The argument happened during a Rapid Implementation Workshop I was hosting.

In the room were about 50 MSP business owners, all there to learn how to implement a marketing plan to drive more inbound leads. A part of that workshop was the “secret shop” exercise. Unbeknownst to attendees, we would play prospect and secret shop them while they were at the conference, recording and grading how the inbound call was handled. 

As you can imagine, most failed. Miserably.

But one guy wasn’t having it.

We had called his office saying we had a server down. Our current IT company was unable to help us. If they’d asked (and they didn’t) “Brandy” was calling from a 30-person law office a few miles from their location. She was the operations manager who was sick and tired of the lack of response from their current MSP. She wasn’t in a contract, was getting break-fix services, but WAS open to discussing a managed services agreement, but only AFTER they helped with this urgent problem.

When she called this particular MSP, they told her, “The soonest we could get someone out there is two weeks from now.” No discovery questions asked. No qualifying questions to determine who she was and where she was calling from. No name collected. 

Just a “Sorry, we can’t help you,” and click.

When I played the call to the owner, he defended it. In a highly agitated tone, he said, 

“We PRIORITIZE our managed customers! My team knows that and that’s why we can’t go running out there at the drop of a hat!”

My response was not what he expected. I said, “You’ve spent thousands of dollars to be here with me and have taken DAYS away from your office to figure out how to get more prospects to call your office. You are likely to spend even more time, money and talent on getting the strategies I’m giving you implemented to make that phone ring. If THIS is how you are going to respond to a call that marketing produces, pack up your laptop now and leave. I can’t help you.”

Harsh? Yep.

True? Absolutely.

Thankfully, he didn’t leave and he understood and embraced what I was saying. Unfortunately, most MSPs never do.

They think “all” they have to do is “more marketing” to get more clients. 

Have a professional looking website, post a few times a week on social media, print out some good-looking brochures and business cards and maybe run some ads or attend a few trade shows. 

Most MSPs like marketing because it’s passive. Sending an email blast is easy. Posting on social media requires no interaction with human beings. Websites “talk” to people so you don’t have to. 

But sales?

Not so much.

“We’re NOT salespeople…we’re techs.”

“We DO NOT believe in selling. We present the options and let the prospect choose.”

“We don’t need to sell. We just do a good job and let our reputation stand on its own.”

Funny how I’ve only heard those kinds of phrases coming out of the mouth of a small MSP with no real growth for YEARS. Randomness and poverty are linked. Unsuccessful MSPs leave everything to chance. They’re unthinking and un-strategic about how they run their business in general, and even worse about it when it comes to selling. 

They don’t carefully or thoughtfully prepare for a meeting with a prospect, thinking through obstacles and objections that are likely to arise so they can respond appropriately. They don’t even prepare to CLOSE the deal, and have no planned way to ask for the order – so they don’t. They present and sit there like a wooden statue hoping the prospect will just buy. They are vague, undisciplined farts in the wind that amount to nothing. 

If you truly want more clients, you can’t *just* do *some* marketing. You must have a direct, targeted marketing effort coupled with a strong, strategic sales process that is tightly managed, consistently delivered and highly effective at closing deals WITHOUT discounting or concessions. 

To the extent that you do this with consistency and intention, the more you’ll see your MRR and bank balance grow. 

Stop leaving money on the table. The MSPs making 7-figure NET profits aren’t better at marketing alone—they’ve mastered the marriage of marketing AND sales. They have systems. They have discipline. They have results. That’s what I help MSPs build. If you want this for your own MSP, head over here and let’s roll: https://www.robinrobins.com/msp-marketing-services/fractional-cmo-cro-services