Five Management Habits That Hold Your MSP Back

Recently, I spoke with Charlene Ignacio from Fornix marketing. She discussed habits in MSP management and the importance of building the right ones.

Her habits tied in beautifully with a conversation we had at our planning summit in December; we discussed how thoughts lead to actions, leading to results. We use vision to change our thoughts and get better results.

Charlene’s Habits model is a different take because our habits are automatic. They lead to actions and results without us even thinking about them. They can be good or bad, but as habits, they are automatic.

(This probably means that there is a step before thoughts: awareness. Become aware, then have the thought that leads to the action that delivers the result.)

Charlene’s list was very insightful and consistent with my experience advising hundreds of managers in three dozen countries, so here I explore the manifestations and implications of these habits.

Bringing awareness to them and their impact will allow you to change them and get different results.

Habit 1: Assuming the customer knows everything we do.

Another way to say this is the “Curse of Knowledge.” When you know something, it’s hard to imagine that others don’t.

A famous demonstration of this was developed by Elizabeth Newton, a graduate student at Stanford in 1990. She developed an experiment where one person would tap out the rhythms of well-known songs with their fingers, songs like “Happy Birthday,” and someone else would guess the song.

The tappers thought the listeners could identify the song 50% of the time. In fact, the listeners could only identify the song 2.5% of the time.

The tappers had the melody in their heads and couldn’t believe that the listeners couldn’t hear it. They thought the song was obvious, but it wasn’t.

The same happens when MSPs talk to their clients about networks, operating systems, or even cybersecurity. You assume the customers know the importance of the topics because you understand how important they are.

But they don’t.

Instead, adopt your client’s language, use their words, and clearly describe the concepts you want to convey. It may feel like you are dumbing things down too far, but you are simply making yourself understood.

Habit 2: Valuing your time at under $20 an hour.

Every entrepreneur I’ve ever talked to has fallen for this trap. Since you typically don’t pay yourself cash, you feel like your work is free.

As a result, you spend time on email, formatting documents, or solving routine problems. Your days are busy, and you feel like you are progressing, but you aren’t doing the high-level work necessary to build your business.

A business implementer can do this work for less than $20 an hour, so you are effectively paying yourself $20 an hour by doing it.

You are worth more than $20 an hour.

Think about what you miss by spending that time on low-level tasks (this is opportunity cost). How many more sales could you make if you used that time to sell? What partnerships could you forge if you were connecting? What MRR opportunities could you identify if you focused on innovating?

The value of those opportunities is a lot more than $20 an hour. So hire a business implementer and focus on high-value work.

Habit 3: Selling IT services rather than business solutions.

Recently, an MSP owner defined their avatar as “An accountant who understands IT.”

I asked why, and he said, “They are the only ones who value IT services.”

He was right: most people are uninterested in IT services. They don’t want to think about them, much less pay for them. They don’t understand how or why IT impacts their business and don’t want to know.

But, the clients who are uninterested in IT are often your best clients. They will pay more and are less competitive. Would you rather work with someone firing an MSP to hire you or with someone hiring their first MSP who is learning from you how an MSP works?

The key here is not to sell IT services. Sell business solutions. Make a business case for your services. Show how what you do impacts their business objectives: how do you make them more money faster and with less cost?

If you aren’t helping them make more money faster and with less cost, you are only a burden to the business and will result in constant price competition.

Habit 4: Demonstrating expertise rather than delivering results.

A member once told me he had to use jargon to show his clients he knew what he was talking about. He wanted to show them how smart he was. At the same time, he lost clients to MSPs who were charging more money.

His knee-jerk response was to work harder at showing how smart he was, which drove the clients away even faster. And it’s not just him; most of us fall into that trap.

Clients don’t care much about your expertise. Sure, at some level, it matters; they want to know you can do what you say you can do (Related: Expertise does play a role in the trust-risk balance, but not in showing value), but what they care about is your impact on their business.

The better habit is to focus relentlessly on results. When you deliver high-value results, your clients will love you and want more, regardless of expertise.

Think of it this way: if you are considering working with us, are you more interested in our expertise or whether you’ll get results?

Habit 5: Not reviewing your own business.

You know that business reviews, whether you call them QBRs, TBRs (please don’t ever do a TBR), or SBRs (Strategic Business Reviews), are essential to retaining and growing your presence with your clients.

When was the last time you reviewed your own business?

It is easy to get drawn into the day-to-day busyness of business, and you may even neglect to review your metrics.

You know you are behind on tickets, or revenue isn’t growing as it should; reminding yourself is painful, and it’s easier to focus on <$20 work. We’ve all been there, we’ve all done it.

But by not reviewing your business and creating a plan, you force yourself into the same routine day after day, week after week, year after year. You can’t make progress without strategic reviews.

So, stop three times a year, review your business, assess your strategy, and make a plan. (Learn more about planning summits here). This is how you can imagine a new future and turn it into a reality.

Can you see these five habits in your business?

Success in business isn’t just about strategy; it’s about the habits that shape your daily actions. These five habits are sneaky—they feel normal and even logical but hold you back. The good news? Habits can be changed.

It starts with awareness. Once you recognize these patterns, you can make deliberate shifts that lead to stronger client relationships, higher profits, and a business that works for you rather than the other way around.

So, which of these habits do you see in yourself?

More importantly—what’s the first one you’ll break?