Your clients still see you as a help desk. Not as a strategic partner. Not as a trusted advisor. Just the people they call when something breaks.
This isn't happening by accident, says Nett Lynch, CISO at Kraft & Kennedy, Inc. Most MSPs launch vCIO programs by slapping a new job title on someone already wearing too many hats, having a few meetings that feel suspiciously like regular support calls and then acting shocked when clients refuse to pay extra for "services" they thought they were already receiving.
The better path forward requires rethinking how you structure roles, frame conversations and prove your impact. Let's examine three critical areas where most vCIO programs fall apart and what actually works instead.
Build Expertise, Not Just Job Titles
When the person troubleshooting printer issues on Tuesday is the same person presenting strategic recommendations on Wednesday, you've created a problem. Clients can't distinguish between tactical support and strategic advisory, making it nearly impossible to position vCIO services as premium offerings worth a separate fee.
Kyle Ely, senior account executive at Kraft & Kennedy, says true vCIO and vCISO roles demand a specific skill set: Technical proficiency, business understanding and emotional intelligence. That last one matters more than most MSPs realize. It's fundamental to how someone thinks.
"If you're hiring for that position, focus on EQ (emotional quotient) because that's the hardest one to teach," Lynch said.
And if you must use existing staff, it is key to train people before promoting them. Dumping vCIO responsibilities onto account managers already focused on daily operations sets everyone up for failure. But building capabilities before assigning responsibility lets you deliver value immediately, not on-the-job training.
This same principle extends to how you serve different industries. Generalists can succeed, particularly if they’re already thriving. But vertical specialization opens significant growth opportunities for MSPs hitting a ceiling. The healthcare client needs vastly different solutions than the manufacturing client, who has nothing in common with the legal firm. As such, each offers a unique opportunity for strategic tech guidance.
"I've found that if we tailor the offering to meet those unique needs, such as regulatory landscape, you demonstrate that you're a subject matter expert. You have a deeper understanding of the needs of those specific types of clients, needs and challenges," Ely said.
Rewrite Your Technology Talk Track
Picture this, Lynch offers: You're presenting your quarterly business review. Within five minutes, your main contact is scrolling through email. Another attendee is checking their phone. Nobody's engaged with what you're saying.
"If you're talking about tickets and SLAs, the decision makers don't care that much about it," Lynch said. Decision makers care about growth trajectory, competitive positioning, operational efficiency and risk mitigation. So, keep discussions at a strategic altitude. Address long-term planning and how technology supports their business objectives.
That means moving beyond simple data collection.
"Instead of just providing data dump reports to our clients, we provide insightful executive summaries that highlight the progress, address where there’s concern in their business and outline the next steps for them," Ely said.
Your deliverables should analyze information and extract meaning, which spreadsheets full of raw numbers won’t do. Instead, he advocates replacing reactive support models with forward-looking strategic roadmaps. While your tools platforms show what's happening or just occurred, your value is interpreting those signals to guide what's next and align technology with business goals.
This is where solid communication skills and EQ open up opportunities. For example, do you want the actual decision makers at your meetings instead of just their delegates? Change your subject matter.
"If you start talking about future with somebody who's not a decision maker, they have no choice but to bring you to the decision maker," Lynch said. "So, you shift the way that you're speaking, and you'll end up in the room with your decision makers."
Make Your Impact Impossible to Ignore
Clients need concrete evidence of how your services improve their financial position, operational efficiency, risk profile or competitive standing. So MSPs should be thinking about planning not just annually, but for the next three to five years. To do this, providers must "step out of that tech comfort zone and into the broader knowledge of business," Lynch said.
A longer view forces strategic thinking about where the business is heading and how technology enables that journey. Here are two tactics to help shift the relationship:
Reset client expectations with a shared responsibility matrix. This framework clarifies what you currently handle, what remains the client's responsibility and what additional services you can provide. It helps Lynch show clients "the reason we haven't been doing these things is because I have to go at your pace. We have to get you to that foundational level before we can jump to intermediate and advanced. Let’s put this on a roadmap and discuss when we can implement these things."
Document all technology spending, not just purchases made through your company. Catalog their copier leases, surveillance systems, access control, software subscriptions—everything with a technology component. This comprehensive view helps you balance capital expenses across multiple years, maintaining predictable budgets clients love. Plus, you'll uncover opportunities you'd otherwise never see.
For example, a few years ago Lynch discovered a municipality client still had several POTS (plain old telephone system) lines, which had become very expensive. “I quickly confirmed with their software provider that they just needed internet connectivity. We got rid of those POTS lines, installed fiber, signed them up for fully managed services and replaced all their workstations for exactly what they were paying for their POTS lines," Lynch said.
That's what effective vCIO advisory looks like: Smart spending, significant capability improvement and clear explanations of how tech and biz goals are aligning (or not).
In the midst of all this, MSPs must regularly review vCIO and vCISO offerings and programs to make sure they're still relevant, says Ely. What won’t change is that your vCIO program will command premium pricing when you specialize your team properly, communicate in terms of business results and consistently prove measurable impact. Master these three fundamentals, and clients will stop seeing you as just another vendor. They'll start relying on you as the strategic partner their business needs.
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