For years, MSPs have built their reputations on their technology offerings: Reliable infrastructure, standardized tools and efficient service delivery. But as Luis Giraldo, chief evangelist at ScalePad, warns, that same focus on standardization may now be the industry’s biggest liability.
“We’re seeing MSPs complaining: ‘I’m price-challenged, customers are leaving for other MSPs because the price is lower.’ The industry is heavily commoditized now,” Giraldo said during GTIA’s ChannelCon EMEA event in London. “It’s necessary to start looking at why that is.”
The short answer? Because too many MSPs look and sound exactly the same.
The Problem with Standardization
Giraldo revealed a story shared by Chris Jensen, a fractional CIO who often works with MSPs. Jensen recalled sitting in on a client’s kick-off meeting with a new provider. The MSP walked through its entire plan—what tools it would use, what systems it would deploy, what dates things would happen.
The client’s reaction was blunt: “They don’t know anything about my business, but yet they’re coming in and telling me what they’re going to do. They didn’t talk at all about the impact on my business.”
That moment, Giraldo noted, captures the heart of the issue.
“MSPs come in with the mindset, ‘These are my standard tools. These are the standard things I do.’ But it doesn’t play well in the long term,” he said.
“As more MSPs look increasingly the same, it becomes apparent that clients could just trade one for the next. The shop down the street looks exactly the same—so why not save a few bucks?”
Consistency Is Good: But It’s Not a Strategy
Giraldo stressed he isn’t anti-standardization. He’s the first to admit that it brings real benefits: Consistency, scalability and predictable costs. “Customers really liked it when service was consistent,” he said. “They hated having a good experience one day and a bad experience the next.”
But those same efficiencies can cause stagnation.
“As MSPs get very particular about their service delivery model, innovation starts to suffer,” he said. “Clients are generally a little afraid of innovation because it looks uncertain—but that’s exactly where value and differentiation live.”
The danger, he added, is when MSPs get trapped in an infrastructure-first mindset— focused on uptime, patches and tickets—while losing sight of how technology drives business growth.
From Tactical Vendor to Strategic Partner
To escape this trap, MSPs must elevate their engagement from caretakers of infrastructure to enablers of business strategy. And it starts early—at the prospect phase.
“Customer success doesn’t start after the sale,” said Giraldo. “It starts the moment you meet a prospect. Clients aren’t buying your tech stack, they’re buying outcomes. They want lower risk, better operations, stronger growth.”
That shift begins with asking different questions. Not “What’s your firewall?” or “Show me your server room,” but “Can you tell me how your business makes money?” As Giraldo explained, “The questions you ask frame the relationship you earn.”
Rethinking the QBR: From Sales Pitch to Strategy Session
Giraldo highlighted the story of “Joe,” an MSP leader who realized his quarterly business reviews (QBRs) had become predictable. “Every meeting, customers were like, ‘Oh, here’s Joe again, what’s he going to try and sell us this time?’” Giraldo said.
So, Joe flipped the script. Instead of presenting decks full of reports, he asked to join his clients’ annual strategy and leadership meetings. The result? “It immediately changed the outlook,” Giraldo said. “They were having business-focused, strategic-level discussions—and it created incredible opportunities.”
The key, Giraldo added, is separating tactical cadence from strategic engagement. Keep regular operational check-ins but carve out a distinct space for deeper business discussions. “You might start with your top five most strategic clients,” he suggested. “But make that executive engagement non-negotiable.”
Make Data Tell a Story
Similarly, Giraldo said that while trying to sell customers on Microsoft 365 Business Premium, he found most weren’t interested—until he changed how he presented it.
Instead of explaining features, he showed outcomes. “I turned on conditional access and gathered logs,” he said. “After deployment, there was a 95% drop in out-of-country failed logins.”
When he showed the client that data, the question wasn’t “Do you want to upgrade?” anymore, it was “Do you want us to turn this protection off?”
“Guess what,” Giraldo smiled. “Nobody said yes.”
The lesson? Every project should tell a story of measurable impact—not just a list of completed tasks.
The 80/20 Rule of Standardization
Giraldo’s advice isn’t to throw standardization out the window. Rather, it’s about balance.
“Don’t necessarily standardize everything,” he said. “You miss the opportunity to have more unique conversations with customers. I talk about 80% standardization, 20% personalization—that last mile can make all the difference.”
Giraldo also noted that being a “trusted advisor” is no longer enough.
“Trusted advisor is not the final step,” he said. “It’s the next-to-last step in becoming a strategic partner. Just because they trust you doesn’t mean they’ll keep you—but if you deliver outcomes and impact, that’s what keeps MSPs around.”
He offered a simple reframe he calls the “outcome trust formula.” Instead of focusing on credibility and reliability alone, focus on vision, alignment and impact—all centered around the client’s business success.
Giraldo cited Steve Jobs’ famous line: “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.”
Adding his own twist, he said: “Start with the client outcomes—work backwards to the tech stack. Otherwise, you’re just another tactical vendor instead of a strategic partner delivering unique, high-value results.”
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