Paul Green's MSP Marketing Podcast

The most powerful way for an MSP to let a prospect know who you are before they’ve ever spoken to you, is to tell them your origin story… find out how. Also this week, can you use your local community to generate leads?, and what if you could own your MSP but not have to run it?

Welcome to Episode 360 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

How to use your MSP’s origin story as a marketing asset



People buy from people, not from logos, not from service descriptions, and not from lists of accreditations. They buy from people. And the most powerful way to let a prospect know who you are before they’ve ever spoken to you is to tell them your MSP’s story. Today, I want to talk about your origin story, what it is, why it matters, and where to use it across all of your marketing. So let’s start by talking about why origin stories are so important for MSPs.

Every prospect who lands on your website or your LinkedIn or just looks at any of your marketing materials is subconsciously asking themselves the same question. Who is this person and can I trust them? A list of services that you do that doesn’t answer that question, a load of certifications or qualifications or memberships, or even talking about your tech stack which is weird and bizarre but some MSPs do it, none of those answer that at all. But a genuine human story does because you are talking to people who do not understand what you sell. They don’t know what they don’t know about technology, but they are wired the same as all other humans.

As humans we’re wired for stories. From childhood stories are how we learn, how we connect, and how we decide who to trust.

And this is built-in behaviour. It’s been the same behaviour for hundreds of thousands of years since humans first evolved into the kind of people we are today. In fact, we used to use stories to pass down knowledge from generation to generation before we had written languages. So we are hardwired to really respect and respond to stories. And so a prospect who reads your origin story and feels something, they can recognise parts of that story, they’re curious about it, they feel a warmth about you and what you’ve done with your life and your business. This is a prospect who has started to trust you before they’ve even met you. That is so powerful.

The commercial reality is that people buy from people that they know, like, and trust. Those three words are the most important things: know, like, and trust. And your origin story is the fastest route for you to achieve all three. So let’s explore what an origin story actually is. First of all, it’s not your resume, it’s not your CV. It’s not a timeline of what you’ve done within the business. It’s if you like the human narrative behind why you do what you do and how you came to do it in the first place. We all have an origin story. And there’s broadly two types of origin story that works really well for MSPs.

The first is the founder’s personal journey. So how did you come to be a business owner in the first place? What drove you to start your own MSP? What did that transition look and feel like to you? This works really well because business owners are universally interested in other business owners’ stories. So there’s an instant recognition and kind of like a feeling of solidarity there. If your prospect is a business owner who themselves took a leap of faith, then they will feel something when they read about your leap of faith.

The second type of origin story that works well is the businesses evolution story, how you came to work with the kind of clients that you work with, how a natural connection or some kind of happy accident led you to focus on a particular sector or type of business, and why that specialisation has made you genuinely better at what...

What’s the difference between MSPs that are standing still right now and those that are rocketing ahead? It’s a special episode today because there’s only three months left of 2026, and I’ve actually got one of my colleagues as a special guest. He’s spent 10 years talking to MSPs about how to grow their business, and he’s going to share all of his brain with you right now.

Welcome to Episode 359 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

Fast Growing MSPs Do Just TWO Things Differently



Featured guest: Ben Smith has been part of the MSP Marketing Edge journey from Day 1, he helps MSPs build simple, repeatable marketing systems that compound over time, generating consistent leads instead of chasing the latest trend.

Having spent over 15 years consulting with business owners he brings practical, real-world experience rather than marketing theory.

Away from work, you’ll usually find him outdoors with his family or working on his latest renovation project.

 

Hello, my name’s Ben Smith. I work with Paul at the MSP Marketing Edge.

And how has it taken so long to get you on the podcast? We’ve been doing this podcast, what, seven years or something like that?

Good question.

I know, it is a good question. And you and I have actually worked together a very long time, way longer than actually the MSP Marketing Edge has been around. We’ll explore that in a second. But it’s good to have you here today, Ben, because you talk to MSPs all day, every day, and you hear the good, the bad, sometimes you hear the ugly because your job of course is to help people with their growth, with their marketing. And that means you’ve got quite a unique insight into what’s happening with MSPs around the world right now. So do you want to just start by telling us a little bit about you and your background and how we came to work together and what exactly you do for us here in the MSP Marketing Edge?

Absolutely. So we’ve worked together for is it 15 years now, Paul?

Yeah, scary, isn’t it? You had hair when we started. You didn’t really. For those watching on YouTube, Ben has no hair whatsoever.

This is a personal choice. People often say when they find out we’ve worked together that long that I’m either good at what I do or that I’ve got some secret information on you. So they don’t know that it’s both at this stage.

Thank you.

But yeah, we worked together in the previous business working with healthcare sector and opticians, veterinary practices and dentists. And then of course we’ve been working together with the MSP Marketing Edge where you do the podcast and all the fun, crazy stuff. And I speak with MSP owners all over the world and find out what they’re looking to do with their business and if we can help them.

Exactly that. In fact, if anything, I have the fun and you do the hard work.

I enjoy it just as much. So it’s all good.

I’m sure you do. Well, I know you do for a fact. And actually you are talking to our existing members as well as new members who are looking to join us because you do all the one-to-one consultations with our members, you do all of our onboarding. So essentially Ben is pretty much the only member of our team who loves being on a Zoom call all day long. I don’t like being on Zooms, I prefer doing stuff like this. And actually it was just you and me if we go back 10 years to when we first started this business. And so you and I have been here right from the beginning.

And that actually leads onto my first question, which is what have you seen change since 2016 to 2026 in terms of how MSPs grow their business? So I don’t mean from a tech point...

A simple automated email sequence is one of the highest return marketing assets that your MSP can build… here’s how to get started. Also this week, how to get your whole team involved in marketing, and how to arrange a party for 3,000 MSPs.

Welcome to Episode 358 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

The one email sequence every MSP should have running



Most MSPs never use this, which even though it’s an oldie, is still completely valid in 2026. It’s an automated email sequence which warms up a prospect who has joined your CRM. And the beauty of it is that you set it up once and then you forget about it and it’s going to work for you for years and years to come. There are still far too many MSPs who connect with someone on LinkedIn or hand over a business card at a networking event or someone comes and downloads something from their website and that’s it. That person kind of disappears, maybe the MSP remembers them maybe they don’t, and actually they’re never contacted again.

Today, I want to fix that because a simple automated email sequence is one of the highest return marketing assets that your MSP can build. And as I say, once it’s set up, you don’t really have to do anything. Let’s talk about the one email sequence every MSP should have running. So we should start with looking at how people end up on your list in the first place and how if you don’t have a list, you should have a list.

Most MSPs underestimate the opportunity that having an email list presents.

So of course, LinkedIn connections are a massive source of leads because when you connect with a business owner or manager on LinkedIn, then not only do you have a connection on that platform, but you have the ability to then go and harvest other information about them. I’m a big fan of taking your connections on LinkedIn, finding their email address. There’s a number of different ways you can do that… you can either get it off LinkedIn or you can use a plugin like Lusher or something like that, or you can just go and Google it. There are only about seven or eight types of email address, paul@, paul.green@, pgreen@, p.green@, you get the idea, you go and brute force Google search those in speech marks and you will find that email address eventually.

So all those LinkedIn connections, you can go and find their email address and not enough MSPs are gathering email addresses and adding them into a CRM. Are you using a CRM? Do you have a basic one set up? Please go and do that quickly, it’s easy. Use MailerLite or MailChimp or if you’re in The Tech Tribe, you’ve already got one, it’s Growably, which is free as part of you’re the Tech Tribe membership. Go HighLevel is another popular one. Another one is ActiveCampaign. The ultimate one is HubSpot, but you will be paying them in kidneys every month. HubSpot’s really, really expensive. But the point is you can’t rely just on LinkedIn or gathering business cards. You’ve got to have a CRM where you are gathering people’s email addresses and you’ve got permission to email them.

By the way, if you do take all of those email addresses or just business cards or any emails you gather from anywhere, as long as you’re not doing this on mass and not just buying a bunch of data and shoving it in (that’s bad) but if you’re trickling in people you’ve met on LinkedIn or in real life, then what you do is you send them an email as soon as you put their email address in. You tell them what you’ve done, you say, “Hey, we just connected on LinkedIn, I hope you don’t mind but I found your email address and I’ve put it into my database. I’m going to send you one email a week about growing your business with technology. If you really don’t want that, there’s an unsubscribe button at the bottom.” And like 8 out of 10 people will not un...

Case studies are the single most powerful piece of marketing in an MSP’s toolbelt, here’s how to get started. Also this week, is it ever a good idea to rebrand your MSP? And, you can’t grow your MSP until you’ve got solid leadership (even if it’s just you and a tech).

Welcome to Episode 357 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

How to write a case study that makes prospects salivate



If a prospect said to you right now, “Go on, send me a case study about your MSP,” what would you send them? Do you have just a simple paragraph on your website that’s actually a testimonial wrapped up as a case study that’s just a client logo and a quote saying, “Great service would recommend?” That’s not a case study.

A case study is a proper story that takes a prospect on a journey. When they’re reading it or watching it they’re feeling and thinking, “That’s exactly my situation. This is the IT support company that I should be talking to and hiring.” Well, today I want to show you how to write that second kind, because done properly, a case study is one of the most powerful sales tools your MSP will ever have.

Let’s start by looking at why most MSP case studies are useless. And most MSPs either don’t have case studies at all, or if they do have something it’s so vague and generic it could have been written by anyone about anyone. If yours looks something like this, “We helped a local business to improve their IT infrastructure and reduce downtime”, well, that tells the prospect nothing at all. And the problem you’ve got there is you’ve written that case study from your own perspective. It’s about what you did technically rather than looking at everything from the client’s perspective. And the client cares about the problem they had, how it felt when the solution came in, and what changed, what got better, what the results were.

A case study is not a description of services, and it’s not a boast of how clever you are technically. A good case study tells a story.

Stories only work when they make the person who’s reading it, or watching it if it’s a video, it only works if it makes them feel something. You think about every book that you’ve ever loved, every movie that you left the cinema thinking, “Oh, that was just amazing.” None of those started with a list of features of things they were going to do in the film. They started with a character that you could relate to, and that character was in a situation that you recognised and they’ve got a problem that made you feel something.

The best stories move us emotionally. And do you know what? Case studies work exactly the same way, which is kind of weird when you think about it because it’s only marketing. But when you’re talking to ordinary business owners and managers, even when you’re talking to IT directors for co-managed IT, you’re looking to move them emotionally. The MSP who can emotionally move the prospect is dramatically more likely to win that prospect.

Let’s first of all address a big problem that a lot of MSPs throw up to me, and that is the issue of confidentiality. “But Paul, what if I lay out all of the details about my client and bad actors out there can use those details to attack our client, to pretend to be us?” I get this, I understand it, and I think this is a unique thing within managed services within the channel. It is a real fear, but it is your fear and not your client’s fear. The most common reason that MSPs don’t have proper case studies is that they’re too worried about naming clients publicly and giving details that will be out there. The reality is that that worry almost always belongs to you and not the client. And most happy clients are not just doing case studies with you, they are doing them with lots of other suppliers as well. Most clients are g...

A discovery call is the thing that turns a warm lead into a booked sales meeting – here’s a 6 part format for getting the most from them. Also this week, how to market your MSP during a quiet spell, and the secret to being recommended more by AI.

Welcome to Episode 356 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge.

The format for a perfect discovery call



The discovery call is the most underloved, most misunderstood part of the entire sales process for MSPs. Most owners treat it as an opportunity to tell the prospect about their services, but that’s not what it’s really for.

Done properly, a discovery call is the thing that turns a warm lead into booked sales meetings.

And right now I want to give you the exact format for running one that actually works, including the differences between a B2B call and a co-managed IT one. And I’ve broken this down into six easy parts to make it easy for you to understand, follow along, and of course implement.

Part 1: The mindset shift.

When we’re talking about a discovery call, we mean normally a video call and it’s normally the first quality contact with a new prospect. And the goal of the video call, the discovery call is not actually to sell anything. It’s actually to do two things. Number one is to qualify the prospect as someone that you really want to work with, someone that’s worth pursuing. And then secondly is to make them feel as though, “Ooh, this is interesting. These are the guys we should pursue.” So you know that you want to work with them and they are intrigued… they feel heard, they feel as though you could be the right people for them.

And the way that you do that is by zipping your mouth because the prospects should be talking like 80% of the time. You ask questions, but then you shut up and you listen really, really carefully and you just occasionally reflect back what you’ve heard, what they have said. Because the best sales don’t come from talking at someone the best or having the best pitch. They come from actually the best listening. So most MSP owners, they get on a discovery call and start talking about their services and their accreditations and their qualifications and their tech stack. And do you know that the prospect doesn’t really care about any of that stuff.

At the very beginning of the process, which is what this is, they just want to know if you can understand their world and if you can listen to them. And feeling heard is one of the most powerful psychological forces in all of human connection. When someone feels like you genuinely get them and get their situation and you understand their hopes and their fears and their wants and their needs, then you’re going to form some trust. In fact, they’re going to know you, they’re going to like you and they’re going to trust you. And when those three things are in place, they’re much more likely to give you a wad of cash and commit to you for a three-year contract. Beautiful, right?

Part 2: The ask – how long should you request for a discovery call?

This is where B2B and co-managed IT are slightly different. So in B2B, I believe you should ask the business owner for just 15 minutes on a discovery call. Why? Because it sounds like a tiny, tiny commitment. Most people are going to say yes to 15 minutes, whereas actually if you ask them for 30, that feels like a bigger chunk and certainly you don’t ask for an hour. So 15 minutes is absolutely perfect. Now in co-managed IT, you do ask for 30 minutes and that’s because IT directors, even though they’re super busy, super overstretched, they also have more complex situations to explain. And 15 minutes isn’t enough to have a peer-to-peer conversation about the real frustrations in their life. Because with business owners, it’s them as a normal perso...