Why Most MSP Marketing Plans Fail (And The 5 Things That Fix It)

Most MSP marketing plans fail because of poor execution, not bad strategy. A plan that actually delivers results needs five things in place: a clearly defined goal the whole team knows, a written plan built backwards from that goal, a measurement system that tracks leading indicators instead of just lagging results, weekly accountability on those leading indicators, and a leader with a deep commitment to see it through. Miss any one of them and even a brilliant strategy won’t get executed well, if at all. Miss the last one and the plan dies in the daily grind of running your business.

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If you’re an MSP owner trying to get a productive marketing plan in place, there’s a high probability you’re going to fail.

I hate to be so negative, but after nearly 25 years working with tens of thousands of MSPs, I can tell you this: getting a marketing plan implemented — and producing, consistently — is one of the hardest things you will ever attempt in this business.

Check any industry survey, MSP forum or social media group, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: marketing, or getting new customers in the door and securing profitable growth, is THE biggest challenge MSPs face. And the numbers back it up. Of the MSPs who set out to build a real marketing plan, most never finish the job, even when you hand them the exact steps. So like it or not, the odds are stacked against you.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. 

It just means you need to know why most MSP marketing plans fail, and what you need to do differently to make sure yours doesn’t.

Where do I get off claiming I’ve got the “secret sauce” for MSP marketing success?

Here’s why: I am the original founder of TMT, Technology Marketing Toolkit, which was the largest sales, marketing and business-growth peer group for MSPs in the industry before I sold it and exited. Over 25 years, I’ve worked with, consulted and trained tens of thousands of MSPs on marketing, sales process and profitable growth. I know firsthand why some MSPs win and most don’t.

First, You Don’t Need A Better Marketing Plan

Most MSPs say they need a better marketing plan, but what they actually need is a revenue growth plan that encompasses the entire process of attracting, qualifying, nurturing and ultimately closing prospects on a profitable managed services contract — and a competent team they can get to fully execute the process well.

A marketing plan is mostly about “demand generation,” or producing inbound leads. That’s step one, and an important step. But generating leads is only the beginning of the process for closing MSP contracts — and most MSPs are grossly ill-equipped to handle the inbound leads a marketing plan will produce, much less close them.

More leads help for sure. But plenty of MSPs waste thousands of dollars feeding the marketing machine — producing leads, hiring agencies, hiring salespeople, investing big bucks into CRM systems and marketing tools — then run out of money, get frustrated and stop the marketing because they’re closing so few of the leads the plan generates. They can never justify the spend.

So one big reason a marketing plan fails is because it’s coupled with a highly ineffective sales process and a non-existent long-term lead-nurture system (I call that system the “Prospect Hopper”). Selling managed services is a long-term game. To win, you have to stick with it for years to build a list, a reputation and the systems and processes to effectively capture and convert leads.

You also need to build your “money team” of competent, experienced sales and marketing people who will get the work done correctly. But even then, you need to lead, manage and compensate this team well, or they’ll be expensive headcount that drains your profits without producing the results you need. This brings me to the second big reason MSP marketing plans fail: execution.

The Second Big Reason MSP Marketing Plans Fail

When you look at a revenue growth plan, there are two main parts to it:

1. Strategy
2. Execution

Strategy answers questions like: Who is our target market and our ideal client profile? What is our USP, our unique selling proposition? How are we going to differentiate ourselves from other MSPs when we’re in front of a prospect who’s likely talking to two or three other competitors? What can we say, promise or do that makes them want to leave their current MSP and do business with us? Strategy is also about your sales model, pricing strategy, authority position and long-term goals.

In my experience, a lot of MSPs do need some clarification on those things. But more often than not, that’s not really their problem. Their problem is execution. And that’s where most marketing plans really fall apart.

If you think about it, I’m sure this is all — or at least a major reason — why your MSP failed to get results from the last marketing plan or investment you made.

For years, I ran marketing and sales workshops and coaching programs and gave the MSPs in attendance complete step-by-step plans. I gave them proven processes and campaigns. I gave them an MSP Marketing Roadmap that outlined what to do and in what order. I gave them hundreds of case studies from other MSPs who had successfully implemented a revenue growth plan in their business. I gave them 24/7/365 access to our Dashboard where they could get help from me and my team of MSP marketing and sales experts.

In fact, one of the biggest complaints I heard was that my program was like “drinking from a firehose” or “too much information.” It DID have a lot of information, checklists, templates and how-to videos, but not because I was selling information by the pound. It was because I wanted to make sure my MSP clients had complete instructions with most of their questions answered — and access to me for any that weren’t.

My program wasn’t “overwhelming” per se — it was that it revealed, in detail, all the processes, decisions, systems and steps they had to take to attract and close a managed services contract. I could have kept it at a high level, easier to digest with shorter workshop sessions, but then they’d likely miss a critical step and end up failing to produce a result.

I felt it necessary to give them the full and complete “toolkit” of instructions, steps and support.

Yet despite all of this, some still failed.

Why? For one major reason: They could NOT execute correctly.

Maybe you came to one of my events and walked out with the workbook and everything in it.

Then one day you’re cleaning out your office and you find that workbook again, buried under three inches of dust. You blow it off, look at the cover and think, “Yeah, that would have been really good to implement.”

Or maybe you tried one or two campaigns, found it difficult, so you skipped steps and then produced poor results. Got frustrated. Gave up. Tried something else. Rinse and repeat.

I’ve heard that for years. MSPs come to me and say, “I bought your program 10 years ago and it sat ‘on the shelf’ all that time collecting dust. I WISH I had actually started implementing it. Had I done that, I would have been so much further along and wealthier today!”

So whether it was my Toolkit program or something else, marketing and sales systems need to be IMPLEMENTED CORRECTLY. Buying home exercise equipment doesn’t make you lose weight. USING that exercise equipment correctly and frequently does.

So what does great execution actually look like? It comes down to five key components. Let’s take them in order — but know that all five are linked, and each depends on the others.

1. Crystal Clear Goals, Communicated To The Team

You’ve heard it a hundred times: set SMART goals — specific, measurable, attainable and so on. Fine. But it’s not enough for the goal to live in YOUR head. It has to be communicated to the team.

When you sit down with your marketing person, internal hire or outside agency, you have to be specific about exactly what you’re trying to accomplish.

A lot of MSPs talk in terms of MRR: MRR added versus number of clients. I’m fine with either measure, but you need both.

Say you want to add $5,000 in new MRR every month. Great goal! But now you have to ask: how many clients does that take? That depends on what your average client is worth. At $1,000 a month average, you need five clients. At $2,500, you need two.

Whatever the number, you have to be very, very clear on what the goal is, when it needs to be hit by, and who owns it. Then communicate it to the team.

Over and over, when I work one-on-one with an MSP and sit down with their sales team, I’ll ask the reps: “What’s your quota?” Often they don’t have one. Or they say, “Well, I think it’s…”

How do they not know their own goal? Because that’s what a quota is. It’s a goal.

Same story with the marketing people. “What’s the goal around here? What are we actually trying to accomplish?” Blank stares. They don’t know the MRR target, don’t know the client count, and have certainly never run the backwards math.

Why this matters more than it sounds

All productivity and achievement START with clarity on what you’re aiming for. Without it, it’s impossible to set priorities, impossible to build a plan, impossible to make GOOD decisions, and impossible to navigate the chaos and distractions that show up every minute of every day.

Successful people’s schedules are driven by their priorities. Unsuccessful people let their schedules drive their priorities. Read that again.

On consulting calls, I start with a simple question: What’s the most important outcome you want from this call?

That should be THE question you ask yourself before taking on any new project, initiative, employee or vendor. What are you hoping to achieve with this? And the follow-up: does this bring me closer to that goal or further away?

THERE IS NO NEUTRAL HERE. If something is added to your schedule, taking up time, money and attention, it has to be directly helping you move closer to your goal. If not, it’s a distraction, and it should be delegated, outsourced or stopped altogether.

Setting a good, achievable, winnable goal is where you start, but then you need the following four things in place.

2. A Plan, Built With Backwards Math

I’ve had people complain, “Robin, I’m doing your marketing plan but I’m not generating any leads!” When I ask them what they’re doing, they almost always say, “Well, we’re sending out some tech tip emails, doing a newsletter and posting on social media.”

That’s barely a nurture plan for leads they don’t have. That’s NOT a lead generation plan.

First, generating MRR and new managed clients REQUIRES outbound prospecting alongside paid ads, trade shows, speaking engagements, endorsed mailings, SEO/AEO, etc., etc.

Second, the above activities and campaigns must also be mapped out using backwards math to establish realistic goals for the leads and opportunities they’ll produce.

For example, if we want $5,000 in new MRR and $2,500 is the average client value, that means we need two clients. If our close rate is 50% from an FTA and/or open opportunity (and for most MSPs it’s more like 20% to 35%), we’re going to need four first-time appointments per month with good, qualified prospects.

(Side note: A first-time appointment is a full discovery meeting with a new prospect you’ve already qualified to ensure there’s a real opportunity — not just any inbound lead. Usually this discovery meeting is done in person, at their office, and lasts 60 to 90 minutes.)

Let’s also suppose that half of the inbound leads we generate are qualified and move to the FTA, with the others being too small or not a fit for some reason. That means we need roughly eight “raw leads” to get four FTAs. If our 50% close rate holds, that will get us two clients that will produce the $5,000 MRR.

The next question is the BIG question: What are we going to do that will generate the 8 raw leads and 4 FTAs we need?

THAT’S when we start looking at paid ads, SEO/AEO, referral campaigns, cold outreach, trade shows, canvassing, etc. Each of those campaigns also has its own backwards math and metrics, based on historical data you have or reasonable averages of what those types of campaigns can produce.

Then you build a sales forecast and pipeline. At a 50% close rate, that means you need no less than $10,000 in your sales pipeline for the upcoming month to hit the $5,000 goal. That’s a key leading indicator of whether or not you’ll make your goal. If the pipeline is empty for the coming month, the chances that some big opportunity will suddenly pop up and close are slim — so we monitor the inbound leads, the FTAs, the close rate, average revenue per client and ACTUAL current pipeline for the coming month and quarter.

Now we’re starting to see a plan come together.

The goal gets set, and then you back into it, defining the activities, campaigns and leading indicators that will produce the lagging indicator you want (new clients signed).

The same math for EACH sales activity and marketing campaign

Let’s suppose one of the campaigns you’re running is a “Plant The Farm” prospecting campaign that includes mail, e-mail, social outreach and an SDR making outbound calls. And let’s also say their quota is five really good appointments sat or held every month.

You have to do the backwards math on this specific goal (5 appointments a month) and campaign as well.

To get five appointments, how many people do they need to schedule? Not every scheduled appointment will show — people get busy, cancel, no-show or change their mind. So let’s suppose to get 5 to sit, you need to get 7 to schedule.

If your SDR gets 25% of the people they speak with to book (conversion rate), they need to pitch 28 prospects to get 7 scheduled appointments, of which 5 will actually sit.

To have 28 conversations, how many prospects do they need to work?

Let’s suppose their connection rate (the % of times they get to the decision maker live) is 8%. To get 28 conversations, they have to call 350 prospects (28 ÷ .08). Let’s also suppose that the campaign requires a 4-call sequence with the other media supporting them (direct mail, personal email and social media message). That means they will likely make 1,120 dials to the 350 prospects (roughly 3.2 per prospect).

These are estimates, and a lot depends on the list quality, the SDR’s skills, the offer, etc. They might need to make more dials to more prospects if the list is cold and unqualified, fewer if the list is warm, pre-qualified and you have inbound leads supplementing their prospecting efforts.

But if it is 350 prospects and 1,120 dials, then you need to make sure EVERY WEEK your SDR has at least 88 prospects to call (350 ÷ 4 weeks) and is able and willing to make 280 dials per week MINIMUM. Otherwise, the plan won’t work. The dials are the LEADING INDICATORS that will determine the output, or LAGGING indicator (appointments sat).

Every campaign and activity needs the same backwards math. You look at the goal, the leading indicators and the activities, and work backwards through that funnel.

Once you have that, now you’ve got a plan: a set number of prospects and dials each week that should produce a predictable number of conversations and appointments booked.

So when I talk about a marketing plan, it’s not “do SEO” or “hire an SDR” or “go to a trade show.” That’s the campaign. You still have to dig in and say: how many opportunities are we going to get from this? How much does that put into our pipeline so we can hit our number?

I see a lot of MSPs skip that backwards math entirely, never checking whether their activity is even sufficient to hit the goal. When they finally run the numbers on their close rate and appointment volume, most discover they’re nowhere close to enough activity to hit the number they want.

3. A System Of Measurement

Now that you have the plan and backwards math, you need a system to track the leading and lagging indicators to know if you’re on or off track to hit your goal.

You need to determine, and communicate to your team in advance, what you want to measure. Do NOT wait until the end of the week or the end of the month to ask, “How many dials did you make?” or “How many prospects did you talk to?” If they don’t know they were supposed to track those activities, they won’t remember.

Further, it’s best to have some way of ACTUALLY tracking it, not just depending on them to report. For example, a dialer that tracks dials, connection rate and appointments. Or software like CallRail that tracks inbound web leads and what happened on those calls.

Let’s consider a trade show you’re sponsoring. You should communicate in advance to your team that you will want to know:

• How many people came to the booth?
• How many were qualified?
• How many did you book an appointment with?
• How many sat the appointment and turned into an opportunity?

If you’re speaking, I want to know how many were in the room and how many said “yes” to the offer we made at the end of the presentation.

In advance, I want to know from the event host how many people will be there and if we get the list. If we get the list, I want my marketing team to confirm how many on that list actually meet our ideal client profile — because it’s never 100%. There will be vendors, non-decision-makers, spouses, guests.

Most MSPs only track lagging indicators, and by then it’s too late

The worst time to figure out you didn’t hit your goal was at the end of the month, quarter or year.

Actual sales is a lagging indicator. It just shows you what already happened, and you can’t do a damned thing about it. That’s why building your plan backwards from leading indicators is SO critical. If the activities aren’t done, the results won’t magically appear; and here’s the BIG breakthrough to getting results:

Manage your team to the LEADING indicators, NOT the lagging results.

The value of managing your team to the leading indicators (activities) is that it allows you to get ahead of a failing system, campaign or initiative BEFORE it crashes and burns.

For example, an outside sales rep who’s supposed to conduct outreach to 50 new prospects a week, get 5 conversations and open at least 1 opportunity — keeping $10,000 in pipeline at all times — tells you TODAY whether they’re going to hit quota, or not.

If the pipeline isn’t there, why not? Are they doing outreach to 50? If not, why not? If they’re outreaching to 50 but getting 0 conversations, why not? What are they doing and saying? If they’re getting the conversations but aren’t opening opportunities, are they calling on the right people with the right message? 

You have to find out what they’re doing so you can correct THAT piece, not dismiss the entire initiative because “it’s not working.”

One MSP sales rep I’m working with right now converts about 25% of the COLD prospects they talk to into an appointment, which is stellar performance. They’re good, solid leads too…but his pipeline is weak. Why? Because he’s only doing about half the volume of calls he should.

So it’s not a list problem, a script problem or even a skill problem. We just need to raise the activity. Another rep in the same org is making twice as many calls, but not getting appointments because he’s not converting the people he talks to. His conversion is about 5%, which is too low. Same company, same story, same script. This is a skill issue, which we’re working on.

Knowing what “dial” to turn or lever to pull allows you to get the results because you know where the plan is failing with precision, not a WIG (wild ass guess) that makes you throw away the entire campaign for “not working.”

4. A System Of Accountability

“Whose throat do you choke when this goal gets missed?”

I asked an MSP owner this question the other day. He has several people on his leadership, marketing and sales team. He said, “I guess ____.” I replied, “Guess? Does SHE know that?” I know she isn’t aware that she’s ultimately responsible. Why? Because no one clarified it was her goal. This owner also hasn’t given her the green light to direct the team, the budget and the strategy, so she’s only doing what she feels is within her safety zone.

But this is rampant in most MSP organizations. If that SDR doesn’t hit their quota of appointments, if that outside rep doesn’t hit their quota of MRR, if that marketing leader doesn’t bring in the MQLs we need, what happens? More to the point, how are you going to hold them accountable?

As I outlined above, the time to hold people accountable is not at the end of the month or the end of the quarter, after everything’s already done and they’ve already missed the goal. The time to hold people accountable is every single week, to commitments on the activities that ultimately produce the outcomes you want.

The rep I fired in three weeks

I hired a sales rep years ago to sell our sponsorships. I made it very clear before he joined: we have a proven recipe for success in this role. I know our metrics and our numbers, and I know exactly the activities you need to do to hit quota.

I explained that he would have to reach out to 56 prospects every single week, using the script, emails, process and system I mapped out. That should produce five to 10 good conversations, and out of that, one to two opportunities. We knew our metrics going in. I showed it all to him in advance. He said, got it, no problem.

First week, I load 56 prospects into the CRM and say go. At the end of the week, we talk so he can report what happened. He shares with me that he fell short and only prospected 20 of the 56. I ask why and get the typical B.S. answers: the computer crashed, he couldn’t get into email, he’s new. Excuse, excuse, excuse.

Fine. But now he’s behind by 36. So we add that to next week, which is going to be tough. I ask if he can at least get through the 56. He says he WILL. Does he need anything from me? Nope. All good.

End of week two, we meet again for him to report. This week he prospected more than before, but still short — 43. Why didn’t you keep your commitment of 56? Well… he had to leave home early one day, his dog got sick, his car broke down. It’s like a country western song.

I tell him: You’re now two weeks behind on your activity quota, and unless you pull your damned socks up and get prospecting, you’re not going to catch up and hit your sales quota. He hasn’t opened any opportunities either, so he can’t say he’s at least getting that leading indicator. I clarify: 56 prospects is NOT a suggestion. It’s a requirement and a commitment I need you to meet. He agrees.

End of week three, he fell short again. I fired him on the spot.

People say that’s harsh. It isn’t. The reality is he showed me he wasn’t willing to keep his commitments or put in the activity. You can’t skip the work and expect positive results to magically show up like a unicorn.

So the time to hold people accountable is on the leading indicators, the inputs that produce the outputs. Not at the end of the month.

Candidly, I should have caught this sooner. That’s why I started doing a daily huddle with my sales reps, so I could catch it before we got to the end of the week.

And this applies to YOU, the CEO, too

You need someone to be accountable to as well.

When I had a goal I was serious about, having someone to report to was every bit as important as the plan itself, because without compliance, the plan is worthless. Knowing I had to report in was what stopped me from letting a bad week slide, because I’d have to face someone and admit it.

You need someone who will be tough on you too, not an understanding, compassionate friend. If you need love and affection, get a dog. If you need to achieve a tough goal, you need someone willing to deliver the pain train and get you to stop procrastinating.

Then your PRIORITIES need to dictate your schedule, rather than your schedule dictating your priorities.

5. A Big, Compelling Reason Why

The fifth part of execution is that you, the leader, had better have a big, compelling reason why you want a productive, effective revenue and marketing function, plan and team in place.

Because if you don’t have the drive, the juice or what Napoleon Hill called the “burning desire” to get this done, I promise you your good intentions get sucked into the tornado: the daily grind of running your “factory,” which is the day-to-day operating of the business. ALL the other stuff still needs to get done. There will be constant pressure and tension on you to work on the URGENT vs. the important.

That’s why you need a serious, long-term commitment to the process.

The above four items will take a lot of time and effort to get done. It takes time to set goals and communicate them, build plans, put in measurement, and hold people accountable. This could take you a full year or more to get a good, basic system in place, and you’re always improving and tweaking it. It’s constant pressure. You have to stay on it to make it work.

And if you really aren’t driven to get it done, it isn’t going to get done.

I know some people will say, “But Robin, I hire people who are supposed to do this. They’re supposed to show up with batteries included, knowing what to do.”

You’re right. If you hire a highly compensated leader who has already been successful at the job of creating, managing and executing on a successful marketing and revenue plan, they probably have the experience. Even then, you cannot abdicate. You still need to be involved — looking at the numbers, holding THEM accountable.

But most MSPs don’t hire highly compensated and tenured sales and marketing executives. They hire a junior marketing manager or a completely green sales rep, provide zero training, zero leadership and no accountability — then expect miracles.

Bottom line: YOU, the leader, set the pace. YOU set the goals, the culture and the vision. Only YOU can make this happen with pigheaded determination.

The Bottom Line On Why Marketing Plans Fail

It’s not because of a lack of strategy, although bad strategy, or no strategy, is part of it for sure. You can’t see a sunset if your strategy is to face east.

It’s mostly due to poor execution.

Clear goals, well communicated. A detailed plan with backwards math. A system of measurement with leading and lagging indicators. Weekly accountability on the leading indicators. And a big, compelling reason why.

If any of those ingredients are missing, you’re not going to get the results you want, or they’ll be greatly suppressed. And to be blunt: most MSPs won’t put all five in place, which is exactly why most MSPs stay stuck right where they are. That’s not a reason to quit. It’s your opening — because your competition isn’t doing this either.

Resolve weakens under pressure. 

When you’re tired, stressed, overwhelmed and feel like things are out of control, it will require you to dig deep and get help from a coach or an accountability partner who will lend you their strength and clarity. You WILL need a deep, meaningful reason why you have to push on. Plan for that too.

If you want help building a plan with the math behind it, and someone to hold you to it, that is exactly what my one-on-one consulting is for.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why do most MSP marketing plans fail?

Poor or non-existent execution is the #1 reason why marketing plans fail. Most MSPs have some clarity issues around their strategy (target market and value proposition), but that’s rarely what actually kills the plan. Five things have to be in place: a specific goal the whole team knows, a plan built with backwards math, a measurement system, weekly accountability on activity, and a leader with real drive to see it through. Miss any one and results get suppressed. Miss the last one and the plan gets lost in the daily grind.

What is the difference between marketing strategy and execution?

Strategy is your target market, your ideal client profile, your unique selling proposition and value differentiators, your chosen authority position, your sales model, how big you want the company to be, and how you go to market. Execution is the day-to-day implementation of your strategy: generating demand, building awareness, creating opportunities and closing them. Most MSPs need some help with strategy, but their real problem is almost always execution.

What is backwards math in a marketing plan?

Working from the goal down to daily activity to produce the results you want. If you want $5,000 in new MRR and your average client is $2,500, you need two clients. At a 50% close rate, that means four first-time appointments. If half the people you speak with qualify, that’s about eight raw leads. Now map out the specific activities and campaigns you’ll run to ensure you get the 8 leads you need, and you have a plan instead of a list of ideas that go nowhere.

Should I track leading or lagging indicators?

Both, but hold people accountable to the leading ones. Lagging indicators, like month-end MRR, tell you what already happened. You can’t change them. Leading indicators — unique prospects worked, dials, decision-maker conversations, appointments booked, blogs posted, posts made, ads run — are the inputs that produce the outcome, and they’re the only things you can correct in time to change the result.

How often should I hold my sales team accountable?

Weekly at minimum, daily is better. Holding someone accountable at the end of the month, after the quota is already missed, is too late to change anything. Weekly commitments to specific activity levels, with real consequences when they’re not met, is what actually produces the outcome. A daily huddle catches a shortfall before the week is lost.

Can I just hire a marketing manager or agency to handle all of this?

Yes, but…

If an agency, they can’t handle every aspect of what needs to be done. They aren’t going to build and manage your sales team and process. They’re not going to answer your phones. They’re not going to build your USP. That doesn’t make them bad to work with. It just means you have to understand what they can or can’t do.

If hiring, you can only delegate this if they’ve built an entire revenue-generating plan from the ground up. A highly compensated leader (CRO, or chief revenue officer) who has already built this for another company probably has the experience — but they come with a big price tag. You can also hire people for specific parts of the whole, like an SEO/AEO expert, paid ads specialist or SDR, and then manage them. But hiring someone who has never built and managed a team, budget or the infrastructure for growth, and has only junior-level experience for this job, won’t work. That’s stupid abdication. They have to have the ABILITY and EXPERIENCE to build it on their own, not someone who worked on a team where another senior executive mapped out the plan and ran the department.

How long does it take to get a marketing plan actually working?

Longer than most people expect, and it’s never “done.” Building a list, a reputation and marketing and sales systems takes time. So does getting good at setting goals, communicating them, building the plan, creating measurement systems and establishing accountability. All of it can take a full year or more, and you’re always improving and tweaking it. It’s constant pressure. That’s exactly why the fifth ingredient — a genuine reason to see it through — matters as much as the other four combined.