Predictable MSP Referrals
By Ian Richardson, Principal Consultant & Managing Partner, Fox & Crow Group LLC
Everybody loves a good referral. They’re already convinced they need your help. That opportunity is yours to lose.
There is a problem. They’re sporadic at best. Referrals drop out of the sky like…. Sky stuff.
Look, we’re consultants, not metaphor wizards.
The point is you can’t “count on them.” Hope is not a business development strategy, as Carrie is fond of saying.
Hope is not a business development strategy.
But what if you could count on referrals? What if we could make them predictable? You can – with our 3-step process outlined below.
MSP Referrals Process
To generate predictable MSP referrals, follow our 3-step process.
- Start doing internal account reviews.
You’re looking for reasons a client would be unhappy. Check both service tickets and project work. Ask yourself:
- Did both areas have “good” results over the last 90-180 days?
- Meeting Service Level Objectives?
- CSAT response rate and % in good order?
- Meet with the client.
If you do routine meetings (QBR/SBR/TBR/Insert your acronym here) already – add this onto that meeting. If not, set up an account review meeting for 30 minutes.
- Review your assessment with the client.
- Do this meeting face to face (In person preferred, Zoom/Teams/Whatever as alternate)
- Ask the client for their feedback.
This is important! Four people can look at the same data and come to four different conclusions. Invite the client to share. “We want to make sure we’re serving you how you want to be served.”
- What did they like, what could be better?
- Do a NPS Score around service: “1 to 10, how easy is it to work with our service team – 1 not at all, 10 as good as it gets.”
Make sure you and the client are on the same page. The NPS score needs to be 9 or 10 – it’s a different way of asking if they’re happy. If everything lines up, you should ask for a referral! They’ve told you that you’re doing a good job.
MSP Referrals Warning
“What if they don’t agree with my assessment?”
Don’t ask for a referral. Spend time getting where you failed to meet expectations. Be sure to validate what good looks like to them. Use active listening skills to make sure you understand. Above all else, don’t assume anything.
This now is around fixing the relationship between your MSP and the client.
Once you do – you can ask for a referral!
If this seems easy, good! That’s our goal. We share easy processes with our newsletter all the time. You can sign up at https://short.randr.consulting/newsletter.
If you’re interested – we offer a full training course on each part of this process. There are worksheets and guidance on:
- The assessment
- The meeting
- Handling upset clients
- Getting better results from the ask
Reach out to us at https://foxcrowgroup.com/contact to learn more.
Go get yourself some referrals!
