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.
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.