The Technology Bradcast

Customers installing unapproved software? IT departments bypassing your security or just plain ol' "doing whatever the hell they want?" That's Shadow IT, and it's a huge headache for MSPs. It creates hidden risks and liabilities, not just for your customers, but for you. Want to learn how to fight it? Listen up! Links for events, articles, and products mentioned in the podcast: Link to Register for Taste of Success - Texas: https://overview.ascii.com/tasteofsuccesstexas/ (Use VIP CODE: BRADGROSSVIP) Link to EverythingMSP Article: https://www.everythingmsp.com/blog/navigating-the-shadows-proactive-it-engagement-for-your-clients.html MSPTerms:  https://www,mspterms.com 

Stop being a nice person.  It's killing your business. You're doing favors, you're providing out-of-scope work--and you're setting yourself up for failure. Nice people sometimes finish first, but MSPs that define the scope of their services and then stay in their lanes ALWAYS finish first.   

Somewhere along the line, someone told you (maybe a lawyer?) that you can update your Master Services Agreement just by posting the changes and simply telling your customers, "We can update any of our terms and if you keep using our services, you accept those terms." If that sounds familiar to you, then you've received bad advice. Want to know the right way--the ENFORCEABLE way--to update your MSA?  Listen up.

You're doing off-boarding wrong!  You're not considering all of the crucial issues involved when a customer says, "goodbye!" I'm about to give you some winning off-boarding strategies that might save you thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees.  You ready?  Let's do this.  

Lawyers and doctors owe a very special duty of confidentiality to their patients and clients, and that makes them hesitant to hire MSPs. Want to know how to leverage that hesitancy to convince medical and legal verticals to work with your MSP? Listen up. The latest Technology Bradcast is here!

As an MSP, navigating negotiations is key. But what happens when your customers push for terms that shouldn't be on the table? How do you explain things in a way that will settle the issues in your favor? Listen up. 

Industry veteran Eric Pinto, Senior Director of Channel & Product Strategy at SocSoter, believes that the way MSPs sell cybersecurity is broken. And we, at the Bradcast, couldn't agree more! Join us on this episode as we sit down with Eric to discuss what's broken about cybersecurity sales and what mature MSPs can do to fix the situation.  

Insurance can be a costly and unattainable expense for MSPs.  But here comes Cork, offering warranty-based coverage programs that promise financial protection to participating MSPs. Might that help your MSP feel more secure? Might it protect your MSP from financial disasters related to security breaches?  For answers, I sat down with Nick Wolf, Cork's Director of Partner Acquisition. Check out the interview and learn more about how Cork might be able to help your MSP. 

You try to enforce your expensive, attorney-drafted agreement only to find out that you can't. If that's happened to you, then were a victim of poor implementation. Want to find out how to correctly implement your customer-facing agreements to avoid implementation problems? Listen up.

A law firm experiences a ransomware attack and sues its MSP and solution provider for negligence. The case has all the elements of an MSP's nightmare: services promised but not delivered, hackers demanding huge amounts in ransom, and backup files that, it turns out, never existed.  As an MSP owner, should you be concerned about this case?  Might it set new and lower standards for liability for MSPs? Or…not?  Welcome to the Technology Bradcast.

Late last year, one of the most notable acquisitions in the cybersecurity industry took place: Sonicwall acquired Solutions Granted.  You might have read about the deal, but do you know what motivated two of the most respected cybersecurity companies to get together? Do you know how that acquisition will benefit your MSP?   In this very special episode of the Bradcast, Michael Crean of Solutions Granted and Michelle Ragusa-McBain of Sonicwall will tell you all about it. Listen up!

There are seven words that cause MSPs to spend millions of dollars unnecessarily. There are seven words that MSPs always use to justify why they were unprepared; why they were caught without contracts, without insurance, without foresight. No other words have exposed MSPs to so much liability, costs, and heartaches.  Want to know what they are? Listen up.

"We don't have insurance. We don't always use quotes. We've let our receivables get too high." Too often throughout 2023 I've heard those sentences uttered from MSPs nationwide. If they sound familiar to you, then you need to correct that situation right now--and I'm going to tell you how to do that. Welcome to the next episode of the Technology Bradcast.

A CISO has been charged with fraud. Does this mean that CISOs and company directors will be responsible for all cybersecurity vulnerabilities? Has the government's oversight of the cybersecurity industry suddenly changed? Should you be worried? Listen up.

Your customer terminates your agreement prematurely and without cause.  The payout clause in your agreement requires your customer to pay out the balance of the contract, but your customer's lawyer says it's unenforceable--and maybe it is.  Do you want to avoid the "evil magic" that lawyers use to circumvent payout clauses? Then listen up.

Your customer owes your MSP business a small amount of money, so you file a small claims action and you don't hire an attorney--because attorneys are expensive, right? But the judge won't let your case proceed unless you hire an attorney.  What can you do?  Listen up.

Guidance is the key to great relationships between MSPs and their customers.  Too many MSPs don't provide the right kind of guidance to their customers, and that's causing friction--the kind of friction that attorneys resolve by the hour.  And those attorneys don't give a damn about your business, but I do. Want to know how to provide guidance?  Listen up.

Some MSP's think that they can update their master agreement simply by posting updated terms on a central website. It's so effortless. It's hands-off. It's so...UNENFORCEABLE. If you think you can unilaterally change your MSA and then force your customers to accept the modified MSA simply because your MSA says "that's the way it is," well, you're in a very precarious legal position.  Want to know more?  Listen up.

New York is about do to away with non-compete provisions. That means that your employees can quit and then open up a competing shop or even work for your biggest competitor.  So what does that mean for your company?  Should you panic?  Should you care? The answers are ahead…listen up.

MSPs that use service agreements only some of the time (instead of all of the time) forget where they are. They forget what could be ahead.  If that's what you're doing, then you need a dose of reality. Listen up.

Your customer's workforce is distributed.  That's a fancy way of saying, “Employees work from home and don't really care about security.”  As the MSP, you're supposed to manage all distributed devices and make sure everything's alright. But will it be alright? Maybe, but only if you remember that sharing is caring. Listen up.

You want to raise your fees because you're losing money on a customer, but the 3% or 4% increase allowed by your agreement simply won't be enough.  Sound familiar? What if I told you that by using a "Brad Gross contract strategy" you could you raise your fees by any amount and your customers won't reject your agreement?  It's not impossible.  It's experience. Listen up.

Your customer's IT Director approves a quote for service, but after the service is done the customer's CEO says, “I didn't ask for that service, it shouldn't have been approved and I'm not paying for it.”  It's called “scope denial” and it's painful and expensive situation to fix.  Want to avoid it?  Listen up.  

The headline of the Bloomberg article was simple enough: Morgan Stanley Lost Some Hard Drives. But in that headline was a hidden message to MSPs that offer hardware as a service.  And that message couldn't have been louder, darker, or more urgent.  Welcome to the next episode of the Technology Bradcast.

If you're not offering a security awareness training solution, then you're not only doing a disservice to your customers, but you could, under some scenarios, be exposed to legal liability.  Wait, what? Legal liability for not offering security awareness training?  Listen up.   (After listening, check out this link: https://www.everythingmsp.com/videos.html#video-gallery-1)

How much detail should be in your quotes? What if your quote is too short?  What if its too long? What if we answered all of these questions AND told you how to manage your customers' expectations simultaneously?  That's exactly what we do in the 41st episode of the Technology Bradcast. Listen up.

You can't solicit my employees, and if you do, you'll pay.  Or will you?  Hmmm... Are non-solicitation agreements really enforceable?  If not, then what should you do?  Let's talk about it.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Transition services – every MSPs provides them but very few protect themselves from the pitfalls that plague those services.  What kind of pitfalls are we talking about ? The kind that can land you in court.  I'll tell you how to avoid those pitfalls right now.  Listen up. Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Your MSP offers compliance as a service, which means you're giving compliance-related advice to your customers.  But what if your advice is wrong?  Or what if the law changes and your advice becomes obsolete overnight?  Want to avoid the pitfalls of compliance as a service?  Listen up. Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

You can have the best agreement in the world, but it means nothing if you don't implement that agreement correctly. Poor (or no) implementation means big and expensive trouble for your MSP. Want to learn how to implement correctly?  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

We're closing out the year out with a discussion of the legal loophole that ambulance chasing law firms might use in the future to sue MSPs like YOU.  This may very well be the most important episode of the Technology Bradcast--ever.  You need to listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License    

If you're scared of the headaches and heartaches of providing your services in a co-managed environment, then you need to follow the "Brad Gross Three Immutable Laws of Providing Services in a Co-Managed Environment."  Yeah, ugly title but damn great advice. Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

If you're going to buy out your partner, then you'll need a buy/sell agreement.  But what is a buy/sell agreement, and what are the “must have" provisions to include in that agreement?  You have questions?  I've got answers.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

A customer declines your services so you're going to send a declination letter--but is that enough? Should you send a waiver? Does the customer have to sign your document? How do you protect your company from customers that reject important services? We're revisiting declination letters--what they are, when you should use them, and what they should say. Welcome to the next installment of the Technology Bradcast.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

I know what keeps you up at night.  Your company provides managed IT services and you’re wondering if your company will be liable when—not if, but when-- it experiences a data security breach. You’re also wondering whether your company will be responsible for a breach that happens to an upstream provider but which impacts your customers. Wonder no more.  The latest Technology Bradcast is here.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

The directors of your customer’s company are fighting with each other, and one of them sends you an email saying, “I want you to give me all of the administrative passwords for the company.”  Do you have to turn that information over?  Should you?  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License    

You've entered into a long term deal with a great customer.  Joe, the customer's manager, signed the deal.  Three months later your customer wants to terminate the contract, claiming that Joe had no authority to sign that contract.  Now what? Answer: Listen to this episode of the Technology Bradcast and learn about "Apparent Authority"   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Post-incident meetings reduce your company's liability and boost its defenses after a cyber attack.  Want to learn how to organize and run an effective Post-Incident Meeting? Listen up.     Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Your customer wants something in writing. Do you give a quote?  A proposal? A statement of work? An invoice? I know the differences. Do you? Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

You told your customer to purchase a particular solution and your customer declined. You know it will eventually come back to bite your customer—and maybe your company as well.  What should you do?  Protect (and market) your company with a "decline letter."     Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

You must believe in the value of the services you provide.  If you don't, your clients won't either and they'll try to negotiate your pricing--and that's a race to the bottom.  Belief starts now.  Listen up.     Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License    

Off-Boarding.  It's how you wrap things up with your customer.  But it’s not always as simple as flipping a switch and shutting things down. You need to prepare for the end, at the beginning.  Want to know how? Listen up.       Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Your customer’s lawyer wants to negotiate your service agreement.  But I’m in your head saying, “Don't negotiate those three provisions..."  You think, "What’s Brad talking about?  What terms shouldn’t I negotiate?  What’s he saying?” Listen up…   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

  George Bardissi, CEO of BVoIP, is one of the most well-known, experienced, and successful vendors in the service provider industry--and now he's sharing his unique industry insights with the Technology Bradcast. Join us as George tells us why MSPs should not be afraid to offer VoIP services, and learn his perspectives on MSP marketing, customer relationships, and where the VoIP market is headed in 2020 and beyond. When George speaks, serious people listen.  If you're a serious player in the MSP industry, you will too.   Want to contact George?  Go to BVoIP, Inc. (www.bvoip.com) or send him an email at gbardissi@bvoip.com.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

In our first Bradcast interview, the CEO of Network Solutions Unlimited, Frank Saulsbury, gives you some of the best MSP business advice and customer strategies you'll hear anywhere.  Want to learn the secret to getting a great "first time appointment?"  Want to learn what mistakes to avoid and how to avoid them?  Want to hear from a seasoned MSP owner who knows a ton about the business?  Listen to Frank.   Contact Frank: Network Solutions Unlimited (www.nsumsp.com) or by email at Frank@nsumsp.com   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

You didn’t install two factor authentication in your client’s managed environment and now a hack occurred.  Did you commit negligence? Are you liable for damages?  My answer might surprise you. Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Scope Creep:  It usually starts with your customer saying, “You know what else we need?” or “That other thing—that’s included, right?” And it ends with someone being disappointed, either you or your customer.  Want to know how to avoid scope creep?  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License    

Listen to this episode of the Technology Bradcast right now and change your life forever!  It's the best thing you'll hear all day!  (The episode is abut puffery.  Get it?) Most MSPs use puffery to promote their services.  But when puffery creates legal obligations, liability happens.  Use puffery the right way and avoid liability.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

I've heard lots of MSPs say, “We don’t need agreements or statements of work for small projects.”  If you think that way, I’m about to scare the hell out of you.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

MSPs: Are you offering money back guarantees?  Stop it right now.  They're awful, and they are a losing proposition.  Want to know why?  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

I just spoke on Fox Business News about the Ring Doorbell lawsuit and why it should be dismissed.  But what does that litigation have to do with MSPs?  More than you think.  Listen up.   Music: "Werq" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License