. I need 20 sales. what's my average close rate? Is it 50%? Is it 30%? Is it 10%? You know, what is it? that'll tell you exactly how many leads you need to get from the booth, to work your math backwards and get there. then set a realistic goal for yourself. one thing I watch too often with new vendors is, if we don't get this ROI back within three months, six months, we're pulling outta the whole industry. it makes it harder for new vendors. poor new vendors will come in with no intentions of leaving and no one will trust them for six months. So, Have a realistic goal have a realistic timeline but also understand, those pieces. In the last one I always talk to vendors about who is your perfect sell? Is it a one man MSP? Is it a thousand person MSP? What is it? also understand that if you're just targeting the large MSPs, PE backed MSPs. Those don't close overnight. At that point you need to know that the company that you're being sold to from can scale with you. that's the biggest fear I hear from a lot of those MSPs and partners that are, in that range they wanna know that you can scale with them, that you're not going anywhere. That is still a fear of theirs as well. it's timely. It's very costly, putting a new tool. they know that, especially at that size.
Carrie Richardson:If they're pre-acquisition, what are the odds on them changing anything that's gonna impact their margin Or impact their organic growth path or disrupt anything that's running smoothly. The last thing anyone wants to do is jostle something that breaks something right when you're on the cusp of being that attractive target for a PE acquisition.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Where we see a lot of change in that realm especially in, communications is we did six acquisitions. Everyone's on a different phone system. It's really clunky, so we're trying to evaluate what's the best one. you won't find that with every tool. There's not gonna be a spread amongst PSAs. If I'm a ConnectWise msp, I'm acquiring ConnectWise MSPs, unless something's really incredible. If I have one MSP we acquired that's using Bvoip and one with RingCentral, another with eight by eight and everything else, I'm gonna evaluate all of them and figure out what's the best one. I see that a good amount, but it's definitely tool specific. The more research you can do, the better. if you're listening to this and you're a new vendor, Carrie's got a whole litany of podcasts on other topics. Listen to as many of those as possible. Read as many books as possible, and understand the business and the challenges these guys go through because No one ever puts themselves in somebody else's seat. you're picking up the phone, you're calling'cause you have a number to hit. That person on the other line might be dealing with a client that's down everyone gets frustrated with each other and everyone's in a different position. Everyone has something going on. the more you understand about their business, the more understanding you'll be to the situations you're dealing with. It'll, lessen the frustration and also help you connect.
Carrie Richardson:You can prioritize your best fit MSPs if you already know who they are. Especially if you've got a very specific niche. Like we only work with healthcare specific MSPs. you're going to have a small subsection of the market and you should be able to curate a list of the people who own those companies or lead those companies so that when you see them on site you can swoop in and pay extra attention to the ones that you know are the exact right fit for your business.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Yeah, and on that topic, I'll just say, in terms of pre-work, that can help set you up for success. Be vocal, be online. Create videos. Be fun. Stand out. If you just write plain emails, no one's gonna read them. gotta be different. You gotta be fun. Be culturally relevant, right? Send a last of us email.
Carrie Richardson:Don't spoil anything for me. We're not starting it until every episode is dropped.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:This season is nuts! Just send out something fun that's gonna catch attention, that's gonna do a lot better than just a Hey buy from us because we're great. That sounds a lot like the last nine emails I got.
Carrie Richardson:and to wind this podcast down, buy from us we're great.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:Yes, absolutely.
Carrie Richardson:It was great to talk to you and always looking forward to seeing you guys. Sorry, there won't be a party but PAX 8 will host their own, so we're good there.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:They always do a great job on parties, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they have. And, there's, they're already two parties going on in June, so plenty, plenty coming up.
Carrie Richardson:All right, well thanks Alec. Thanks for your insight, and we will see you in Denver. Take care.
Alec Stanners, BVoIP:You too.
