Justin Gilbert IT Channel Leadership Review | Fox & Crow Group
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Justin Gilbert Fox & Crow Group Review: What IT Channel Leaders Know About the MSP Buyer's Journey
Thank you to Justin Gilbert for this review of his experience working with Ian and Carrie Richardson, Co-Founders of Fox & Crow Group.
First Published: October 1, 2025
Last Updated: May 1, 2026
People who have worked in IT channel leadership across multiple organizations develop a particular kind of perspective: they have seen a wide range of approaches to MSP sales, marketing, and partner strategy — and they know from direct experience which ones actually produce results and which ones sound right in theory but fail in practice.
When someone with that perspective says an organization has created "killer outcomes" for them across multiple engagements over multiple years, it carries real weight.
This Justin Gilbert Fox & Crow Group IT channel leadership review is exactly that assessment.
"I will always be a fan of what Carrie Lynn Richardson and Ian Richardson have built for our space. Over the years in various channel leadership roles I've had the opportunity to work with them on various projects and their experience, knowledge, and expertise in sales, marketing, and the MSP buyer's journey have created killer outcomes. If you get a chance to take part in something they are doing...jump on it."
The MSP Buyer's Journey: Why It Matters in Channel Strategy
Gilbert specifically calls out "the MSP buyer's journey" as a core area of Fox & Crow Group's expertise. That specificity is meaningful.
The MSP buyer's journey is distinct from the buyer's journey in most other B2B contexts. MSP owners and IT leaders evaluate technology products, services, and partnerships through a lens shaped by:
- Deep technical skepticism and the ability to spot vendor overclaiming
- Financial caution rooted in thin margins and high operational costs
- Strong reliance on peer recommendations over vendor marketing
- Risk aversion driven by the operational consequences of a bad technology choice
- A long evaluation process that often involves multiple stakeholders and informal vetting before formal engagement
Understanding this journey — not just in theory but in the practical reality of how MSP decision makers actually move from awareness to purchase — is what separates channel strategy that produces pipeline from channel strategy that produces noise.
Fox & Crow Group's work with IT channel vendors and MSPs is consistently shaped by this understanding. The advice on messaging, positioning, partner programs, and sales process all reflects how MSPs actually buy — not how vendors wish they would.
Killer Outcomes Across Channel Leadership Roles
Gilbert notes that the outcomes were "killer" across his work in "various channel leadership roles" — which suggests that the Fox & Crow Group expertise transferred across different organizational contexts.
That transferability reflects a quality of expertise that is grounded in principles rather than context. When you truly understand why MSPs make the decisions they do, that understanding applies whether you are building a partner program for a security vendor, positioning a new cloud service for MSP resellers, or developing a go-to-market strategy for a channel-first platform.
The specific projects may change. The underlying insight into how MSPs evaluate, decide, and buy remains consistent — and consistently valuable.
Sales, Marketing, and the Integration Between Them
Gilbert identifies expertise in both sales and marketing — and the combination is significant.
In the IT channel, the gap between marketing and sales is one of the most common sources of wasted investment. Marketing generates leads that sales is not equipped to convert. Sales develops outreach approaches that marketing does not know how to support at scale. The two functions operate with different assumptions about the buyer, different goals for each interaction, and different metrics for success.
Fox & Crow Group's approach addresses this integration directly:
- Carrie Richardson's work on MSP sales training and lead generation connects the messaging and outreach approach to the actual sales conversation
- Ian Richardson's strategic planning work ensures that marketing and sales are both connected to the same view of the ideal client and the growth objectives
That integrated perspective — rather than siloed advice on one function or the other — is what produces the outcomes Gilbert describes.
Jump on It
Gilbert's closing line — "if you get a chance to take part in something they are doing, jump on it" — reflects genuine enthusiasm grounded in observed results.
For IT channel professionals and MSP owners who encounter a Fox & Crow Group engagement, event, training programme, or advisory relationship, that advice is worth taking seriously. The expertise is real, the outcomes are documented, and the people delivering the work are genuinely invested in the results.
Explore MSP sales, marketing, and channel strategy with Fox & Crow Group.
See more Fox & Crow Group client testimonials and success stories.
FAQ: IT Channel Sales and Marketing Expertise with Fox & Crow Group
What does Fox & Crow Group know about the MSP buyer's journey?
Fox & Crow Group has spent years working directly with MSP owners and IT channel leaders, developing a deep understanding of how MSPs evaluate, decide, and buy — including the skepticism, peer reliance, and risk aversion that characterizes MSP purchasing decisions.
Why does understanding the MSP buyer's journey matter for IT channel strategy?
Channel strategy that is built around how MSPs actually buy produces more relevant messaging, better partner program design, and more effective sales approaches — because it is calibrated to the real decision-making process rather than an idealized one.
Does Fox & Crow Group work with IT channel vendors, or only with MSPs?
Fox & Crow Group works with both. Justin Gilbert's experience reflects the firm's work with channel leaders and vendors building partner programs and go-to-market strategies for the MSP space.
How do I engage Fox & Crow Group for IT channel strategy and sales?
Book a strategy call with Ian Richardson or Carrie Richardson to discuss your IT channel position and what a Fox & Crow Group engagement would look like for your organization.
The IT channel leadership dimension Gilbert covers connects to Andrew Kaiser's ten-year channel advisory review — both reflect on how Fox & Crow Group's work holds up across long-term relationships in the channel. On the lead generation side that Gilbert references, Fox & Crow Group's MSP lead generation approach is what backs the outbound pipeline activity both reviewers describe.
Channel leaders evaluating how Fox & Crow's expertise in the MSP buyer's journey shapes hiring and team-building decisions will find the full picture in how that expertise produced compounding sales results over two years.