The Ultimate MSP Growth Hack (Derived From Speaking With 100’s of MSPs)

So, one of the benefits of having an MSP marketing agency is that you get to speak with hundreds of MSPs a year - and it’s great fun. 

That also means that, even though I’m not an MSP coach AT ALL, I do pick up CRAZY growth hacks at times. Hell, every once in a while - we come up with them ourselves.

IF you implement these MSP growth hacks, you might… scratch that - you WILL find yourself rich beyond your wildest dreams; with Champagne falling from the heavens & your favorite foods becoming daily delights.

You ready? I’m sure you are. But remember, if you don’t implement this, nothing will happen. So sit back, take a deep breath and try to absorb and contemplate what we’re saying here.

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1. Co-host events with your best customers (e.g. EXCHANGE CUSTOMERS)

Alright, let’s assume that you’ve got a healthy client base. Probably quite a varied bunch, right? Most are local to you. Some more remote. 

Well, which of your customers are also B2B (business to business)? Who of YOUR customers, could you exchange clients with? And how do you do that effectively?

How about you think about that for a bit? Maybe you have 1-2 customers you get along with exceptionally well, who really love your service - and who’d normally be delighted to refer you.

Let’s add some meat to this hypothetical situation and say that you’ve got a great customer in Finance and one in Office Cleaning

NOW - RATHER THAN asking them for referrals, how about you co-host an event together? That way, they can also farm YOUR clients. Seems like a much easier pitch, right?

‘’Let’s organize a party, bring all of our customers together, give them a bunch of value (information or Champagne) and boast about how great each other’s services / relationships are’’.

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Here’s the step by step to get 1-5 new clients this month:

• Identify which of your clients you could exchange customers with. This could be anyone who also serves a B2B client-base with clients that tend to be over >10 users.
• Find 1 or 2, and give them a call. Ask them if they are up for throwing an event together, to which everyone invites their customers. 
• Feeling lazy? Throw a party. Feeling like you have to prove yourself… Host a… seminar? 
• Regardless of who you are doing it with and what your target market is, you’ll want to find a FANTASTIC place to host. Renting out the congress area in a 5-star hotel is relatively affordable (because you are splitting the cost) - and throw in drinks. Make it festive. Remember to match the people coming to the event and go a bit *above* what they would normally expect. You want people to come and be impressed - all while staying authentic.…Because then the invite card can say: Networking event at *awesome location X*, with free Champagne, on invitation only. 
• Discuss the exact format with your Finance & Cleaning partner. Who takes most of the credit? Who is the main host / speaker? How can we make sure that we all get as much business out of this as possible.
• This means you will likely want to go out for dinner FIRST with your 1-2 clients to craft a plan on how to all get as much business out of this event as possible. You will already want to have brainstormed this for a bit, so that you don’t come to the dinner blank → if you establish yourself as the leader of this event, you can also claim most of the credit and the rewards. Now, of course, after you present your ideas, you all brainstorm together. For example, create an IRRESISTIBLE offer that is ONLY valid during the event. Or, make a golden rule that all 3 of you HAVE to push your customers to talk to the other 2. Etc.
• Book the venue.
• Design and send the invites.
• Profit

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NOTE: And for all the businesses attending, they’ll be given this awesome opportunity to network with other businesses in the area *on invite only*, which come from a warm source and are being vouched for. In short, everyone wins. But you and your 2 customers win the most, because you’ll make sure you’re the only MSP / finance- / cleaning business there… and you’ll be getting all the attention. 

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NOW - how can we take this strategy to THE NEXT LEVEL!?

It depends on how many customers you have. And how many satisfied ones?

For example, let’s say we take the previous scenario - and that everyone invites 20-30 customers each (you don’t want to go too big on your first events, start moderated, but not too small, and get the hang of things). 

If all 3 of you have 100 customers, that means you could do this 3-5 times with the exact same group of hosts. 

Ka-ching.

Now, let’s say we complete that process successfully and you have invited all of your 100 customers to these co-hosted events. But, now your 100 customers want more. They’ve had a taste of the Champagne in the 5-star hotel. They’ll happily come again if they had a good time. 

And that’s where you can look at hosting these events with a different 2 customers. Let’s say one is in corporate culture coaching and one is in recruitment.

Now you can do this entire cycle AGAIN with 2 new customers.

In fact, you can run them near-simultaneously with the ones from finance & cleaning. After all, your customers are happy to attend events like this once every month or 2. 

Now, you’ve suddenly had the hottest, of the hottest of introductions to 400 businesses. Who have been actively pushed in your direction by 2 people who love to work with you. 

And I’m pretty sure that out of the new businesses that you’ll acquire, you’ll create the opportunity to create yet another team of 3. 

And so it goes on.

Now… Can you commit to throwing just 1 event?

Just 1?

Start with 1.

And if you like it; do another. 

Then take it from there.

Think about who of your customer base you could do this with and invite them to dinner. Tell them that you’ve found a way to explode all of your businesses.

Take action right now.

Who are those 2 customers?

Invite them to dinner right now.

And then brainstorm the plan the day that you’ve got dinner.

GO!