HTG Peer Groups: A Look Inside Meetings, and Plans for 2015

HTG Peer Groups celebrated their 15th anniversary this year.

During one group meeting this week, a member reviewed the book, The Power of Habit. Generally a big – thumbs up from the members in the room who had also read it.

I got more book recommendations than I can probably read before the end of the year from HTG Peer Group members this week.

Members of face–to-face peer groups share a great deal with each other, from their businesses’ financials to challenges in their personal lives to their goals.

Members hold each other accountable for achieving those goals.

HTG Peer Groups President Scott Scrogin told me this: “There's a difference between being in a group of your peers and being in a peer group…You can leave a meeting like this with 20 action items but who is going to hold you accountable?” If you are an HTG Peer Group members your peers will call you out if you don’t meet your goals.

HTG currently has 26 face-to-face peer groups that are made up of managed service providers (MSPs) and IT solution providers. Each group has a maximum of 12 member companies.

HTG’s face-to-face peer groups meet on a quarterly basis, in person, and share financials, goals, and best practices.  Members provide accountability to each other for meeting goals. Multiple individuals from member companies can attend the meetings.

Financial benchmarking at the face-to-face meetings are standardized on Service Leadership, ensuring that members view an apples-to-apples comparison of their businesses on a quarterly basis.

Meetings feature a “best practices” component, where each member shares with the group a best practice they’ve used during the previous quarter. Members then vote for the three best of these.

These HTG face-to-face peer groups require members meet the following: a minimum of eight employees, $800K in revenues and each member must use ConnectWise professional automation system platform.

HTG plans to expand these face-to-face peer groups in 2015, adding six new groups.

For smaller companies or for those who are unable to commit to the travel requirements of the face-to-face meetings, HTG offers an online peer group program.

Online peer groups meet once per month for 90 minutes and follow the same program, but with a more basic look at financials and every six months instead of quarterly. 

Online peer groups don’t have any minimum requirements for revenues or employee numbers. They don’t have to use ConnectWise.  This program is less expensive than the face-to-face groups.

HTG face-to-face peer group membership costs $5000 per year or $1250 per quarter. HTG online peer group membership costs $1200 per year ($100 per month).

HTG currently has 75 members in the online peer groups and a goal of building that number to 250 by the end of 2015.

HTG has two face-to-face vendor peer groups, which also meet on a quarterly basis. While they don’t share financials, they do much of what the other HTG groups do in terms of sharing goals and keeping members accountable for achieving them.

HTG Peer Groups members set four plans — business, leadership, life and legacy.

Scrogin: “With HTG we are very focused on walking with leaders in life and business to help them reach their desired growth and legacy. That is our mission. A differentiator of HTG is our focus on things outside of work.”