An enlightening article by Jeanne Dewitt of Cloud Services For MSPs is now available in the October 2018 issue of Soar To Success. Why should you take the time check it out? Because she tells us why it’s important to trust the CSP or any company selling you a product or service – but, that trust isn’t enough. You must also verify that you’re getting what was promised to you.
You can trust everyone who works with your organization from partners, clients, and vendors. But it’s essential to verify their work, products or services to ensure they meet your standards.
Where Did This “Trust But Verify” Concept Originate?
In the 1980’s, President Ronald Reagan used a Russian proverb translated into English as “trust, but verify” when he was in the nuclear arms negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev.
It’s a great concept to abide by in many aspects of life, but in the B2B world, it’s critical. You expect your vendor’s service, like a CSP, to provide the information you can use in your decision-making process. But, you must also confirm its value with first-hand experience, and/or references from others.
What Should You Look For In Your Verification Process?
You must verify that your trust is based on fact. You can do this with:
Credible Content: Ask for credible content from your CSP or other vendors that their service will do what they say it will. Credible content must always be authoritative. This might come in the form of studies, testimonials, eBooks, webinars or case studies. The content must be relevant and valuable to you and apply to your MSP business.
First-Hand Experience: Service or product demos are a great way to verify that a product or service is right for your MSP business. In their 2018 B2B Buying Disconnect Survey, TrustRadius ranked the most widely used sources of information in this order:
- Product Demos
- User Reviews
- Vendor/Product Website
- Free trial/ account
- Vendor Representative
- Prior experience with a product
- Referral from a friend, colleague, peer
What About Trust & Verify When It Comes To Your MSP Business?
Jeanne goes on to explain that you can work to trust everyone who works with your organization but you must verify their work to ensure it meets your standards.
This is difficult for many of us. Managers must to learn how to delegate authority to subordinates without micro-managing them. If they do, it can stifle a team’s autonomy and slow things down. This often leads to trouble and unhappy employees.
But, how do you verify their work? You must balance a level of oversight rather than letting the team decide everything for themselves. Effective leadership comes from practicing this and knowing when and why you need to step in.
Of course, there are other ways beyond hiring a private detective to make sure they’re performing:
- Survey your clients regularly. They will surely let you know if your employees are working up to par.
- Use software to monitor check-in and check-out times to eliminate situations of work time inconsistencies.
- Use GPS trackers to ensure your workforce is where they say they are.
These are just a few. Maybe you have more ideas you can share with us?
We invite you to engage in a “Trust But Verify” discussion. By doing so, you can learn what you need to know about your CSP. Contact Jeanne and the team at Cloud Services For MSPs on our MSP Website and let’s start a conversation!