May 14, 2025 • 15 mins
Join channel veteran Nick Wolf as he shares MSP event engagement strategies with Carrie Richardson from Fox & Crow Group.
Learn how Nick's career progressed from sales intern at Datto (Nick was employee 17 at Datto...) through to his current role with Cork.
Nick shares his pre-event process, his on-site tips and his follow-up expertise.
At 32, Nick is already a channel veteran, having spent ten years with Datto, then another 2 years with Scout Security prior to their exit. Now Nick is bringing his expertise to a whole new category of MSP solutions: cyber-warranty.
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Carrie Richardson and Ian Richardson host the WIN Podcast - What's Important Now?
Serial entrepreneurs, life partners and business partners, they have successfully exited from multiple businesses (IT, call center, real estate, marketing) and they help other business owners create their own versions of success.
Ian is certified in Eagle Center For Leadership Making A Difference, Paterson StratOp, and LifePlan.
Carrie has helped create and execute successful outbound sales strategies for over 1200 technology-focused businesses including MSPs, manufacturers, distributors and SaaS firms.
Learn more at www.foxcrowgroup.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carrie Richardson (00:02):
Hi, good afternoon everybody.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I'm your host for Win.
With me today is Nick Wolf, whois the Director of Partner
Acquisition for Cork.
Nick, how are you doing today?
Nick Wolf (00:12):
Thanks for having me on.
Carrie Richardson (00:13):
thanks for joining us.
We're talking about Gettingbetter ROI out of events, and
specifically how to get the bestreturn on your investment when
you're sponsoring an event thesize of PAX 8 beyond which we
are both going to be at in threeweeks or so.
What are you doing to get readyfor PAX 8 beyond Nick?
Nick Wolf (00:31):
I'm doing a lot of outbound reach right now,
especially based off of theleads we engaged with last year.
the prospects we gave demos tolast summer after PAX 8 beyond,
weren't ready for cork.
A lot of changes to ourplatform have been made.
So encouraging them to stop bythe booth.
Maybe meet up with us for adrink to have that one-on-one
interaction, because those aresome of our warmer leads since
they already had a first passlook at us.
Carrie Richardson (00:53):
tell me about your career in the IT channel
for people who may not befamiliar with you.
Nick Wolf (00:58):
Yeah, so I started my, career in the channel when I
was in high school.
I was one of the first betatesters of the Datto backup
appliance, the very first one in2008.
I went to the same, high schoolas the founder of Datto: Austin
McChord.
When I graduated high school, Istarted at Datto as a sales
intern, and I spent about 10years at the company.
I started off as, employeenumber 16 at the company, and by
(01:21):
the time I left we were around2000 employees around the globe.
it was quite the fun, period ofmy life.
I got to learn hand in handfrom Urvish Bandavi and Rob Rae
and a whole bunch of otherpeople that are gonna be at PAX
8 as well.
I learned more during my earlydays at Datto than I did
actually going into college.
And I knew that during my timeas an intern that, staying in
(01:42):
the IT space specifically withmanaged service providers is
what I wanted to do with mycareer.
Carrie Richardson (01:48):
Wow.
Just thinking back, I thinkI've been in the IT channel for
12 years now and I am 52.
So if you started right outtahigh school
Nick Wolf (01:58):
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (01:58):
It's gotta make you under 35.
Nick Wolf (02:02):
yeah.
I'm 32.
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (02:03):
That's an early career accelerator for
sure.
You learned from some of thebest people in the channel.
Nick Wolf (02:09):
Yeah, I'm extremely fortunate.
Carrie Richardson (02:11):
So tell us how you've taken all those
learnings and applied it to yournew role with Cork.
What will you specifically doonce you get on site?
Nick Wolf (02:21):
aside from working the bar, we also plan on having
some key dinners.
When we're out to dinner, whatwe really like to do is we like
to do a 50 50 split with bothprospects and our existing
partners.
That way our partners canstrengthen the message going to
our prospects because they'reliving, breathing, eating cork
daily basis.
And what we've noticed with ourexisting partners is we
actually like to do a revenueshare with them.
(02:43):
So around a third of our newcustomers are referred from our
existing MSP partners, which welove here at Cork.
Referral based business isreally how a lot of MSPs
themselves grow as well, becausethey encourage their end
clients to refer other customersto their organizations.
So for us, getting thosereferrals from our MSPs and
meeting with our existingcustomers at the event is
(03:05):
definitely key.
I hear about it all the time.
Sometimes our MSPs reach out tous.
Hey, Nick, are you gonna be atPAX 8 beyond?
Are you gonna be at Dattocon,IT Nation?
There's a couple MSP buddies ofmine that are going as well
that I would love to introduceyou to.
And for me, that's anabsolutely, great relationship
to have.
Carrie Richardson (03:21):
Oh, that's an absolute gift.
when you transitioned outtaDatto and into the next phase of
your career.
how loyal are MSPs when youchange organizations like that?
Nick Wolf (03:34):
Surprisingly loyal.
Loyal.
Every time I've ever attended ademo with an MSP, I always add
them on LinkedIn, whether I'm afit for them today or down the
line.
I always wanna make thatconnection.
So I'm connected to over 10,000MSPs on LinkedIn right now.
when I left Datto, I joined anXDR cybersecurity startup with a
bunch of other X alumni.
It was a vendor called scoutCybersecurity.
(03:56):
They specialized in SOC sim,XDR technologies for MSPs.
when I made that transition, myLinkedIn blew up.
Wow.
Nick, you were one of the earlyguys at Datto and now you're at
this new thing called Scout.
let's hear what it's all about.
Scout was another success storywhere in a matter of two years,
we were able to grow thebusiness rapidly to the point
where Barracuda Networksacquired us.
(04:17):
we grew the organization fromabout 10 MSPs to 250 MSPs,
utilizing the platform in about18 months.
So it was a real fast, rocketship.
when I came over here at Cork,it was the same thing.
There's some MSPs in my book ofbusiness that I probably sold
three or four different vendorsto, over the last 10 years
They'll tell me, Nick, youdidn't steer me wrong when you
sold me Datto.
(04:37):
You didn't steer me wrong whenyou sold me, Evo security, if
you're at Cork, it's gotta besomething cool.
Let me check it out because I'mall about, relationship
building, when I'm selling to acustomer Yeah, I like swiping
your credit card, but I don'twant to sell a lousy product
that's not really gonna fit intoan MSP stack just for the sake
of hitting quota.
I wanna sell something that'sactually gonna be a meaningful
(05:00):
impact for their organizationand their clients.
So as crazy as this soundscoming from a sales rep, I'm
okay saying no.
I'm okay saying, you know what?
To be honest, this productisn't a great fit for your use
case right now.
I don't want to take yourmoney.
Carrie Richardson (05:15):
i'd much rather engage with a company at
the exact right time for them
Nick Wolf (05:20):
yeah.
And when I'm on theseconversations with MSPs, after
you've been doing this for solong, you're less of a sales rep
and you're more of a subjectmatter expert, In a lot of
cases, us as vendors, we go tomore channel events than most
MSPs do, right?
They might be going to two orthree events a year.
If you're a vendor, I'mprobably going to 15 events this
year.
I'm always on the roadtraveling.
So every now and then I'll havean MSP give a call saying, Hey
(05:41):
Nick, I got a question.
I want to get your feedback onhow duo, compares to Microsoft
Authenticator for MFA?
I'll just give them my honestfeedback.
I don't get paid from othervendors.
I'll just say, yeah, thatvendor's doing cool things, or
No, that's a vendor you mightwanna avoid.
Carrie Richardson (05:56):
There is one thing that I learned in the last
five years that I wish I'dknown early in my career Nobody
leaves the channel.
We just circulate.
Nick Wolf (06:06):
So same faces, different shirts, because
there's a really big vendor inthe space that likes to buy some
smaller vendors.
So every now and then you'llsee that same, face, just
wearing a different hat or adifferent shirt.
Carrie Richardson (06:17):
So you mentioned that you're doing some
outbound engagement prior toPAX 8.
Is that normally how youprepare?
Do you plan out your ownoutbound engagement, or is that
something that's given to you bysomeone else at Cork and you're
following a process?
Nick Wolf (06:32):
it's really a multi, person approach.
So the BDR team, that are.
Basically reaching out to coldoutbound people that have never
taken a cork demo before.
They're encouraging the locallist to meet up with us at the
event.
for me personally, I'm workingon the people that I already
closed because of last event, orthe people that are still in my
pipeline that are maybe in thatdemo completed stage or
(06:53):
negotiation stage that they knowCork, they've seen the demo,
they just haven't made it overthe finish line yet.
So I'll be personally reachingout to them, inviting them to
have some.
one-on-one FaceTime with ourCEO or director of technology or
coming to dinner with us.
Carrie Richardson (07:07):
So there's a different strategy for cold
non-engaged leads?
Nick Wolf (07:10):
Correct.
I'll work those warmer leadsand then the BDR team will be
more of that, engagement, andtypically if it's not something
like PAX 8 beyond, they'll bepushing those colder leads to
something else, attend thiswebinar, that we're
Carrie Richardson (07:21):
So what is your conversion rate like from
someone hands you a card at thebooth or you scan their badge?
Through to signed closed deal?
Nick Wolf (07:31):
Yeah, so for us getting the scanned badge and
the business card, typicallygoes to the BDR team.
we consider that, a cold leadif it's just a scanned badge.
Our major focus for the peopleattending the actual event is.
If you're serious, let's bookthe demo now.
That's why we'll have the iPadsout.
the laptops out if we're goingto an event that has, a
thousand, 2000, attendees, we'reshooting to get, 50 real solid
(07:55):
book demos and beyond.
And when they're booking thosedemos, we're asking some
qualifying questions as well.
who are you using for RMM andEDR?
Do you have cyber insurance?
How many endpoints do youmanage?
That way we get some realvisible data, real time at the
event that shows, Hey, was thisevent worth our time?
Is it our target market?
Yeah, because we got 50 demosbooked within three days.
(08:15):
Of those 50 demos, 75% haveover a thousand endpoints.
If you're a vendor, I highlyrecommend trying to get that
demo on the books there at theevent, 'cause you're gonna be
there.
You don't have to play phonetag.
The MSP will have theircalendar on their phone.
That's the way to do it.
And if they're at a point wherethey're not writing to book a
demo, then okay, you know what?
That's an MSP that's gonna beon the back burner.
(08:38):
they might take an extra monthor two of follow ups from your
BDR team before they're ready toget that next step of, booking
the demo.
Carrie Richardson (08:45):
And have you got those sequences prebuilt in
your CRM or do you leave it upto personal opinion or feeling?
Nick Wolf (08:53):
The BDR team has that already prebuilt.
once the lead is on my calendaras a sales rep, it's my
responsibility to make sure thatthey attend or try to rebook
them if there are no show, ifthere's a scheduling conflict.
Carrie Richardson (09:04):
So your handoff point is qualified and
agreed to meet?
Nick Wolf (09:10):
Absolutely.
Carrie Richardson (09:11):
The BDR takes it from initial cold call to
qualified meeting booked on yourcalendar.
You take it from qualifiedmeeting booked on your calendar,
all the way to contractclosing, correct?
Nick Wolf (09:24):
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (09:24):
And then is it handed off to onboarding?
Nick Wolf (09:26):
Typically, we would introduce Zoe from our partner
success team, who's responsiblefor getting the account
onboarded set up and trainedproperly.
I'm always going to be there'cause a lot of partners like to
leverage someone like me to doa webinar for their clients or a
podcast to explain cork's, newservice offering to their end
clients.
I'm happy to do that as wellafter the sale closes.
Carrie Richardson (09:46):
How does the cork sales process from initial
cold call to, final close dealcompare to some of the other
places that you've worked with?
Nick Wolf (09:58):
Yeah, great question.
I would say our close rates areactually higher, even than what
I experienced as Datto, asgreat of a product as data was
back in the day.
Backup and Disaster Recoverywas a highly competitive market.
There was a lot of other backupsolutions out there.
And even though Datto had somekey unique differentiators, it
was still a backup disasterrecovery solution.
(10:18):
With Cork and our compliancemonitoring and cyber warranty.
it's a very interestingapproach because we don't really
have any competition.
with our $500,000 cyberwarranty.
It's vendor agnostic.
We're providing fast payoutsregardless of the client and who
they're utilizing.
It doesn't matter to us ifthey're using Webroot Sentinel
One Huntress or Bit Defender, wepay out across everything.
(10:39):
typically the only minorcompetition would be if an
individual product has someversion of a cyber warranty.
Sentinel One offers a milliondollar cyber warranty, but it's
only for the Sentinel Oneinstalled products.
Whereas us, we're protectingeverything, whether Sentinel
One's sold or not.
That's something that isleading to our higher close
rates because it's new uniqueand different to the market.
Carrie Richardson (11:02):
So you've already begun planning or
outreach for the event.
How early do you usually begin?
Nick Wolf (11:09):
Usually a month out.
Carrie Richardson (11:10):
Have you noticed a difference if you
begin earlier or later?
Nick Wolf (11:15):
Yeah, I would say if you're doing it two or three
months in advance, sometimes theMSPs don't even have their
tickets booked by then.
MSPs are like a spur of themoment.
I just decided this month thatI'm going.
and you don't wanna wait untilthe week of, because if you're
trying to do a dinner orsomething, it's possible that
another vendor already, got thatMSP, you're looking to target
on their schedule as well.
At this point, you wouldn't beable to get a hotel reservation,
(11:37):
let alone, the dinnerreservations are likely gone on
property.
I registered for PAX 8 a coupleweeks ago, and I'm staying
offsite as a veteran.
So you definitely gotta hookthose things in advance for
sure.
Yeah, I like that property.
it's well laid out.
PAX 8 really does a lot to makeit their own during the event.
what are some of the thingsthat you've seen.
(11:57):
that had great impact forvendors.
So swag, for example.
what do people love this year?
What should people avoid?
Yeah.
for me, I'm a sucker for,charging cables.
Like I feel like I'm always inneed of a charging cable when
I'm traveling.
So this is what I got forBarracuda Networks, and it has
USPC, it has the old fashionediPhone.
(12:17):
It has, for your Apple watches,the little puck thing.
So I am definitely a suckerfor, charging cables.
'cause I always lose and needcharging cables.
So I think our last questionneeds to be, who is performing
at PAX 8?
Do we know yet?
Carrie Richardson (12:32):
I don't,
Nick Wolf (12:32):
I don't think it's been announced.
I don't think they advertisedthat, last year when it was
ludicrous, like it wasn'tpublicly available, that it was
ludicrous.
We, there was just a wholebunch of rumors floating around.
We gotta figure out, who isgonna be, the key performer this
time around.
Do you have any, I have zerobet.
Carrie Richardson (12:48):
know what, I had somebody from the advisory
council on the podcast, a coupleof weeks ago.
He might have known, but hewasn't sharing.
Okay.
So do we wanna place bets?
We had ludicrous last year.
We had what?
Nelly?
The year before that.
Yep.
What other 8ies, ninetiespopular, not too profane
rappers.
Can we bring in
Nick Wolf (13:09):
Yeah, and I know at IT Nation there was Flow Rider.
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (13:13):
MSP Block Party brought that in.
Yeah.
Nick Wolf (13:14):
is a great time.
I'll go with LL cool.
J
Carrie Richardson (13:17):
I think our last question needs to be, what
should people come to talk toyou about at PAX 8 Beyond?
Nick Wolf (13:25):
Yeah.
Come check us out our booth ifyou wanna learn how we're able
to monitor your client'senvironments.
That way they could instantlyqualify for a cyber insurance
policy at a discounted rate.
as well as talk to us about ourcyber warranties, which could
supplement and lower the cost ofcyber insurance overall for
clients.
we'll be there.
feel free to stop by.
Carrie Richardson (13:43):
thanks so much for joining us today, Nick.
It's always a pleasure to talkto you I'll look forward to
seeing you in Denver in June.
Nick Wolf (13:49):
We'll see you soon.
Bye.
Hi, good afternoon everybody.
My name is Carrie Richardson.
I'm your host for Win.
With me today is Nick Wolf, whois the Director of Partner
Acquisition for Cork.
Nick, how are you doing today?
Nick Wolf (00:12):
Thanks for having me on.
Carrie Richardson (00:13):
thanks for joining us.
We're talking about Gettingbetter ROI out of events, and
specifically how to get the bestreturn on your investment when
you're sponsoring an event thesize of PAX 8 beyond which we
are both going to be at in threeweeks or so.
What are you doing to get readyfor PAX 8 beyond Nick?
Nick Wolf (00:31):
I'm doing a lot of outbound reach right now,
especially based off of theleads we engaged with last year.
the prospects we gave demos tolast summer after PAX 8 beyond,
weren't ready for cork.
A lot of changes to ourplatform have been made.
So encouraging them to stop bythe booth.
Maybe meet up with us for adrink to have that one-on-one
interaction, because those aresome of our warmer leads since
they already had a first passlook at us.
Carrie Richardson (00:53):
tell me about your career in the IT channel
for people who may not befamiliar with you.
Nick Wolf (00:58):
Yeah, so I started my, career in the channel when I
was in high school.
I was one of the first betatesters of the Datto backup
appliance, the very first one in2008.
I went to the same, high schoolas the founder of Datto: Austin
McChord.
When I graduated high school, Istarted at Datto as a sales
intern, and I spent about 10years at the company.
I started off as, employeenumber 16 at the company, and by
(01:21):
the time I left we were around2000 employees around the globe.
it was quite the fun, period ofmy life.
I got to learn hand in handfrom Urvish Bandavi and Rob Rae
and a whole bunch of otherpeople that are gonna be at PAX
8 as well.
I learned more during my earlydays at Datto than I did
actually going into college.
And I knew that during my timeas an intern that, staying in
(01:42):
the IT space specifically withmanaged service providers is
what I wanted to do with mycareer.
Carrie Richardson (01:48):
Wow.
Just thinking back, I thinkI've been in the IT channel for
12 years now and I am 52.
So if you started right outtahigh school
Nick Wolf (01:58):
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (01:58):
It's gotta make you under 35.
Nick Wolf (02:02):
yeah.
I'm 32.
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (02:03):
That's an early career accelerator for
sure.
You learned from some of thebest people in the channel.
Nick Wolf (02:09):
Yeah, I'm extremely fortunate.
Carrie Richardson (02:11):
So tell us how you've taken all those
learnings and applied it to yournew role with Cork.
What will you specifically doonce you get on site?
Nick Wolf (02:21):
aside from working the bar, we also plan on having
some key dinners.
When we're out to dinner, whatwe really like to do is we like
to do a 50 50 split with bothprospects and our existing
partners.
That way our partners canstrengthen the message going to
our prospects because they'reliving, breathing, eating cork
daily basis.
And what we've noticed with ourexisting partners is we
actually like to do a revenueshare with them.
(02:43):
So around a third of our newcustomers are referred from our
existing MSP partners, which welove here at Cork.
Referral based business isreally how a lot of MSPs
themselves grow as well, becausethey encourage their end
clients to refer other customersto their organizations.
So for us, getting thosereferrals from our MSPs and
meeting with our existingcustomers at the event is
(03:05):
definitely key.
I hear about it all the time.
Sometimes our MSPs reach out tous.
Hey, Nick, are you gonna be atPAX 8 beyond?
Are you gonna be at Dattocon,IT Nation?
There's a couple MSP buddies ofmine that are going as well
that I would love to introduceyou to.
And for me, that's anabsolutely, great relationship
to have.
Carrie Richardson (03:21):
Oh, that's an absolute gift.
when you transitioned outtaDatto and into the next phase of
your career.
how loyal are MSPs when youchange organizations like that?
Nick Wolf (03:34):
Surprisingly loyal.
Loyal.
Every time I've ever attended ademo with an MSP, I always add
them on LinkedIn, whether I'm afit for them today or down the
line.
I always wanna make thatconnection.
So I'm connected to over 10,000MSPs on LinkedIn right now.
when I left Datto, I joined anXDR cybersecurity startup with a
bunch of other X alumni.
It was a vendor called scoutCybersecurity.
(03:56):
They specialized in SOC sim,XDR technologies for MSPs.
when I made that transition, myLinkedIn blew up.
Wow.
Nick, you were one of the earlyguys at Datto and now you're at
this new thing called Scout.
let's hear what it's all about.
Scout was another success storywhere in a matter of two years,
we were able to grow thebusiness rapidly to the point
where Barracuda Networksacquired us.
(04:17):
we grew the organization fromabout 10 MSPs to 250 MSPs,
utilizing the platform in about18 months.
So it was a real fast, rocketship.
when I came over here at Cork,it was the same thing.
There's some MSPs in my book ofbusiness that I probably sold
three or four different vendorsto, over the last 10 years
They'll tell me, Nick, youdidn't steer me wrong when you
sold me Datto.
(04:37):
You didn't steer me wrong whenyou sold me, Evo security, if
you're at Cork, it's gotta besomething cool.
Let me check it out because I'mall about, relationship
building, when I'm selling to acustomer Yeah, I like swiping
your credit card, but I don'twant to sell a lousy product
that's not really gonna fit intoan MSP stack just for the sake
of hitting quota.
I wanna sell something that'sactually gonna be a meaningful
(05:00):
impact for their organizationand their clients.
So as crazy as this soundscoming from a sales rep, I'm
okay saying no.
I'm okay saying, you know what?
To be honest, this productisn't a great fit for your use
case right now.
I don't want to take yourmoney.
Carrie Richardson (05:15):
i'd much rather engage with a company at
the exact right time for them
Nick Wolf (05:20):
yeah.
And when I'm on theseconversations with MSPs, after
you've been doing this for solong, you're less of a sales rep
and you're more of a subjectmatter expert, In a lot of
cases, us as vendors, we go tomore channel events than most
MSPs do, right?
They might be going to two orthree events a year.
If you're a vendor, I'mprobably going to 15 events this
year.
I'm always on the roadtraveling.
So every now and then I'll havean MSP give a call saying, Hey
(05:41):
Nick, I got a question.
I want to get your feedback onhow duo, compares to Microsoft
Authenticator for MFA?
I'll just give them my honestfeedback.
I don't get paid from othervendors.
I'll just say, yeah, thatvendor's doing cool things, or
No, that's a vendor you mightwanna avoid.
Carrie Richardson (05:56):
There is one thing that I learned in the last
five years that I wish I'dknown early in my career Nobody
leaves the channel.
We just circulate.
Nick Wolf (06:06):
So same faces, different shirts, because
there's a really big vendor inthe space that likes to buy some
smaller vendors.
So every now and then you'llsee that same, face, just
wearing a different hat or adifferent shirt.
Carrie Richardson (06:17):
So you mentioned that you're doing some
outbound engagement prior toPAX 8.
Is that normally how youprepare?
Do you plan out your ownoutbound engagement, or is that
something that's given to you bysomeone else at Cork and you're
following a process?
Nick Wolf (06:32):
it's really a multi, person approach.
So the BDR team, that are.
Basically reaching out to coldoutbound people that have never
taken a cork demo before.
They're encouraging the locallist to meet up with us at the
event.
for me personally, I'm workingon the people that I already
closed because of last event, orthe people that are still in my
pipeline that are maybe in thatdemo completed stage or
(06:53):
negotiation stage that they knowCork, they've seen the demo,
they just haven't made it overthe finish line yet.
So I'll be personally reachingout to them, inviting them to
have some.
one-on-one FaceTime with ourCEO or director of technology or
coming to dinner with us.
Carrie Richardson (07:07):
So there's a different strategy for cold
non-engaged leads?
Nick Wolf (07:10):
Correct.
I'll work those warmer leadsand then the BDR team will be
more of that, engagement, andtypically if it's not something
like PAX 8 beyond, they'll bepushing those colder leads to
something else, attend thiswebinar, that we're
Carrie Richardson (07:21):
So what is your conversion rate like from
someone hands you a card at thebooth or you scan their badge?
Through to signed closed deal?
Nick Wolf (07:31):
Yeah, so for us getting the scanned badge and
the business card, typicallygoes to the BDR team.
we consider that, a cold leadif it's just a scanned badge.
Our major focus for the peopleattending the actual event is.
If you're serious, let's bookthe demo now.
That's why we'll have the iPadsout.
the laptops out if we're goingto an event that has, a
thousand, 2000, attendees, we'reshooting to get, 50 real solid
(07:55):
book demos and beyond.
And when they're booking thosedemos, we're asking some
qualifying questions as well.
who are you using for RMM andEDR?
Do you have cyber insurance?
How many endpoints do youmanage?
That way we get some realvisible data, real time at the
event that shows, Hey, was thisevent worth our time?
Is it our target market?
Yeah, because we got 50 demosbooked within three days.
(08:15):
Of those 50 demos, 75% haveover a thousand endpoints.
If you're a vendor, I highlyrecommend trying to get that
demo on the books there at theevent, 'cause you're gonna be
there.
You don't have to play phonetag.
The MSP will have theircalendar on their phone.
That's the way to do it.
And if they're at a point wherethey're not writing to book a
demo, then okay, you know what?
That's an MSP that's gonna beon the back burner.
(08:38):
they might take an extra monthor two of follow ups from your
BDR team before they're ready toget that next step of, booking
the demo.
Carrie Richardson (08:45):
And have you got those sequences prebuilt in
your CRM or do you leave it upto personal opinion or feeling?
Nick Wolf (08:53):
The BDR team has that already prebuilt.
once the lead is on my calendaras a sales rep, it's my
responsibility to make sure thatthey attend or try to rebook
them if there are no show, ifthere's a scheduling conflict.
Carrie Richardson (09:04):
So your handoff point is qualified and
agreed to meet?
Nick Wolf (09:10):
Absolutely.
Carrie Richardson (09:11):
The BDR takes it from initial cold call to
qualified meeting booked on yourcalendar.
You take it from qualifiedmeeting booked on your calendar,
all the way to contractclosing, correct?
Nick Wolf (09:24):
Yep.
Carrie Richardson (09:24):
And then is it handed off to onboarding?
Nick Wolf (09:26):
Typically, we would introduce Zoe from our partner
success team, who's responsiblefor getting the account
onboarded set up and trainedproperly.
I'm always going to be there'cause a lot of partners like to
leverage someone like me to doa webinar for their clients or a
podcast to explain cork's, newservice offering to their end
clients.
I'm happy to do that as wellafter the sale closes.
Carrie Richardson (09:46):
How does the cork sales process from initial
cold call to, final close dealcompare to some of the other
places that you've worked with?
Nick Wolf (09:58):
Yeah, great question.
I would say our close rates areactually higher, even than what
I experienced as Datto, asgreat of a product as data was
back in the day.
Backup and Disaster Recoverywas a highly competitive market.
There was a lot of other backupsolutions out there.
And even though Datto had somekey unique differentiators, it
was still a backup disasterrecovery solution.
(10:18):
With Cork and our compliancemonitoring and cyber warranty.
it's a very interestingapproach because we don't really
have any competition.
with our $500,000 cyberwarranty.
It's vendor agnostic.
We're providing fast payoutsregardless of the client and who
they're utilizing.
It doesn't matter to us ifthey're using Webroot Sentinel
One Huntress or Bit Defender, wepay out across everything.
(10:39):
typically the only minorcompetition would be if an
individual product has someversion of a cyber warranty.
Sentinel One offers a milliondollar cyber warranty, but it's
only for the Sentinel Oneinstalled products.
Whereas us, we're protectingeverything, whether Sentinel
One's sold or not.
That's something that isleading to our higher close
rates because it's new uniqueand different to the market.
Carrie Richardson (11:02):
So you've already begun planning or
outreach for the event.
How early do you usually begin?
Nick Wolf (11:09):
Usually a month out.
Carrie Richardson (11:10):
Have you noticed a difference if you
begin earlier or later?
Nick Wolf (11:15):
Yeah, I would say if you're doing it two or three
months in advance, sometimes theMSPs don't even have their
tickets booked by then.
MSPs are like a spur of themoment.
I just decided this month thatI'm going.
and you don't wanna wait untilthe week of, because if you're
trying to do a dinner orsomething, it's possible that
another vendor already, got thatMSP, you're looking to target
on their schedule as well.
At this point, you wouldn't beable to get a hotel reservation,
(11:37):
let alone, the dinnerreservations are likely gone on
property.
I registered for PAX 8 a coupleweeks ago, and I'm staying
offsite as a veteran.
So you definitely gotta hookthose things in advance for
sure.
Yeah, I like that property.
it's well laid out.
PAX 8 really does a lot to makeit their own during the event.
what are some of the thingsthat you've seen.
(11:57):
that had great impact forvendors.
So swag, for example.
what do people love this year?
What should people avoid?
Yeah.
for me, I'm a sucker for,charging cables.
Like I feel like I'm always inneed of a charging cable when
I'm traveling.
So this is what I got forBarracuda Networks, and it has
USPC, it has the old fashionediPhone.
(12:17):
It has, for your Apple watches,the little puck thing.
So I am definitely a suckerfor, charging cables.
'cause I always lose and needcharging cables.
So I think our last questionneeds to be, who is performing
at PAX 8?
Do we know yet?
Carrie Richardson (12:32):
I don't,
Nick Wolf (12:32):
I don't think it's been announced.
I don't think they advertisedthat, last year when it was
ludicrous, like it wasn'tpublicly available, that it was
ludicrous.
We, there was just a wholebunch of rumors floating around.
We gotta figure out, who isgonna be, the key performer this
time around.
Do you have any, I have zerobet.
Carrie Richardson (12:48):
know what, I had somebody from the advisory
council on the podcast, a coupleof weeks ago.
He might have known, but hewasn't sharing.
Okay.
So do we wanna place bets?
We had ludicrous last year.
We had what?
Nelly?
The year before that.
Yep.
What other 8ies, ninetiespopular, not too profane
rappers.
Can we bring in
Nick Wolf (13:09):
Yeah, and I know at IT Nation there was Flow Rider.
Yeah.
Carrie Richardson (13:13):
MSP Block Party brought that in.
Yeah.
Nick Wolf (13:14):
is a great time.
I'll go with LL cool.
J
Carrie Richardson (13:17):
I think our last question needs to be, what
should people come to talk toyou about at PAX 8 Beyond?
Nick Wolf (13:25):
Yeah.
Come check us out our booth ifyou wanna learn how we're able
to monitor your client'senvironments.
That way they could instantlyqualify for a cyber insurance
policy at a discounted rate.
as well as talk to us about ourcyber warranties, which could
supplement and lower the cost ofcyber insurance overall for
clients.
we'll be there.
feel free to stop by.
Carrie Richardson (13:43):
thanks so much for joining us today, Nick.
It's always a pleasure to talkto you I'll look forward to
seeing you in Denver in June.
Nick Wolf (13:49):
We'll see you soon.
Bye.
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