What do successful managed service providers (MSPs) do that the rest of the pack doesn’t do? There are any number of best practices to choose from, but it can be challenging to know the most important ones to prioritize to move the needle.
That question is probably even more important for new and small MSPs – those between one and five employees. These MSPs make up 70% to 80% of the market, according to TruMethods founder Gary Pica.
One sure thing that many successful MSPs have in common is that they belong to a peer group.
Now TruMethods, the organization founded by industry icon Gary Pica and acquired by Kaseya’s IT Glue, is rolling out a version of its peer group organization especially tailored to the needs of the newest and smallest MSPs.
TruMethods TruPeer Emerge Details
Designed for MSPs with one to five employees, TruPeer Emerge gives these small business owners a framework to grow and scale their businesses.
The Emerge program takes the principals established in the organizations TruPeer program, which is designed to boost member profitability, with net profits among the top 10% in the industry, according to Kaseya. Participants in the program also command higher prices, securing an average set price 20% to 30% higher than the market standard. The framework provides MSPs with what they need to add new managed customers at a predictable rate every month to increase monthly recurring revenue and also teaches how to break through revenue plateaus and operational challenges. There is also a strong emphasis on marketing to help MSPs generate leads and close more deals.
Emerge brings these benefits to smaller MSPs, Pica told ChannelE2E. The program incorporates four virtual quarterly meetings, bi-monthly accountability calls, and full access to the TruMethods framework and benchmarking platform. It also incorporates group webinars and special projects. The fee is $999 per month.
When new MSPs join, they are assigned to a pod of eight to 12 MSPs. The work the pods do together includes various projects designed to help make members' businesses more efficient and profitable. One recent project, Pica told ChannelE2E, was an examination of each MSP’s stack. Each company was asked to list the tools in their stack and evaluate whether those tools’ functionality was fully utilized. Then they were asked to look for gaps in their functionality.
Top Business Mistakes Small MSPs Make
ChannelE2E asked Pica about the top mistakes that small MSPs make when they start out. Here’s what he said.
- Almost none have an actionable business plan that includes goals that start with revenue and profitability (TruPeer provides this plan).
- They don’t know how to package and price their offering and they have a hard time figuring out costs.
- They don’t know the right things to do every week to build prospects. They may have many ideas, but they don’t know which ones to prioritize.
MSPs are dealing with higher tool prices than they were years ago when Pica was running his own MSPs. Back then, the cost of tools was only 10% of the seat cost. That percentage has climbed to 25%, in some cases because of tool sprawl in the industry and also because of higher prices for tools. MSPs are dealing with both tool and vendor fatigue, according to Pica.
With that in mind, wee asked Pica if he’s seeing interest in Kaseya’s new single endpoint license program, Kaseya 365. He said there is interest from both experienced MSPs and newer MSPs.
“The piece that’s been tough for MSPs is to get customers to adopt EDR and MDR,” Pica said. Kaseya 365 incorporates EDR and MDR as part of its single end-user license, giving new MSPs an easy way to offer advanced cybersecurity services for an affordable price.
“For these emerging MSPs, they can put it into their per seat rate,” he said.
Pica said that 30% to 40% of the existing TruPeer peer group members have adopted Kaseya 365 already. While that’s a big adoption rate for a new offering, Pica noted that TruMethods is a tool-agnostic organization. Any MSP can join TruPeer, regardless of the tools they use in their MSP stack.
