The Continuum Podcast Network is the home of MSP Radio and The Weekly Byte Audio Edition. Tune in for managed services tips and best practices, industry news and real-world insights you can leverage to grow your business!

We chat with Mike Barnes, Director of Partner Engagement at Continuum, about how MSPs can build stronger and more profitable relationships with their clients. We also play radio MadLibs, talk through a revolutionary moment in technology history and share our listener tweet of the week.

Making the right first impression with your prospects can be the difference between a successful close or a lost opportunity—and the sales materials and presentations you leverage play a significant role in that process.

On this episode, we chat with Adam Barker (no relation to Ben) about some quick wins and simple strategies MSPs can leverage to improve their web marketing strategy and generate more leads.

Your website needs to have the right blend of copy, visuals and interactive content in order to attract and convert visitors—and when used properly, stock photography can play an important role in the imagery you’re using on the web.

On this episode, we chat with Ai-Li Lim, SVP of Human Resources at Continuum, about how you can find and retain top talent for your business. We also feature 4 special segments, a great "two truths and lie", and of course our mystery question of the week.

Email marketing provides a great platform for you to nurture your leads and prospects and eventually convert them into customers. It’s difficult, however, to be all things to all people—and if you aren’t segmenting your database effectively you may struggle to achieve the results you’re looking for.

On this show, we feature a conversation with Bill Hughes, Product Manager at Continuum, about patching best practices, recent changes to Microsoft Service Model and how MSPs can increase their patching success rate.

Web-based chat provides a great vehicle for engaging with prospects and customers in real-time, and has a number of benefits that phone or email support can’t provide. In this episode, we outline four reasons you should be leveraging chat on your website.

On this episode, we feature an interview with Bob Kocis, Chief Revenue Officer at Continuum, and John Cardarelli, President at Service Revenue Solutions. Bob and John discuss effective sales strategies MSPs can leverage to grow their sales pipeline and KPIs you should be tracking.

So, you want to write a blog post, publish an eBook, record a podcast, host a webinar or anything in between. Where do you come up with the content? What topics and issues are going to resonate with your customers and prospects?

We chat about the recent WannaCry ransomware attack and welcome on Mary Crogan, VP of Marketing at Continuum, to discuss the importance of attending industry events, as well as share some news and updates about Navigate 2017.

In order to understand whether marketing programs are effectively generating leads and attracting the right visitors to your brand and website, you need to track the right metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Recurring guest of MSP Radio and co-Founder of Virtus Law, Tom Fafinski, was back on the airwaves, this time to discuss buy-sell agreements. Many MSP businesses are co-owned, so what happens when one owner wants to leave the company or a relationship breaks down?

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a great way to drive business by targeting individual prospects and high-value opportunities—and it’s quickly becoming one of today’s most popular marketing trends.

On this episode, we chat with Scott Spiro, CEO of Computer Solutions Group and Continuum partner, about how he's established an effective marketing strategy for his business and the need for MSPs to make time for sales and marketing.

Data visualization is a great way to leverage statistics, market research and important metrics in your marketing and sales collateral. In this episode, we dive into this topic and offer access to 20+ charts you can instantly download and leverage in your own efforts!

For MSPs, offering a BDR solution within their scope of products and services is not uncommon. However, not all MSPs are able to use this line of business to accelerate business growth. Steve Ayers, CEO of CCS Business Solutions joined MSP Radio to discuss how he was able to identify the right backup solution and use it to grow his business.

Newsletters are a great way to stay top-of-mind with prospects and customers, while providing valuable and educational information they can use to be more productive in the workplace. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we explore the value of an e-newsletter and offer 15+ customizable templates you can download to jumpstart your efforts today!

Peter Melby, CEO of Greystone Technology, shares his experience in transitioning from micromanaging mediocre performers to building a team of 85+ self-driven team members moving forcefully in a unified direction. Greystone credits this shift as the biggest key in propelling the home grown MSP to $10M in annual revenue.

Lead generation is arguably the most important function of your MSP website—but it takes more than simply putting a few forms up to drive long-term success. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at five ways you can improve conversion rates on your website to start generating more leads today!

With the launch of our new Network Management by Auvik solution, we chatted with Alex Hoff, VP of Product & Sales at Auvik, about how MSPs can become more proactive and enhance their service offering with a robust Network Management solution.

Defining your value proposition and identifying what makes your business unique is a key component of your marketing and sales strategy—but how do you ensure that message is used consistently across various digital channels and even during sales conversations?

Joy Belinda Beland, CEO of Pink Hat Technology Management, has successfully transitioned her managed services business to focus on security services, allowing her to stand out from the competition and generate new lines of revenue.

How are your sales reps engaging with leads who fill out forms on your website? Leveraging content to generate leads via your website is an essential component of inbound marketing, but how you follow up with those leads is equally important. In this episode, we break four ways you can follow up with web-generated leads.

With the growing competition in the MSP landscape, developing a unique selling proposition is more important than ever. How can you make yourself stand out from all of the managed IT services offerings available?

Capturing leads via your website is one of the best ways to build your prospect database—but what information should you actually be asking visitors to submit when filling out your forms? In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we break down six fields you can include in your lead capture forms!

IBM is one of the largest companies in the world, and they do a lot to power business all over the globe. But how can MSPs tap into their many technologies to generate new revenues, provide better services and prepare for future technology shifts?

For MSPs that are looking to improve their marketing efforts and attract new business, lead generation is key. And while channels like your blog, social media and the content you create are all great ways to encourage prospects to engage with you, there is more to be done.

When used correctly, social media can be a powerful marketing tool, enabling you to amplify your company voice and tap into new selling opportunities. On this episode, we continue our two-part series and discuss how to leverage your company's social media pages in your marketing strategy to generate new leads and engage with new prospects.

AdWords can be a bit overwhelming at times, but with the right strategy MSPs can drive high-quality leads through targeted and focused pay-per-click campaigns and programs. In this episode, we offer three tips to help you minimize cost-per-click (CPC) and maximize the return on your AdWords investment.

You might not think about Social Media as a way to generate new clients, but when used correctly, it can actually be a very powerful tool. On this episode, we kick off a two-part series on social media and focus on how you can leverage your personal social media accounts to grow your network and open up new selling opportunities.

Your website’s homepage is all about first impressions, and whether or not you can effectively encourage visitors to engage with content, learn more about your services and take that next step forward. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at four homepage must-haves that can help you send the right message to prospects.

It's clear that the demand for cybersecurity services is growing rapidly, but many MSPs find it difficult to establish an effective service offering. On this episode of MSP Radio, we speak with Win Pham, VP of Development at RapidFire Tools, about how MSPs can create a tiered service offering and start capitalizing on the cybersecurity opportunity among SMBs.

Social media platforms offer unprecedented opportunities to engage with customers and prospects in real time—but how can MSPs tap into this channel to drive meaningful conversations with their audience? In this episode we outline four key aspects that define a strong and effective social media presence.

The Backup & Disaster Recovery market has seen tremendous growth over the last five years and presents a big opportunity for MSPs. However, many MSPs have trouble developing a BDR line of business and profitably servicing their clients.

Most MSPs struggle to find leads and don't have a standardized sales process, which makes it difficult to consistently win new clients and scale your business. We chat with Matt Waters, Sr. Director of Sales, North America, about how MSPs can standardize their sales process, find effective sales talent and grow their sales pipeline.

There’s no denying the importance of effectively demonstrating the value of your services to prospects—but what about existing customers? In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we dive into three ways you can show your value to clients who are already purchasing from you. Tune in now to learn more!

Client retention is something that you should be focused on throughout the entire year. We chat with Dee Zepf, VP of Partner Success at Continuum about how MSPs can implement strategies that ensure you're keeping customers happy, uncovering their issues and improving client retention rates.

Your MSP website is only as good as the content it’s promoting—and the right approach to copywriting can make all the difference when you’re trying to generate a steady stream of inbound leads. In this episode, we offer six copywriting tips and recommendations that you can use to craft compelling messaging!

The Super Bowl is this coming weekend and we have two great teams that will be facing off. Building a great team is critical to the success of your business. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Mike Barnes, Director of Partner Engagement at Continuum, about what it takes to build a great team and how it leads to business success.

Building an effective MSP website that drives high-quality leads isn’t an easy task—and although there are a number of important best practices you should be following, there are also a number of pitfalls and mistakes you’ll want to avoid.

The right resources, messaging and marketing strategy can transform just about any MSP website into a lead-generating engine—but who’s going to actually create the content? If you’re preparing to hire your first full-time marketer, what are the key characteristics and background you should look for?

On this episode of MSP Radio, we go "down under" to discuss the MSP market opportunity in Australia and New Zealand. We're joined by Frank Bauer, Continuum's new Director of APAC, who sheds some light on the technology trends and market dynamics of the Australian IT Channel.

2017 is upon us, and as we head into this new year, you probably have some growth goals set for your business. On this episode we chat through some specific strategies MSPs can leverage to grow their businesses in 2017 and share details on a new eBook that Continuum has made available to help MSPs grow in the year ahead.

Looking to build a blog to attract new website visitors and generate leads? Tune in to this episode of The Weekly Byte to discover five important questions MSPs should ask themselves when creating a blog!

eBooks, white papers, infographics, webinars, and more—with so many types of marketing collateral, it can be difficult to know which pieces are most important or how to get started creating them. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at the three must-have­ marketing assets that all MSPs should have in their portfolio. Tune in now to learn more!

Happy New Year! 2017 is upon us, and there’s no time like the present to make sure you’ve got a solid marketing plan lined up to help you generate leads and meet your sales goals. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we offer five tips you can use to set yourself up for a successful year of marketing and demand generation.

Content Strategist Brandon Garcin steps in for Nate to discuss security and how it relates to the managed services space. He talks to Craig Sharp, MD at Abussi, who has a number of insights on how to approach security with new and existing customer and what to expect when offering these services.

Can you believe the new year is just around the corner? As 2016 draws to a close, there are a number of important reminders and best practices MSPs should keep in mind to ensure they’re providing the highest levels of client service and support while preparing for what’s to come.

An email newsletter is a great way to engage with both prospects and existing clients—and there are a number of important elements and factors to consider when creating and promoting one. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we outline five steps designed to help you build a successful email newsletter.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we discuss how to marketing your BDR solution in 2017, some ways to discuss BDR in lead generation, and much more. This is part one of a two-part series on BDR go-to-market strategies.

Backup and disaster recovery (BDR) and business continuity are must-have offerings in managed IT services today—but that doesn’t mean the technology sells itself. Despite the fact that many SMBs see the need for an effective continuity strategy, many still think that traditional backup solutions or off-the-shelf software are sufficient.

Cyber Monday is a great day to find savings, deals and specials on your favorite e-commerce sites and outlets. It’s important to make sure you’re being careful when browsing and buying via the web—and doing everything you can to protect yourself from cyber attacks.

Educating and protecting your clients from today’s growing list of cybersecurity threats and risks isn’t easy—but the right tools, training and education can help you ensure that end users are staying safe, smart and secure online.

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Joe DeRosa, Senior Director of Product Management at Continuum, on the considerations, preparations, and opportunities that exist when you've decided to migrate to a new BDR platform. Of special interest is the new program set up to help partners migrate to Continuity247, which makes it easier than ever.

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Frank Bauer, Senior Channel Development Manager, about ways you may not be using RMM to the best of your ability--and conversely, when your RMM platform itself may be holding you back from great scalability and profitability.

In last week's episode of The Weekly Byte, we looked at three essential elements to include on your MSP website in order to generate leads and create a positive experience for your users. This week, we’re looking at three more! Tune in to make sure you’ve got these important elements on your site.  

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Tom Fafinski of Virtus Law about MSA agreements. How are MSPs are using them in 2016? Should anything be updated? What should you look out for?

A great MSP website can drive valuable leads into your sales pipeline and generate a steady stream of prospects for you to engage with—if you’ve got the right content and layout. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at three essentials that every MSP should have on their website to help transform it into a lead-generation engine. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Zeshan Raja, Assistant Director, Partner Success, about all the options and flexibility with RAID arrays while using Continuity247. There's a variety of options and setups available, so which is the right one for you?

Happy Halloween! In this special edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at five spooky cybersecurity statistics you can share with prospects to help build the case for your services. The insights here are pulled from Webroot’s 2016 Threat Brief and offer valuable—and sometimes scary—insights into today’s IT security landscape. Tune in now to learn more!

Microsoft's new rollup patching processes mark a significant change for the company, and it will affect MSPs and end users alike. The good news is that there are plenty of advantages to the new processes, and joining Nate and Joe to discuss it all is Nico Dard, Senior Product Manager at Continuum, to explain it all.

MSP sales and marketing are more complicated today than ever—and to be successful, providers need to ensure they have a strong understanding of who their ideal customers are. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Ben Austin, Senior Product Marketing Manager, about why backup verification is so important to your business, some ways to discuss this feature with your clients, pricing and packaging options, and Continuum's new backup verification feature, Tru Verify.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn offer MSPs great opportunities to engage with prospects, uncover potential leads and generate new business. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we explore three ways IT providers can leverage social media to drive new business!

One of the highlights of Navigate 2016, the Grow Your Business Hub featured dozens of Continuum employees who were able to advise, consult and provide assets to partners looking to increase, improve and augment their sales and marketing efforts.

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe speak with Todd Kane, President of Evolved Management Consulting, on how to improve your operational efficiency through better measurement and tracking.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices are constantly changing, and it can be difficult to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks to ensure your website gets a top Google ranking and brings in valuable organic traffic. Tune in now to learn more!

As a special bonus episode, here is our candid interview with the one and only NBA legend, broadcaster and Navigate 2016 Keynote, Bill Walton from Continuum's Third Annual User Conference, Navigate 2016 in Boston, MA.

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe are live from the floor of Navigate 2016, where they interview Continuum partners, Continuum technology integration partners, and Continuum leaders such as CEO Michael George and Board of Advisors Member Ed McLaughlin. Join us for this can't-miss episode!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk with Chris Day of IT Glue, who shares insight from his time as an MSP, what he learned growing his business to $10 million, and how documentation and "freeing minds" can unlock more potential and efficiency in your organization.

In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at four key ways that marketing automation can help you save time and build effective marketing and lead generation strategies even on a tight schedule. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe have a look at what's in store at Navigate 2016! Tune in to learn everything you'll need to know about Continuum's Third Annual User Conference.

Creating engaging content is an essential component in modern marketing, but it can be difficult for MSPs to find the time or resources to produce new assets. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we discuss how a pillar-based approach can help you focus your marketing efforts.

On this episode of MSP Radio, Mary Crogan, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Continuum, discusses the benefits of disaster recovery testing, and how regular DR testing with existing clients and prospects can build and strengthen your business, build brand awareness and trust, and add to your bottom line.

There are a number of important factors to consider when pricing and packaging managed IT services—especially when it comes to understanding margins and profitability. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we explore three factors that can influence your MSP pricing strategy. Tune in to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Eric Townsend of Intel, who talks about their vPro integration with Continuum, the Internet of Things, and the untapped opportunities MSPs have with emergent technology.

Automated drip campaigns and email nurture are powerful tools that can help convert website visitors and leads into customers—if your content and campaigns are properly set up and regularly optimized. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we explore four essential components of a successful email nurture program. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe sit down with Chris Rimer, Vice President of Cloud Business Partners & Channels at IBM, to discuss the opportunities, challenges tactics and strategies around selling cloud services to MSPs.

The first few months with a new managed IT services client are critical—and having the right onboarding strategy can be the difference between a satisfied customer or someone who’s wondering if they made the right investment.

Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) are a great way to demonstrate your value to clients and can help improve retention rates, identify potential upsell opportunities and more. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we explore five important things you should look to accomplish in a QBR with managed services clients. Tune in now to learn more!

With so many backup and disaster recovery offerings in today's MSP market, it can be difficult to know what to look for when evaluating a new solution—or simply trying to make sure your current platform is up to par. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we explore three key considerations to keep in mind when researching BDR technology. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Joe DeRosa, Senior Director of BDR Product Management at Continuum, who explains the differentiators that make a great BDR platform, and why it's essential every MSP today adopt a BDR solution for their clients.

Security continues to be an emerging area that your prospects are concerned about, and to complicate the landscape, threats are also coming through social media as well. Learn how to further establish yourself as a trusted advisor and a VCIO with tips and tactics to keep your clients safe.

Remote monitoring and management (RMM) technology is a key component of any modern MSP portfolio—but managed IT services doesn’t exactly sell itself, and it can be difficult to convince some prospects of the value you’re bringing to the table as a provider. Tune in to learn how!

While HIPAA Compliance and Security a big buzzwords these days, there is actually a massive opportunity out there for MSPs to re-position their business to offer both security and compliance services to the SMB market. But how can you be sure it’s worth the time investment?

Live webinars are a great way to engage with your audience while sharing content, and they can play a big role in lead generation and inbound marketing—but effectively executing a webinar takes careful planning. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we look at the keys to successfully hosting live webinars and growing your audience.

It's the 100th episode! First, we look back at our very first episode with a 2014 clip from Mark Connolly, Vice President of Sales at Continuum. Then, we leap forward to the present with an exclusive interview with Michael George, CEO of Continuum, and his thoughts on the future of Managed IT Services.

Building infographics can be fun, but as with any other content medium it’s important to understand best practices before jumping in to create your own. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at a five-step process for building awesome and engaging infographics!

As MSP Radio approaches a major milestone with its 100th episode, Nate Teplow and Joe Tavano look back at the top most-downloaded episodes from the last 50 shows. Tune in to relive some of the best MSP Radio memories we have!

With all the things an MSP has to do in the course of one day, it can be easy to let a website fall behind. However, to do so would let a huge gateways to new leads slip away. In this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe discuss the most up to date best practices and methods that MSPs can take to build a thriving, lead generating, SEO-optimized website.

Are you protecting your website traffic with SSL? Proper encryption is a must-have for MSPs today, and understanding the basics behind SSL is an important first step in finding the right certificate for your website. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we explore three reasons why SSL is an essential website technology.

Content creation is the foundation of many modern marketing strategies and tactics, and resources like eBooks and white papers can greatly help businesses when it comes to lead generation and prospecting. In this episode of The Weekly Byte, we talk about how to repurpose your content to expand your reach, generate more leads and win new business!

How do you get a prospect or a client to start thinking about BDR? What gets the regular SMB to realize it is an essential part of their overal business plan? How do you start that conversation? This week on MSP Radio, we talk with Continuum's Matt Waters about effective strategies, tips, and ideas to get your prospect conversations moving in the right direction.

On this episode, we have a recent interview with Darren Hardy, who discusses how MSPs can embrace their failures and use them to fuel future business growth. Darren Hardy is the former CEO of SUCCESS Magazine and author of the book The Compound Effect, which is a New York Times Best Seller.

The managed IT services market is a crowded one, and it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from the competition and showcase what makes your business unique. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at several steps you can take to increase your visibility, stand apart from the crowd and demonstrate your unique value in your local market.

A picture is worth a thousand words, and images play a big role in Web marketing today—but there’s more to visuals than simply uploading a picture to your website and letting it display as is. By using Alt Tags and Title Tags, you can add additional context and language into your images that both improve user experience and improve SEO.

Losing key employees can have a significant impact on your business. Most MSPs have trouble finding and retaining their top talent, however, equity compensation plans are a great way to incentivize employees to stay with your company. There’s a lot to consider when building equity compensation plans.

Conferences are a great way for MSPs to network, learn, connect with their vendors and focus on growing their businesses. That’s why we created Navigate, Continuum’s Annual User Conference, to help our partners grow their business--and Navigate 2016 is sure to be one of the highlights of the year.

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at several steps to crafting great customer testimonials and case studies. Tune in now to discover what makes a good case study, how to conduct an interview and capture an effective story, and more!

The IT channel has evolved quite a bit over the past decade. No longer are IT companies described as VARs, resellers or distributors to their vendors, but rather, they are partners. So how do you get more value out of your vendor relationships?

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we explore several landing page best practices that you should be including in every landing page you create. Tune in now to discover how the right combination of language, visuals, a strong call-to-action and other elements can help you increase conversion and generate high-quality leads using content!

Nate is back from the Robin Robins Boot Camp, and he brought back some important takeaways from talking to numerous MSPs. From technology, to marketing, to KPIs and forecasting, Nate and Joe cover a variety of topics in this episode of MSP Radio.

This episode of The Weekly Byte explores four ways LinkedIn can help you grow your business, from building your brand to expanding your prospect list and everything in between. Listen now to learn what social selling can do for you!

Effectively pricing and packaging your services can be one of the most difficult challenges to tackle as an MSP. How do you know you’re maximizing your profits while not scaring away prospects with prices that are too high?

In this edition of The Weekly Byte we look five pillars of successful email, and offer our tips and best practices to help you craft powerful messages that get strong engagement and drive conversion.

There’s a lot of talk among businesses about the topic of cybersecurity and how to make sure data and networks are secure. This is an opportunity for MSPs, but how can you take part in the conversation and use cybersecurity as a way to generate new leads and and acquire more customers?

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at five must-have elements in a strong blog. Whether you're a blogging expert or are just getting started, these best practices will help you ensure you're optimizing your blog in all the right places.

Many SMBs need Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) services these days, which presents a huge opportunity for MSPs and IT service companies. However, providing these services can be costly and highly-resource intensive, so how can you effectively provide BDR services and still make consistent profits?

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at three ways to improve your Google ranking. Whether you're brand new to SEO or already have some optimization experience, these quick tips can help you enhance your web presence and increase your chances of being discovered.

Most MSPs have tried some form of email marketing, but need help turning it into a true channel to nurture and engage your contacts. So what tools, processes and content do you need in place in order to get the most out of your email marketing efforts?

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at three signs of a strong video marketing presence. Whether you’re a video marketing expert or are brand new to video, these quick tips will help ensure you’re setting yourself up for success and making the most of the opportunities presented by video marketing.

Social media is a relatively new marketing channel and it can be difficult to find time to leverage it effectively. However, if you want to find and connect with new customers, increase your visibility online and grow your business, social media is an important channel you can no longer ignore.

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we look at five homepage mistakes to avoid at all costs. These design and content errors can ruin a user's experience and prevent viewers from engaging with your website. You'll also gain an understanding of the first steps in optimizing and improving your homepage.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Brandon Garcin, Content Marketing Manager at Continuum, about how MSPs can more effectively produce content and use it to drive traffic, leads and new clients.

In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we explore three important elements in a good CTA – placement, look and language. Tune in now to discover how the right visuals, location and copy can transform your CTAs into powerful, high-converting marketing messages that encourage visitors to download content and engage with you.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Win Pham, VP of Development at RapidFire Tools, about how MSPs can market and sell managed security services to prospects and clients and add new lines of revenue for their business.

To gate or not to gate – that is the question. Gated content is an important element of inbound and digital marketing strategy, but knowing what and when to gate isn’t always obvious. In this edition of The Weekly Byte, we try and define gated content and answer these questions in fewer than 90 seconds!

How can you use your network to your advantage in order to grow your business? On this episode, we chat with Arlin & Pete Sorensen from HTG Peer Groups about how MSPs can grow their network, build relationships and use it better your business and your personal life.

Adding new business is a priority for any organization. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Ray Vrabel, Sr. Director of Strategic Partners at Continuum, about how you can upset your competition and bring in new clients.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Tom Fafinski, Co-Founder of Virtus Law, who tells us about the process of raising equity for your business and what MSPs and business owners need to be aware of when doing so.

Did you know that there are strategies you can leverage to save money and increase profits during tax season? On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Tom Fafinski, Co-Founder of Virtus Law, about some legal strategies MSPs can use to streamline their business and keep more money for their bottom line.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we talk through some fun results from a recent blog post we did and discuss some of the surprising results of which scenarios MSPs would rather find themselves in.

Referrals to your business are a great source of leads because they convert at a high rate and usual end up being profitable customers. The problem is it's hard to control how many referrals are sent your way. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat through some strategies on how to encourage more referrals and build a formal referral program.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Lisa Hendrickson, also known as Call That Girl, about how specializing your services can help you win more clients and provide better overall services. Lisa also discusses how she’s effectively marketed her business through channels like her podcast.

A great way to find more leads is through offering network assessments. However, it can be difficult to effectively build them into your sales process. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Win Pham, VP of Development at RapidFire Tools, about how to perform automated network assessments.

Whether it’s taking on bad clients, not generating new leads or employee churn, there are a lot of bad habits to look out for as an MSP. On this episode, we chat through some strategies to break out of these seemingly never-ending cycles and take your business to the next level.

It’s hard to improve your sales processes when you’re not tracking your sales activities. So how do you know which metrics and activities to track? On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Dan Nice, Director of Sales Operations at Ambition, about how to get more out of your sales team through sales performance software.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Matthew Rodela, Host of the Computer Business Podcast, and Paco Lebron, Founder of ProdigyTeks PC Repair, about how MSPs can improve their website and use it as a tool to generate leads and find new business.

While there are many different ways to leverage and define “the cloud”, there’s no denying it will be an integral part of all businesses in the future. On this episode of MSP Radio, we join as guests on the Cloud Radio to discuss how the cloud is impacting the IT channel and how MSPs can take advantage.

As 2015 comes to a close we take a look back at our top 5 episodes of the year. We’ve had some fantastic guests on the show in 2015, but not all of them can make the top 5! On this episode, find out whose shows were the best of 2015.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Evan Stein, CEO of CMIT Solutions of Wallstreet & Grand Central, about how he got started in managed IT services and how he deals with the everyday challenges of being an MSP.

Effective email communication is a useful marketing tool. On this episode of MSP Radio, we discuss a previous MSP blog post about how NOT to write a sales email and chat about some easy tips to refine and strengthen your sales emails.

Liz Musgrave, Creative Marketing Associate at Continuum, shares some tips on design and branding for MSPs and how you can take advantage of simple tools to create a professional, customized brand experience.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with members of the Grow Your Business Genius Bar team about their takeaways from the event and how MSPs can take basic steps towards improving their sales and marketing efforts in order to grow their businesses.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Jim Lippie, Chief Advisor at Clarity Channel Advisors, about his process for business planning, some 2016 technology trends to consider and how MSPs can effectively plan for the year.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Milton Bartley, CEO, President & Co-Founder of ImageQuest, about how he has been able to successfully reposition is office equipment business into a true technology solution provider.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Chris Johnson, CEO & Co-Founder of Untangled Solutions, about his keys to success when pricing and packaging his services and how it has contributed to his business growth.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with David Wells, Account Manager at R1Soft, about how both MSPs and Web Hosting Providers can create effective backup strategies and bring on new clients.

As an MSP or IT Solution Provider, you need to be on the lookout for new technologies that will change the way your clients can connect, stay productive and become more efficient as a business. So what are some of those technologies on the horizon that will change the modern day workplace?

They say the only constant is change, and that’s certainly the case in the Managed IT Services industry. On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome Mark Williams, CEO of Pensar, who discusses how he’s been able to stay in business for over 20 years and adapt to the changing landscape of Managed IT Services.

It’s officially September which means it’s officially Navigate month! In preparation for Navigate 2015, Continuum’s annual user conference, we’re playing clips from previous guests on MSP Radio who are speaking at Navigate 2015.

To build a profitable and growing company, it’s important to have repeatable, recurring revenue and to fix as many costs as you can in order to maintain your margins. Building recurring revenue has its challenges, but it can be way more difficult to fix your costs as an MSP because the demands of IT are incredibly episodic.

The role of MSPs and IT Solution Providers has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. MSPs now serve a much more important role for the businesses they support, which means the projects they are tasked with have increased in importance and complexity.

There’s a lot of acquisition activity in the managed services industry. There are opportunities to be acquired as an MSP, but there’s also opportunities to make an acquisition and accelerate your growth. But how do you know if you’re ready to make an acquisition?

How do you take advantage of the security opportunity? On this episode, we chat with Mark Wadnizak, President & CEO of Voice Smart Networks, about how he’s been able to add Managed Security Services to his offering.

We all want to grow our business, but not many people stop to ask “Am I really ready to grow?” Sometimes, growing can be a bad thing for your business if you’re not ready to accept that growth. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Steve Alexander, CEO of MSP-Ignite, about how to build a scalable company that is ready to take on new growth.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with David Russell, CEO of MANAGEtoWIN, about what characteristics make a good manager, how to make your managers successful and how you know if you’re ready for this next stage of growth.

MSPs have plenty of data; but this data is typically spread across multiple systems, like a PSA, billing system and CRM. Enabling your teams with the right data at the right time helps make everyone work smarter and more efficiently, but that’s difficult to do when your data is hosted across multiple platforms that don’t connect to each other.

Finding and retaining good talent is something all small business struggle with. Employee churn is one of the biggest hurdles to growth, so how can you be sure to not just find good talent but keep good talent when it comes to your business?

We recently celebrated 100 days until Navigate 2015, Continuum’s user conference that’s taking place in Las Vegas from September 27-29. Since we’re so excited for the conference, we’re dedicating this week’s show to Navigate 2015.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Harry Brelsford, Founder of SMBnation & O365nation, about recent Microsoft updates, how they affect MSPs and where the opportunities are for the channel in the future.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Tom Fafinski, Co-Founder of Virtus Law, who tells us about the process of raising debt for your business, how it’s different from equity and what MSPs need to be aware of when doing so.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Jeff Dryall, Director of Business Development at Plan27, about how MSPs can use search engine marketing to generate more leads, ramp up their marketing and take control of their growth.

We’ve reached our 50th episode for MSP Radio and what a first year it’s been for us! To celebrate this special milestone, we’ll be counting down the top 5 shows of all time and also offering a special giveaway. Thank you to all the listeners and all the guests on MSP Radio so far. We look forward to bringing you many more shows!

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Brian Coffey, Technical Channel Account Manager at Webroot, about the 2015 Threat Brief that Webroot recently published and what MSPs need to know to better protect their clients from the latest data security threats.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Joe Tavano, Marketing Copywriter at Continuum and overall podcast enthusiast, about some of the benefits of podcasting and how you can use them as part of your overall marketing and content strategy.

Developing processes is an important part of your service offering and is what makes you unique as an MSP. Documenting these processes is important, but it can be time consuming for your employees and difficult to get them to buy-in.

CompTIA holds their Annual Members Meeting every March and this year, we traveled down to Ponte Vedra, FL to network, learn and discuss the future of the channel. From Community meetings to whacky keynotes, there was a lot covered at this year’s AMM. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Shannon Mayer, Sr. Marketing Programs Manager at Continuum, about some of her takeaways from the event and what she thinks the IT channel needs to do be continue to be successful now and into the future.

As security concerns continue to plague businesses, especially healthcare organizations, HIPAA compliance has become a growing need for companies. This means there’s a growing opportunity for MSPs to help these businesses become compliant.

Many MSPs struggle with sales and marketing. On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Jay Ryerse, VP of Business Development at Digitel Corporation, to discuss tangible strategies MSPs can put into action to help with their sales and marketing efforts.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we speak with Scott Spiro, CEO of Computer Solutions Group, who shares his secrets on how he’s been able to increase his productivity as a business owner while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Larry Cobrin, Co-Founder of MSP CFO. Larry will tell us about how MSPs can leverage the data that they have in their PSA’s in order to become smarter and more effective business owners in order to increase profitability and drive growth.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Steve Hilton, Co-Founder and Managing Director of MachNation, an analyst firm covering the future of the Internet of Things. Steve tells us what we can expect to happen in 2015 and how that will affect MSPs and IT Solution Providers.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Anurag Agrawal, CEO of TechAisle, who discusses 5 of his 15 predictions for the SMB Channel in 2015 and how he thinks it will impact MSPs. Tune in now to learn more!

On this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Mike Schmidtmann, an experienced MSP Sales Consultant, who will tell us some keys to success for building out your sales process and your sales team.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we discuss MSP pricing strategies for MSPs with Ray Vrabel, Director of Technical Account Management at Continuum and Frank Bauer, Senior Account Manager at Continuum.

On this episode of MSP Radio, we’re joined by Dawn Farrell and Andrew Luhrmann from MaaS360 to discuss MDM sales and marketing strategies for MSPs. If you’re interested in offering MDM services this year to your clients, this show will help you know how to get started.

On this episode, I’m joined by George Sierchio from Cogent Growth Partners. George helps potential acquirers find and purchase MSP businesses, and discusses what makes MSPs strong targets for acquisition.

I’ve had a blast bringing MSP Radio to you all this year. For our end-of-the-year episode, I’ve gone through and pulled clips from every guest from every episode. It’s fun to hear all of the different topics we’ve covered on the show and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

In this episode, we chat with Scott Glidden, Director of Media Production at Continuum, and Ben Barker, Content Marketing Consultant at Continuum, who discuss how MSPs can effectively leverage video marketing in a scalable and efficient way.

In this episode, we welcome back Bryan Gilliom, Founder of GrowMyMSP.com, who gives us a number of effective strategies for showing thanks to your clients and your employees this Holiday Season.

In this episode of MSP Radio, we speak with James Kernan of Kernan Consulting about how to create an organization that’s ready for change and welcomes it. Tune in now to learn more and how to apply these tips to your organization.

In this episode, we chat with Hire Heroes USA, a non-profit organization that helps veterans find jobs after returning home from service. Kelly Dempsey, Director of Communications and Corporate Relations, and Brian Stann, CEO, will tell us a little about the organization and the valuable skill set that our veterans possess as a result of serving our country.

In this episode of MSP Radio, we welcome back Tom Fafinski of Virtus Law, who will tell us about the anatomy of a business acquisition and what MSPs can start doing today to set themselves up for a successful acquisition in the future.

In this episode, you’ll hear part 2 of Michael’s keynote speech, where he continues to tell us about the major paradigm shift that we’re in the midst of and how MSPs can leverage outsourced labor to minimize risks and become better business owners. Tune in now to find out how you can achieve your True North!

In this episode of MSP Radio, we chat with Jeanne Hopkins, Chief Marketing Officer at Continuum and Mark Zahar, VP of Channel Sales at Continuum, to discuss the importance of sales and marketing alignment and how to make it work for your business.

In order to survive in managed IT services, you need to chart your course to success. That’s exactly what Continuum’s CEO, Michael George, spoke about in his keynote at Navigate 2014. In this episode, we play part 1 of Michael's keynote address, where he shares how MSPs can leverage smartsourcing to grow their business and thrive in managed services.

In this episode, we chat with Tim Brewer, a former MSP owner who now works with MSPs, vendors and technology companies to help them change their business model and leadership strategies. Tim tells us a little about what’s going on in the cloud market and how MSPs can be ready for change.

In this episode of MSP Radio, we look back at our Inaugural User Conference, Navigate 2014 and play a couple of segments from some of our keynote addresses and sound clips from event attendees. Tune in now to learn more!

While Navigate 2014 has passed, we put together a pre-event radio show with clips from some of our Navigate speakers who appeared on MSP Radio. These guests spoke on a variety of subjects and presented to packed rooms at Navigate 2014.

In this episode of MSP Radio, Nate and Joe talk to Ben Austin, Senior Product Marketing Manager, about why backup verification is so important to your business, some ways to discuss this feature with your clients, pricing and packaging options, and Continuum's new backup verification feature, Tru Verify.

Master Services Agreements (MSAs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are the foundation of your business relationships. They set expectations when certain issues arise and how both parties are responsible for handling them. However, MSPs don’t always understand how important it is to build strong contractual documents.

Increasing profitability is a key priority for all MSPs. In theory, this is easy to do. In practice, it’s hard to know where to look. However, analyzing your financials is one of the best ways to find new revenue opportunities and increase your profitability.

Your website is your storefront these days, and also the hub of all your online marketing initiatives. Websites are critical to your marketing success, yet many MSPs will neglect their website as an afterthought. Your website is not something you can just setup and have live on its own. You need to continuously update and optimize your site for it to work for you.

The Internet of Things is most definitely a major buzzword in the technology world. The concept seems like a lot to take in; machines talking to machines, every object connected to web, what to do with all that data. However, this shift in connectivity will leave huge opportunities for MSPs and the businesses that they serve.

Patching is an incredibly important service that MSPs provide to their clients. In fact, it can even be used a differentiator between your services versus your competition. Practicing smart patching procedures will make you a more effective services provider and add value to your clients. On the contrary, ignoring these best practices can lead to a number of issues.

Tickets are the lifeblood of an MSP, however, they can also be the downfall of an MSP. Managed Services Providers deal with A LOT of tickets on a daily basis; so many that they can eat up a lot of your technicians’ time. Finding ways to effectively monitor, remediate and complete tickets is one of the key components of maintaining profitability.

As mobile device usage has continued to grow, so too has the opportunity for managed IT services providers. In fact, it's predicted that by 2018, the average professional will have 10 web-connected devices. With the growing number of devices per individual, the need for MDM solutions becomes more and more obvious, yet many MSPs neglect this very fact.

No Managed Services Provider has ever had the problem of having too many good employees. Finding and retaining top talent as an MSP can be very difficult, especially when it comes to your sales team, which is a key area to focus on if you want to grow your business.

With the recent July 4th holiday, we’re taking a step back on MSP Radio to pay tribute to our nation’s veterans. It’s not always easy for veterans to return home from service, yet they have many skills to offer their employers that universities alone simply can’t teach.

Continuum recently sponsored a local Boston event called TechJam, where the city helped bring together local bands and local companies, ranging from small startups to large enterprises, to enjoy music, food, drinks and networking. Listen as Nate interviews local tech companies!

The SMB industry is a constantly changing market, which provides a constant opportunity for MSPs. However, it’s important to understand these changes so that you can understand the opportunities at hand. And what better way to understand these opportunities than data?

Running an MSP is a tough job. There are many different components you have to juggle, and two areas where many MSPs struggle is finding ways to grow their business, while also retaining and increasing revenues from their current clients.

While IT solution providers have been around for a while, Managed IT Services is a fairly new offering comparatively. Managed services are not just a product, it’s a way of doing business. In order to be successful as an MSP, you need to fully buy into this business model. But what exactly is this business model?

A help desk is critical for an MSPs success. Your clients will need someone to call when something goes wrong. The problem is that maintaining a full help desk is a business of its own. You need to be available 24/7, call volume can be incredibly volatile and it’s difficult to find and retain top talent. Ultimately, maintaining a service desk in-house isn’t scalable for MSPs.

Communities are an incredibly important part of business. They are where people share ideas, connect, uncover business opportunities and learn from their peers. And now, there are even more opportunities to connect and build communities with the Internet and social media. So how can managed IT services providers leverage these communities for their business?

Last week we attended the CMIT conference in New Orleans and came away with a ton of great knowledge, statistics and fun stories that we wanted to share with you on MSP Radio. This week’s guests are Cindy Phillips, Director of Product Management at CMIT and Todd Wolpert, Senior Account Manager at Continuum, both of whom were at the conference last week.

We’ve talked about building a marketing program for your MSP business, which is important for growth. But that’s only half the battle. None of that really matters unless you can actually close the leads that you generate from your marketing.

The great shift in cloud computing poses both a threat and massive opportunity to managed IT services providers. While some SMBs have purchased cloud infrastructures direct from the providers (like Amazon and Microsoft), the majority of small businesses will need help with their cloud strategy, and they will rely on the MSPs to get them there.

Pricing is a HUGE topic for MSPs. There are many different models you can use to price your services, but which makes the most sense for you business? On this episode of MSP Radio, Nate Teplow chats with Ray Vrabel, Director of Technical Account Management at Continuum and Frank Bauer, Senior Account Manager at Continuum, to talk about MSP pricing models, what’s happening in the market, and how you can effectively price your services.

Last week we talked about the opportunity for MSPs within the market and how they can take advantage from a sales perspective. This week, we’re talking MSP marketing. It's hard to ramp up your sales without the support of a marketing program, yet many MSPs seem to put marketing on the back burner.

There are tons of opportunities surrounding managed IT services, but many MSPs aren't sure of the best way to capitalize on the growing market. The spend by small businesses for IT services is expected to cross the $1 trillion mark in 2015. Clearly, there's a lot of room in the market, but it can feel like being a little fish in a big sea.