🎙️ In part 2 of our 4th Quarter Living series, Paco Lebron, Rick Smith, and Nancy Henriquez get into the clients you keep and the prices you charge. After last week's inventory of the year, they talk about how to rank your book of business, why the client who pays you the most is not always your most profitable, and how to plan an annual increase without surprising people you signed mid-year.
Rick walks through his September ranking and October increase letters. Nancy goes a layer deeper than margin, into values and the clients who keep you up at night. Paco talks about firing an account that was hurting culture, and about writing the increase into the MSA from day one. Real talk for growing MSP owners, under $1M with 10 or fewer techs.
What You'll Learn:
How to rank clients by revenue and by the real cost to serve them
Why values and "caller ID dread" matter as much as margin when you decide who stays
How to handle annual increases, including clients you signed in the second half of the year
Why pricing correctly at the start beats trying to catch up later
How month-to-month, annual terms, and a 90-day onboarding window can protect both sides
What to do when a client is bought in an acquisition, and why a longer notice period helps
How to talk about an increase in person, including a dinner that sets the expectation
Why growing the accounts you already have, and capping any one client at about 10% of revenue, matters more than obsessing over churn
👉 Resources & Links:
Part 1, 4th Quarter Living: Score the Year, Set Up the Next: https://youtu.be/6HT7qVvSTFc
MSP Unplugged: https://mspunplugged.com
How do you rank your clients before you send a price-increase letter? Drop it in the comments.
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⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Welcome and catch-up
06:44 Last week, and this week's topic
07:19 Ranking your clients
08:26 Revenue is not the same as profit
12:32 Values, headaches, and a yearly increase
14:45 When a client hurts your culture
16:52 Who gets a price increase, and when
17:28 Start with the end in mind
19:05 How the annual increase works mid-year
21:04 Price it right from the beginning
23:12 Month-to-month, annual terms, and 90-day onboarding
28:18 Notice periods and clients lost in an acquisition
31:29 Wine and dine, then talk about the increase
36:37 How to have the conversation
39:03 Why most clients don't leave over price
41:34 Grow the accounts you already have
43:57 The 10% client cap, and wrap-up
47:39 Outro
Featuring hosts Paco Lebron, Rick Smith, and Nancy Henriquez.
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MSP Unplugged is the weekly podcast for growing MSP owners, under $1M with 10 or fewer techs.
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