Using “Moneyball” to Hire & Retain Top Talent for Your MSP
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How to Hire & Retain Top Talent for Your MSP (The "Moneyball" Strategy)
Are you burning precious management calories interviewing candidates who look great on paper but fail in the real world?
Hiring for an MSP is uniquely difficult. You need technicians who can handle the technical pressure of a dozen different environments, but who also possess the soft skills to handle stressed-out clients. Most MSPs rely on "post and pray"—throwing a job ad on LinkedIn and hoping a unicorn applies.
But the best candidates usually aren't looking at job boards.
In this episode of the How to MSP Podcast, Andrew Moore talks with James Bier, Co-Founder of VAR Staffing. James shares the secrets from 25+ years of placing talent in the MSP channel. They discuss why you need to stop hunting for "active" candidates, how to apply the Moneyball philosophy to find undervalued talent, and the specific "hiring hacks" that predict employee success.
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What You Will Learn in This Episode
[07:16] The Hiring Mistake: Where most MSPs screw up their recruitment process (and why doing it yourself often costs more than a fee).
[11:32] Active vs. Passive: Why the best candidates are "passive" (currently employed and heads-down) and won't see your Indeed ad.
[19:05] Vetting Tactics: How to use scenario-based questions (e.g., "The client can't reach the internet") to spot candidates who rely on Google vs. those with troubleshooting logic.
[36:53] Retention via Structure: Why "Career Pathing" and clear KPI benchmarks are the only way to keep your best Level 1 techs from leaving.
[51:02] Hiring Hacks: The specific resume traits to look for: Community College grads, Collegiate Athletes, Military Vets, and Eagle Scouts.
Resources Mentioned
Guest: James Bier (VAR Staffing)
Book: Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Company: Ridgeview Advisors
Deep Dive: The "Moneyball" Strategy for MSP Hiring
A major theme of this episode is applying the concept of Moneyball to recruitment. In the book (and movie), the Oakland A's realized they couldn't afford "five-tool players" (superstars who do everything), so they focused on undervalued players who were elite at one specific thing (getting on base).
James Bier argues MSPs should do the same. You might not find the perfect "unicorn" technician who knows every stack and has perfect soft skills. Instead, look for "Trade Craft" and "Grit"—traits that are often undervalued by traditional HR but predict massive success in an MSP environment.
Stop Selling Work : Why MRR Outperforms NRR in MSP Value Creation
Learn why MRR valuation multiples dwarf NRR. Stop managing a job shop and start building a scalable MSP asset.
How to Scale Your MSP Service Desk: The "Pod" Structure & Remote Teams
One of the biggest challenges discussed in this episode is the "breaking point" that occurs when an MSP service desk hits about 10–12 people. At this size, a single Service Manager can no longer effectively manage every ticket and every engineer.
Jon Katz introduces the solution LISS Technologies implemented: The Pod Structure.
How to Build an MSP Account Management Process (That Doesn't Suck)
Most MSPs treat QBRs as a "technical report card." They walk into the client meeting with a stack of reports showing ticket counts, patch statistics, and uptime percentages.
The hard truth? Your clients do not care about ticket counts. They assume you are patching their servers—that’s what they pay you for. When you focus solely on metrics, you are commoditizing your service. You are reminding them that you are an expense, not a partner.
How to Build an MSP Service Catalog
To run your IT services like a well-oiled diner, it’s essential to create a detailed service catalog that ties directly to your contracts. Here are four areas to focus on when building yours:
Alerting and Monitoring – Define how and when your MSP alerts clients to issues. Is there proactive monitoring? If so, what’s the response time for different alert levels?
Updates and Maintenance – Make it clear what is included in standard support, like Office 365 updates, and what falls under more specialized services, such as firewall firmware updates tied to security or vulnerability management.
Response Times – Set realistic expectations with SLAs that clearly define response and resolution times for different levels of service requests. Clients should know when to expect a resolution for minor issues versus critical outages.
Doing What You Sell: Aligning Sales and Operations for Your MSP
For any Managed Services Provider (MSP), trust is the foundation of long-term client relationships. From the moment your sales team engages a prospect, to the seamless delivery of services by operations, maintaining that trust is essential. However, many MSPs stumble along the way, especially when there’s a misalignment between sales and operations or when the services sold don’t match what’s delivered.
How can an MSP build trust that begins in the sales process and carries through operational execution? The answer lies in aligning sales and operations around standardized solutions that allow for customization without becoming bespoke, ensuring clear communication and consistent delivery.
Tapping the Armadillo: How to Manage Processes & People
Imagine you’re at the helm of a business project. You’ve set everything up—a clear process, tools, and resources. You’ve picked the right team members, just like I picked my armadillo, confident that they have what it takes to deliver great results. Like me with my armadillo, you’ve seen promising signs that they’re equipped for success. You align everything toward the goal, the finish line in sight.
Then, the project kicks off—much like the start of my armadillo race. But instead of racing toward the goal as expected, something goes sideways. The project (or in my case, the armadillo) veers off course. Despite your best efforts in preparation, your team or process falters, heading in an unexpected direction.
Pig Tossing is Hurting Your MSP and Clients
In many Managed Services Providers (MSPs), there’s a recurring issue that we can call “pig tossing.” Imagine tossing a large, complicated deliverable, project, or client transition to another department or team without proper planning or communication—like throwing a pig over a fence and expecting someone to catch it without injury to themselves or the pig. The outcome is predictable: a chaotic process that often leads to confusion, delays, and frustration for both your team and the client.
8 Steps to Better MSP Marketing Lead Generation
To win over small business owners with technology needs, start by being the go-to expert in your community. Sales enablement strategies must shift from “selling” to genuinely “helping.” Businesses want partners they can trust to solve problems, not push unnecessary services.
3 Rules of Conference Sponsorship for MSPs: Maximizing Your Trade Show ROI
Trade shows are not just about visibility; they are about building relationships, demonstrating expertise, and engaging with your ideal client profile (ICP) in meaningful ways. To truly get the most out of your investment, there are three crucial rules every MSP should follow when sponsoring or attending a conference or trade show.
MSP Automation: Because “Oops!” Is Not a Business Plan
For most Managed Service Providers (MSPs), automation gets framed as a cost-cutting tool — a way to “do more with less.” But that framing misses the point entirely. The real reason automation matters isn’t to reduce headcount or increase margins (although those may come too). It’s to eliminate inconsistency, protect client trust, and deliver reliable outcomes every single time.
Your Sales Funnel is Leaking: What Cost-of-Acquisition Can Teach You
Most MSP owners don’t. They track “leads,” they track “sales,” but they don’t connect the dots on how much every signed contract actually costs to acquire.
That blind spot means your sales funnel is leaking money — and you may not even see it.
Here’s why tracking your cost of acquisition (CAC) isn’t just a sales exercise — it’s a valuation strategy.
Why Trust is Your MSP’s Best Competitive Advantage
Your MSP isn’t really selling IT services.
You’re selling something harder to measure — and infinitely more valuable: trust.
Clients don’t just want servers patched and tickets closed. They want to believe you’ll keep their business running, protect their data, and tell them the truth — even when it’s uncomfortable.
The MSPs that grow the fastest, keep the most clients, and sell for the highest multiples all have one thing in common: they’ve learned how to operationalize trust.
From Chaos to Clarity: The KPIs Every MSP Must Track to Increase Valuation
They think they know how their business is doing — but they can’t point to the numbers that prove it. They’re making decisions based on gut feel, anecdotes, and their bank balance at the end of the month.
That works… until it doesn’t.
Client Testimonial: Enstep Technology
Because of that coaching, we’re no longer stuck in reaction mode. We’re building a business that feels stable, valuable, and ready for the future. The transformation is about having experienced coaches walk with us, push us, and keep us on track until real change happened. VCA gave us the guidance and accountability we needed to finally break through.
Cohorts, Coaches, and Culture: Why MSPs Thrive Faster in a Guided Group Program
Owners are surrounded by employees, clients, and vendors — but rarely by peers who understand the weight of every decision. Many try to “DIY” their growth, cobbling together advice from podcasts, peer groups, and vendor webinars. But months (or years) later, they’re still stuck, still reacting, and still wondering why the business isn’t gaining momentum.
The truth? Growth is faster when you stop trying to do it alone.
Building an MSP That Buyers Want: Lessons From the Private Equity Playbook
Every MSP owner dreams of the day they can sell their business for a life-changing multiple.
But here’s the truth: most MSPs aren’t built the way buyers want them.
Private equity (PE) firms and strategic buyers look for very specific traits — and if your MSP doesn’t have them, you’ll either get a lower offer… or no offer at all.
Stop Leaving Money on the Table: How Smart MSPs Expand Gross Margin Without Raising Prices
When margins shrink, the knee-jerk reaction is often to raise prices. But here’s the truth — many MSPs are leaving 5–10 points of gross margin on the table without charging a single extra dollar.
How? Through smarter procurement, service packaging, and operational discipline.
The Dirty Dozen: How Fixing 12 Clients Can Transform Your MSP’s Profitability
Every MSP has them.
The clients that chew through resources, tie up your best techs, and constantly erode margin. You might not even see it clearly — because you’re looking at total revenue instead of what’s left after the work is done.
That’s where the Dirty Dozen process comes in.
The $50,000 Hour: Why MSP Owners Must Work On the Business, Not Just In It
For many MSP owners, it’s not the hour spent solving a critical client ticket or jumping into a project — it’s the hour spent thinking, planning, and steering the business forward.
We call this the $50,000 Hour — the time you spend making decisions that could generate tens of thousands (or even millions) of dollars in long-term value. The problem? Too many owners trade those hours for $50 work.