For providers
How to get MSP clients: a practical checklist
By Steven MoreySteven Morey has spent 27 years in digital, leading marketing and sales for technology businesses in Australia and the US. Through Opollo, his MSP marketing agency, he's run thousands of campaigns for hundreds of managed service providers. That's where the pricing questions in these guides come from.
Most MSPs already know the channels (referrals, content, partnerships, paid search, marketplaces). What's harder is knowing where to actually start. This is the order that gets you clients fastest for the least spend, not an exhaustive list.
Ask your current clients directly
The fastest, cheapest new client is a referral from an existing one. Most MSPs wait for referrals to happen on their own instead of asking a satisfied client outright, at the moment they're happiest (a renewal, a resolved incident, a project that went well).
Make sure your website can actually convert an enquiry
A business that finds you and can't work out what you do, who you serve or how to contact you leaves. Before spending on anything else, confirm your site states your services and service area plainly and has a working way to get in touch.
Write down two or three real client outcomes
You don't need a case-study department. A short, honest, named (with permission) account of a real problem and what you did about it does more for a prospective client's confidence than a services list.
Pick one or two vendor or community relationships and use them properly
Microsoft, your RMM vendor or a local business network often already has a referral or co-marketing program you're not using. One relationship worked properly beats five ignored ones.
Decide how you'll handle enquiries you didn't have to generate yourself
Referrals and content take months to compound. If you need volume sooner, a lead-generation marketplace like msppie qualifies a buyer's need by phone before it reaches you, so you're paying for a qualified enquiry rather than the activity of finding one.
If you want the fuller picture
See MSP marketing: the channels that actually bring in clients for the full six-channel breakdown, or how MSPs get clients: a category comparison if you're weighing outbound, referrals, an in-house hire and a marketplace against each other directly.