What does it take for an ITSP to thrive in the New Year? If you listen to vendors, it's XDR, AI-powered everything, or some new compliance framework that will supposedly revolutionize your business. Meanwhile, the fundamentals that actually make or break your company quietly deteriorate in the background, says Dan Scott, chair of GTIA’s UK & Ireland Community Executive Council and senior director, IT Nation Community at ConnectWise.
When ITSPs struggle, it's rarely because they missed the latest technology trend, "When we got really stuck, it was always because we got overextended and lost track of how we keep our clients happy, how do we keep our people happy, how do we make sure we're delivering value," says Scott, who previously helped grow and exit a managed services business in the UK.
The businesses that thrive through market turbulence have perfected the basics and invested in leadership. Scott uses a commercial airliner as an analogy to illustrate how element and role matters if you’re looking to take off and reach new heights.
The Engines: Sales and Marketing
Your sales and marketing functions are the twin engines propelling your business forward, but ITSPs can mistakenly treat these as interchangeable functions. "They are different disciplines. Stop trying to get people who do one to do the other," Scott said.
And don't expect overnight results from new hires. Building brand recognition, developing messaging and finding the right approach takes time. "People need to find their own track and their own way of describing your unique value proposition, especially if you're the owner and the founder," Scott noted. "Nobody has the same relationship with that as you do."
When you're having those sales conversations, remember that your only frame of reference should be your client's business objectives. What needs to happen in the next 12 months for them to deem their year a success? "I will give you a clue," Scott said. "Moving to SharePoint is not one of them for any of your clients. Nor is changing their firewall."
The Flight Plan: Working Backward from Your Goals
Setting goals like "win 10 new clients this year" won’t be sufficient. Instead, work backward with realistic ratios, Scott says. For example, if your close rate is roughly one in four qualified meetings, you need 40 meetings to win 10 clients. To book those meetings, you might need 2.5 qualified leads per meeting, meaning 100 marketing-qualified leads. And if only one in ten cold outreach contacts becomes a qualified lead, that means you need 1,000 leads entering your funnel.
The numbers get big fast, but that's the point. When you understand what actually has to happen month over month and quarter over quarter, you can adjust before December rolls around and you're wondering why the pipeline never materialized.
The Wings: Services That Lift You Up
Your services give you lift. They're what takes your business from taxiing down the runway to actually making money. Scott's mantra during his ITSP years was simple: "Consistent, predictable and repeatable."
"Designing complexity in your services is simple," he explained. "Trying to design things where it's consistent, predictable and repeatable is hard." Ask yourself: how many of your service offerings can only be delivered by one or two people? What happens when your cybersecurity rock star goes on vacation?
And don't forget billing. Too often, ITSPs implement brilliant new services only to discover they can't sync with the billing system. "You don't make any money on what you don't bill," Scott said. So before rolling out anything new, make sure the revenue can actually flow.
The Passengers: Experience Is Everything
Two airlines can fly identical planes between identical cities at identical prices. Yet most travelers have a clear preference. "Because we buy into the experience that they give us," Scott said.
Your clients have the same calculus. Everyone offers Microsoft 365 support. Everyone does some flavor of cybersecurity. Those aren't differentiators. "Do your clients feel heard? Do they feel seen? Do they feel you get them?" Scott asks. "That is far more important than anything else." The inevitable crisis moments that pop up throughout the year are where this gets tested. The experience you deliver when things break determines whether you're getting replaced or earning a client for life.
The Cabin Crew and Flight Deck: Your People Make the Difference
Your team delivers that client experience, and it’s up to you to create a good experience for your team. Scott advises investing in ways that would allow them to move on from your company and thrive, which, paradoxically, will inspire them to stay and follow your lead. Great leadership, Scott says, "is about creating a fire within people, not just underneath them."
He offers a simple matrix exercise any leader can do:
- 1. Draw two axes on the back of a napkin, labeled "support" and "challenge."
- 2. Ask your team members to place a single dot somewhere on the matrix based on two questions: Do you believe that I support you, that I'm for you, that I believe in you? And do you believe that I challenge you, that I see something in you and give you appropriate challenges to help you grow?
The results reveal what kind of leader you are. Low challenge with high support creates a protective culture where people feel liked but never pushed. High challenge with low support breeds fear and resentment. Low challenge with low support signals apathy. The goal is high support and high challenge together, what Scott calls "truly liberating leadership."
Finally, watch out for how you treat your high performers. It's tempting to leave rock stars alone because you don't want to micromanage someone clearly capable, but Scott warns this often backfires. Instead, high performers might see others getting extra support, while all they get is more work.
The ITSPs that consistently outperform their peers are simply the ones who’ve mastered the fundamentals, invested in their people, and developed leaders worth following. Sometimes the most transformative thing you can do is get really good at the basics while building a team that's genuinely inspired to grow.
Looking for more business support? GTIA Members, log in to the Member Portal to download resources, research and tools.
Not a GTIA Member? Join now.
-2-0.png)