Leveraging Learning Communities to Improve Business Marketing

MSPs, looking to improve your business acumen? Stefanie Hammond announces the new N‑able Book Club to help you grow together with your peers

Although I have been actively involved in the MSP space for over 20 years, I still love the challenge of learning and doing what I can to keep my skills sharp. This is not only for my own professional development, but also so that I can continue to be a relevant resource of training and education for our N‑able partners and other MSPs globally.

One thing that I love to do is to listen to podcasts and audiobooks – especially those focused on the MSP industry and the genre of sales and marketing. There are always new lessons and strategies that can be acquired and adopted to help even the most seasoned sales professional uplevel their selling abilities.

Introducing Sales and Marketing by the Book

In this theme of ‘continuous improvement’, I had the idea of starting a Book Club in 2025 for our N‑able partners and for any other MSP who would also like to join. As part of my role as Head Nerd, I currently already host monthly Business Office Hour sessions, which serve as a virtual Q&A drop-in that any MSP can attend to ask any sales, marketing, program design, or pricing questions they may have. But I would like to update and modernize these monthly sessions, so I thought I would shift the focus of these monthly Q&A sessions to more of a Book Club format, where the theme of each book would be centered around lead generation and prospecting, as these still seem to be the biggest business challenges MSPs are facing when it comes to achieving sustainable revenue growth for their organization.

My ultimate goal is that this would evolve into becoming a mash-up between Book Club and Peer Group, so that we could come together once a month to talk about the book, its relevance, and any good nuggets that could be useful in helping MSPs grow their businesses. Then, in between our monthly virtual get-togethers, Book Club members would hopefully feel comfortable reaching out to one another on their own, to discuss any other sales, marketing or business-related challenge they might be facing, to gain a different perspective or potential solution to that challenge. Our most successful MSPs leverage the power of peer groups and credit much of their success to their involvement in these groups. But in my experience many MSPs don’t know where to get started with joining a peer group, and so my hope is – through my monthly Book Club format – that it could be the launchpad for those that are interesting in joining a peer group, but don’t know how to find one. 

The 1-Page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib

The first book that I would like to start off with for our Book Club is: The 1-page Marketing Plan by Allan Dib.

I am continually fielding questions from MSPs who are concerned that their ‘marketing’ isn’t working, and they are struggling with how ‘to do’ it. During our calls, when I begin to dig a bit deeper into where their marketing challenges are stemming from, often times it is due to the fact that many MSPs have no real plan.  They are doing a little bit here, a little bit there, but without any real objectives or goals.  They are focused on the marketing ‘tactics’ (like posting to LinkedIn ; writing a blog ; hosting a webinar) instead of sitting down and building out a cohesive marketing plan that describes how they will get their target audience to know them, like them, and trust them enough to become a customer. 

Helping to Get Your Marketing Working By Starting with the Fundamentals

That is why I thought it would be best to launch my new Book Club with a book that focuses on the marketing fundamentals. Many MSP business owners started their MSP because they were skilled where tech is concerned, but often seem to be lacking the marketing basics. For many of these MSPs marketing can be baffling and overwhelming. I believe that it’s the mastery of understanding the basics that can be the most instrumental in helping to fuel one’s success.  

In the 1-Page Marketing Plan, the author gives a great analogy when describing how important it is for businesses to initiate their marketing with creating a plan. He equates it to building a house. If you purchased a plot of land – with the goal of building a house on it to live in, would you start by ordering a pile of bricks and timber and start erecting walls? No. You would start by hiring an architect and a builder and have them design a plan for your house first. Through the creation of a blueprint, they will ensure that your new house is safe and will meet building codes. This is a critical first step as you need to have the blueprint of your house in place first BEFORE you even begin to dig the foundation. And then once the blueprint is in place, that is when you can begin to order your materials and the tradespeople you need to start doing the necessary plumbing and the electrical work that will help your house take shape. So the blueprint is your marketing plan, while the building materials and tradespeople are the marketing tactics. Both are important in building a safe, sturdy home, but the blueprint is that necessary first piece.   

And you might be thinking, “Stefanie – I don’t have TIME to write out a marketing plan for my MSP!” And that is the beauty of Dib’s book. In as little as 6 hours, you could download the 1-page planning template, listen to the book on Audible, and finish the afternoon with a marketing plan for your MSP – at least that is what the author is contending.  I guess we will use our February Meeting to discuss how reasonable and attainable Dib’s teachings really are.

Welcome to the Sales and Marketing by the Book

So if you are an MSP that is struggling with marketing and lead gen, hopefully you will be excited to join and participate in my book club this year. Our first virtual meeting will be taking place February 18^th, and you can register by signing up for my February Office Hours Session HERE.

Although I have curated my own list of titles I would like to review and discuss this year, I am always looking for new book suggestions – so feel free to send them across if you feel it will benefit other MSPs in the group.  This will definitely be an interesting experiment to try out, one that I am looking forward to exploring, as I think we all can benefit from a little more continuous learning in both our professional and personal lives.

Here’s to a prosperous and thriving 2025!  

Stefanie Hammond is Head Sales and Marketing Nerd at N‑able. You can follow her on LinkedIn