How do I find more leads? How do people find clients? Why is my MSP is not growing? Why is my marketing not working? These questions (or variations of them) appear in nearly every MSP conversation I find myself in. If it’s not the TOP topic, it’s in the top 3 when I’m talking to MSP Business Owners.
Defining your Target Client Profile is the foundation for every sales, marketing, and prospecting decision your MSP makes. Get it right and everything downstream gets easier. Skip it and you’ll spend time and energy chasing clients that were never a good fit in the first place.
Let’s talk about how to build one.
What a Target Client Profile Actually Is
A Target Client Profile, or TCP, is a specific description clients your MSP is best positioned to serve. Not just any client you could technically support, but the kind of client you want more of. The ones who fit your model, respect your process, stay on your stack, and pay on time.
Think of it like a dartboard. Your TCP is the bullseye. That’s where you aim your marketing, your prospecting, and your energy. Just outside the bullseye is what I call your Acceptable Client Profile, or ACP. These are clients that don’t perfectly fit the bullseye but are close enough to work well. The further you get from the bullseye, the harder those clients are to support.
This doesn’t mean you reject every prospect that falls outside your TCP. Referrals happen. Good opportunities come from unexpected places. If a prospect outside your TCP is one you can support well and want to work with, take the meeting. Just know where your limits are and don’t make a habit of signing anything that walks in the door.
The Criteria That Define Your TCP
Most MSPs think about their TCP as a headcount range and a zip code. That’s a starting point, not a complete picture. Here are the criteria worth building out:
Company Size: Pick a tight range. A five to ten seat swing is a real target. “Ten to one hundred employees” is not. A ten-person company and a hundred-person company behave completely differently. They have different budgets, different expectations, and different support needs. Narrow this down to the size you can support efficiently and do it well over and over again.
Industry or Vertical: Which industries do you like working in, know well, and can support efficiently? This one matters more than most MSPs realize. When you know an industry, you know the lingo, you know the software, you know the compliance requirements, and you can ask smarter questions in a sales conversation. That kind of industry fluency is an easy differentiator. More on this in a minute.
Technology Preferences: Are they a PC shop or a Mac shop? Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace? Do they have existing infrastructure you’d need to support? Aim at clients whose technology environment aligns with where your team is strongest. If you’re not a strong Mac shop, aiming at creative agencies doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Attitude Around Technology: Do they see technology as a tool that drives their business forward, or do they see it as a necessary evil? The answer shapes how the relationship works. A client who values technology will take your recommendations seriously, budget appropriately, and lean into your expertise. One who doesn’t will fight you on every upgrade and wonder why they’re paying you.
Budget and Willingness to Invest: Do they have an IT budget? Are they willing to build one? Clients who have never had a real IT spend are often the hardest to bring up to your standards. Also, some MSPs prefer to not be the company’s first MSP. Some prefer to be their first. Think about this a little bit as it will often play into the budgeting conversation.
Stack Compliance: Will they be willing to adopt your stack? Your standardized tool set is what makes your team efficient. A client who refuses to come off their legacy setup or insists on running their own tools becomes an exception that costs you more to support than they generate in margin. Early in the life of your MSP you may be more willing to take a client that is less stack compliant. Eventually this becomes much more critical.
The Easiest Way to Define Your TCP
You don’t have to start from scratch. Look at your existing client base and identify the clients you would clone if you could. The ones who are easy to work with, pay on time, take your recommendations seriously, and fit your support model well. List them out and look for the patterns. What industry are they in? What size are they? What’s their attitude toward technology?
That pattern is your TCP. You’ve already proven you can serve those clients well. Build your marketing and prospecting around finding more of them.
Why Verticalization Changes the Game
Picking one or two industries to focus on is one of the highest-leverage things you can do as an MSP. Here’s why.
When you know an industry well, you stop sounding like a generalist and start sounding like a specialist. You know the software they run. You know the compliance requirements they face. You know what keeps them up at night. And when you walk into a sales conversation and ask smart, specific questions about their world, you build credibility before you’ve even talked about your services.
I spent years supporting K through 12 school districts. I knew the lingo, understood the seasonal pressures around standardized testing, and knew how to structure support around a teacher’s schedule. When I talked to a new school prospect, I didn’t have to tell them I knew their world. I could just demonstrate it. That’s a hard thing for a competitor who has never touched an education client to replicate.
Every industry has a version of this. Legal firms have their own language and concerns around discovery, litigation support, and client confidentiality. Dental offices worry about HIPAA and uptime on practice management software. Financial services firms are focused on compliance and data security. When you know these things, you’re not just an IT company. You’re their IT company. This builds trust very quickly. There’s an adage that says that people buy from those who they know, like, and trust.
The content angle is worth mentioning too. When you know your vertical, your blog posts, social media, and newsletter content can speak directly to that audience. Generic IT content gets ignored. Content that speaks to a dental practice owner’s specific concerns gets read and shared within that community. That’s how you build a reputation in a niche.
A Note on Volatile Industries
If you’re going to build a significant portion of your client base around one or two verticals, think about how those industries hold up when the economy gets rough. Hospitality, oil and gas, and construction are three I’ve seen take real hits during economic downturns. That doesn’t mean you avoid them entirely, but if you’re going to lean into a vertical, pairing a more volatile one with a more stable one is a smart hedge.
Two Misconceptions Worth Addressing
“A narrow TCP means fewer leads.” This is the most common push-back and it’s backwards. When you aim at everyone, your message resonates with no one. You become the MSP that “fixes computers,” which is a commodity. When you aim at a specific type of client with specific problems, your message lands with exactly the people you want to reach, and they pay attention. A narrow TCP doesn’t shrink your opportunity. It focuses it.
“I have to turn away anyone outside my TCP.” No, you don’t. Your TCP is a targeting tool for your marketing and prospecting, not a hard rule that eliminates every prospect that doesn’t match perfectly. If a referral comes in that’s outside your TCP but you can support them well and want to work with them, take the meeting. Just don’t build your sales motion around chasing those clients, and know where your ACP limits are before the conversation gets too far.
One More Thing: Maturity Alignment
When you’re evaluating a prospect, think about business maturity. If a prospect’s expectations and sophistication are significantly higher than where your MSP is today, they’ll pull on you constantly and expect things you’re not ready to deliver. If they’re significantly below you, you’ll spend your time fighting over stack compliance, budget, and basic expectations.
Neither situation is impossible to navigate, but both will cost you more than you expect. The smoothest client relationships tend to be the ones where you’re reasonably well matched on maturity.
Define It and Use It
Your Target Client Profile isn’t a marketing exercise. It’s the lens through which every sales and marketing decision gets made. Which events to attend, what content to create, which prospects to pursue, which referrals to take seriously. When you have a clear TCP, those decisions get a lot easier.
Go back to your best clients, find the pattern, and write it down. That’s your starting point. Everything else in your marketing plan builds from there.
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