About This Episode

The principal analyst for global channels at Forrester, Jay McBain is a recognized expert in the future of channels (he was named the 2021 Channel Influencer of the Year by Channel Partners Magazine). In this episode he sits down with the guys to talk about how to determine who should be in your network and how to take advantage of the exciting changes we’re seeing in the industry.

1:18 – Jay shares a brief background on his nearly 30 year career in the channel and how he went from being a channel chief at IBM to getting paid to collect every data point he can globally in the industry and try to make sense of it all.

5:08 – Jay goes into detail on the low cost, grassroots strategy he implemented to take Lenovo from a little-known Chinese company to a household name that took over Dell and HP to become number one in the world of laptops and PCs, spending $150,000 in sponsorships to close $365 million in product in 6 months.

13:05 – Robb asks Jay how to translate his massively successful strategy into the world of MSPs, including tactics that MSP salespeople can employ to look at every possible prospect in the way a community manager would and think of the layers in between, rather than solely focusing on closing sales.

22:34 – Jay dives into trade show and conference preparation, stressing the importance of doing research in advance so that you target the right people in your hotel lobby conversations. He reminds us that in the digital age, prospects go into the vendor selection process while doing everything in their power to avoid speaking to you, similarly to how consumers do research online before buying a car.

27:50 – Jay leaves us with what he sees as the four biggest areas of opportunity for MSPs in the next decade, emphasizing that as technology experts, the MSP community can be the business leaders their clients need to help them go through this major digital transformation.