9 MSP marketing ideas to break into a new vertical

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Don't worry if you haven't yet learned the marketing superpowers to grow your MSP. Just find yourself a cape and a wise old guide to teach you. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Speaking of which, oh yes, we're back with a freshly baked podcast for you. Mmm, smells amazing. Here's what's coming up today. We've got nine rapid fire marketing ideas to break into a new vertical, the best way to stand out at networking meetings. And my guest expert this week will tell you how to find and buy another MSP. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Welcome to episode 254, powered by mspmarketingedge.com dot Paul Greens and MSP Marketing podcast. [00:00:41] Speaker B: One of the easiest ways to grow your MSP is to target a vertical. And marketing to a vertical is so much easier than marketing to a general audience because you know exactly who you're marketing to, exactly where they are, exactly what their problems are, and how you can solve those problems so you can make your, your marketing message sounds so much more relevant to them. A lawyer, for example, is much more likely to listen to you if youre using the word lawyer than if youre just talking about business owners. Let me give you nine rapid fire marketing ideas to break into a new vertical. So there are many benefits of marketing to a vertical. You can do it alongside your general business. And once youve picked a vertical, there are a number of actions that you should take to get your marketing properly set up. Here are the first nine that I recommend in the order that you should do them. Number one, build a website just for that vertical now, not just a new page on your existing site. Do it properly. Put together a four to five page website just for that vertical. The goal is to appear to be a true specialist to your target prospects, and a proper website is a basic MSP marketing fundamental. Number two, set up a vertical specific LinkedIn or Facebook, depending which platform most decision makers in your vertical use. Number three, start posting regular content so that you have a presence. Make sure to put the name of the vertical into the headline and or the intro paragraph. Now sometimes making content seem relevant to a vertical is as simple as mentioning that vertical, and also look for how they refer to themselves and their business. So, for example, accountants have a practice, not a business. Number four, start networking and meet as many decision makers as you can. Look for relevant vertical business shows or other events that you can attend. And nothing beats pressing the flesh when you're just getting started in a vertical. I promise you'll have a marketing revelation at every event. Five, build your email list. It's easy to get started with a vertical because you can just buy targeted data. You can also scrape Google or get a virtual assistant to just go through Google searches and make a database up for you. Six, get your marketing machine working, generating prospects that you can speak to, doing all the things we've just been talking about, and then pick up the phone and call them. Phone calls will always get you to a new client faster. Number seven, once you have a vertical client, turn them into a case study or a testimonial as quickly as you can and this will give others the faith to buy from you. Number eight, look for other forums where your vertical decision makers hang out. Do they have Facebook groups? LinkedIn groups? Chat forums? Can you become become a member of these? Best to do this properly and above board rather than try to sneak in. And don't try to sell add value by answering relevant questions. Just make sure there is a link to your vertical website in your profile. And then finally, number nine, get to know the movers and shakers in your vertical associations. You're ultimately serving the same people, so be persistent getting to know them, but do play a long game. The key question to ask is, what do these influencers want or need and how can I help them get it? If you help them them, of course, at some point theyre going to help you. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Paul Greens, MSP Marketing podcast still to. [00:04:06] Speaker B: Come have you ever thought that it would be quicker to grow your MSP by acquiring another MSP? Well youd be absolutely right to think that way. But then you have a new problem. How do you find an MSP for sale? And how do you even start a conversation about a possible acquisition? My guest today is an expert at exactly how to do this, and he'll tell you in the next five minutes. Let's talk about networking. And I don't mean the enjoyable networking with cables and that lovely sound it makes when the plug goes into the socket that bink. No, I mean the networking that's less enjoyable where you're getting up early, overpaying for an unhealthy breakfast and getting stuck in a corner being bored by strangers. In order to get the most from the networking meetings that you go to, you have to stand out, but in the right way, in the most authentic way. And I'm going to tell you exactly how to do that. Hey, I'm Paul Green, and don't forget, for help finding new clients for your MSP, we've created an easy to follow marketing system. Get that and all the content to go in [email protected]. i haven't been networking for a while, but I did once go to a networking meeting where there was a guy dressed in a bright kind of a gold lame jacket so that he could stand out. I'm not kidding at all. No one took him at all seriously because he just looked like an out of work magician. And you know, the best way to stand out at a networking meeting meeting is not to wear a gold sparkling jacket. It's to be interested. Not interesting, but be interested. Essentially what I mean is you shouldn't try to stand out by standing out by going, woo hoo, look at me. Instead, work the room. Make every person feel like they are the most important person there. Give them your full attention with no distractions. Have a poker face if they're boring, and just ask them lots of open questions about their favorite subject, which is of course, themselves and their business. If they ask any questions back about yours, just give them a one line answer and then flip it around and ask another open questions. Here's the thing about talking to relative strangers. The less you talk about you, the more fascinating you will be to them. I promise you. That's true. After ten minutes or so, when you're kind of in that zone where you're starting to get bored of each other, suggest that you swap business cards and say, hey, we should go and meet some other people or you and I are going to be chatting all day. Because you are such a fascinating person. Maybe that last line doesn't quite sound so authentic. Make sure that the business card you give them has your most recent photo on it. Because in reality, that's all they're going to remember about you. Your face. They'll remember your face, they'll remember how your face made them feel, and they'll keep your card. And the ideal thing then is once they've got your card, they pulling it out. Three or four weeks later, they're looking at it and they're like, oh, I remember that person. They were fascinating. And of course, your business card says exactly what you do. Tell me, what's your advice to really max out a networking event? [00:07:04] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP marketing podcast. Still to come. [00:07:08] Speaker B: We talk a lot in this podcast about working on the business rather than in it. But what do you do if every time you're working on the business, trying to grow it and generate more revenue and profit, your staff keep interrupting you with minor problems that really they could solve on their own? Well, another MSP has this exact problem, and I'm going to suggest the answer in the next five minutes. [00:07:31] Speaker C: There are very few shortcuts to growing. [00:07:34] Speaker B: Your business, but one of them is to acquire another MSP. In a single transaction, you can double your revenue and down the line dramatically increase your profits as well. But of course, doing this kind of acquisition is not easy. Never mind the hassles of integrating two businesses. Most MSP's fail at the very first hurdle, which is how to know which MSP's could be for sale and how to to start a conversation about that. My guest today has bought and sold so many businesses, he's going to make it really easy for you. Today's guest will tell you how to find another MSP for sale and start a conversation about acquiring them. [00:08:11] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Jonathan J from dealmakers dot co dot uk dot. [00:08:14] Speaker C: And thanks so much for coming back onto the podcast, Jonathan. I think it's about, it's getting on for three, maybe four years since you were last on. And I know that you've been very busy. You've been teaching thousands of business owners around the world, including many MSP's, how to find and by a competitor or another MSP and add it into their own business. And we're going to talk about exactly that on this interview. Now, before we jump into that, and I know everyone who's thinking of buying an MSP always has the same questions, which you're going to answer for us. [00:08:42] Speaker B: First of all, tell us a little bit about you. So what's your background and how did. [00:08:46] Speaker C: You get into buying and selling businesses? [00:08:48] Speaker B: Sure. [00:08:49] Speaker D: So 2024 is actually my dealiversary. So 25 years ago, I first sold a business. It was a publishing business. Someone approached me. I made more money the day I sold it than I had in the previous two and a half years of turning up to the office six days a week. So my eyes were open to what was possible. But it takes me a while to learn a lesson. So I actually started another business from scratch, which we all know is a lot of hard work. But then I bought out my major competitor, put the two businesses together, and then sold that to private equity in 2007. And that was a life changing deal. And even now, 18 years later, that deal is paying for my holidays, it's paying for my lifestyle. So I always say to people, one deal can change your life. And over the last 25 years, I've bought and sold more than 75 different businesses. And I've learned a lot along the way, and I've made all the mistakes so that you don't have to. [00:09:44] Speaker B: So it's amazing to hear a story. [00:09:45] Speaker C: Like that where you're still living off that one deal from 18 years ago. [00:09:49] Speaker B: But is that what every MSP owner. [00:09:51] Speaker C: Can expect when they start to do mergers and acquisitions? Or do most people start off with something a bit simpler, like just buying a competitor? [00:09:59] Speaker D: I tell you the mistake that most people make because they buy another business, but they buy a business that's way too small, so they buy someone who's smaller than they are because it's inside their comfort zone, instead of buying a business that's actually bigger than theirs. Now, when you buy a business that's bigger, it's actually easier to do the deal. It's easier to, interestingly, to negotiate a deal with a larger business. It's easier to finance the acquisition, and they typically have more professionalized accounts and financial functions, so it's actually easier to understand the business that you're buying. So number one mistake that people make is buying too small, getting frustrated and therefore not doing it again. [00:10:41] Speaker C: But one of the common objections that you hear from people when you suggest that a few, off the top of my head, I can imagine people saying, but Jonathan, I'll never be able to afford a bigger business. But Jonathan, they've got a management team and we haven't. But Jonathan, that's just ridiculous. I'm guessing you hear these and more. [00:10:56] Speaker D: Yeah. So let me tell you the mindset shift that needs to take place. So the mistake that people make is they start thinking, how can I afford this business? I want to buy it, but how can I afford it? And they start thinking about their savings and their pensions, and they start thinking about friends and family who could lend them money. They don't really want to go to the bank because the bank turned them down for a 10,000 pound overdraft. So they don't think the bank's going to be much help. So then give up, because they're actually asking themselves the wrong question. You see, when you ask yourself the question, how can I afford it? You go down a certain thought pattern of, how much cash have I got at the bank and how much money can I borrow? The question you should be asking yourself is, how can I fund it? So if I was to buy this business, how can I fund it? Now, what we want to do, we want to fund the acquisition of this business without putting in any of our personal money. And that's a very, very important rule that I live by. You never put in your personal money. Now, if you take yourself out of the equation and you start saying to yourself, how can I fund this? You take the knowledge that you've acquired about funding businesses, and all of this is learnable. You take all the information, learn about funding businesses, and you create what we call a deal jigsaw, where we take all these different elements of funding, we fit them together, and we create the ability to buy that business without putting in any of our own cash. [00:12:25] Speaker C: And do you see, if we take MSP's as a specific example, because I know you work with all sectors everywhere across the world. Do you see that actually, someone buying another business like theirs, whether it's a bigger one or a smaller one, are they more likely to succeed with that because they already understand the business and therefore they know where the costs can be cut and you know where corners can be cut and where corners can't be cut. [00:12:46] Speaker D: Yeah, 100%. The mistake that I see people make is they buy a business that they don't understand, and then when they've got it, they don't know what to do with it. They don't know what's good about it, what's bad about it, and it's a really easy trap to fall into. But if you're buying a business that's similar to yours, in a different location, maybe even in a different country, you understand what you're buying, you know what to look for. You can look at their accounts and you can understand whether you think they're spending too much money on staff, they're overhead are too high, they're spending too much on their office, and as a result, you can see savings, but you can also see synergies. You can say, well, if we buy that business that's in the next town, do we need their office as well? Do we need all of their staff? Could we merge the two together and those cost savings just drop straight to the bottom line to create more profit and more money in your pocket. [00:13:43] Speaker C: Yes, I guess theoretically you could use the profits, the increased profits from that. [00:13:47] Speaker B: To help to fund the deal. [00:13:49] Speaker C: So it's almost like you're taking the profits that you're going to realize down the line and you're using those to pay off the owner down the line. Is that the kind of thing that you put together in your deal? Jigsaw? [00:13:59] Speaker D: I don't believe that you should ever agree a fixed price for a business. And the reason I say that, and it's very different to what you will hear from anyone else, is because businesses go through ups and downs. They go through cycles of high performing, moderately performing, and having a tough time. And then back having an amazing time. So I think that you should always agree a price for a business that is related to the results. There is a connection between the two, and that means that if the business performs, the seller gets more. But if they've sold you something that's about to fall off a cliff and isn't going to perform, and they kind of know that they just can't wait to offload it onto you, then they get less because the business isn't performing. And what that does, it completely de risks the acquisition. And I'm all about de risking the acquisition so that you're not left with a problem. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I love this. And actually, I've been watching your YouTube channel, and you have some fascinating videos on there where you're talking to people that you've taught how to go and acquire a business. And a lot of the things you've just said there, it's great to hear your clients, your students. I guess it's hard to call someone who's in their forties or fifties a student when they're running a successful business, but to hear them saying that they've done exactly that, which is really cool. Okay, one final question for you, and it's kind of a get started question. So let's assume we've got an MSP's watching this on YouTube or listening to this on the podcast, thinking, oh, yes, this is it. I want to do this. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Where do they start? [00:15:34] Speaker C: Because I know that's the question that I most commonly get about m and. [00:15:38] Speaker B: A is where do I find other MSP's for sale? [00:15:41] Speaker D: So the simplest thing to do is to go to the people already in your contacts, people that you already know, and you don't ask them if they would like to sell to you. Or you don't say, I want to buy your business, because that's just sending completely the wrong message. This is what you say. You say this word for word. You say, if you were ever thinking about selling your business, would you let me know? Okay. An alternative to that is to say, do you know anyone who's selling their MSP? And in both cases, what we're doing in a very soft way that we're saying we're interested, but we're allowing them to contact us. Maybe not immediately, maybe a few days later, they might say, look, you asked me that the other day, and I've been thinking about it. I think I might be interested. It's a very, very gentle, polite, and professional way of starting the conversation without the bluntness of, do you want to sell your business, which I think probably won't get you the response that you're looking for. [00:16:44] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you, Jonathan. [00:16:46] Speaker B: So tell us more about what deal. [00:16:47] Speaker C: Makers does and how can you help MSP's to acquire another MSP? And what's the best way for us to get started with you? [00:16:54] Speaker D: So we help people in over 56 countries around the world buy businesses, whether it's their first business or they've already bought some businesses, but they want to do it bigger and better. And I've got lots and lots of free resources to give away and you can find them on dealmakers Dot co dot UK. All you have to do is download the free resources and if you need any help at all, just send us a message. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Paul Green's MSP marketing podcast Paul's personal peer group. [00:17:23] Speaker B: Let's end another episode of the show. Answering one of your questions, producer James what have we got this week? [00:17:29] Speaker E: Well, this is a great question to end this week's episode. So Fiona heads up the marketing for the MSP that she works at in New Hampshire asks, in terms of websites I've heard about exit intent pop ups, a, what is it? And b, should I have one on our website? [00:17:50] Speaker B: One of the most important ingredients you need in your website is a strong call to action, also known as a CTA. Now this is the thing you most want them to do. After visiting your site, your main CTA's are likely to be in order of priority. [00:18:04] Speaker C: Number one, book a 15 minutes appointment. [00:18:06] Speaker B: With you through your live calendar. Now, if they don't do this, you want them to. Number two, go through your data capture. And if they don't do this, then you want them to, number three, connect with you on LinkedIn. So an exit intent pop up spots when someone's intending to leave your webpage and displays a pop up. Is it annoying? [00:18:24] Speaker C: Well, yes, a little bit. [00:18:26] Speaker B: But does it get conversions? And the answer to that is also yes. We used to use one on our website some time ago and we got probably around two or three people a week joining our mailing list. Now, that's not huge, but over the years it does add up. Now we custom built hours. Popular tools available include hallow, bar wise pops and optimonk. And of course, there are dozens of WordPress plugins that will do exactly the same thing. Now, if you've got a question about anything in your MSP that you'd like help with, just go to the contact [email protected]. and don't forget. For all the content, tools and training to market and grow your MSP, check out mspmarketingedge.com dot coming up. [00:19:06] Speaker A: Coming up next week. [00:19:07] Speaker B: Thank you so much for listening this week. Next week, how to minimize interruptions and stupid questions from your staff for msps around the world. [00:19:17] Speaker A: Around the world, the MSP marketing podcast with Paul Green. Well, that was super.