Very cool conversation today. We have worked through to the final stages of a managed services agreement with a brand new client. On ‘signature day’, the CEO halted the process and stated ‘No offense, but, I don’t know you and all we know about you are your marketing promises and references from your best customers. Frankly, I want the best deal – the long-term commitment pricing but a short-term agreement. I’ll sign that today.’…… The best part was, I had recently spent time at an invitation-only event for top managed service providers in North America where we discussed this reservation at length. The consensus was you should stick to your guns and say ‘You get the short-term pricing for short-term agreements – and long-term pricing for long-term commitments’. I went up to my hotel room that night – unhappy with that group decision.
I then called Jay and Mike and we came up with our own formal response….. So ‘…..I’ll sign that today.’. The response was this: ‘You know, I understand – you don’t know if we are the type of company that delivers on promises or if we are the type of company that listens to its clients and ensures their concerns are taken care of. Well, I will commit to you that if you sign the long-term agreement, I will provide an overriding document that will let you out of your agreement. The catch is that it is a two-way, CEO to CEO agreement. You and I will meet every 6 months, and we will openly discuss how things are going. If there are issues, you will tell me and we will ensure they are resolved and that our companies goals are aligned – remember my goal is to enable you to grow your company – that way I get to grow my company. You profit – We profit. So, if we cannot resolve issues or keep our businesses in sync, we will void the contract. Deal?’ Well, the CEO signed immediately, we signed the CEO2CEO agreement and we have launched a very exciting partnership with a great, dynamic new client! I am very proud of our Managed Services Practice; our team has worked very hard to make it a successful solution for our clients. https://www.itweapons.com/managed-services.php
