Direct mail sent on its own gets roughly a 0.02% response, meaning you would need to mail thousands of pieces to generate a single inbound call. The exact same mail piece inside a multimedia sequence with phone calls, personal emails and social outreach gets 1% to 2% from a cold list, and more from a warmer one. Direct mail is not the campaign, it is one component of it. The three mistakes below are why most MSPs conclude direct mail is dead: they skip the sequence, they mail an uncleaned list, and they never make the calls.
A lot of MSPs run a prospecting campaign, get almost nothing back, and conclude that direct mail is dead.
It isn’t. But a lot of MSPs get much of this wrong, suppressing their success and wasting time and money. So I thought it appropriate to go back to basics and outline where I see most people getting it wrong.
Mistake 1: Thinking This Is A Direct Mail Campaign
Technically, it’s a “plant the farm” prospecting campaign that has direct mail as one component part but is not the entire campaign.
Calling it a direct mail campaign is akin to calling cocoa powder a cake.
In fact, I could argue it’s not even the most important part of the recipe, although I would strongly suggest you don’t take it out of the mix.
So why is this a mistake? Because it implies that you ONLY need to do direct mail and can skip the e-mails and phone calls associated with it.
That’s where dummies will say, “Direct mail doesn’t work.” Then you show them how you’re making millions with it, and they add, “Well, it doesn’t work in MY business with MY clients.”
Stupid.
Here is the actual math
IF you ONLY send direct mail, you’ll get a response, but it’s going to be a very tiny percentage, like 0.02%, which means you’ll need to mail thousands of pieces to get an inbound call.
However, when you combine that direct mail in a multimedia sequence with calls, e-mails and social media, like I’ve been teaching for YEARS, you can get a 1% to 2% response to a cold list, more if it’s warmer, like a list of unconverted leads.
You have to do ALL the steps.
Read those two numbers again. Same mail piece. Same list. The difference is entirely in what happens around it.
A quick note: I’m not expecting you to have the e-mail and LinkedIn connection with EVERY prospect on the list. Some might not be on LinkedIn or Facebook. In some cases, you won’t be able to find their personal e-mail address. In those cases, just skip that specific part for that specific prospect and do the rest. It shouldn’t be the majority of the list, but potentially as much as 30% to even 40%.
However, the ONE THING you should NEVER skip are the calls. The calls are where you find out if they are a legit business or not, and in 10% to 30% of the cases you can get the e-mail of the decision-maker.
Which brings me to the next mistake.
Mistake 2: Not Cleaning Your List
The list you target, and the relationship you have with it, is one of the most critical ingredients to any marketing campaign.
Since most of you have not been diligent over the years in capturing inbound leads, referrals and other potential prospects into a CRM where you consistently sent relevant, interesting and quality drip marketing content to them, you’re forced to start with a COLD list of prospects who don’t know you, have ZERO relationship and ZERO interest.
Therefore, you shouldn’t make a bad situation worse by shooting your marketing “bullets” at prospects you don’t even want, even IF they were willing to buy.
That’s what the list-cleaning process is.
At a minimum, you need to make sure the prospects you’re targeting meet your criteria of what a good, qualified prospect is. While you can’t know if they value IT or not, are open to outsourcing, will be willing to invest appropriately in IT, are in a contract with a competitor and so on, you CAN at least remove a LOT of the haystack you don’t want before you start looking for the needles.
You do this by ensuring that the prospects you’re targeting have the demographics of your ideal client, such as geography, company size, number of employees and industry. You can also find out who the right decision-maker is, their name, phone, mailing address and often their e-mail, ALL in advance of marketing to them.
That last part matters more than people realize. Mailing to “the IT decision maker” and mailing to a named person are two different campaigns with two different response rates.
Mistake 3: Not Making The Calls
I know, I know. You HATE talking to people, much less trying to sell something.
Sorry, Charlie, that’s what PROSPECTING is. And since you haven’t been a good little boy or girl, doing lead generation, list building and drip marketing over the lifetime of your business, AND you’ve not built a “money team” to do this for you, it’s up to you to get ‘er done.
A second close mistake I see, besides NOT doing all of the calls AS PRESCRIBED, three in total at a minimum, leaving voicemails, is having out-of-line expectations of how many people you will reach.
What a productive outbound campaign actually looks like
Using a three-to-five-call series:
| Stage | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Reaching the decision-maker | About 6% to 9% of the time. From a dials perspective, roughly 3% to 6% of DIALS get you through. The rest are gatekeepers, voicemail and bad or wrong numbers. |
| Decision-makers who book | 11% to 15% of the ones you actually speak to will book a discovery call |
| Of those, genuinely qualified | 65%. The rest no-show, change their mind, say they aren’t interested, or simply aren’t qualified. |
| Prospects needed per closed deal | About 500, if your close rate from first-time appointments is 35% |
I don’t know if that puts you off of this entirely or not. It IS how the sausage is made.
Are There Better Ways?
Yes. Referrals and JVs, or strategic partners, are my number one recommended way, particularly the one-to-many lead source that a strategic partnership can offer.
But even those methods aren’t dead easy and require work, a lot of follow-up, strategic thinking and kissing a lot of frogs to find a prince.
NOTHING is “all good.”
If you really want to win at growth, you need to be willing to put in the work and do the things that are necessary, invest money and time, build a team and do a LOT of things right over a long period of time.
Success in any endeavor is cooked in a Crock-Pot, not a microwave.
If you want help building a prospecting campaign that actually produces appointments, rather than one that convinces you direct mail is dead, that is what my MSP sales training is built for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does direct mail still work for MSPs?
Yes, but not on its own. Direct mail sent by itself produces around a 0.02% response, meaning thousands of pieces to generate one inbound call. The same mail piece used inside a multimedia sequence alongside phone calls, personal e-mails and social outreach produces 1% to 2% from a cold list, and more from a warmer one. MSPs who say direct mail is dead are almost always describing mail sent alone.
What response rate should I expect from a cold prospecting campaign?
One to two percent from a cold list, provided you run the full sequence. Higher if the list is warmer, such as unconverted leads who already know who you are. If you are only mailing and skipping the calls and e-mails, expect roughly 0.02%, which is why the campaign feels like it failed.
How many touches does an MSP prospecting campaign need?
Direct mail, phone calls, personal e-mails and social outreach, working together. Calls should be three at minimum, leaving voicemails. You will not have an e-mail address or a LinkedIn profile for every prospect, and skipping those specific steps for those specific prospects is fine, potentially 30% to 40% of the list. The calls are the one component you should never skip.
How many prospects does it take to close one MSP deal?
About 500, assuming you run the full campaign. The math: roughly 3% to 6% of dials reach a decision-maker, 11% to 15% of those conversations produce a booked discovery call, 65% of those are genuinely qualified, and a 35% close rate from first-time appointments takes it from there.
Why can’t I just skip the phone calls?
Because the calls do work nothing else does. They confirm whether the business is legitimate and still operating, and in 10% to 30% of cases they get you the decision-maker’s e-mail address, which improves every other touch in the sequence. Skipping calls is the single most common reason a prospecting campaign underperforms.
What does list cleaning involve?
Verifying that every prospect matches the demographics of your ideal client, including geography, company size, employee count and industry, and identifying the actual decision-maker by name, phone, mailing address and where possible e-mail, all before you market to them. You cannot know in advance whether they value IT or are locked into a competitor’s contract, but you can remove a large portion of the haystack before you start looking for needles.
Are referrals better than cold prospecting?
Referrals and joint venture partnerships are the number one recommended approach, especially the one-to-many reach a strategic partnership provides. But they are not effortless. They require work, persistent follow-up, strategic thinking and a fair amount of kissing frogs to find a prince. Nothing in client acquisition is all good.
