When I first got into sales, one of my mentors taught me something I will never forget: Listen to understand, not to respond.
In 2015, I, Maddy Lewis, embarked on my journey to become the next great American novelist. For seven years I did a very convincing starving artist routine—complete with a bad foodservice job and 40 hours a week of writing novels that would never see the light of day. If you’d told me then that I would find myself working at an IT help desk, I would have laughed in your face. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea of sitting at a desk or living my best IT Crowd dreams, I just wasn’t as technically minded as I’d always assumed the job required.
“Strategy” can be considered a buzzword in management. But do you really know what strategy is? Every time I present at a local university, I ask this question to students: “Is strategy a plan, is it a vision, or is it execution?” Well, it’s all those things. In its most basic form, strategy includes goals and objectives, analysis, tactical plans, management review, and follow-up readjustments. Working with business units – like Collabrance – on their strategic plans is one of the greatest professional highlights of my role as GreatAmerica Chief of Staff. After five years of leading planning processes, I’ve seen that successful strategic plans have certain elements in common, including:
We’re nearing the end of October, and the end of another Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Cybersecurity is important year-round, but with a heightened focus the last four weeks, we should maximize the opportunity to shine a light on cybersecurity-related topics. Call it opportunistic, but as security professionals, we need all the leverage we can get.
It’s October which means pumpkins are being judged for size and shape by clever decorators, and children are daydreaming about the candy treats they might receive on Halloween. But for the rest of us, it’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Started in 2004 by the Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is an opportunity to educate your customers, coworkers, and friends on how to protect their identities and data.
October may be the official "cybersecurity month", but it appears some have missed the memo. According to Accenture’s State of Cybersecurity Resilience report, security attacks increased 31% from 2020 to 2021, with the number of attacks per company reaching 270 annually. A 2022 UpCity study found that only 50% of U.S. businesses have a formal cybersecurity plan, and of those, 32% haven't updated their plan since the COVID-19 pandemic introduced remote and hybrid operations.
I’ve been in customer service for the entirety of my career. I’ve held roles in food service, hospitality, and currently information technology. If there was a role that involved helping customers, I was there. As such, I view all customer service situations with an eye that may be more critical than most, and for the past few years, I have found myself muttering more frequently that “customer service is dead.” Pleasant interactions with customer service employees are sparse at best and having an excellent experience is rare.
The success of ransomware attack methods has created a commodity market for criminal activity. Transactions are fast and focused on volume, and methods rapidly change with social and financial trends.
An internship is your personal ticket to getting your dream job. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), just over 70% of employers end up offering their interns full-time jobs, and almost 80% of students accept these offers. There are more benefits to a great internship than we can count. In this blog, current and past interns at Collabrance are going to highlight what makes a great internship, and what they have learned through their experience.
A topic that comes up often in discussions with MSPs is when to "talk price" with prospective clients. There isn’t a perfect time in the sales motion to bring up costs for everyone. However, in this blog, we will compare the pros and cons of different approaches so you can determine what the best option for your business is.
