How Any MSP Can Consistently Get 1-2 New Clients Per Month (even as a beginner)

So one of the most common questions that we are asked as we're here actually at our live show, both from guests and current clients that we start working with, is how can we bring in one to two clients a month? What's the most effective and the fastest way to do that? So I'm really excited. I have Chris Weiser here with me. Yes, we're here, actually, live from Denver.

Yeah, really fun today. Great, great first day today.

Yeah, it was a great day. So. And it's really cool because we have a room full of guests here, here that are not clients. We've got clients here. We have awesome, awesome vendors and just so much buzz and so much conversation about taking easy, fast and effective action to get those one to two clients a month. So in your perspective, what would you tell someone that's wondering that?

Well, I did my keynote this afternoon and I talked a lot about execution. But execution is important, but you have to have goal setting in front of it. So if we start to think about the things you have to do, I'd say first off, as an msp, you have to not be afra of sales and marketing, and you have to embrace that. And one of the things that I talked about in my keynote is instead of outsourcing your sales and marketing, bringing it here and holding it close to right here. As you think about techs. I know I was a tech guys. I have actively embraced sales and marketing for the last 20 years. Most MSPs, when they run their business, what do they embrace? They embrace the tech side. They keep it right here. And then, oh, I don't like sales, I don't like marketing. I'm gonna push that away. Push that away. I don't want to deal with it. It's not necessarily. I think everyone knows that you have to do it, but they don't want to because it's uncomfortable and it's not something they're familiar with. And you brought up such a great point in your talk this morning about how and Lindsay had everybody in the room raise their hand and then lower their hands.

Where did I get that idea from?

Not me, but it was. Everyone in the room raised your hand. Who here actually had a formal education to start your MSP and like 7/8 of the room went down. And so. Which means you can learn, you can evolve. You learned that. But it was easy and it was fun, and it was stuff we like to do because we're techs. You have to do that with marketing, you have to do that with sales. So my Thing out of the box is you have to change your mindset around that. You have to say, I'm going to be a growth focused business owner. I'm going to be a sales focused business. That doesn't mean you're bad at your business either. It means that sales and revenue and cash flow takes a primary seat. Because I don't like. And that does not mean that you're bad at tech. That's expected. That's your craft. It's like you go to the dentist, you expect them to be really good at dentistry. That's part of the deal. They own a business. That's part of what it should be. So they shouldn't sales in market or sell in market. It's expected, it's part of what you do.

Yeah, that's important.

So honestly, mindset shift first, then we go into, we have to have a plan and then we have to execute that plan.

Yeah, yeah. So it's interesting how our keynotes were really aligned today.

We did not plan that.

No, we did it. We really did it. So one of the things, or actually a couple of the things that I talked through in mind this morning was around having the goal. So. And you did this as well. So around having a goal. And I think one of the very first things that any MSP watching this or anyone listening in can do this is to have your MRR goal. What are you shooting for? Like what do you, what do you really want? Because everything that you do from a marketing aspect should be going towards that MRR goal.

Should align with what your should align.

With the trajectory is.

Yeah.

So the question that you got towards the end tonight about social media, I loved your answer. I don't know if you heard me like woohoo over there in the corner, but he goes like, where do you see social for MSPs? Like where do you see social media marketing? And you were like, well, it's great and you need it, but ultimately you need to be driving them somewhere else where they can learn from you and where you can educate and then drive them to the first time appointment.

Yeah. And you have to solve a problem. So you know, so social's key for.

Visibility and reading, cold calling is key.

Webinars, live events, speaking, like all those things matter. It's not just one thing, they're all key. But you have to actually solve a problem for them. And I think I had the example of CPA firms. Well, they have the FTC safeguards now. So you have to do a specific. And this is in some of your keynote was also about niching down and focusing on that. That doesn't mean you only service a niche. It means that you work with multiple, you know, one niche and market to that niche and change your messaging and speak to their language and actually talk to them, not things that you as an MSP think are important. And I gave an example also of a gentleman that came to me and he said, hey, and this was on the 0-10K coaching call we had a couple of weeks ago. And I was like, hey, I'm doing my webinar. Like, okay, what's. I'm not having anybody show up. And I'm like, what's the title? He's like, cybersecurity Webinar. That's literally. I'm like, okay, I think your words.

Were, that title sucks or something.

I'm like, actually what I specifically said was there's no client in the world that is going to come to your stupid ass titled webinar. That's what I said. Because nobody cares about cybersecurity webinar. Like, nobody cares about cybersecurity.

Yeah.

Like they really don't care. So what? So if we're going to use any type of message around this, it has to be something that the prospect or the ideal client. So think about your ipc, is your icp, your ideal client profile. What do they care about? What trips their trigger? What resonates with them? You have to speak to that and solve that problem. So they're like, oh, wow.

So an example of that today. Did you. Were you in there whenever Brian was sharing around why he's going towards defense contractors?

I was for that. Yes.

Okay. So he says that there has been this incoming CMMC stuff. And he's like, I've been telling them for years this is coming.

Basically the government is changing the regulations around what. They're basically making CMMC mandatory. Mandatory for all defense contractors.

Yeah.

So now there's been literally four years.

Yeah. That this has been four years in the pipeline. And so his whole niche is around servicing defense contractors for that reason. So that was such an epic example of having a problem that has to be solved. So all his messaging, his marketing is outbound, his legion, all these things are going to be around. Are you ready for cmmc? How prepared are you? You've heard about the CMMC stuff, and.

Now it's finally to the point where his ideal client, Prof. Is actually gonna be like, whoa. But he's been marketing for two, three, four years, so who's the expert?

It's him.

It's him. And he's like salivating because finally the pinnacle he's been waiting for is finally here. And it's just such a great example. And I talked a little bit in my keynote also about how important it is to have a simple sales message, to do that consistently for a long period of time. And it's like, boom, boom, boom. It's like hammering a wall. And at some point you're going to break through that wall. And I think one of the challenges that I see most business owners and then also most MSPs do, is they're like, oh, I did this one thing, it didn't work. Marketing sucks. I'm never gonna do that again. It's not easy. We kind of live in this instant gratification society. It's also easy for MSP owners because they're tech people. They like the tech stuff. They get instant gratification out of most.

Of the tech stuff because it's ABC equals XYZ and it spits out something on the end like a fixed product.

Or we're building servers and we're like, we're building stuff that actually have tangible results. Immediately.

Immediately.

Marketing's tough because you mentioned on stage today that your group of leads, Mastery Mastermind clients are seeing an average of an 8% response rate on their cold calling through your system. Way bigger than industry norm. But do this on your own. This is where you sit like, it's literally pounding your head against the wall for months and months and months and months and months, years and years and years and years.

So can we talk about that? About the difference between outbound lead generation, which is what we're talking about with the 8% conversion rate versus the inbound, like social media? Because I know that I think a lot of folks misassociate marketing to just be social media and my website and my blog and my newsletter. And I think that they discount the power of outbound lead generation. So doing the cold calling and sending your emails and actually actively prospecting. And we do that internally. Like, we, we. That's. And you said it so well earlier. You said, if we would have only relied on social media, this room would be empty.

Yeah. I also said if I, if I'd only relied on social media, if I'd have only relied on referrals, I wouldn't have a completely packed room.

Right. Maybe at this point, because we have such an audience and such a presence.

It's even still, I mean, we still got to work for it. Like, it's absolutely so it takes like active work. Like you have to constantly work on these things. You have to be pushing it and you can't give up on it. Like you have to. So it's an inbound versus outbound is so key. I see inbound as I'm building my brand. I'm building my, I'm putting my name in people's mouths a little bit, but it's the best I can do and I can't control when they come to me. I see SEO as the same thing. Like SEO is important. I'm never gonna say SEO, but it's a piece and SEO is critical, but you're kind of at the mercy of somebody searching for you and it's such.

A long term play. I think it's, it's great, it's cool. But it's definitely not going to get you fast results.

Yeah, I mean, maybe, but it's a crapshoot. Like it's literally like, like you just don't know. I mean, versus you can pick up a call and I actually, I saw TikTok yesterday of a guy, said I have a $6 million opportunity for you. It was the, like the words on the screen, that was their hook. Uh, that was his hook exactly. Uh, that's a TikTok word. I don't even use that. But his whole thing was, I have a six million dollar opportunity for you. If you're in a struggling period, pick up the damn phone, call your prospects.

Yeah.

Solve a problem. It's the same stuff we talk about and stuff that is in my feed all the time because I'm always like researching and reinforcing that mindset. But his whole thing was if you want to double your business, even in a down market, which we're, you know, we're in election cycle, all these different things going on right now here in the states and it's weird, like it's that way for everybody. So you need to control those variables. Inbound, social media, ads, I mean, it's great, it's important, it's a critical piece. SEO, all those things, critical piece, but you cannot control that. But if you actively put your name in somebody's mouth, have an event, have a webinar with a good title also, and do the right things, you're going to see success. It's just, yeah, it takes a little bit of time, but it's gonna win.

Yeah, no, I think that's so good. And we have to normalize that. Like you're gonna kind of suck in the beginning. Like you're not gonna suck everything in the beginning. Yeah. And you just have to keep pushing and being consistent. Yeah.

You're never gonna be great at. Honestly, the people that are the best at that stuff. Honestly, failed. I saw another. I saw meme yesterday. I'm on social media. I'm doing too much social media. But saw a meme yesterday that said, you have to be willing to look like a fool to look like a genius.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. Because you would never put yourself in that position if you were like, well, I have to wait until I'm.

None of us started out like.

No, I mean, we were just talking about our first ever videos that we ever recorded. It's cringy to go back and watch. It's cringe. So I don't even want to go back and watch those videos because they're so bad. Yeah, that's.

It's funny. Well. And we got a nice backdrop and a whole setup. It makes a huge difference. And. But you have to be willing to do that to get somewhere. And I was referencing. During my talk, I called on Fred and I said. I said, who's in? Who in the room was at my very first event. And there was, I think, two people in the room that were there.

Wow. And not in total, but that were in this room.

In this specific room.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think I had, like, 30 or 40. And it was post Covid. It was like our first events. Post Covid.

That's great.

And it was risky, honestly, because I'm like, I don't know how this is gonna work. I have no idea. Because I don't know if anybody's even gonna be willing to travel or fly or do anything. And we had like, 30, 40 people show up.

Okay.

And it was like, in a conference room. And I said, what's the difference now? And he laughed. He's like, ha.

Wow. It's a different world.

It's a totally different world. So I was totally willing to do something. Put yourself out there. Do stuff that I wasn't even that great at. These were my first events. It was me and two employees. And now you look at where we ended up.

Yes. So it's absolutely incredible to see how much we've grown and to see how much our content has grown and our delivery.

But it wouldn't happen if you don't look stupid in the beginning. Right. You have to be willing to. I don't think you take those risks. You have to be willing to look stupid. You have to. Willing to not care. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and not care what people think. I talked about this in my keynote. Like, I do not care what people think of me ever. Sometimes I don't want to do stuff, but mostly because I don't. I'm lazy, honestly. But it's. I don't care what people think of me at all.

Yeah, I think that's great. Okay, so with that, I think just to wrap it all up, how do we go out and get those consistent clients each month? I think we really have to lean into outbound marketing. Yeah, inbound. On top of that, I would pick.

I would pick a couple of niches. Probably a single niche to start out with, honestly. Pick a niche, Niche, niche.

Whatever it is, we should have a battle. Is it niche or niche?

I like niche.

But I like niche.

It's fine. I would pick a single niche. I guess you won. I'd pick a single niche. I would solve some problems that they have. Okay, so something you're maybe comfortable with, Maybe. I like. I had, like three or four that I worked with that I really liked as we matured, but we started with one. I kind of did a lot of this stuff right by accident, but it's just, like, execution, and you make mistakes and you go. So I liked CPA firms. I like wealth managers. I like general contractors. I like nonprofits. I liked elderly care facilities, actually. It's really easy to solve problems for them because they all have similar stuff. Especially you're sitting here in a really good time for cybersecurity professionals because you're starting to get where these. The FTC safeguards. Some of your insurance companies are coming in, mandating them to do stuff. They don't even know that for the most part. And they're dealing with the cheap guy. And they. It is so easy to drive a wedge now you just have to speak to those problems. So I think pick a niche, go after it, solve some problems, educate them like crazy. Educate with abandon is how I look at it. Like, give all of your free. Give everything away. I'm gonna teach you how to secure your own network on cybersecurity. I'm gonna teach your elderly care facility how to properly protect your network. Well, they can't do it. They can't get the tools. They can't. So let them do that. And who are they going to call? Oh, the person that they learned it from. The expert.

That's right.

Not the cheap guy that's not even doing that stuff. Show them why the cheap guy sucks.

I love it. Whenever our clients will say, yeah, we just signed this deal because we were more expensive, because we made them do a cyber security risk assessment. We had process, and the competitor was just trying to give them a quote, and it was a red flag to the client.

And if you do it right, you don't skip skips. You actually have a sales process that makes a huge difference.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, you heard it. Don't skip steps. Market your asses off, and don't give up. Thank you so much, Chris.

You bet.