3 wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now

[00:00:02] Speaker A: You found it. If there was a podcast for MSPs hungry to grow beyond their wildest dreams, this is the show. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Awesome. You're back. Well, here's what I've got for you today. I've got some wins for MSPs on LinkedIn right now. Also, a question. Does your MSPs marketing have personality? And my special guest today has built a new place where you can sell the client contracts you don't want anymore. Welcome to episode 288, powered by MSP. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Marketingedge.Com Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast have. [00:00:39] Speaker B: No doubt LinkedIn is the hottest place for MSPs to go prospecting right now. It's been that way for a few years and I can't see that changing. Why? Because every possible prospect you could ever do business with is already there on LinkedIn. And you have access to the tools to connect with them, get your content in front of them and ultimately build a relationship relationship before they're ready to switch msps. The only snag with LinkedIn is that the algorithm changes. And what worked a few years ago isn't quite as powerful today. So let me tell you, three wins for MSPs on LinkedIn. Right now, my team and I produce a lot of content intended for use on LinkedIn, and that's for our MSP Marketing Edge members. Now, of course, it can be used across lots of different social networks, but as I just said, LinkedIn is it. It's the easiest and most accessible platform to access decision makers, the ordinary business owners and managers that you want to reach. And a couple of times a year, we do a bit of a deep dive on what's going on in the algorithm at the moment. Because, as you know, on LinkedIn, the performance of your content is very much dependent on what the algorithm is trying to reward at that time. And you can see this change over the years if you use the platform regularly. In fact, any platform. I've noticed in the last few months that engagement in my Facebook groups has completely fallen off a cliff. And that's nothing I've done and it's nothing to do with the members of those groups. It's just something that someone, somewhere, some vice president at Facebook, has tweaked the algorithm. And if I wait a few weeks. [00:02:16] Speaker C: That engagement will come back, because this. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Has happened five or six times over. [00:02:20] Speaker C: The last 10 years or so. [00:02:21] Speaker B: But anyway, back to LinkedIn. And these are some of the wins that we've noticed from our research, which are making a difference Right now, I've got three of them for you. And win number one is to upload a PDF carousel. PDFs are performing very well on LinkedIn. They actually look beautiful when you see them in your feed on LinkedIn. And they're kind of easy to use as well. You just upload a document. The trick is to have carousels with many pages. Aim for around about 12 pages, but each page only has a tiny amount of information on it. I mean, I'm talking literally like one sentence, half a sentence on each page. The idea is that people tap through to see something that you're trying to say and you just say it one sentence at a time, tap, tap, Tap, tap, tap. 12 pages or more on your PDF carousel. Win number two is to write longer human comments. So that means when you're commenting on other people's posts, you write something of substance, not just, hey, great post. In fact, if you write more than 10 words, that can have up to two times the impact of a comment with less than 10 words. But please don't use AI for commenting. It's kind of obvious when you've just written something with AI, the goal is to actually say something and use your authentic voice and your authentic personality. And then finally, win number three, and this is a weird one, you should like your own post. So you post something on LinkedIn and you like it. That does feel very weird. I've done it myself, feels very strange to do. But. But from all the research that we've done, looking around and remember, we don't know what LinkedIn's algorithm is. All we've got is based on what people are seeing, and if you see lots of trends across the web, then the chances are that that's the way the algorithm has worked. So we believe there is an algorithmic benefit right now of you liking your own post. So if you use LinkedIn a lot, what other things have you noticed are working really well right now? [00:04:20] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP Marketing podcast. Still to come. [00:04:24] Speaker B: Have you ever found yourself thinking about specific client no longer fits with your msp? [00:04:29] Speaker C: Perhaps they're too big or too small. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Or too noisy, or you just want to end the relationship without having to fire them. What if I told you there's a brand new place to sell and buy MSP contracts? So far as I know, this is the first platform of its kind in the world. And I've got the inside story for you that's coming up in the next few minutes. Same, same, same. I look at lots of MSPs websites and they all look the same. But so what? Is that a problem? Is there a link between an MSP's samey looking website and the ability to find new clients and earn more money? And if there is a link, what can be done about it? Let's unpack the connection between sales and your website. Find a simple solution to fix bad websites and how you can easily differentiate from the 40,000 other MSPs out there. We all know how hard it is to differentiate your MSP from all of your competitors. And one of the ways that you can do this is by making sure there's real personality in all of your marketing. I got something by email a few weeks back that's really made me smile. It's from a UK gifting website. I think I bought something from them. And sure, this is a consumer example rather than B2B, but it's certainly different. The subject line of the email I received said, you've got a message from the big boss. And then the content says, hello, I just wanted to say hi and thank you for signing up to our newsletter. I'm Philip. I'm the boss of Firebox. That's the name of the company. And you won't hear loads from me because I'm super busy and important. [00:06:05] Speaker C: I thought that was nice, but I. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Thought I'd let you know that we'll now be sending you 48 emails a week and then actually they'd crossed that out and replaced it with, we'll be sending you the occasional roundup of the coolest new stuff we've found, plus exclusive offers only available to subscribers. Okay, so that might not be to your personal liking, but it's very consistent with the style of the Firebox website and their emails. It's all packed with personality and we can assume it's the personality of Philip the boss. There are some MSP examples that I've come across over the years that get that personality across in exactly the same way. And the first one that jumps to mind is Christian Fleming of Northstar IT here in the uk. He's been on the podcast in the past and his marketing is themed all around Star Trek. His commitment to that theme is very impressive and I know it gives him a massive advantage in a very busy marketplace because it's really easy for business owners and managers to say, hey, you're the Star Trek IT guys. Does it put off some people? Well, yes, of course it will, but that's a good thing because when you turn off some people, you automatically attract other people. You want people to have an opinion about your MSP that's been formed through your marketing. And it's better that they have an opinion, in fact a negative or a positive opinion about you, than no opinion at all. Here in the UK we call this Marmite marketing. So Marmite is this delicious food spread and you either love it or hate it. It's made from yeast extract. Well, Marmite has actually been using that love it or hate it as their marketing slogan since 1996. If your marketing is bland, you're making it too hard for people to form an opinion about you. And seeing as decision makers pick a new MSP based on how they feel about them, if they can't form an opinion on you, you're making it too hard for them to pick you. My final thoughts on this if you're going to put personality into your marketing, it must be an authentic personality. And that probably means your personality. This isn't something that your website designer can invent for you. It's not something your marketing agency can create. The personality in your marketing must be authentic and it must be consistent. And that's really easy to do when it's based on a real human like you. [00:08:22] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast still to come. [00:08:26] Speaker B: So we were talking about LinkedIn earlier and our question today from an MSP is also about LinkedIn. Specifically, how often should you be posting content? Would you like to hear the answer to that as well? I'm going to be answering it in the next few minutes. Thanks to technology, everything in our lives is easier. But ironically, not so much for MSPs. Why can't the process of finding new clients be as simple and hassle free as ordering on Amazon or selling old clothes on Vinted? And to make matters worse, if you've got a client but they're no longer a good fit, what do you do with them? Well, would you believe it? There's now an eBay for MSP clients. A hassle free way to buy and sell unwanted managed service contracts. It's a world first and you need to hear about this. [00:09:16] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Matt Yesbeck. I am the co founder of mspx. The Internet's first marketplace for the buying and selling of managed services contracts. [00:09:24] Speaker C: And I've been looking forward to this. [00:09:26] Speaker B: Interview for weeks and weeks. [00:09:27] Speaker C: Matt, you and I, we connected on LinkedIn, we were chatting about some stuff and you said to me, hey, we've come up with this idea and I'd. [00:09:34] Speaker B: Love to come and talk about it. [00:09:35] Speaker C: On your podcast and we're at a minimum viable product. [00:09:37] Speaker B: But we've got this brand new version. [00:09:39] Speaker C: Coming out the summer and I'll be. [00:09:41] Speaker B: Honest, I get a lot of pitches. [00:09:42] Speaker C: On LinkedIn, people that want to come on this podcast. [00:09:44] Speaker B: But there was something about what you've created. Maybe think, do you know what? This is genuinely a brand new idea. [00:09:50] Speaker C: I've never heard this before and I know that there's going to be some MSPs out there that will listen to this or watch this on YouTube and think, Hang on a second. This is the answer to the problem that we've got. So what we're going to do in this interview, Matt, is we're going to. [00:10:02] Speaker B: Explore what you've come up with, how. [00:10:04] Speaker C: You came up with the idea, what you're working on that's going to be released later on this year and obviously we'll talk about the benefits to msps. [00:10:11] Speaker B: As I feel like we're in the lab, we're in the R D lab. [00:10:14] Speaker C: For this one, which is brilliant. [00:10:16] Speaker B: So you and I should be wearing white coats right now. [00:10:18] Speaker C: We should have clipboards and stuff. [00:10:20] Speaker B: So give us, let's start with, before we talk about you and the story and how you did it, give us a 30 second overview of what you've. [00:10:27] Speaker C: Built and what someone can do on it. And I appreciate your. As I say, we're in the midst of you rebuilding it and building version. [00:10:35] Speaker B: 2, but what's the pitch? What's the 32nd pitch for it? [00:10:38] Speaker D: Yeah, so. So again, MSPX is the Internet's first marketplace for the buying and selling of managed services contracts. So it gives msps the ability, MSPs, brokers, technology brokers, the ability to again buy and sell managed services contracts or entire books of business. So that is a platform that we have, we've tried to unify through a otherwise very fragmented or, or, yeah, just a fragmented process. So we're trying to pull that together into a unified platform. [00:11:12] Speaker C: I love it. And what I particularly love is that like all good products or good ideas, it wasn't just something you sat in a bar one day and brainstorming ideas. It came out of a problem that you and your family came across. So tell us the story. [00:11:25] Speaker D: Well, doesn't the saying go that the necessity is the mother of all invention? And that truly is exactly how this idea was sparked in our head. So my business partner and son is also in technology. So while I've been working in the technology industry for now 28 years, he came out of college in 2018. So he was several years into his local MSP when they had promoted him to managed Services director. And one of his first tasks was to essentially apply the pumpkin plan and prune contracts that are overworked and underperforming from a financial perspective. And he had identified six or seven or so contracts that needed to be cut loose. He just could not find a way to do that cleanly where he didn't want to leave the customer in the lurch, possibly cause bad word of mouth in the area, which we know for any msp, our word of mouth is our lifeblood, so we don't want to risk any bad feelings. And then of course there's no way to really monetize that contract before you let it go. I have met very few MSPs that have actually successfully put a process of their own in place that allows them to not only successfully transition their or successfully offload their customer, but then to give them other options in the area. So with that aside, we couldn't find anything. There was no unifying Internet marketplace that would allow him to be able to list these contracts for sale to be picked up by another MSP either in our own backyard or nationally if it's a contract that could be serviced remotely. And so he came to me and said, hey dad, I've been thinking about this, what do you think? And I did my own research and I was 12 pages deep in the Google search results and saw nothing. And I'm like, I think we have something here, so let's go ahead and start developing it. So we spent six months developing it in the summer of 2023. We went live with it in January of 24. And so what you'll see now at www.mspx.store is our minimally viable product and proof of concept. [00:13:35] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. And most people would have an idea like that, do some research and say, oh, this is a good idea, someone should do that. And you know, there are very few people and a lot of us think we're entrepreneurial, but we're really not because, you know, I probably have two, three good ideas a week, but I choose not to act on those ideas because I know that there's a world of pain. I know that there's, you know, a thousand hour investment that goes into it. [00:13:58] Speaker D: And not only that, Paul, but also if, if, if, if you're anything like me in terms of ideas, I'll, I'll come up with a couple of ideas myself and I'll go to the web and do a search or I'll open my iPhone and go to the app store and lo and behold, it's already there. So most of the ideas that I come up with are nothing new. So that's what was so intriguing about this, is that it actually really, truly was something new. [00:14:23] Speaker C: And that's what I most love about this. [00:14:24] Speaker B: So let's explore use cases for this. [00:14:27] Speaker C: So when you and I were first Discussing this on LinkedIn, my first thought was who would actually do that? The very next day I had a conversation with an MSP who said I've got this client, they're an old break fix client. We got them onto a contract, but it's bottom dollar, they're high hassle, blah blah blah blah. [00:14:44] Speaker B: And I thought there's one use case of the client that you're going to fire. Have they got some kind of value? [00:14:50] Speaker C: So I'm sure you've thought this through in great detail. [00:14:52] Speaker B: So give us some ideas of the. [00:14:54] Speaker C: Different use cases that you'd use MSPX for. [00:14:57] Speaker D: So again, it could be, let's say you're an MSP and now you're three, four, five years into your business. And as we all, because I have my own MSP that we just started back in June of 24, initially you'll take on 2, 3, 4, 57 seat contracts because you need to start bringing in that MRR for your business, right? You gotta pay those expenses well, maybe three or four years down the road. Now maybe your minimum seat count is 15 or 20, but you've still got those initial four or five customers that are small seats and haven't grown to hit that number yet and maybe aren't projected to. Maybe that's just how their business is structured and they're going to stay small. So with that being the case, that's a great example of where someone might go back and analyze their book of business four or five years down the road and say, well yeah, these don't make sense for us anymore. It doesn't follow our new direction, our business model, our minimum standards listed on the marketplace. One man's trash is another man's treasure, to put it very layman's term. Right? And there are going to be solopreneurs all over the country that are a one man Sprint van kind of show and they would love to take on those two and three and five seats customers that make sense for them. So that's one use case. Whole books of business. There's several MSPs that are basically working a lifestyle business where it might be just them or Them and one other person, and they've got 15 or so contracts. They've had them now for 15 or 20 years, and they're ready to exit the business. And then they realize that maybe their business isn't actually worth as much as they thought it was. And I tell you, I heard a staggering statistic the other day is that for every three businesses MSPs that just shut their doors, there's only one that actually gets acquired through an M and A process. So we have a three to one ratio of businesses just closing their doors versus actually getting that book of business bought. So now, instead of just shutting the door and walking away, now you have the marketplace to go and either unload those contracts individually or sell that as an entire book of business. And the same can be true for M and A brokers who might be brokering a sale. And they're representing a seller. They find a buyer. The buyer says, we love the company. They've got 100 contracts, but we only want 70 of them because these 30 are VoIP contracts. We don't want to touch VoIP. We don't want to be in that business. And so the seller would either have to lose that revenue or tell the broker to move on and find another potential buyer. Well, in this instance, brokers are really liking it because now they can list those unwanted wanted contracts, they can divest them on the marketplace, let that deal go through, and then when those contracts sell, then that broker can cut a check to the seller and everyone walks away clean. So there are a lot of use cases for this, and probably some I'm not even thinking of, but we'll get there. [00:17:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure you will. I'm sure people will start to use it in ways that make you think, oh, that's a new thing. That's a great idea. [00:17:56] Speaker B: Let's compare this to ebay. [00:17:58] Speaker C: And I appreciate that eBay is a wholly different platform, but I first got onto eBay in 2001, and I know that because that's in my username on ebay, which I'm still using now in 2025, which is hilarious. And back in 2001, eBay was very basic, really. It was just. It was just a place where buyers and sellers met. And Obviously, fast forward 24 years, it's 2025. EBay has a million competitors, a million other places. You can sell stuff and buy stuff. And so eBay these days has a whole load of tools. It talks you through. It just makes it easy, doesn't it? [00:18:28] Speaker B: It makes it you want to sell. [00:18:30] Speaker C: Something, it's actually really easy because it does a lot of the work for you. [00:18:34] Speaker B: So where, where is MSP X positioned? Is it simply a case of we're just a place, a marketplace where people. [00:18:41] Speaker C: Can go, or are you advising people on pricing, are you advising them on contracts, on how to make it legally binding, on how not to get ripped off? All of that stuff. [00:18:49] Speaker D: Right, yes, excellent question. I will say our current minimally viable product, it does not have any of that, but version 2.0, that will be launched later this summer. Actually, it does have those things. We've taken those things into consideration. We want to instill buyer confidence, we want to instill seller confidence, we want to make the whole process as smooth as possible. So with that, we do have some, of course, AI that's going to be driving some of these, well, contract valuations and contract best matches versus the MSP profiles that have signed up and are in the marketplace. Right. We'll have access to all that data so we can leverage AI to be able to not only value the contract, but do a matchmaking process of sorts. Now, that's not to say you can't do your own matchmaking, you certainly can. But there will be suggestions in there for that to kind of walk you through that process. So. So yes, that is certainly coming in version two. [00:19:46] Speaker C: I love it, I love it. And just finally, Matt, just give us a, give us a brief preview into other stuff that you're working on in version 2. I'm guessing you've taken a thousand ideas and now you've just got to roadmap them into what you can actually do. [00:19:57] Speaker D: Yeah, we're kind of trying to bake them all into version two for sure. As I said, we're going to have some AI driven valuation and matchmaking in terms of contracts versus the MSPs out there that would probably be best suited for that. We're going to be bringing in a rating system. Now, it's not going to be an open dialog box where you can just type away, but it is going to be five very pointed questions with a five star rating. And we will send that to both the buyer and seller after the transaction. That way. Although we will be doing vetting when an MSP signs up to enter the platform, we also want those MSPs to be able to start building their own reputation within the community itself. And so that's why we really want MSPs to put their best foot forward in terms of selling and buying and being as respectful and transparent to one another as possible. So we'll have that rating system coming. There are a few other things that I don't want to mention right now because I don't know that they're going to make it into the, to the second revision. But in terms of what we're looking at as far as access to the marketplace, right now, it is a subscription based solely where it's $1,500 a year. To hit the marketplace with that, it puts really all the risk on the, on the msp because what if they sign up, pay that fee and get in and there aren't any contracts or there aren't any contracts that are likable for them? So that puts the risk on the msp. We wanted to take that risk and shift it. So what we're going to do is we're going to have a very minimal subscription fee and we're going to be taking a percentage of the transaction that way that puts all of the risk largely on us to make sure that the marketplace is full of available contracts. So that, so we're going to, so essentially in version 2.0, we're going to have a restructured fee, access to the marketplace. [00:21:53] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. [00:21:54] Speaker B: Matt, congratulations. [00:21:55] Speaker C: What's your son's name, by the way? What's his first name? [00:21:56] Speaker D: My son's name is Gage. G A G E Gage. [00:21:59] Speaker C: So well done, Matt and Gage. You've, you've, you know, you've had an idea, you've seen it through and now you're actually iterating it, which is just brilliant. So I want to get you back on the podcast, like let's say the. [00:22:09] Speaker B: The, the next middle of next year. [00:22:11] Speaker C: Back end of 2026. Let's, let's hear about what you're doing with version three, which I'm sure you can't even think, you can't even contemplate thinking about today, but that's just brilliant. So remind us again what it's called, what's the URL? [00:22:24] Speaker B: And for any MSPs who've got questions. [00:22:26] Speaker C: Because there's bound to be people who listen to this or watch this on YouTube and just want to know more. How can they get in touch with you? [00:22:31] Speaker D: Yeah, so The URL is www.mspx store. Again, the name of the company is the Managed Services Public Exchange, or MSPX for short. And what you'll see now again is the minimally viable product. We're probably going to be closing that door here soon, the Marketplace soon. And just putting up a blurb on the landing page to let you know to be expecting 2.0. We just don't want any more MSPs to be logging into the original MVP because there's a much better experience coming if you need to get ahold of me. If you have any questions in terms of buying and selling of contracts and you want to learn more about the marketplace, I can be reached at mat. That's M A T T at MSPX. [00:23:14] Speaker A: Store Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast Paul's. [00:23:19] Speaker B: Personal Peer Group okay, superstar DJ producer James, what's our question this week? [00:23:25] Speaker E: Well, thanks Paul. This week's question is from Steve. His MSP is based in Massachusetts and his question is actually quite a common one. This comes up fairly frequently. It's to do with social media for MSPs, specifically LinkedIn. How often should I post on LinkedIn? [00:23:45] Speaker B: So posting regularly on social media is normal, desirable and encouraged by the algorithms. Social media, including LinkedIn, is so disposable that you need to be in front of people all the time. So a good rule of thumb is to post one thing every 24 hours. But what should you post every day? Well, when it comes to LinkedIn, the general rule of thumb for content is your own highly personalized real content is better than canned content like you get from my MSP Marketing Edge service is better than nothing. So if you can do your own content, do that. If you haven't got that every day, then get a service in like the MSP Marketing Edge. And the alternative is to do nothing and not be as active on LinkedIn. But you want to try and post a piece of content every 24 hours. To submit your own question, you can email me, go to MSP marketingedge.com and head to the Contact Us page. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Coming up, coming up next week. [00:24:45] Speaker B: Thanks for listening this week. Next week I've got an interesting idea which could help you achieve more and grow your business faster. It's all about getting greater accountability for you. And don't worry, I know that if you own your own business, you don't want a boss. But you can still be accountable to someone. Even if no one can fire you. Who should you be accountable to? I'll reveal all in next Week's show. [00:25:09] Speaker A: For MSPs around the world. Around the World, the MSP Marketing Podcast with Paul Green.