Optimize your stack to support your ideal customer profile (ICP)

Whether it was by through MSP sales coaching at Feel-Good MSP, or on your own, you’ve defined your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).

You’ve examined the data from your systems in the form of demographics and approximated who is the best fit. It doesn’t end there. Perhaps even more importantly are these the customers that you even want to work with? Having a similar outlook or mindset can be equally critical.

Now this doesn’t mean we have to kick everyone to the curb that doesn’t fit in this clear defined vision. 

After all it’s an “ideal”, so let’s treat it as such.

For example, you’re confident that you want to work with law offices in DFW with 10 to 20 users. Your best customer relationship is a business who is highly technical, rarely submits tickets, and place a priority on compliance - so we’re adopting those psychographics as well.

Shouldn’t we be able to make this ideal client’s life easier, and save ourself time?
By optimizing our stack to support and to attract and to retain your favorite customer we accomplish this and make more money in the process.

Some MSPs only support Windows, while others only support Mac.

Some will say “If you need Linux support, I have a great partner to recommend you to.”
They have already worked out a referral-fee with said partner.

That level of specialization is fine. Managed Service Providers often find that they are able to charge more as they become more specialized.

In fact, they may wish to take it a step farther, such as;

“My ideal customer profile is somebody who has a file server onsite. So that in the next two to three years, I can shift them to Azure.” It’s just an example. Your specialization is yours to decide. My goal here is to get you thinking, and get you asking;

1. What am I good at, that I could become great at?

2. What specialization works to remove competition?

3. What has the potential to lead to referral clients?

When going through this process, you of course need to consider the kinds of technologies you want to support, and are able to efficiently administrate. Your decisions about how to standardize will directly affect the customer experience.

What can you add to your stack that's going to perfect your customers’ experience?

If you work with a lot of lawyers, prepare to get very comfortable with A1 Law. Growing your expertise with the three other legal ERP systems that they commonly use shows a higher level of commitment to their needs. Understand the hardware requirements to support these systems and enhance your own tech stack around it.

When you can go into their office, and say, “Hey, I specialize in helping legal offices. Let me go ahead and run a diagnostic on your server to make sure it's optimized for this application.” It’s more than words . You’ve given them practical reasons to consider your services.