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One hour on your pricing and positioning, with written notes and clear actions afterwards.

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Review your pricing, margins and client mix, with a plan and templates for your next price increase.

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A diagnostic across ten areas of your business, with what it is costing you and a roadmap.

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Discovery questions, a value calculator and a proposal format that leads with outcomes.

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Three months of hands-on implementation: pricing tools, proposals, positioning and client communications.

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Are you competing on price or value?

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GUIDES

Value-Based Pricing Guide

How value-based pricing works for service businesses

Customer Journey Mapping

Find and fix the problems that matter before investing in solutions

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Pricing, proposals and positioning, published weekly

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Tag: Managed Services

  • Should You Fire a Client? How to Decide Using a Client Scorecard

    Should You Fire a Client? How to Decide Using a Client Scorecard

    A business owner once told me, with some pride, that they had never lost a customer. I asked whether they enjoyed working with all of them. They admitted a few were difficult: always asking for free work or discounts, disliked by the team, and never given a price increase because the owner could not face the argument.

    Those clients were taking a large share of the team’s time, holding down margins and making the work less enjoyable. A retention rate of 100% was hiding the problem.

    This guide explains how to decide whether a client is worth keeping, using two simple scorecards: one before a client signs and one while you work with them. It includes example scorecards you can adapt and the options you have when a client scores badly.

    Why keeping every client can hurt your business

    Many owners treat retention as a score where higher is always better. The costs of a poor-fit client rarely show up clearly in the accounts. They show up in time spent on rework, scope arguments, late payments and a tired team.

    A marketing consultant I worked with had a client paying £1,800 a month. On paper it looked like a good account. When we added up the hours the team spent on it and the effect it had on morale, the client was costing the business money.

    Owners usually keep clients like this for three reasons: worry about replacing the revenue, reluctance to have a difficult conversation, and concern about what the client might say to others. Meanwhile the time those clients take up is time the business cannot give to clients who value the work and pay properly for it.

    Some client turnover is healthy. Needs change, key contacts move on and your business moves in a different direction. The aim is to decide deliberately which clients to keep, using criteria you have set in advance, so the decision rests on evidence you can point to.

    Case study: how scoring cut churn at a logistics company

    A global logistics company came to me losing 35% of its clients every year. The leadership team believed the problem was in customer service. When we looked at the whole client lifecycle, the cause turned out to be earlier.

    The company mainly served American businesses expanding into Europe. The offer was attractive and plenty of companies signed up, but many left after about six months. They liked the idea of expanding into Europe but were not ready to do it.

    We built a scoring system that rated prospects on five factors:

    • Product fit for European markets
    • Previous experience with third-party logistics
    • Language capabilities
    • Understanding of UK and EU regulations
    • Marketing plans for European customers

    The scores predicted which clients were likely to leave within six months. Early terminations fell by 55%. Over the following three years revenue grew by 140% while the team’s workload fell by 20%.

    The company did not simply turn low-scoring prospects away. The scores showed a gap in the market, and the company built a new service line that helps businesses prepare for European expansion. Prospects who were not ready became clients of that service first.

    Scorecard 1: before a client signs

    A pre-engagement scorecard helps you spot poor-fit clients before you commit. Choose five to eight factors that predict a successful engagement in your business, and score each from 1 to 5. The example below suits many service businesses; replace any factor that does not apply to yours.

    FactorScores 1 if…Scores 5 if…
    Budget fitThey want your full service at well below your priceYour price is within their budget without negotiation
    ReadinessThey like the idea but cannot act on it yetThey have the people, time and data to start now
    Decision-makingSeveral people must approve, and you have not met themYou are speaking to the person who decides
    Provider historyThey have been through several providers recentlyThey have long relationships with their suppliers
    Openness to adviceThey want you to do exactly what they sayThey ask for your view and act on it
    Fit with what you do bestThe work sits at the edge of your servicesThe work is what you do best

    Set a threshold before you start using it. With six factors, a total below 18 out of 30 might mean you walk away, or that you address the weak areas before signing (for example, a paid discovery phase for a client who is not yet ready).

    Being clear about what a good client looks like also improves your marketing and sales conversations, because you know which prospects to spend time on.

    Scorecard 2: while you work with a client

    Client relationships change. A new finance director may care only about cost, or a client who used to accept your advice may start questioning every recommendation. Score every client each quarter against factors like these.

    FactorScores 1 if…Scores 5 if…
    ProfitabilityThe time spent is out of proportion to the feeMargin on the account is at or above your target
    Scope disciplineRegular requests for work outside the agreementChanges are raised and paid for properly
    PaymentInvoices are regularly lateInvoices are paid on time
    ResultsThey are not getting value from the workThey can point to results from your work
    Ease of working togetherThe team dreads their callsThe team enjoys the work
    Growth potentialNo prospect of the account growingClear scope to do more for them

    Agree in advance what happens when a client falls below your threshold, for example two quarters in a row. Scoring is most useful as an early warning, because it lets you raise problems while the relationship can still be fixed. Clients who value the work usually respond well to an open conversation about the scores. A client who will not engage with the facts has given you useful information too.

    What to do with a low-scoring client

    Ending the relationship is one option of several.

    • Reset expectations. A frank conversation about scope, communication or payment can change the relationship.
    • Adjust the price. If the account takes more time than it pays for, raise the price to reflect the work. The client will either pay a fair rate or leave, and both outcomes improve your position.
    • Offer a different service model. A simpler, lower-touch package may suit them better and take less of your time.
    • Help them move on. Introduce them to a provider that suits them better, and hand over properly so the relationship ends well.

    A client who is wrong for you is often not getting your best work either. Helping them find a better fit is usually good for both sides.

    Next step

    Score your current clients against the second scorecard this month. Many owners find a few accounts that take far more time than they pay for. Decide which of the four options above fits each one.

    If you would like help building scorecards around your own client journey, customer journey mapping is where that work starts. For a wider view of your pricing, profitability and client base, the Value Transformation Assessment gives you a picture in around five minutes.

    If you run an MSP, the MSP case study shows how one IT company improved profit without taking on new clients.

  • How One IT Company Boosted Profits by 43% Without a Single New Client

    How One IT Company Boosted Profits by 43% Without a Single New Client

    An IT service provider I worked with increased profit by 43% without bringing in a single new client.

    They had not touched their prices in four years. Like a lot of businesses, they were afraid to charge more and under constant pressure to compete on price. Their revenue had flatlined while costs kept rising. The owner told me in our first meeting: “We feel stuck. Every year we are working harder, but it never seems to get any easier.”

    In eight weeks, we raised their prices by 8%, cut their costs by 3%, and not one customer left. Here is exactly how we did it.

    The Cost of Keeping Prices Flat

    For four years, this IT company left their rates untouched while their costs kept rising. Over that time they gave away nearly half their potential profit without realising it.

    This is not unusual. Many service businesses compete on price instead of pricing based on value. You keep prices the same hoping to keep clients happy. A competitor appears offering the same thing for less. You discount to win new business and avoid increasing prices for existing customers. Before long there is almost nothing left in your margins.

    The owner was cutting staff just to keep the business profitable. They were working longer hours for the same return. And the losses were invisible. Few clients ever questioned invoices or asked for discounts. The problem was the pricing.

    Why Clients Stay for the Value of the Service

    When we looked closely at the client base, something became clear. Customers were staying because the service was good.

    Clients valued reliable systems, fast resolutions, and the peace of mind the company provided. Many had been with the business for years. Their service was tailored to each client’s industry and solved real problems. The value they received far outweighed the cost.

    By not adjusting prices to reflect that value, the company was missing the chance to reinvest in staff, better tools, training, and service improvements. Standing still cost them profit, and it also cost them the chance to build a stronger business for the team and for the clients.

    When clients see you as a solution to their problems, conversations move from price to outcomes. That change in thinking made everything else possible.

    The Psychology of Raising Prices

    Any price increase involves work on the numbers, but the harder part is psychology. How you talk about the change shapes how your clients see it.

    Simply announcing that prices are going up makes the change about your costs, and clients tend to resist it.

    A better approach is to make it a conversation about value. We explained to clients: “To keep delivering these results and to add the new security features your business needs, we are making a small adjustment to your rate.” The conversation stayed focused on what each client would gain.

    Think of it like upgrading to premium economy. You pay more because you can see the value in extra leg room and better service. How an increase is framed has a big effect on how clients respond to it.

    How We Approached Each Client

    We reviewed each client individually: how long they had been with the company, how engaged they were, and how sensitive they might be to change.

    For each long-term client, we focused on what mattered to that client. The hours saved every month. The downtime they had avoided. The peace of mind from not worrying about system failures. We pulled out real numbers showing how those outcomes translated into lower risk and higher productivity for their business.

    That gave the owner and their team confidence. They could see exactly how much value they were delivering compared to what clients were paying.

    We kept the adjustment in the high single digits and made sure every client understood exactly what they would gain. For some it was access to new technology. For others it meant stronger security or more responsive support.

    The response was positive. One client said: “I appreciate you improving your service every year and being upfront about what we are getting for the change. That is rare.”

    Handling a price change as a conversation about value keeps trust intact. Clients focus on what they will get next.

    Where We Found Cost Savings

    Costs are the second area that affects profit, and they are often overlooked. They played a big part in reaching the 43% profit increase.

    When people think about improving profit, they often focus on revenue. Some of the simplest wins are in everyday expenses.

    With this IT company, we started by digging into operational costs. The first thing we noticed was a pile-up of overlapping software subscriptions. They were paying for nearly 20 different tools: multiple project management platforms, several cloud storage providers, and a handful of security apps that all did more or less the same thing. By consolidating those subscriptions, we cut thousands of pounds each month from their outgoings without losing a single critical feature. The team had never realised how many of those small recurring costs had built up over time.

    Vendor contracts were another source of savings. Some agreements had not been reviewed in years and usage had changed significantly since they were first signed. A quick round of renegotiations, in some cases just picking up the phone to ask for a pricing review, led to immediate savings. In a few cases, switching to a new supplier brought better service at a lower price.

    Staying with the same supplier for years without a review can mean you are overpaying.

    One of the most effective operational changes was moving to automated invoicing. The team had been spending hours each week manually sending invoices and chasing payments. By switching to an automated system, they cut billing time by 80% and saw clients pay faster, which improved their cash flow.

    None of these changes reduced the quality of service. If anything, they created more space for the team to focus on strategic work and better client support.

    Why Pricing and Cost Savings Multiply Each Other

    Lower costs and simpler operations meant every pound saved went straight to profit. The two changes also multiply each other’s effect.

    Once you have cleaned up costs, raising prices becomes easier and more impactful. You have more confidence in your margins. You can point to genuine investment in service quality. You can have the value conversation from a stronger position.

    The biggest jump in profit often comes from looking at what you already have, reviewing your prices, and trimming unnecessary costs. Many businesses overlook these basics, and they are often where the easiest profit gains are.

    Three Lessons from This Case Study

    First, clients will accept reasonable price increases when you tie them directly to value and they can see what they are getting.

    Second, many businesses can find cost savings in the expenses they already have. Overlapping subscriptions, unreviewed vendor contracts, and manual processes that could be automated all reduce your margin.

    Third, when you combine smart pricing with operational efficiency, the results multiply. An 8% price increase and a 3% cost reduction delivered 43% more profit. Neither would have got there alone.

    If your prices have not changed in a while, or you are not regularly reviewing your expenses, it is worth checking how much profit you are missing.

    The MSP Pricing Scorecard shows where your MSP’s pricing needs work. It takes three minutes: 14 questions, with your score on screen straight away and a full report by email.

    To get an indicative figure for what your MSP is worth, use the free MSP Valuation Calculator.

  • 6 things every MSP should fix to improve profitability and business valuation

    6 things every MSP should fix to improve profitability and business valuation

    If you’re running an MSP and you’ve ever thought about improving your margins, or even considered what your business might be worth if you sold it one day, there are a handful of things that make a big difference.

    None of them are complicated. But many MSPs I work with aren’t doing all of them, and some aren’t doing any.

    Here are six of them.

    If you’d like a number to anchor this against before you start, our free MSP valuation calculator gives you an indicative valuation in about two minutes, based on the same factors covered below.

    1. Move away from break-fix

    This one comes first because it matters most.

    If the majority of your revenue still comes from ad-hoc break-fix support, it’s going to hold back both your profitability and your valuation. Buyers and investors want predictable, recurring revenue. They want to see a business that generates income whether or not something breaks on a Tuesday afternoon.

    Break-fix revenue is unpredictable by nature. It’s hard to forecast, hard to staff for, and it positions you as reactive. If you’re still predominantly break-fix, transitioning to managed services contracts should be your number one priority.

    2. Get customers onto annual (or longer) contracts

    Monthly rolling agreements are a step up from break-fix, but they’re not great for valuation purposes either. A buyer looking at your business wants to see committed, contracted revenue that’s going to stick around.

    The higher your percentage of clients on 12-month or longer contracts, the more predictable your revenue looks, both to a potential buyer and to your own cashflow planning. It also gives you a much stronger foundation for planning investments in your team and technology.

    If you’re nervous about asking clients to commit, consider this: clients who are happy with your service are usually comfortable signing an annual contract, especially if there’s a small incentive to do so.

    3. Track support margins and project margins separately

    This is one of the most common gaps I see.

    Many MSPs have one set of accounts that blends everything together. Support revenue, project revenue, all the costs, one big number at the bottom. The problem is, you can’t tell whether your recurring support business is genuinely profitable on its own.

    And that matters, because when someone values your business, they’ll look at the recurring support revenue with a much higher multiple than project work. Project revenue is lumpy and unpredictable. Support revenue, if it’s profitable and growing, is where the real value sits.

    Separating these out doesn’t require a new accounting system. It just requires some discipline in how you allocate costs and report your numbers. Once you can see both margins clearly, you’ll make better decisions about where to focus, what to price, and what to fix.

    4. Know your per-customer profitability

    Not all customers are equal. Some are profitable, some are breaking even, and some are actively costing you money once you factor in the support time, the scope creep, and the constant back-and-forth.

    Many MSPs have never properly worked this out. They have a general sense of who the “difficult” customers are, but they haven’t put actual numbers against it.

    Until you do, you can’t make good decisions about pricing, retention, or where your team’s time is best spent. You might find that your largest customer by revenue is actually one of your least profitable. Or that a smaller client you’ve been neglecting is delivering excellent margins.

    This is also where a client scoring system becomes useful. By rating clients across factors like profitability, payment behaviour, cultural fit, and growth potential, you can make objective decisions about who to invest in, who needs a pricing conversation, and who might be better served by someone else.

    5. Stop selling a menu of services

    Many MSPs present their services like a restaurant menu. Network monitoring, backup, helpdesk, security, cloud services, all listed out and priced individually. The client picks what they want, compares your menu to someone else’s, and chooses on price.

    That’s commodity positioning, and it reduces your margins.

    Instead, package your services around the outcomes your clients actually care about. They don’t want “network monitoring” as an abstract concept. They want their systems to work reliably so their team can focus on their jobs. They want to know they’re protected and that someone competent is handling the technology so they don’t have to think about it.

    When you sell outcomes, the price conversation changes. Clients judge you on the value of the result you deliver, which makes a line-by-line comparison with a cheaper competitor much harder.

    6. Build in an annual price review process

    If you haven’t raised prices in two or three years while your costs have gone up (salaries, licensing, tools, insurance, the usual), you’re effectively earning less every year. Your margins shrink each year, and many MSPs don’t notice until it has become a real problem.

    Building an annual pricing review into your business is essential. How you communicate it matters just as much. Give clients proper notice, explain what you’re investing in, focus on the value they continue to receive, and don’t apologise for it. We cover the wording and timing in how to communicate a price increase to clients.

    Many clients expect annual increases. The ones who leave over a reasonable adjustment were usually not great clients to begin with. For a worked example, see this MSP price increase case study, where an IT company raised prices without losing a single client.

    Where does your MSP stand?

    Many MSPs I work with are technically excellent. They deliver great service and their clients genuinely value what they do. Yet they compete as if they’re a commodity, because they haven’t addressed the positioning, pricing, and packaging issues that separate a good MSP from a premium one.

    Small changes in these areas can make a significant difference to profitability. And if you’re ever thinking about selling, they can significantly increase what your business is worth.

    If you want to see where your MSP’s pricing, profitability and valuation stand, and what to change first, the Value Transformation Assessment gives you a picture in around five minutes.

    The free MSP Pricing Scorecard takes three minutes. It checks how you set and raise prices, how you package and prove your services, and how your client conversations about price go. It shows where margin is being lost and what to fix first.