There is a scene in the movie Casanova where a lovesick young man cannot get the attention of the woman he is obsessed with. He begs Casanova for help. Casanova’s advice: stop being the moth. Be the flame. Stop chasing. Become someone worth pursuing.
I have used that scene in MSP marketing presentations for years, because it describes exactly what most MSPs are doing wrong. They are out there being moths. Cold calling. Emailing. Networking. Chasing. Begging for appointments with prospects who have not asked for them and do not want them. And then they are shocked when the response rate is, shall we say, underwhelming.
Here is the truth that separates the MSPs who grow from the ones who stay stuck: authority positioning is not optional in MSP marketing. It is the entire game.
What Authority Positioning Actually Is
Authority positioning is not your logo. It is not your website color scheme. It is not being “thought leaders” on LinkedIn. (Lord help us.)
Authority positioning is the deliberate, strategic work of making your prospects perceive you as the obvious expert before they ever sit down with you. It is everything you do in your MSP marketing strategies that causes a prospect to arrive at the first appointment already believing you are credible, qualified, and worth a premium price. I call this framework CAT: Celebrity, Authority, Trust. Each one works differently. All three must be built deliberately.
I learned early in my career that a person’s perception is their reality. When a prospect perceived me as a salesperson, I was blocked, lied to, and ignored. When they perceived me as a trusted expert on growing MSP businesses, the game changed completely. I could prescribe instead of pitch. I stopped having to hard-sell. And my clients started closing at higher prices with far less resistance.
That shift did not happen by accident. It happened because of deliberate authority positioning built into every MSP marketing strategy we deployed.
Why Most MSPs Have Zero Authority in Their Market
Go look at the website of any three MSPs in your market right now. I will bet you a significant amount of money they all have the same stock photo of a smiling person with a headset, the same “24/7 support” claim, the same “we proactively monitor your network” paragraph, and the same complete absence of any reason whatsoever to choose them over anyone else. They are not positioned as authorities. They are positioned as commodities. And commodities compete only on price.
The reason most MSPs have no authority in their market is that they have never invested in building it. They are reactive in their MSP marketing strategies, waiting for referrals, showing up to networking events, doing the occasional cold call. None of that builds authority. All of that is what I call vulture marketing: sitting on a perch, waiting for something to die in front of you so you can go compete over the carcass with the other vultures. It is not a growth strategy. It is a survival posture.
The Three Components of Authority: Celebrity, Authority, Trust
I call it CAT, or “Meow Mix” if you want to remember it. (You will now never forget it. You are welcome.) Three distinct components that work together to build the kind of positioning that makes MSP marketing strategies actually produce results.
Celebrity: Being Known
Celebrity in this context does not mean fame. It means being known within your specific target market. When a prospect in your niche hears your name before they meet you, when they have seen your content, read something you wrote, attended a webinar you ran, or heard a colleague mention you, the first meeting starts completely differently. You are not a stranger asking for their time. You are a known quantity they have already begun to evaluate. Getting known in your market is an active, deliberate part of any effective MSP marketing strategy, not something that happens by accident.
Authority: Being Credible
Authority is built through what you publish, teach, and demonstrate. Books, reports, white papers, case studies, educational content that shows the prospect you understand their specific problems at a level their current IT provider never has. My EDR Marketing system, (Educational Direct Response), is built entirely on this premise: an educated prospect who understands what good IT management looks like and what to look for in a provider is a far better prospect than one making decisions based on price alone. You educate them strategically and in doing so, you position yourself as the only logical choice before you ever ask for a meeting.
Trust: Being Believed
Trust is not a feeling. It is a track record. It is built through consistency, through delivering what you promise, through client testimonials and documented results, through showing up in the same places with the same message over a sustained period of time. Prospects trust the MSP who has been in their inbox consistently for six months with useful, relevant content far more than the MSP who cold-called them on a Tuesday. Trust is slow to build and fast to lose, which is why the MSPs who invest in building it systematically are the ones who command premium pricing and keep clients for a decade.
How MSPs Should Market Themselves to Build Authority
The question I get most often is: how should MSPs market themselves if not through cold outreach? The answer is that you build the CAT framework into every element of your MSP marketing strategy, consistently and deliberately. That means:
Publishing educational content that speaks directly to the pain points of your specific target market. Not generic cybersecurity tips. Specific, relevant, actionable content that makes your prospect think, “this person actually understands my business.”
Seeking strategic visibility in the places your target market already goes. Speaking engagements, industry associations, podcast appearances, strategic partnerships. You do not need to be everywhere. You need to be in the right places consistently.
Leveraging proof relentlessly. Case studies, client results, documented outcomes. Not vague testimonials about how friendly your team is. Specific, measurable proof that you deliver results. Numbers build trust faster than words.
Nurturing your list with consistency. The MSP who has been showing up in a prospect’s inbox every month for two years with useful content has more authority than the one who sent one cold email last Tuesday. Consistency is an authority signal. Disappearing is a trust destroyer.
What Happens When the Authority Is There
When your authority positioning is working, something shifts. Prospects come to you already sold on the idea that you are the right choice. The first meeting is consultative instead of adversarial. Price objections become rare because the prospect already believes you are worth the premium. Your close rate improves. Your average contract value increases. Your sales cycles shorten. And the clients you attract are better, because high-value clients seek out high-authority providers. They do not haggle with people they respect.
The Boot Camp photos from my early years are, frankly, embarrassing. No production value, no parties, no budget to speak of. I looked at them recently and thought about how far the work has come. But you know what? We had authority even then, because we were consistently showing up with real content, real results, and a real point of view. That consistency was the foundation. Everything else got layered on top of it over time.
Be the Flame, Not the Moth
The MSPs who are still chasing cold prospects, grinding through price objections on every deal, and competing against the cheapest guy in the market have one thing in common: they have not invested in building authority. They are moths. And moths have a rough go of it.
If you are serious about building authority positioning into your MSP marketing strategy, the next step is a strategy call. We will look at where your positioning is weak, what is costing you clients and margin right now, and what a deliberate authority-building plan looks like for your specific market.
Click “Work With Robin” at robinrobins.com. Stop chasing. Start attracting.
