Customers want an IT service provider that has spent time with them and understands their business, not one that just vows to save them cash.

"You guys come to us and say, 'We can save you money,'" said Elisabeth Brooks, an administrator at Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) of Georgia, Tuesday during the Varnex Spring Conference in Atlanta. "But you don't know what I'm spending money on today."

Every business prioritizes different things. For Wade Danielson, those priorities are focus, market need, sales and hiring.

Danielson is the founder and president of Guardian Network Solutions, a Fort Worth, Texas-based security VAR. After starting the company on his own in 2010, he has grown it to $4 million in revenue in just four years, and is expecting to hit $6.5 million in 2015.

Like many professional services firms, West Monroe Partners struggled with the big challenges facing the IT industry: recruitment and retention, skills shortages and adapting to changing customer demands.

But the Chicago-based firm tried something it says improved its overall end user experience and strengthened its sales team.

Solution providers trying to steer their SMB customers from on-premise phone system to VoIP know it can be a challenging task. SMB leaders fear VoIP might push their company over budget or they’ll lose control of the phone systems.

How much are your customers worth to your business? One way to find out is to measure Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), an important metric that takes into account the total revenue generated over the lifetime of your relationship with a customer after subtracting all sales and service costs.

When an organization increases CLV, it means that revenue is continuing to be earned after the customer’s initial purchase transaction is made, and that a higher level of business performance has been achieved.