Unfortunately, by the time many small businesses decide to call an MSP, all hell has broken loose. Their internet? Yep, it’s down. Freaking out? Of course, everyone is concerned, especially the leadership because of lost productivity and sales.
By the time you pull into their parking lot, the CFO is standing outside your van and opening your door. The coffee in the holder is still hot and, to you, it’s just another day on the job, but to the SMB.
You are a miracle maker.
Fortunately, you bring their network back from the dead. Some call it miraculous but to you it’s simply IT done right! Because you know your trade, have a process for finding root causes, and you understand how to fix errors when you see them.
However, as good as MSPs are at fixing IT problems, many are getting totally blindsided by a different virus, Captain Miracles, or “CM” for short.
The goal here is to share what the CM virus is, what impact he’s having and how to detect him in your MSP.
Now, while many MSPs are great at solving IT problems and are steadily improving at cybersecurity, they assume everything at HQ is fine. But many are too confident about their security – many MSPs don’t realize they’ve been infiltrated by CM.
He’s not a Russian hacker or some twenty-something in a basement. CM infects a real person who works inside MSPs and comes to life through that person. In Reddit r/MSP they call him “Captain Miracles” because he disguises himself as a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in every person he infects.
Now, before you brush off Captain Miracles as some harmless virus, like the flu, let’s look at the damage he’s causing.
It is hard to quantify, but according to over 1,800 MSPs surveyed by Datto, what keeps them up at night isn’t downtime or cyberattacks, it is “revenue growth”, “profitability” and “competition.”
So, while we don’t have an exact figure for Captain Miracles’ spread, we are sure his devastation is extensive and expensive in terms of both direct and indirect costs.
But here’s the good news. Simple Selling has spotted CM and we’re following his trail better than anyone.
If you’re concerned enough already, then I strongly recommend you subscribe to our blog for future updates (see side bar on the right).
Based on our recent interviews with MSPs he’s passed through, here’s how to spot him.
He talks like he’s a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or sometimes a Sales Director. He penetrates so easily because every MSPs wants more revenue and clients, but the problem is that “Captain Miracles” isn’t any good at his supposed job.
He tends to pop up randomly at Staff Meetings. For example, if you see a colleague suddenly launch into a passionate speech about the next marketing campaign, especially if marketing isn’t this person’s primary job, then you know it might very well be a CM infection on your hands.
It’s bad news because his sales and marketing results are totally unpredictable; in fact, this is how he earned his name, because his campaigns are based on hope and chance –basically miracles! He lacks a documented process, doesn’t seek root causes and therefore can’t improve.
Everyone in the Staff Meeting knows that CM isn’t scientific, and somehow, even though the room is full of logical smart problem-solving people, CM always gets his way, he gets a budget, and everyone nods their heads.
The miracle campaign is then launched behind the scenes and CM immediately disappears for a couple of months, jumping ship to the next MSP to infect.
Yes, he’s hard to detect but we’ll give you clues on where he likes to hide and how to remediate.
Stay tuned, we’ll publish another update next week.
