Want my advice on what your MSP business model should be?

“Find a window, and throw a brick through it.”

At first, that sounds reckless. Unprofessional. Maybe even stupid. But the more I think about it, the more I realised it might be the most honest description of a successful MSP business model in years.

Because the “window” wasn’t a customer.
It wasn’t staff.
It wasn’t technology.

The window was the common advice in our industry. The stuff everyone repeats. The playbooks, frameworks, podcasts, and LinkedIn posts that all say the same thing, just with different branding.

And the brick?
That’s your contrarian move. Your better way.

The Problem With Following the Advice

Spend five minutes in the MSP space and you’ll hear the same guidance:

• “Standardise everything.”
  

• “Move everyone to a flat‑fee, all‑you‑can‑eat model.”
  

• “Sell outcomes, not tools.”
  

• “Niche down.”
  

• “Productise your services.”
  

• “Just add more MRR.”

None of this advice is wrong. That’s the dangerous part.

It’s just… crowded.

When everyone is told to do the same things, in the same way, with the same language, you don’t end up with differentiation. You end up with a race to the middle. Or worse, a race to the bottom.

If your website reads like every other MSP website, if your proposals look identical, if your pricing model mirrors your competitors, then from a customer’s perspective you’re interchangeable. And interchangeable always becomes price‑sensitive.

That’s the window.
Clear. Shiny. Widely accepted.

Why MSPs Struggle to Stand Out

Most MSPs aren’t short on effort. They’re short on permission.

Permission to say:

• “We don’t do that.”
  

• “We disagree with that approach.”
  

• “That model doesn’t work anymore.”
  

• “There’s a better way for our customers.”

Instead, many MSPs try to execute harder on advice that was never designed to be a universal truth. They optimise. They refine. They polish.

But polishing the window doesn’t change the building.

The uncomfortable truth is that the MSP business model itself is under strain. Margins are tighter. Customers are more informed. Vendors are moving up the stack. Automation and AI are eroding the value of “doing the thing”.

If your value proposition is still “we manage IT so you don’t have to”, you’re already vulnerable.

The Brick Is a Point of View

Throwing a brick doesn’t mean being reckless. It means being deliberate.

A brick is a clear point of view that challenges accepted wisdom.

For example:

• Refusing unlimited support and charging for consumption instead.
  

• Focusing on security and governance over helpdesk volume.
  

• Saying no to certain customers—even when you need revenue.
  

• Pricing based on risk reduction, not device count.
  

• Leading with compliance frameworks instead of shiny tools.

These aren’t tactics. They’re positions.

A brick creates a crack. A crack lets customers see that there is an alternative way of thinking. And for the right customers, that’s magnetic.

Contrarian doesn’t mean argumentative. It means intentional.

Customers Don’t Want Average

The MSPs that struggle most with sales are usually the ones trying to appeal to everyone.

The MSPs that grow sustainably are often polarising.

They repel the wrong customers early. They attract the right ones faster. They spend less time justifying their value because their value is obvious to the people they’re meant to serve.

When you throw a brick, some people will walk away.

Good.

Those were never your customers.

The mistake is thinking your job is to be liked by the market. Your job is to be trusted by a subset of it.

What Brick Are You Holding?

Here’s the uncomfortable question most MSPs avoid:

If you removed your logo from your website, would anyone know it was you?

If the answer is no, you don’t need better marketing. You need a brick.

Ask yourself:

• What common MSP advice do I quietly disagree with?
  

• What do my best customers value that others complain about?
  

• What do we do that others won’t?
  

• Where are we already different but afraid to say it out loud?

That’s where your strategy lives.

Not in copying what’s popular.
Not in chasing the latest model.
Not in waiting for permission.

Strategy Isn’t Safe

Real strategy makes you uncomfortable.

It forces trade‑offs. It creates tension. It risks being wrong.

But playing it safe in a crowded market is the riskiest move of all.

So yes—find a window.

Find the assumptions everyone else accepts without question.

Then decide whether you’re brave enough to throw the brick.

Because nobody remembers the MSP that blended in.

They remember the one that changed the shape of the room.

“If a song sounds like it could be on anyone else’s album, it doesn’t belong on yours.”

That quote has nothing to do with IT on the surface, but it has everything to do with the state of the MSP market right now.

Because let’s be honest: most MSPs sound exactly the same.

Same websites.
Same pitch decks.
Same “trusted partner” language.
Same stack.
Same promises.

And then everyone wonders why price becomes the only differentiator.

The uncomfortable truth is this: if your MSP could be swapped with another one down the street and the customer wouldn’t notice, you don’t have a brand — you have a commodity.

MSPs Have Confused Professionalism With Personality

Somewhere along the way, MSPs decided that sounding “professional” meant sounding bland.

We stripped out opinion.
We removed perspective.
We hid behind vendor marketing.
We borrowed language instead of earning it.

The result? An industry full of technically capable businesses that are completely interchangeable.

That quote about albums is really about authorship. Ownership. Identity.

A band doesn’t exist to sound like other bands.
An artist doesn’t release an album to blend in.

Yet MSPs routinely build their entire business around not standing out.

“Best Practice” Has Become a Crutch

Don’t get me wrong — standards, frameworks, and best practice absolutely matter. I spend a huge amount of my time talking about security baselines, compliance frameworks, and repeatable processes.

But best practice should be a foundation, not your personality.

Too many MSPs hide behind phrases like:

• “We follow Microsoft best practices”
  

• “We align to industry standards”
  

• “We offer enterprise‑grade solutions”

So does everyone else.

If your entire story can be replaced with a vendor brochure, you’re not leading — you’re reselling.

Your MSP Is the Album

Here’s the hard part: you don’t get to outsource your voice.

You can outsource monitoring.
You can outsource SOC.
You can outsource help desk overflow.

But the way you think about technology?
The way you explain risk?
The way you say “no” to customers?

That’s the album.

And if it sounds like it could belong to any other MSP, it doesn’t belong to you.

Opinion Is a Feature, Not a Risk

MSPs are terrified of being wrong in public.

So instead of saying:

“This is what we believe, and this is why”

They say:

“It depends.”

Instead of drawing a line, they hedge.
Instead of setting direction, they offer options.
Instead of leading, they wait for customers to decide.

The irony? Customers don’t pay MSPs for neutrality. They pay for judgement.

An MSP without opinion is just a technical order‑taker with recurring billing.

Sounding Different Means Saying No

If your MSP truly has its own “album”, it will automatically exclude some customers.

That’s not a bug. That’s the point.

• You won’t support everything
  

• You won’t chase every deal
  

• You won’t bend your standards to keep a bad fit

The MSPs that struggle most are the ones trying to be everything to everyone — and end up being nothing memorable to anyone.

Strong voice repels as much as it attracts. That’s how you know it’s real.

Vendor‑Led Messaging Is Killing MSP Identity

One of the biggest reasons MSPs all sound the same is over‑reliance on vendor language.

When your website, proposals, and presentations are just lightly edited Microsoft, security vendor, or RMM marketing copy, you’ve effectively handed your voice to someone else.

Vendors sell tools.
MSPs sell outcomes, trade‑offs, and accountability.

If your message could be sent directly from a vendor to a customer without you in the room, you’ve already lost relevance.

Your Voice Comes From Lived Experience

Your voice doesn’t come from branding workshops or taglines. It comes from:

• The incidents you’ve dealt with
  

• The mistakes you’ve made
  

• The customers you’ve fired
  

• The security failures you’ve cleaned up
  

• The shortcuts you now refuse to take

That’s the stuff no vendor can give you — and exactly what customers want to hear.

But it requires honesty. And courage. And a willingness to say, “This is how we do things — and if that’s not for you, that’s okay.”

The MSPs That Win Sound Like Themselves

The MSPs that stand out aren’t louder. They’re clearer.

They have a point of view on security.
They have a stance on AI.
They have a philosophy on support.
They have a reason for their pricing.

You might not agree with them — but you remember them.

And in a market flooded with sameness, memorability is everything.

Final Thought

That quote about albums isn’t telling you to be different for the sake of it.

It’s telling you to be authentic.

If your MSP sounds like it could be on anyone else’s album, it doesn’t belong on yours.

So ask yourself:

If you removed your logo from your website, would anyone know it was you?

If the answer is no, it’s time to write your own songs again.

That quote tends to make MSPs uncomfortable. And that’s exactly why it matters.

Most MSPs will instinctively push back and say, “That’s not true. Sales is just part of running a business.” And yes, sales does matter. But if you’re spending your days cold calling, endlessly following up on quotes, discounting to close deals, and convincing prospects why you’re different… then the quote probably applies more than you’d like to admit.

Because here’s the reality: when marketing works, sales becomes easy. When marketing doesn’t exist—or worse, is inconsistent—sales turns into a grind.

MSPs default to sales because it feels productive

Sales feels like work. You can measure it. You can log calls, book meetings, send proposals, and tell yourself you’re “busy”. Marketing, on the other hand, feels vague and uncomfortable. Writing content, showing up consistently online, talking about your point of view, and putting ideas out there without an immediate payoff feels risky.

So MSPs fall back to what they know: selling.

That usually looks like:

• Chasing referrals without a system
  

• Relying on vendors for “marketing campaigns”
  

• Attending networking events hoping something sticks
  

• Reacting to inbound leads instead of shaping demand

None of that is strategic marketing. It’s just manual sales activity filling the gap where marketing should be.

Good marketing pre-sells for you

Real marketing does something sales never can: it pre-qualifies prospects before you ever speak to them.

When marketing works:

• Prospects already understand your value
  

• They already trust your expertise
  

• They already know who you’re for (and who you’re not)
  

• Price becomes a secondary conversation, not the first objection

At that point, sales isn’t persuasion. It’s confirmation.

The MSPs who complain most about “price-sensitive customers” are usually the ones with no visible marketing. If the only thing a prospect knows about you is that you “do IT support”, then of course price becomes the differentiator.

Marketing is what gives context to your pricing.

Most MSP marketing fails because it’s not opinionated

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most MSP marketing is bland, generic, and forgettable.

It sounds like everyone else:

• “We provide proactive IT support”
  

• “We partner with leading vendors”
  

• “We help businesses grow securely”

That’s not marketing. That’s noise.

Real marketing takes a stance. It has a point of view. It says something that not everyone agrees with. That’s why content that challenges thinking—like the quote in this article—gets attention.

Marketing that tries to appeal to everyone appeals to no one.

Sales-first MSPs stay trapped on the hamster wheel

When you rely on sales instead of marketing, you lock yourself into a cycle:

• You stop selling → leads dry up
  

• You get busy delivering → marketing disappears
  

• Pipeline empties → panic selling resumes

This is why so many MSPs feel stuck working in the business instead of on it.

Marketing breaks that cycle by creating momentum that continues even when you’re busy. Content, messaging, and positioning compound over time. Sales does not.

Every sales conversation starts from zero. Marketing builds leverage.

Marketing is not campaigns. It’s consistency.

One of the biggest mistakes MSPs make is treating marketing as an occasional activity:

• A quarterly email
  

• A one-off webinar
  

• A burst of social posts when things get quiet

That’s not marketing. That’s noise spikes.

Marketing is showing up even when you don’t need leads. Especially then.

Because by the time you need sales, it’s already too late for marketing to help you in the short term. Marketing is a long game, and MSPs who refuse to play it end up stuck selling forever.

If sales feels hard, marketing is missing

Here’s a simple test.

If you:

• Constantly have to explain what makes you different
  

• Get ghosted after sending proposals
  

• Hear “we’re just getting other quotes” regularly
  

• Compete mainly on price

Then your marketing isn’t doing its job.

Marketing should answer those questions before a prospect ever talks to you.

The goal isn’t to eliminate sales — it’s to make it boring

The best MSPs don’t get rid of sales. They make it boring.

Their sales calls are calm, predictable, and focused. Prospects already know:

• What they stand for
  

• What they don’t do
  

• Why they charge what they charge

That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because marketing has been doing the heavy lifting quietly, consistently, and publicly.

So yes, the quote stings — but it’s useful

“You’re doing sales because you failed at marketing” isn’t an insult. It’s a diagnosis.

If sales feels exhausting, unpredictable, and stressful, the solution probably isn’t more sales effort. It’s better marketing:

• Clear positioning
  

• Consistent content
  

• Strong opinions
  

• Visible expertise

Fix the marketing, and sales stops being a daily firefight.

And that’s when running an MSP starts to feel like a business — not just a job with invoices.