Robin Robins

There’s an old Yiddish saying: “Man plans, and God laughs.” And if you’ve been in business or just lived life, for more than five minutes, you know how true that is. You set goals, you make plans and then life throws you a curveball.
Another quote that’s stuck with me is, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” And that’s real. You can build out the most beautiful plan, have it all mapped out to the minute. The moment you start moving, something unexpected comes in and knocks the wheels off.
So, does that mean planning is a waste of time?
Absolutely not.
Plans may not hold up perfectly, but the act of planning, of thinking through what you’re trying to do and how you’re going to do it, is where the real value lives. And I’ve seen that play out in both my personal life and in the businesses we work with every single day.

Why Goal Setting Isn’t Enough

A while back, there was a randomized controlled study done with people who were overweight or obese. And more importantly, people who wanted to lose weight. This wasn’t just some random sample; everyone involved had a clear desire to shed pounds.
They split the participants into three groups:

1. Group one was asked to simply set a goal. Just write down what they wanted—how much weight they wanted to lose.
2. Group two was told to set goals, and then watch motivational videos on top of that.
3. Group three did all of that—goal setting, motivational content—but they were also required to write down a plan of intention. In other words, they had to get specific. They had to say things like, “I’m going to walk for 30 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” or “I’ll go to the gym and do cardio three times a week.”

Now, here’s the punchline: Groups one and two saw minimal results. There was barely any difference in weight loss between them.
But group three?
They lost three to four times more weight than the other two groups. Just by writing down a specific, actionable plan.
Think about that. They didn’t get extra help, they didn’t have personal trainers. They just got intentional. They had a real plan. And that’s what made all the difference.

A Personal Proof Point

When we moved into the house we’re in now, I came across an old binder from a Tony Robbins seminar I’d attended years ago. Tony’s big on goal setting, writing it all down and making your intentions clear. I flipped through that binder and found something I didn’t even remember writing: a list of what I wanted in a house.
And I swear to you, line by line, it matched the house we were about to move into.
Now, I’m not saying writing it down magically made it appear. But what I am saying is that getting clear and writing it down likely influenced the decisions I made along the way that led us to that exact house.
It was eerie. But, also a powerful reminder of how important it is to put your goals on paper.

What Every Business Goal Needs

If you’ve done any of my goal setting sessions, you’ve heard me talk about this: there are five things you absolutely must have in place if you want to achieve any goal. Personal, professional, financial, health-related or otherwise.
And I don’t just teach this—I live by it. Anytime I set a goal and come up short, I go back to this list. And every single time, I find that one (or more) of these five elements was missing.

1. Absolute clarity on the outcome

If you’ve done any of my goal setting sessions, you’ve heard me talk about this: there are five things you absolutely must have in place if you want to achieve any goal. Personal, professional, financial, health-related or otherwise.
And I don’t just teach this—I live by it. Anytime I set a goal and come up short, I go back to this list. And every single time, I find that one (or more) of these five elements was missing.

2. A big, motivating reason why

You’ve got to really want the outcome—or you won’t do what it takes to get there. It can’t be because you feel pressure from other MSPs in the community. It can’t be because you saw someone like Doug crushing it and thought, “I should be doing more.”
That kind of “should” motivation doesn’t last. It’ll get you fired up for a week, and then you’ll find a dozen excuses for why you’re not following through.
But when your reason is personal and when the outcome truly matters to you, it’s a whole different story. You’ll make the sacrifices. You’ll stay committed when it gets tough. You won’t let the plan die just because it hits a bump.

3. A written plan of achievement

This one can’t be skipped. And I mean a real plan—not a list of random to-dos. A structured, intentional plan that maps out exactly how you’ll get from where you are to where you want to be.
Think through your service offerings, sales strategy, lead generation, and follow-up campaigns. This is where MSPs often need the most help—building a plan that makes their growth goals real and achievable.

4. A system of measurement

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. It’s not enough to just “feel” like things are going better. You need metrics that tell the truth. Revenue, margin, net new clients, MRR growth, service ticket volume, CSAT scores—track what matters.
Measurement shows progress. And when progress is visible, motivation gets stronger. You start stacking wins. That builds momentum—and momentum is how goals get crushed.

5. A system of accountability

This one’s big. Who are you accountable to?
Because if the answer is “just me,” I’ll tell you right now—that’s not enough. Left to our own devices, we all let ourselves off the hook. We rationalize. We delay. We move the goalposts.
But when someone else is holding your feet to the fire, the game changes.
Whether it’s a coach, a peer group, a mentor, or even your team—you need someone watching, someone you don’t want to disappoint. That pressure can be the difference between doing the hard thing and backing off when it gets uncomfortable.

Final thoughts

Plans might not survive contact with reality, but the discipline of planning is what separates the people who win from the ones who stay stuck. Goals are great—but they’re just dreams until you write them down, map them out, and commit to the grind of bringing them to life.
And if you’re serious about growing your MSP, stop winging it. Get intentional. Write the goal. Build the plan. Set the metrics. And get accountable.
Then ask yourself:
Do you really want this? Or are you just saying you do?
Because if the desire is real and the plan is clear, nothing can stop you.

For over 25 years I’ve worked with thousands of MSPs to answer the question “What’s the best marketing plan to generate leads and (ultimately) get more managed services clients?”

A truly effective MSP marketing plan consists of clear goals, strategic positioning, sales systems and trust-building campaigns and marketing assets designed to generate leads, book first-time appointments and attract a prospect that is looking for fully outsourced, managed IT services. Unlike generic IT services marketing, or SaaS marketing, MSP marketing requires niche positioning, high-trust strategies, authority-building and long-term nurture systems to overcome resistance to switching IT companies.

There are four key component parts that go into creating an MSP marketing plan that has the best chance of delivering qualified managed IT clients:

1. Marketing Strategy
2. Marketing Assets
3. Marketing Calendar
4. Marketing Campaigns

Let’s dig into each of these component parts of your plan.

Marketing Strategy

Without a doubt, the first place any MSP needs to start is with their MARKETING STRATEGY. This consists of the following:

• Goals And Metrics: What are your growth goals, in new clients, MRR, gross margin and topline sales for this year, and in the next three to five years? Given your goals, how many managed clients do you need? What does your “backwards math” look like for number of FTAs (first-time appointments), MQLs, raw leads, etc., to hit that goal? This is the “math” part of your marketing plan that you have to map out first. In my experience, most MSPs completely lack goals for marketing and sales and do not track the critical KPIs and metrics required for marketing success.
  • Budget (CPL, CAC, RAC): Best-in-class MSPs (the most successful and profitable ones, as measured by Service Leadership) spend roughly 11% of their topline revenue on sales and marketing costs combined. That includes all media, software, services and employees (marketing manager, sales reps, etc.). That’s not to say 11% is a magic number. You can, after all, spend that or MORE and not get the ROI. You might also have strategic partnerships or some other advantage that enables you to get customers for far less. Either way, you need to budget for people, services and media to drive NCA (new client acquisition).
  • Defined Target Market And Segments: This is one that stumps a LOT of MSPs – selecting and fully researching their ICP (ideal client profile). A “target market” might be an industry or the size of a company, like financial services firms with 20 or more employees headquartered in the Nashville area. A segment of that market might be financial advisors, or businesses generating more than $1 million in revenue. Without knowing precisely WHO you want as a customer, your marketing simply cannot be as effective or efficient as it needs to be.
  • Authority Positioning (USP, Specialization): After you know who your customer is, you need to determine what unique value you bring to that target audience and be able to communicate why a prospect should hire you over all the other MSPs in their area, many of whom will be cheaper (called a USP or “unique selling proposition”).
    
    Remember, all of your best clients are already paying another MSP to manage and support their IT. Why should they fire them and hire you? If you have no answer – or a weak answer – to that question, no amount of marketing is going to drive customers inbound.
  • People (“Money Team”): Finally, WHO is going to do the work of creating, implementing and overseeing the marketing function? Who is going to handle the inbound leads and do follow-up? Who is in charge of sales? Smaller MSPs typically have their spouse and kids doing the marketing for them (if they’re doing any marketing at all) and they, the owner, handle sales. That’s okay if you’re just starting, but if you want to grow, you need to start building a competent marketing and sales team (what I call your “money team”) to consistently execute on your plan.

Marketing Assets

A marketing asset can be anything from a powerful origin story about how you started your MSP to a marketing campaign that consistently produces profitable IT services buyers every time you run it. Your list, website, sales process and published book are all examples of marketing assets.

For example, when I started MSP Success magazine, I knew it would be a huge credibility- and trust-building asset – and I was right. But I underestimated the opportunities it presented for me and how much it would elevate my status in the MSP community. A true marketing asset.

One MSP member of mine had a tremendous “origin story” about how he got into the MSP business and why he works so hard to fight cybercrime for his clients. The story, too long to deliver in full here, told of his father dying when he was young, leaving his mother to bear the burden of raising him and his siblings. After his father died, his mother was forced to move in with family, unable to afford the rent on the home they were living in.

The moving company she hired showed up and attempted to extort her for more money, refusing to move anything until she paid them more than agreed upon. He found his mother alone and sobbing, unable to cope with the tragedy of losing her husband and the helplessness and fear she had for her young children in that moment.

The epic injustice of it burned into his soul the need to protect others from bullies, and today he does that via technology for business owners who get ransomed by cyberbullies. It’s a powerful origin story that builds trust.

Great marketing assets build what I call C.A.T., or celebrity, authority and trust. Here are just a few marketing assets you should work on developing in your MSP:

• One or more productive lead generation offers (top of funnel and middle of funnel) that consistently generate MQLs.
• A strong USP (unique selling proposition) articulated extremely well so you can differentiate from other MSPs and command premium fees.
• A high-converting, search-optimized website.
• A large number of 5-star reviews and client case studies.
• A marketing automation system (CRM) that is built to maximize conversion of opportunities and leads.
• Strategic pillar content, like a book or stage presentation.
• A brilliantly constructed IT sales process and playbook.
• Your list (and a productive, trusting relationship with it).
• Strategic joint ventures and promotional partnerships that deliver high-quality clients consistently.

Marketing Calendar

Once you have the above two components dialed in, then, and only then, should you move to a more tactical marketing plan for your MSP. This is what most MSPs think about when they talk about needing a “marketing plan.”

Essentially, a marketing plan for most MSPs is simply a calendar of campaigns and activities. These activities can include going to trade shows, hosting a webinar on AI or cybersecurity, or even a multimedia prospecting campaign that utilizes an SDR (sales development rep) to call for appointments.

When creating your marketing calendar of campaigns, you also need to include the following:

• Backwards Math From Goal: Starting with the number of managed IT clients you want, work backwards to determine how many proposals you need to have in your pipeline, how many FTAs (or first-time appointments) you need, how many MQLs and raw leads you will need to produce.
  • List Segments And Audiences Selected: Every campaign needs to be targeted to a specific list, such as all unconverted leads in your CRM, or an audience, like companies googling “IT services company” in the areas you service.
  • Timeline Of Campaigns Initiated: This one is easy – simply map out WHEN these campaigns start or will be initiated, and how long they will run for. A Google PPC campaign may be ongoing. A digital newsletter or blog could be posted once a week. A trade show in February. Most MSPs still use spreadsheets and project management software, like Teams or Monday, to organize their marketing plan into projects with timelines and responsibilities assigned.
  • Budget Allocation: Every marketing plan needs to have an associated budget. Best-in-class MSPs typically budget 11% of their topline revenue to their marketing plan and sales team combined. What you actually need to spend marketing your MSP will be determined by a number of factors, including the growth goals you have and, of course, funds available.
  • Execution Plan (Who, What, When): An MSP marketing plan is essentially a big project with many systems and teams running it. Therefore, you need a project management system to organize and run it. I would not necessarily suggest you use your PSA tool for running your marketing plan, but you could in a pinch. Whatever planning tool you use, make sure you have a leader on the team that is using that project management tool to execute on your marketing plan as expected and within the budgets you’ve set.

Marketing Campaigns

The last core component of your MSP marketing plan will consist of individual campaigns you choose to drive the leads, appointments and IT services sales you want.

Again, this is where most MSPs start – and it’s a HUGE mistake. The campaigns should be the last piece you map out in your MSP marketing plan AFTER you’ve fully thought through and built the other components outlined above.

Each campaign needs the following:

• Market, Message, Media, Math: Every lead generation campaign must get these four things right in order to deliver quality managed services leads. The marketing is the list or audience. The message is what’s written in the e-mail, posted on the landing page or uttered by your SDR when making a call. It’s also the offer you’re making. The media is merely the channel you’ll use to communicate the message (websites, e-mails, text messages, SDR phone calls, social media ads, etc.). The math is the process of goaling for how many opens, clicks, leads, appointments and other marketing plan KPIs you expect to hit. Having realistic expectations is critical to a successful marketing plan for any MSP, yet it’s a part of the plan many get wrong.
• Funnel Design And Metrics: When a visitor clicks on your ad, what happens? When they opt in, what do they see? What e-mails and letters will be sent and what calls will be made? What’s the next step? A marketing funnel is the process, steps and communications you map out in a campaign to transform an MSP prospect into a viable, profitable MSP buyer.
• Tracking Established: How will you track the performance of your campaign? How will you know how many calls your SDR made and how many conversations they had? How will you track the number of prospects that visit your trade-show booth or take you up on your offer for a free cybersecurity risk assessment? All of these “funnel metrics” need to be tracked to ensure your campaign is performing as expected, to troubleshoot  problems and to continually improve the performance and ROI of any MSP marketing campaign.
• Marketing Oil Wells (Systems And Processes): Your MSP marketing plan should not consist of a series of “random acts” and hope. Never do one-off campaigns. Instead, build what I call “marketing oil wells,” or systems you can repeat over and over again to produce the same results (or better). As with a recipe, you want to document the steps, “ingredients” and actions needed to reproduce a successful campaign. Doing so will ultimately make your campaigns more effective, avoid stupid mistakes and help you learn from failures and successes.
• Follow-Up, Drip And Nurture: Inbound leads for managed services and other IT services don’t always close on the first interaction. Only the most in-pain “buyers in heat” will. That doesn’t mean the other leads are bad – they just need more time to get ready to buy (after all, switching MSPs is a very painful, disruptive and risky process). Therefore, all qualified leads should go into a drip marketing or nurture sequence that ideally consists of highly valuable multimedia content designed to position you as a trusted advisor. This is how you build a productive MSP marketing list and a pipeline of buyers.

MSP Marketing Plan: Quick Summary

1. Define your MSP marketing strategy and growth goals, paying particular attention to target market selection and USP development.
2. Build marketing assets that create authority and trust. Your website and marketing automation system are paramount essentials to start with.
3. Create a marketing calendar aligned to revenue targets.
4. Execute repeatable MSP marketing campaigns with tracking.

Of course, any plan needs constant oversight and management. If you want to talk to me about helping you formulate and execute on a plan, click here to inquire about private consulting services.

And if you’re not ready to move to a consultation just yet, at least download my eBook Trust-Based Marketing For MSPs.

Here’s a question I received from the owner of a small MSP about what to spend on marketing:

“As a new MSP, I have a limited marketing budget – $30K for the coming year. In general terms, how should I approach prioritization of that budget to avoid just spending a little on everything?”

What was funny about this question is that he has more money to work with than I did when I started TMT back in 2002, so let me tell you it IS possible to successfully market your MSP and generate leads and new customers even operating on a very tiny budget.

But first, let’s look at some general guidelines based on my 24+ years’ experience in working with MSPs on marketing budgeting and planning.

Mature, best-in-class MSPs spend roughly 10% to 11% of their topline revenue on sales and marketing combined. That includes the salaries and compensation of their sales and marketing team, as well as media, printing, their CRM system and all marketing SaaS apps, such as Canva, LinkedIn and Dripify.

Smaller MSPs that are not generating best-in-class profitability tend to spend 3% to 5% of topline on their IT marketing budget and little to nothing on sales reps, sticking with an owner-led sales approach.

If that’s you, and you cannot spend 11% of topline revenue, you’re down to whatever you can afford and must rely on lead generation campaigns that cost little to nothing, such as referrals, warm outreach and my personal favorite of promotional partnerships (also called JVs or joint ventures).

If I was attempting to grow my MSP on a limited marketing budget, I’d put the majority of the money into two things:

1. A high-converting, well-designed website.
2. A marketing automation platform (Keap, HubSpot, etc.). 

A $30K MSP marketing budget won’t be enough to do the above and hire an agency to run ads and do SEO/GEO – particularly if he’s in a mid-sized market (like Nashville, Tampa, etc.) to large market (like Chicago, Dallas, New York City, etc.).

But know this: spending money on marketing is NOT a guarantee of success, and an MSP marketing budget should NOT be solely based on a percentage of revenue. A marketing campaign or sales initiative that brings in new clients predictively and affordably should be increased, and anything NOT producing should be cut.

Further, it’s not the tools, resources and media that will bring the HVCs (high-value clients) who want to sign a managed services contract – it’s HOW you USE these tools to build a list and implement prospecting campaigns. Proper strategy and good execution matter.  

But since you’re asking a tactical question (what your MSP marketing budget should be spent on), below is a list of things you can do that cost nothing or next to nothing to get more managed clients. 

• Referrals: If you have a client or clients, use your relationship to get them to introduce you to other clients. 
• Warm Outreach: Call and e-mail people you have some connection with, including previous bosses, old work colleagues, friends, leaders of groups you belong to and even friends, to see if they are open to hiring you as their MSP or to get them to refer you to someone who could be a client. 
• Networking Events: Most cost nothing or a small fee. You’ll need to attend a lot of events to find the ones that are productive for you. It’s not as simple as saying “Go to Chamber events,” because even the Chamber event attendees and the event’s effectiveness for MSPs vary by area and chapter. You also have to consider your target market and ICP (ideal client profile) when selecting events to attend. 
• Canvassing: Canvassing and 5-Around Drop campaigns are extremely inexpensive ways to build your list and start gaining new clients. I would suggest you use the “Get Out Of Computer Trouble Free” card that offers 2 to 3 hours of free IT consulting services to diagnose and deliver a plan (proposal) for resolving an IT problem or project.
• Social Media Outreach: On LinkedIn (but also Facebook), reach out to prospective clients using the same “warm outreach” approach. Be sure you’re posting two to three times a week as well.
• E-mail Drip Marketing: As you build your list and have conversations, add people to a weekly e-mail that drives them to a piece of content that is interesting and useful, be it a video or written blog. Be consistent and make sure you provide REAL value. I recommend checking out Kim Komando as an example to follow. She does daily e-mails because she’s a media company. For you, the minimum is once a week, providing solid advice and useful content to stay top of mind. 

The above is a good starting point, and I would suggest investing no less than 2 to 3 hours on prospecting for PROFITABLE clients with the above activities. 

Also: it’s super-important to NOT discount to win business because you’ll quickly stack up a bunch of managed clients who suck up your time and aren’t profitable enough to enable you to hire someone (besides yourself) to do the work. 

Goal for no less than 45% overall gross margin (services, hardware and software products) on all services sold and you’ll quickly be able to invest more into marketing and sales, making it easier for you to grow.

What IS “Robin Robins” Marketing Anyway?

In a podcast interview, Luis Giraldo from ScalePad, asked me the following:

ChatGPT says that “Robin Robins is a polarizing figure in the MSP world – people either swear by her Technology Marketing Toolkit or find her ‘old school’ direct-mail methods a bit abrasive. However, no one denies she has moved the needle for more MSPs than almost anyone else in the industry.” Surely you have awareness of this polarity, or does ChatGPT have it all wrong?

I often joke that clients using the phrase “I’m doing Robin Robins” when describing their marketing strategy are confused about what’s actually included in the contract, LOL.

But double entendre aside, Luis’s question brought up a good point: What exactly is “Robin Robins Marketing?” Since there is clearly some confusion, I’ve outlined the top 14 core principles of the sales, marketing and lead generation strategies I base my advice on.

1. I practice and teach a discipline called “direct response,” which is a MEASURABLE form of marketing designed to elicit a RESPONSE in the form of a lead or a sale from the prospect you are targeting.
   
   Most marketing folks forget that the ultimate goal of marketing and advertising is to economically bring in a paying customer. Agencies, consultants and marketing “gurus” confuse business owners all the time with terms like “branding” or “thought leadership” or simply “getting your name out there,” whatever the heck that means (out where exactly?).
   
   They throw around phrases like “inbound marketing,” “content marketing,” “account marketing,” “social selling” and the like – but all the business owner really wants is more check writers.
   
   As a salesperson myself, all I wanted from the marketing department of various companies I worked for was a live, qualified prospect who was willing and able to buy what I was selling. I wanted marketing to FACILITATE the sales process. I personally didn’t care if a campaign “got our name out there.” What I cared about was making quota – specifically, getting signed contracts in hand.
   
   That’s why I started studying direct response marketing. It was the only type of marketing that brought me an INTERESTED prospect to sell to. It was also the only type of marketing fiercely aligned with my own goal of only talking to properly prepared, qualified buyers. I did NOT invent it, but what I have done is become the foremost expert in direct response marketing for MSPs selling IT services and support.
   
   When you embrace direct response lead generation marketing instead of pure branding or awareness marketing, you do a couple of very good things.
   
   First, you use marketing to appropriately ATTRACT qualified prospects to you instead of using manual labor cold calling to find someone interested to sell to. Here’s a little secret: Salespeople don’t burn out from selling, they burn out from PROSPECTING to find someone to sell to.
   
   Second, when a prospects seeks you out, they are far easier to move through the sales process (see #2 below) and you don’t have a highly paid salesperson (or in MSP’s case, the owner) spending hours prospect for someone to sell to.
   
   Third, you start building a PIPELINE of “getting ready to buy” prospects that you can nurture through the sales process, building a relationship and establishing yourself as a trusted authority so WHEN they are ready to buy, they naturally come to you. This is how you build a hyper responsive list as well and brings me to the next benefit.
   
   Fourth, you get far more from your marketing spend because you reach the “getting ready to buy” crowd and not just the “buy now” crowd that is actively looking and represents only a tiny sliver of the total prospect pool (less than 1%).
   
   And finally, if you use educational direct response marketing (E.D.R. Marketing), which is what I invented for MSPs, you are putting out strategically engineered content that educates the prospect on what they need and what to look for in a new MSP, which then makes closing at a higher price point a reality instead of a wish.
   
   
2. The ULTIMATE GOAL of everything I recommend is to position you as a TRUSTED AUTHORITY. I learned a long time ago that a person’s perception WAS their reality. To that end, if I was perceived as a salesperson, selling marketing services, I was blocked, lied to, disrespected and ignored. However, if a prospect perceived me as an in-demand, highly qualified and trusted expert on growing an MSP’s client base, the entire game changed. It gave me the power to prescribe services to prospects instead of having to hard-sell them. That is why EVERYTHING you do in marketing should be with the goal of separating you from all the other MSPs and positioning you as a highly qualified, in-demand, trusted consultant, NOT an “IT guy” or, worse, a salesperson selling IT services.
   
   This ties directly into the E.D.R. philosophy I outlined above, with the key distinction that we are careful not to do certain types of marketing that would make you appear as a needy, greedy salesperson. For example, I advise my MSP clients to publish books, reports, white papers and seek public speaking engagements, podcast interviews and strategic partnerships (also called JVs) because that type of marketing will position you far more effectively than spammy e-mails standing or pure cold calls.
   
   
3. I measure marketing success on SALES GENERATED and CLIENTS ACQUIRED, not “Likes,” friends or followers, subscribers, hashtags, SEO rankings, clicks, etc. In MY style of marketing, there are only two metrics that count: MONEY and number of PRODUCTIVE clients acquired.
   
   I don’t care if my website is at the top of the rankings or if I have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram. Yes, they ARE leading indicators that are measurable and shouldn’t be dismissed entirely. However, they are NOT how I define “success.” I define success by ending every day with more money in my pocket than when I started, more enterprise value every year.
   
   When I do a marketing campaign, I don’t celebrate the fact that I have thousands of views, clicks, opens, etc.; I care about how many PRODUCTIVE clients I obtained. If you want to succeed in business, you have to be careful about falling victim to fads and peer pressure from those who are not qualified to opine – the “cool kids” who think they’re smarter than all the “old dogs” because they figured out a shiny new penny, then attempt to make you feel foolish for not following suit.
   
   On multiple occasions, I’ve consulted with content creators, authors, speakers and other “gurus” who have millions of followers and e-mail lists that are 30 to 40 times bigger than my own – yet I ran circles around them in sales and profits.
   
   Bottom line: “Winning” in marketing and sales is about new clients acquired and profits secured, not about many of the “new” marketing metrics being sold by digital agencies and other gurus as “success” metrics.
   
   
4. I am NOT TIMID about selling. To quote good ol’ Zig, “Timid salespeople have skinny kids.” My style of marketing is based on the foundation that we are TRYING TO SELL SOMETHING.
   
   To that end, we use STRONG, emotionally charged copy to move a prospect to action. We’ll use every strategy known for persuasion and influence to ethically motivate that person to buy. I make no apologies for that. After all, isn’t that the purpose of marketing and selling? To get someone to write you a check? To get them to buy from YOU over your competition? If that is NOT your goal, you will not like the marketing advice I’m serving up.
   
   Candidly, I’m amazed at how many business owners (and even some salespeople!) have hang-ups, uncertainty and deeply negative emotions about even making the slightest attempt at closing a sale. They cringe at the thought of anything that may be salesy, severely handicapping their client acquisition, negotiations and ability to command premium fees and get clients to take their advice. They are NOT serving their clients as they might think they are. To be clear, you CAN be obnoxious about the process of selling – and that is absolutely not what I’m recommending. You should NEVER lie, exaggerate, con or bully someone into giving you their money; I’ve never suggested that. The process of selling should be done in a respectful, bold and confident way, not timidly.
   
   
5. I believe in being MARKET-DRIVEN, which means you STARTby defining a lucrative target market and then engineering a product or service that your chosen market will WANT TO BUY, which thengives you a USP (unique selling proposition).
   
   Most MSPs and IT services firms start out the same way: They look around at what everyone else is doing and charging; then, using that as a starting point, they cobble together their own version of services, based on what they feel they can deliver at a middle-ground price point (not too high but not too low). Then, after creating a “me too” service, they attempt to sell it to a marketplace that is grossly saturated and already getting what they are selling from someone else. Puzzled at why everyone is telling them, “We’re fine,” and uncertain about how to overcome the pushback they are getting, they seek my advice on how to write a better website or how to create a good marketing plan, thinking it’s a MARKETING problem. Problem is, service marketing starts with the service. Which brings me to the next key point…
   
   
6. If the sales letter is hard to write, the product or service is FLAWED. A mantra all great marketers live by: Write the AD first. Doing so frees you to think of what you would have to be able to say or promise to get someone to do business with you, rather than being constrained by the limitations of the CURRENT product or service you are selling.
   
   If you write the ad FIRST, you are thinking in terms of what would get your prospect’s attention. What would get you into an account? Unseat an incumbent provider? This is necessary because the marketplace – your desired prospects – are NOT going to leave a vendor delivering a good service for something potentially better. I don’t care how cute or clever the ad is – it’s not going to happen. Therefore, if you TRULY want to get more customers with ease, you must ENGINEER a unique selling proposition. You CREATE a product or a service that fills a void, solving a problem they aren’t getting solved right now, delivering something they desire but cannot seem to get. Anything less and you’re pushing a wet noodle uphill.
   
   
7. Marketing is the BEGINNING of the sales process;therefore, sales and marketing should NOT be separate departments that fight each other and work in silos. In most companies, sales and marketing are handled by two entirely separate departments, with different goals, leadership and metrics. They rarely come together in strategy and often don’t like each other.
   
   The marketing department thinks the sales team is a bunch of uncooperative, lazy crybabies who won’t follow up on the leads they are generating, always attempting to do the least amount of work possible, sloppily skipping steps in the sales process that would help them track more effectively. The sales team feels the marketing department is a giant waste of space, not giving them the quality or quantity of leads they want, not providing the right tools and materials they need, not doing their job, constantly complaining that they ought to be doing this or that.
   
   Both sides have a point, but the bigger issue is that while they are supposed to be working together toward a common goal, instead they are infighting and pointing fingers. If you are in a CEO or leadership division, you MUST correct this. How a prospect is initially introduced (a function of marketing) and what they know about you and your reputation (also a function of marketing) WILL in fact determine how successful the sales team is and how difficult of a job they will have. That is why MY style of marketing is “salesmanship in print” as originally described in 1905 by John E. Kennedy, a successful copywriter and forefather of modern marketing.
   
   
8. I am, and have always been, media AGNOSTIC. I believe you should measure the effectiveness of a media based on the END ROI, not on the initial response, upfront cost, ease or difficulty of using it and certainly NOT based on your personal preferences. This needs little explanation and most understand it when said; however, not many practice it.
   
   For example, a client comes to me with a list of all the leads she’s generated over the last year and their source. She asks me if she should allocate THIS year’s budget according to the results (leads) generated as a percentage – so, since Facebook generated 50% of the leads she generated and direct mail only 5%, should she reallocate 50% of her marketing budget to Facebook, 5% to direct mail, etc.?
   
   My answer was that I could not possibly say yes to that without one vital piece of information: How many of those leads became HVCs (high-value clients)? If Facebook generated 50% of her leads, but only 1% became HVCs, that might not be the best place to allocate the budget. If we find that the majority of HVCs came from the Aspirin campaign with a good SDR, then let’s put more money and focus there.
   
   Yes, Facebook is easier to do, costs less, is “sexier” than offline prospecting and delivers near instant feedback. I get it. BUT if another method is producing better quality, higher converting, more productive clients, then I would argue all day long that MORE money, time and resources should be allocated to THAT method over another media that was more “likable,” easy and inexpensive.
   
   Going back to the opening statement that my methods are “old school” direct mail are deliberately and grossly false. I teach EVERY type of media, and select the media based on the prospect we are seeking and the financial means of the MSP I’m working with, nothing else. I have shown members how to use ALL media. So yes, direct mail is ONE of the media types we use – but absolutely not the only method of lead generation marketing for MSPs. 
   
   
9. I believe that GREAT marketing is applied PSYCHOLOGY plus correct MATH. You’ve heard it said before that people buy based on emotions, then justify with logic. Science has proven this time and time again, and more is being discovered on “emotional intelligence” and how it drives our behavior.
   
   In my extensive research done with buyers of IT services, I have seen over and over again that how a prospect/customer FEELS about the provider drives the decision far more than the model of service (managed, time and materials, etc.) and PRICE. However, if you look at the majority of marketing and advertising done today, you will see it defaulting to very logical features and facts, grossly deficient of known, emotional triggers that cause a person to stop, read and respond to a promotion. Sales “processes” consist of winging it: Show up and throw up.
   
   The marketing I create is purposefully designed to work on known psychological drivers to get attention, build TRUST and move prospects to action. But no matter how great a campaign is, it will fail if coupled with bad business math.
   
   As an example: Business-to-business advertising gets an average 0.5% response. Using our kind of marketing, we can often double or triple that. However, if a client “needs” a 10% response rate to “succeed” with a prospecting campaign, particularly with a cold, unqualified list and an inexperienced operator, we respectfully bow out. Yes, that type of response IS possible, but not probable. Part of being successful with marketing is having realistic expectations early on, understanding ALL metrics that play into success AND playing the LONG game of gaining your best ROI after a period of time, not the next day or the next week.
   
   
10. I believe you should use a MULTIMEDIA approach, incorporating offline andonline strategies, as well as strategic sales follow-up.
    
    For starters, let me clarify what “media” is. It’s merely the communication vehicle to carry your message and offer to a list or audience of prospects. E-mail, YouTube videos, phone calls, direct mail, billboards, webinars and Facebook ads are all examples of MEDIA, not of strategy, and they certainly don’t make up a “campaign.”
    
    In all marketing campaigns I’ve done, I’ve consistently IMPROVED response by using a multimedia approach vs. a single-shot media (like only using e-mail, only making cold calls, etc.). In fact, I find it more and more difficult to get a satisfactory result from any campaign without coupling multiple media together in one campaign.
    
    For example, if I’m going to promote a seminar or event, I’ll set up a dedicated webpage to promote the event, then use e-mail, direct mail, phone calls, Facebook ads and retargeting on Google to promote it. By doing so, I elevate the response vs. only using e-mail or only using paid ads.
    
    Further, experience will prove that people have preferred media. Some are far more responsive to direct mail than e-mail, or LinkedIn vs. a phone call. If you only use ONE media – like e-mail – you could be missing 80% to 90% of your prospects and clients who are NOT opening, clicking and reading it. Some prospects are highly responsive on LinkedIn, while others don’t have a presence. You might have a list of prospect that  you don’t have permission to e-mail and must use direct mail and cold calls.
    
    Therefore, to be truly get the highest and best response to your lead generation efforts, you must use ALL media at your disposal.
    
    
11. I believe marketing is less a “creative” process than the building, refining and improving of repeatable, proven PROCESSES and SYSTEMS that consistently bring you clients.
    
    The LAST thing I want to do in undertaking any marketing campaign is to invent something new. For starters, ALL great sales copywriters and marketers have huge swipe files made up of proven, successful ads, offers, headlines, copy and marketing systems that have already been tested and confirmed to work. In the biz, we call them “controls.” Therefore, only a fool would sit down and attempt to be “creative” at marketing, starting from scratch to try to manufacture success when you can copy and paste a proven winner.
    
    All clients who succeed in marketing have a handful of offers and campaigns that work that they then repeat, over and over again, refining and improving. At TMT, I created my famous “Godfather” campaign that involved mailing a sales package with a dollar bill attached, with additional media outreach. That campaign consistently produced results for over a decade, generating MILLIONS in sales and bringing in new clients.
    
    Most people would have moved on from such a campaign out of boredom or thinking that “everyone has already seen THAT ad.” Nuts. As long as it produces, it stays.
    
    I call this a “marketing oil well,” and just like a REAL productive oil well, the thing should sit there and produce day and night with very little supervision, very few changes, only being stopped when the well runs dry.
    
    
12. I believe your list – and the relationship you have with it – is the single biggest ASSET in your business, period. Treat it accordingly.
    
    If you ask an average group of business owners to make a list of assets in their business, they’ll often list their company vehicles, their building and even their IT equipment. What they almost NEVER think of is their LIST of clients and prospects (leads). More specifically, the relationship they have with it. That is, by far, the single most valuable asset in their business.
    
    When an IT services business is bought, what is the company really buying other than the client list? Most MSPs don’t have revolutionary systems and processes for delivering the work. Not much is unique and proprietary on the operations side of the house, and the company buying you will typically merge your clients into their operating system – so the ONLY thing worth buying is the client list. Naturally, the more “connected” those clients are to you – by contract or by delivering a product or service that has a high pain of disconnect – the more valuable your business is.
    
    Yet most MSPs can’t even produce an up-to-date client list or even accurately tell me how many clients they have! They don’t have their list organized in a way that allows them to easily cross-sell and upsell additional solutions, nor do they have “profit pathways” mapped out of how they will continue to expand the relationship (and spend) of those clients via strategic account management. Their most valuable asset is sitting rusting and abandoned in a field – unvalued, underutilized and GROSSLY neglected.
    
    When MSPs come to me, they are always looking for more NEW clients, while sitting on a virtual “acre of diamonds” left untouched. Marketing, in my world, doesn’t end when you acquire the client – in many ways, it’s just getting started.
    
    
13. I believe a CEO must be SALES-DRIVEN and heavily involvedin MARKETING STRATEGY, metrics, planning and numbers if a company is to grow. As Michael Gerber famously said, “Most business owners are technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure.”
    
    What they WANT is to totally, completely be hands-off with marketing, selling and client acquisition so they can sit behind their desk and DO the work – the thing they like and feel comfortable with. They want to completely abdicate (not DELEGATE) the responsibility of marketing, selling and money-getting.
    
    Further, they have all kinds of hang-ups and fears about hiring people, so they end up “owning” a job with a bunch of helpers, which leads to an extremely stressful existence for them and a “business” that doesn’t work unless they do. If they don’t wake up and accept that THEY must be the “chief revenue officer” and work on developing the skills necessary for sales, marketing and building a money team, they can end up working 10, 20 years or more, never making any money, never building a REAL business. I’ve seen this play out over and over again.
    
    
14. I believe MARKETING should be given as much time, money and resources as the operational aspects of running a business.
    
    Unlike a number of marketing gurus, I won’t tell you that “marketing is everything!” That’s just not true. Marketing IS a vital aspect of your business – but if you JUST focus on marketing and client acquisition and neglect operational excellence, building an “A” team, a purpose-driven culture and disciplined financials, you’ll quickly create a disaster.
    
    That said, marketing is not just about lead generation, websites and e-mail campaigns. It’s about the strategy of your business – WHO is your customer? What is your value proposition? How will you give yourself a strategic advantage over the competition? How will you secure new clients? How will you monetize those clients?
    
    The above are MARKETING questions. Neglect to answer them and to put strategy, people and systems in place to properly execute on your marketing plan, and the business starves.

The above is obviously the core philosophy of my approach, which you can see is far more sophisticated than merely sending out a direct mail campaign – and I haven’t even touched on the marketing SYSTEMS that must be built and sales processes and playbooks necessary to support this.

If you want to find out more about getting a truly effective marketing system implemented in your MSP business, click the “Work With Robin” button and let’s talk. 

One of the BEST influencers you should follow for MSP marketing and content is someone you probably don’t even know: Kim Komando.

Kim has branded herself “America’s Digital Goddess” and has built a massive media empire focused on what she calls the “digital lifestyle.” She attracts over 6.5 million listeners to her radio show that is broadcast via 435 stations, and she hosts a weekly Bloomberg TV show. Then, there’s her massive e-mail following.

Every MSP should take notice.

Essentially, she’s about making all things “tech”-accessible and understandable for everyday people – which include your MSP clients who want to know how to use tech but aren’t tech savvy. I highly advise you to subscribe to her weekly newsletter, not only for topics to post and write about to your MSP clients, but also to see how she weaves her sponsors into the content.

Here’s one of her e-mails that promotes Incogni, an online reputation and data removal software. Take a look and then come back to me.

Did you do it? Here’s why it’s genius…and how you can use it in your MSP.

For starters, it capitalizes on CURRENT EVENTS – something that not enough marketers do. When I write my rant on a topic tied into a current event, particularly if that event is political or controversial, I get five to 10 times the response.

In this case, the abduction of Nancy Guthrie has been all over the news. Kim tied it into a cybersecurity and privacy topic, along with doxxing. I love this strategy. What can people find out about YOU online? Inquiring minds want to know…

She also uses it to point out that privacy in America is DEAD, so it’s highly likely they’ll catch this person. I would have added instructions on how to remove your PII from the big people-search websites.

Here’s the main lesson: You should constantly scan top news stories for hooks you can use to write posts, blogs and e-mails. In this example, it’s an obvious ad for Incognito – BUT I think she did the promo really well, setting up the need for the service by tying it into the Nancy Guthrie story.

Also, when posting about current news events, don’t be afraid to get controversial. Kim’s e-mail wasn’t, and in general she steers clear of political topics. However, like I said above, you’ll get a LOT more play on a political or controversial post than you will on run-of-the-mill content talking about cybersecurity (in general) or tech – and since damn near everything is controversial these days, you won’t need much imagination to hit that nail on the head.

FINAL NOTE: If you are going to be controversial, be careful what bone you pick. Posting political views of any kind, particularly if they are contentious, can cause a massive blowup with clients and even employees. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE and what you can and cannot post. If you’re unsure, DO NOT POST IT.

Further, don’t just publish a political insult. Be nuanced and smart. Tie it into something meaningful – a point of view, a philosophy -– not just a political hit to the other side. There IS an art to this, and it starts with really understanding your core client base and what will draw them closer to you and what will push them away.

Here’s a question I received from an MSP client:

“I’m considering offering profit sharing on MRR deals with a percentage of profits divided between all employees. My thought is that they will better serve the client if they are getting a piece of the profits. What are your thoughts and do you have a recommended profit-sharing plan? My thought is, 10% shared with employees that touch the client, after all hard expenses?”

This is a great question but one that is not answered quickly. Let me do my best to be concise, yet complete enough to be useful.

Let’s start with the question we’re really trying to answer here, which is “How do you motivate employees to do an EXCELLENT job?” That’s really what you’re trying to figure out. An aside: It’s helpful whenever you are trying to solve a problem to spend a little time defining what the problem IS or what the RESULT is that you’re after, THEN be open to any and all ways of achieving that. But I digress; back to the question about getting employees to perform…

For starters, not all employees are money-motivated. Yes, they will take it if you OFFER it. But will they work harder, smarter, longer hours IF you give them more money? Maybe.

If that were universally true, then salespeople would be working from the crack of dawn until late into the evening to build their pipeline, prospecting their little butts off, documenting, practicing and perfecting their sales presentations. Hell, most MSP owners aren’t that motivated. If you think you are, then show me what you did in the last week to ensure you earned more money – and I don’t mean the day-to-day running of the business and fulfilling on services already sold. I also don’t mean what deals you closed (those were already in the works). I asked, what did you DO…IMPLEMENT…put into ACTION to dramatically improve your sales and profits?

So, while I’m not opposed to profit sharing, I would NOT just give your employees a cut of the profits with the hope that they will care more and do their job better. Let me walk through the process of what I would do so this doesn’t end up being a giant entitlement program that drains your profits.

FIRST: Do each of your employees have an updated, complete job scorecard that spells out the results they are hired to deliver? Have they been told and shown what excellence looks like? Do they know what the OKRs (objectives and key results) are for their position? Have you detailed out HOW to take care of customers – and I mean in detail, role-played, scripted and practiced?

If NOT, you need to start here.

How should they respond to tickets to ensure high CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) and profitability? How do they handle an upset client? What should they be doing weekly and daily to ensure the best possible service to your clients? When Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, teaches his leadership team what excellence is, he doesn’t just talk about it. He walks the campus and SHOWS them what excellence looks like. He points out a trash can that has the seam showing instead of being turned to the wall as it should be. He points out the rocking chairs that have not been wiped dry after the rain. He orchestrates, to the minute, how an employee should perform the new student tour, scripting each pause, each question, each story of every part of the university. He has highly trained compliance managers looking for UN-WOW.

So, before you start implementing profit sharing, do you have what “success” looks like clearly defined, so you can build your incentive program to drive the standards and behaviors that drive success in their job.

Next: Get a solid handle on your finances BEFORE you start designing ANY incentive plan. I may be wrong (because I don’t know your finances), but 10% seems way too rich. My guess is that you don’t have reliable or accurate financials, and you need to learn a bit more about creating a budget for your MSP before promising more money to your team.

For example, your service gross margin (not hardware and product resale) should be 48%+, with an overall gross margin (before SG&A, or sales, general and admin) of 42%. If you are nowhere near these percentages, no one should be promised an extra dime – you’re underperforming financially. This may require you to raise your prices, lower your COGs (tools and labor) or fix your service department so the techs are far better utilized.

But even IF you’re hitting those targets now, giving 10% of top line would require you to raise your rates by that amount to cover the added costs. Ten percent off the top means 10% off the bottom line as well. If you’re only generating 40% gross margin and then you give another 10% of top line, your gross margin instantly drops to 30%, which is unsustainable, and you will tank your business or face the reality of not sharing profits.

Now, let’s suppose you’re hitting those margin targets. Here’s a simple example of how you might share those profits:

MRR: $100,000

Gross Margin Target: 42% or $42,000

IF gross margin gets to 43% or above, that 1%+ goes into a profit pool that is shared. I would suggest some portion (50% or less) goes to the company, and the rest is shared with the team. For example, let’s suppose in Q2 your team gets to 45% gross margin. It would look like this:

MRR: $100,000

Gross Margin 45%: $45,000

Profit Pool: $3,000

50% To The Company: $1,500

50% Shared: $1,500

Note: You can always use your company portion to gift to employees if you like, but this allows you to share in the profits and set aside retained earnings OR invest it into marketing, tools, training, etc.

The $1,500 should be shared with those who directly impact that. You could share it so everyone gets something, but the majority of the money should go to the service manager, lead tech or the individual who had the top performance.

Finally…

Once you have a baseline for performance (scorecards) and a solid handle on the financials, I’d advise you to START by incentivizing them on things they can specifically control. Can a Level 1 tech control gross profit? No. Can they impact it? Yes, but their impact is limited UNLESS they are given full and complete control to make financial decisions, as well as hiring and firing decisions. Therefore, you want to bonus them on what they can control, such as:

• Ticket kill rate
• Utilization
• CSAT on their tickets
• Following your processes and procedures

Giving them an arbitrary percentage of MRR will do nothing to incentivize them to improve their specific performance. They might be happier, but they didn’t have to improve to EARN it. And trust me when I say that giving employees money is not a guarantee they’ll remain loyal, hardworking and grateful.

The other reason to tie the bonus to things they directly control and impact is so you don’t create an environment of resentment.

If MRR drops because the sales and marketing department isn’t doing their job, that tech is very likely to resent you and the marketing and sales team since they are suppressing his/her ability to make more money. You offered it, and now it’s what they expect. Know this: Once you tell an employee you’re offering a profit-sharing plan or a bonus, they’ve already mentally developed an entitlement to it. They’re picking out the new car and looking at vacation packages.

Therefore, you have to be VERY careful about implementing incentive plans where they are not 100% in control of the outcome. You can provide a small team incentive, but the bulk of their bonus needs to come from what THEY do. Nothing is more demoralizing than employees who feel they are being screwed out of compensation they are “owed” or dangling a carrot that is impossible to reach OR that is completely out of their control. It breeds drama in a culture.

And finally, let me share another caution about profit sharing (speaking from the voice of experience here): Make sure they cannot abandon all success metrics to hit THE metric they’re getting bonused on.

Let’s say you bonus them ENTIRELY on profitability. You have to make sure they don’t cut corners on customer service or burn the team out in an attempt to just hit that metric. They can become SO focused on profitability that they make decisions based on what moves that metric instead of what’s best for the client, the team or the company, giving a short-term win (and getting their bonus) but doing long-term damage. When I bonused team members, the stipulation was that all other critical metrics (customer satisfaction, churn, employee morale, etc.) remained high and on target.

With all this said, I’m 100% FOR some type of profit sharing. For the right people, it’s an extremely smart move to incentivize them to take ownership and allow them to be rewarded for their hard work. But I would only do it in very specific situations with someone who I know CAN take on that responsibility, where performance standards are already clear and being met, processes and procedures are in place and TRUST HAS BEEN EARNED.

Give it to the employee who is ALREADY exceeding expectations, taking on responsibility and being a true asset. Do NOT give it to the underperformer in an attempt to turn them into a rock star. You’ll be sorely disappointed.