Regardless of the stage an MSP is at, the most successful MSPs have certain qualities that make them so successful. Through those qualities, they’re able to implement a core business development strategy that ensures they run in the future.
As an MSP owner, it can be difficult to juggle between all of the daily responsibilities while still growing and evolving your organization. However if you choose now to implement certain core business strategies, a lot of the hard work will already be done for you.
These core principles come in the form of certain actions and tips that you can use to grow your MSP business. Through these principles you’ll have a rock-solid foundation that you can build on for years to come.
Don’t Stress Over The Problems
When you’re running an MSP, there will always be problems to solve. With that in mind, you don’t want to worry so much about details and keep focusing on moving forward. For example, don’t dwell on which RMM you want to use. Pick one, and try it out. If it turns out bad, you’ll figure it out and find the right one soon enough.
Don’t Over-Analyze
Similarly, don’t make a wall out of a single grain of sand. If you spend too much time thinking, nothing will get done. Be proactive and trust your gut instincts.
Do Have A Good PSA
Short for Professional Services Automation, having something like this will make organization so much easier. There are a ton of services available like Basecamp or Auto Task.
Consider A Business Coach
You want to do this especially if you have technical knowledge and not a business background. Businesses coaches are very helpful in streamlining your operations as they let you focus on your own skill set while they look after everything else.
Price Based On Work You’ll Do And The Value To The Customer
Pricing models are where MSPs should spend a lot of their time thinking about in the planning stages. Even if you’ve already launched, you can still make adjustments to prices or quote clients at different rates too.
In the end, it might be smart to price your services based on how busy the client will keep you. Weigh that in along with how much a business values technology. What this means in money terms is if one second of downtime would cost the business a million dollars, putting your pricing point higher wouldn’t be an issue. Once your discussion become less of an IT-management one, you can get away with charging different rates.
Network With Other MSPs
As an owner, you need to get out of the office and get into conferences and meetings with other people. Through those experiences, you learn about the industry and also the various struggles people are faced with. They can also share with you the pitfalls that others stumbled into.
This isn’t only about IT, it’s about building up your business.
Aim For Multiple Verticals If That’s Your Route
If you want to be a vertical MSP, it’s better for you to be working on a few specific verticals at a time. Regulations continue to change and so delving into various vertical markets can help to mitigate the risks. Of course, having experts in those areas will help significantly.
Work On Your Profile
Regardless of what type of MSP you plan to make, the strength of your organization’s profile is linked to the long-term success of the business. What this means is not only should you be working on networking as mentioned above, but letting other people know you exist.
Start writing articles that establish your business as an authority on certain topics. Focus on content that customers care about. Get published with industry-leading publications on the internet.
Leverage Branding
One of the largest mistakes MSPs make is assuming that branding is all about the products and services that you provide. The reality is, if that were true, there would be a lot of MSPs that would be carbon copies of one another.
Instead of relying on that thinking, you need to see branding for what it is. Branding is an opportunity for you to show off your specialized experience and how you work with customers.
To look at it from a different angle, you are sharing your technological philosophy, your MSP’s culture, and other qualities that make you different.
Aim For Your Dream Customer Then Work Backwards
For more established MSPs, one good strategy is to think about all the customers you are working with at the moment.
Out of them all, is there one in particular that you absolutely love working with? That you enjoy chatting with or sharing updates with? That you wish your other customers were like?
If you answer yes to those questions, then that customer is your dream customer. Congratulations. Now you’ll want to create as many of those as possible.
What this means in practice is don’t just have a marketing strategy in place and hope that more “dream customers” come in. Instead, start with that customer as an ideal customer and work backwards.
Figure out what they like and what they don’t like. What do you have to do to get their attention? Figure out where on the internet they hang out. Where do you have to go to ensure your message is heard and people receive it?
Encourage Referrals With Existing Clients
The final tip to growing your MSP is to think about setting up a referral system. That or at the very least encourage existing clients to refer you to their network of clients.
Getting referrals this way is the cheapest and often the most effective way to getting new clients. They come in with a level of trust that is hard to match if you’re approaching clients through cold channels.
What’s also nice is if clients love the work that you do, they’d be happy to talk you up to those they know. They see you as a utility, as someone who provides a critical service that their business needs.
To make things easier for you to encourage clients, consider the following:
- Create a referral system as mentioned above where existing clients get discounts in return for referring people.
- Give clients selling points of your business that they can then use when talking about your business.
Start Growing Your MSP More
There are so many avenues in which you can grow your MSP and these are just the tip of the iceberg. Even so, applying these tips in your business will allow you to create some core business values that not only will staff see, but clients will start to see as well.
Through these, you’re bound to see more long-term success as you keep applying these methods.
About MSP Corp
MSP Corp understands you’ve worked hard to build your business and you want to protect it. With a mission to be a world-class business partner for MSP owners across Canada, we actively seek to acquire and partner with owners looking to secure the value of the business they have built and provide a seamless exit process that ensures business continuity and employee and client stability.
Contact us today to learn more about selling your business and maximizing its value.