Before I dive into the blog, I want to tell a story. The Marketing department has a storage closet here in the building for promo items, flyers, booth, banners, etc. Admin also has a closet to hold items for Academy and internal events. Our closets didn’t make sense and we weren’t using them effectively. So, we decided to switch closets. I know what you’re thinking: Why do I care and what does this have to do with anything?

Well, during the move, we got a chance to get rid of some old stuff and learned a bit more about how we have grown over the years. I got to see old promo items that I didn’t know we had, and even older booths and pull-up banners. I saw one large banner was selling on the value of HaaS—something we teach not to do; so clearly, that banner was short-lived and didn’t work. This really drove home the fact that everything we teach is all from personal experience. Anyway, I got a chance to see lots of printed material we have done over the years and chose to throw much of it away (don’t worry, we recycled it).

This got me thinking about the evolution of our brand: colors, logos, and taglines. We started with blue and green, moved to black and rainbow, moved to black and mulberry, went to blue, and finally landed back on the mulberry. More importantly, our messaging has evolved over the years.

We went from HaaS being the missing piece of your managed services puzzle to a suggestive “INCREASE the size of your managed services, IMPROVE performance with 24×7 help desk, PERFORM, OUTLAST.” From there, we moved to “Standout, Sell, Succeed.” Next, was “Destination: Success” and finally, the “Path to MSP Success.” You cannot only tell the evolution of marketing messaging, but also how we have grown our overall goal of the company moving forward throughout the years.

Our transition to the tagline “Standout, Sell, Succeed” was really when we started to improve the overall training experience and when we really laid the groundwork for some of our best products and services that you enjoy today. During this era, our BDR was born, and we truly started to see HaaS pay off for many of our Partners. Our 2012 switch to “Destination: Success” launched us full speed into training. The second half of our building was complete and we started to truly listen to all of the feedback from our Partners on what they wanted to see at Academy. This is when we launched our themed Academies (which have been a hit, by the way). As you probably know, our theme for this year is “Path to MSP Success” with Charlie (the zebra) walking down a path. This is what we want for all of our members: To see where we have been, the road we took, and how we can help them take the next step on the “Path to MSP Success” for their companies.

Phew! What an adventure, and all of this from an idea emailed to me at 4:25 am, and from cleaning a closet and throwing a bunch of stuff away. I encourage you to take a look back at where you have been in your business. Looking back at where you came from often times sets you up for success in the future. Plus, it’s a great time to take a look at your accomplishments and how far along the “Path to MSP Success” you really are!