James Davis from Pax8, Ryan Spillane from 360 Consulting, and Aaron Smith from Morphability as they delve into the topic “Thriving in the MSP Arena: Essential Tactics for Retaining Profitable Business”.
Healthy MSPs don’t aim for zero churn — they aim for 100% retention of desired, aligned customers. Losing unprofitable, misaligned, or non-paying clients is often a sign of business maturity, not failure.
High revenue clients can still destroy margin through over-servicing, late payments, or poor scope control. MSPs must regularly review customer-level profitability, aged receivables, and true delivery costs — not rely on gut feel.
Customers don’t want quarterly technical audits filled with metrics they don’t understand. Retention improves when MSPs focus conversations on business outcomes, risk, efficiency, and growth, not tools, tickets, or speeds and feeds.
Relying on one champion is risky. Strong retention comes from multiple relationships across the organisation, including executive sponsors, so the partnership survives role changes, acquisitions, or leadership turnover.
The easiest revenue growth comes from existing customers — but only when MSPs clearly articulate value. Uplift comes from aligned add-on services, security controls, productivity improvements, and trusted advisory, not price-driven upsells.
