We're Not Particularly Talented, We Just Try Hard

We were delivering a final presentation to a prospective client the other day and it was going really well. One of those sales meetings where you're scheduled for 30 minutes and you go an hour and a half because the client jives with you so much. At the end of this marathon meeting, we'd eclipsed talking business and were firmly just cutting up. Out of nowhere this client drops on me, "Hunter, this all looks great but what makes y'all different than the company that presented to us yesterday?" .... Y'all know me; I don't take very long to open my mouth in response to questions but this time I paused. A few seconds pass and I hit him with, "Sir, if you were to squint looking at our agreement vs. another managed IT service provider you may not see much of a difference. What I can tell you though is that we're not the oldest or most decorated group of IT people. We're not even particularly talented, we just try harder."

As soon as the words left my mouth, the room fell silent. You could see the gears turning in his head. I continued, "We’re a fresh company with a lot to prove, and we treat every client like they’re our only client. We're relentless in solving problems and won't rest until you're satisfied. We're not just another vendor; we see ourselves as a partner invested in your success." I could see him nodding along, appreciating the honesty and determination. I think he even saw a bit of himself in that monologue. That’s when I knew he picked up what I was putting down.

When we say things like this, it's not just words. We actively track and benchmark. The most important of which is our Net Promoter Score, or NPS. If you've not heard of NPS, it's a metric that helps gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. Picture it like this: after using our service, we ask customers a simple question – "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?"

Their responses fall into three categories. Those who give a 9 or 10 are Promoters, your Raving Fans who’ll sing your praises. Scores of 7 or 8 are Passives, satisfied but not enthusiastic enough to spread the word. And then there are the Detractors, who rate you from 0 to 6, and might just be warning others to steer clear.

To calculate NPS, you subtract the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. The result is a score that can range from -100 to 100. A positive score means you have more promoters than detractors, while a negative score means the opposite. It’s a simple, powerful way to measure how well you're doing in creating loyal, enthusiastic customers. Outsourced IT support and cybersecurity firms historically struggle with this metric (44 on average). At our company, we maintain a near perfect 98.5 even while growing at such a dramatic rate.

One of my favorite quotes was spoken by Kevin Durant in a postgame press conference, "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard."

We're still a young company and it's easy to keep this intensity right now. We're high-energy and eager to please. The real key is when I write into The Bidness in 10 years and refer back to this letter I hope to say, "We did the thing. We grew 70% CAGR and maintained a world class net promoter score." Easier said than done, but we're up to the challenge.