Roos Tells TBI's Growth Story

TBI is a master agency that helps partners by advising them on the right solutions, sourcing those solutions, offering marketing support, tracking commissions, and more. The Chicago-based company has been around since 1991, and it continues to grow on a number of fronts, says Steve Roos, vice president of technology and business development. Roos was a panelist last week at MSP Expo in Las Vegas.

Roos says TBI’s inbound referral program is second-to-none in the industry. Through this effort, TBI will close business on behalf of its partners. This three-year-old program drives the most significant growth at TBI, he explains.

The master agent also has been growing in terms of headcount. Over the last five months, TBI has welcomed aboard 40 new team members, many of whom work in referrals. Roos says the company plans to continue expanding its employee roster.

The company also has been busy with its Channel Sales Enablement program, which Roos oversees. He explains that this program is geared toward MSPs.

Here’s how it works: The carrier offers up X number (let’s say 20,000) of customers it wants to do business. TBI then looks at how many of those accounts it’s already sold into or provided quotes to. And then it invites a sub agent to work with the carrier on those accounts.

TBI also has created value-adds to assist carriers in closing near-term opportunities, says Roos. That includes network migration assistance, which involves TBI sending techs into the field; security audits; network monitoring; and hardware assistance (for which it provides financing for customer hardware).

Roos adds TBI’s marketing and training departments have seen strong growth – on the order of 10 percent – year over year. The TBI marketing effort delivers marketing campaigns to its customers, including setting up 800 numbers, answering the phones for customers, closing business on their behalf, and more.

Plus, TBI continues to add more events with the passage of each year. In fact, in about a month, TBI will be welcoming agents, carriers, and MSPs to The Big Event. That’s set for June 21 at Venue Six10 on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Speaking of events, the next MSP Expo will take place Jan. 29 through Feb. 1 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.