Many MSPs are walking a tightrope without a safety net. They’re cobbling together clients through word-of-mouth and referrals. That strategy works, until your three biggest clients drop out without warning. Then what?
A good marketing plan isn’t a luxury, it’s a business continuity plan. It’s the operating manual for revenue, retention, reputation and resilience.
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Here are the 5 essential questions your marketing plan should answer if you want to grow smart and exit rich:
1. How Do You Attract, Develop, And Retain High-Value Clients?
Let’s be honest, some of your clients suck. They’re cheapskates, time-wasters or flat-out abusers of your techs and your time. You didn’t attract them by accident. You attracted them because your marketing (or lack thereof) allowed it.
A good plan strategically targets High Value Clients, clients who pay well, take your advice and respect your time. Your marketing must repel the wrong people and magnetize the right ones.
Stop saying “yes” to every prospect and start saying “hell yes” to the right ones.
2. How Do You Replace Churned Clients Reliably?
Client loss is inevitable. M&A, insourcing, bankruptcies- it happens to even the best MSPs. But here’s the problem: most MSPs are sitting ducks with no pipeline to replace lost revenue.
A well-built marketing plan ensures you have leads before you need them. Not after you’re desperate. It’s not about spammy blasts, it’s about having the right message to the right market on the right media at the right time.
You don’t wait until the roof caves in to buy insurance. Marketing is the insurance.
3. How Do You Differentiate From The Competition And Avoid Competing On Price?
If the only thing that separates you from the next MSP is your hourly rate, you’re in deep trouble.
Differentiation isn’t just a buzzword, it’s your armor in a price war. Your marketing must showcase your unique value so clearly, so convincingly, that prospects would feel stupid saying no.
Commodity MSPs compete on price. Category kings compete on value.
4. How Do You Solve Your Money Problems Through Revenue And Profit?
Let’s get real: most of your business problems are money problems in disguise. Can’t hire? Need better tech? Can’t take a vacation? You’re not making enough profit. And no, discounting is not the answer.
Your marketing plan should be the engine that generates leads, sales, and profit—on autopilot. If it’s not doing that, it’s broken.
Money solves problems. Marketing brings in the money.
5. How Do You Build Enterprise Value For Exit Or Acquisition?
Here’s the endgame: building an MSP that’s worth something without you in it. No buyer wants a business that dies the day you retire.
Enterprise value comes from predictable, recurring revenue driven by a consistent marketing engine—not a referral “hope machine.”
No marketing plan = no exit plan.
Action Plan: If You’re Not Doing This Yet—Start Now
So you went through the five questions. Maybe your answers weren’t so pretty.
Good. Awareness is step one. Now it’s time to do something about it. Here’s what to do right now—no whining, no excuses, just action:
If You DON’T Know How to Attract, Develop, and Retain High-Value Clients:
- Stop taking every client with a checkbook. Write down your ideal client profile—size, industry, budget, mindset. Be ruthless.
- Fire one loser client this month. Replace them with marketing that targets your HVCs.
- Create a “Hell Yes” offer that speaks directly to your best-fit clients and repels tire-kickers.
“You don’t grow by adding more clients. You grow by adding better clients.”
If You CAN’T Reliably Replace Churned Clients:
- Build a lead gen engine. Email campaigns. Direct mail. Social proof. Use all of it, systematically.
- Start tracking your pipeline like your life depends on it. Because it does.
- Commit to weekly outbound efforts. If you’re not contacting 50 new prospects a week, you’re playing small.
“Hoping for referrals is not a strategy. It’s surrender.”
If You DON’T Have a Clear Way to Differentiate and Avoid Price Wars:
- Document your unique process. Brand it. Teach it. Sell it. Make it uncopyable.
- Collect case studies, testimonials, and video proof like your credibility depends on it—because it does.
- Educate your prospects. When they understand the risk of going cheap, price becomes irrelevant.
“If they can’t tell why you’re better, they’ll just buy cheaper.”
If You CAN’T Solve Your Money Problems Through Marketing:
- Raise your damn prices. If you haven’t had a price increase in 12 months, you’re long overdue.
- Trim the fat. Unprofitable services? Dump them. Bloated labor costs? Address it.
- Fix your offer. Package for profit, not just convenience. Upsell. Cross-sell. Create urgency.
“Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity. Fix the faucet, don’t just mop the floor.”
If You DON’T Know How Your MSP Will Build Value for Exit:
- Track and grow your MRR. That’s what buyers look at. Not how many fans you have on LinkedIn.
- Start documenting SOPs. Your business needs to run without you—or it’s not a business.
- Build a brand that matters. When people buy you, they should be buying your process, your clients, and your reputation—not just your time.
“If your business dies the day you stop showing up, it’s not a business—it’s a job with overhead.”
Your Next Move
Write down your answers to each question. Be honest.
Then for every “NO,” pick one of the action items above—and do it. This week. Don’t wait. Don’t “circle back.” Don’t delegate it into the abyss.
Print this out. Tape it to your monitor. Tattoo it on your forearm if you have to.
Because these five questions? They’re not optional. They’re the difference between building a fortress MSP… and going broke with a smile on your face.
Need help implementing a marketing strategy? Schedule a FREE MSP marketing strategy session. In 60 minutes or less, we’ll show you how to get in front of more high-quality prospects who WANT your services and are ready to buy.