Should MSPs Stop Chasing Leads and Start Solving Problems?

What I learned from listening to an engineer who spent six years burning money before discovering the truth about MSP sales.

“I was afraid of sales. I was afraid of rejection. I was afraid of someone saying no to me. But that slippery slope led to complete failure.”

Michael Bakaic laughing about it now, but six years and a lot of lost money later, that engineer learned something most MSP owners still haven’t figured out. Sales isn’t the enemy of good technical work. It’s what makes good technical work possible.

Today, Michael runs Iceberg Cyber and helps MSPs use cybersecurity as lead magnets to kickstart their sales process.

The transformation from sales-fearing engineer to sales advocate didn’t happen overnight, but what he learned along the way could save your MSP years of struggle.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

Most MSP owners probably started the same way Michael did. Technical background, brilliant at solving problems, terrible at talking about it with potential clients.

The pattern seems predictable based on what Michael describes.

Michael’s breakthrough came when he stopped thinking about sales as “selling stuff” and started thinking about it differently. Here’s how he puts it, and you can hear him say this exact phrase multiple times throughout the episode.

“Sales is the process of solving people’s problems in exchange for money.”

That’s it. No tricks, no manipulation, no sleazy tactics.

Someone has a problem they perceive as worth solving, you help them solve it, they pay you. The better you know their problems, the better the whole process works.

This reframe matters because most MSP owners probably feel gross about sales.

They get into this business to fix things, not to convince people to buy things. But when you realize that sales is actually about fixing things, just at a different level, the whole dynamic changes.

Michael’s right about something else too. If your technicians aren’t selling (and they shouldn’t be, they’re technicians), someone has to find people with problems. In a small MSP, that someone is almost always going to be you.

The 30-Day Reality Check

When Jacob asked Michael what he’d tell an MSP with zero leads and zero momentum, his answer surprised me. He didn’t start with websites or marketing campaigns or lead generation tools. He started with something much simpler.

“You know more people than you think on paper.”

His approach is almost embarrassingly straightforward. Take your phone. Go through your contacts. All of them. Then do the same with your email.

Put every name in a spreadsheet with their contact information and do some basic research.

The categories are simple. Suspects are people who might have the problem you solve. Networking contacts are people who know other people who might have that problem.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Michael doesn’t suggest you call these people to sell them your services. That’s not how this works.

Instead, you lead with the problem. “Hey, I just started helping accountants solve this specific problem with technology. Do you know any accountants?”

For suspects, it’s slightly different. “I help people like you solve this problem. Do you know anyone else dealing with this?”

The key insight here is that you’re not asking for money.

You’re asking for social capital.

You’re asking them to make an introduction. That’s a much smaller ask, and people are generally willing to help if they understand what you do.

Michael’s numbers are stark.

Out of a thousand people in your contact list, maybe one will say “funny you called, I was just talking to someone with that exact problem.” But that only happens after you’ve talked to the first 900. You need the discipline to get through the 900 to get lucky with the 1,000th.

Lead Magnets That Actually Reveal Problems

One of the most detailed parts of the conversation centered on something Michael calls lead magnets.

These aren’t the typical “download our free guide” approaches you see everywhere. These are tools specifically designed to help people perceive they have a problem.

Michael breaks them into three types, and the examples he gives are worth understanding.

Reveal a Problem tools are things like cost calculators or security checkups. The prospect uses the tool and discovers they’re overspending or missing something important.

Michael’s favorite example is a Microsoft cost calculator for accountants that shows them they’re paying for both Calendly and Microsoft Bookings. Instant problem awareness.

Free Sample approaches work like Costco samples. Give someone a taste of what their life could be like with your solution, and they realize how much their current situation actually bothers them.

Free First Step offerings are parts of your normal onboarding process that you give away upfront. Password managers, cyber awareness training, anything that makes their life immediately better and creates a differential between their before and after.

The magic happens when you combine problem awareness with discovery questions.

“Now that you see you’re overpaying, is this a big deal for you? Do you care that you’re spending $300 more than you should?”

If they don’t care, your lead magnet didn’t work. If they do care, you’re onto something.

Why Founders Can’t Delegate Sales (Yet)

This might be the most important thing Michael shared, and it’s something many MSP owners don’t want to hear.

The founder needs to stay in the sales process longer than they think.

Michael’s reasoning is practical, not philosophical. In the MSP world, you’re mostly small businesses serving other small businesses. When the founder of a 10-person MSP talks to the founder of a 15-person accounting firm, that’s decision maker to decision maker.

The reptile brain in the prospect reacts differently to “I started this IT company to help people in my neighborhood” than it does to “I’m a salesperson calling you.”

The numbers support this approach too. Most MSPs crossing the 10-employee mark aren’t doing four to six new clients per month.

They’re doing one or two closed deals, maybe two or three first appointments per week. A founder can handle that volume.

Michael’s advice is counterintuitive but makes sense. Instead of delegating sales first, delegate technical work first. You can find capable technicians more easily than you can overcome the psychological advantage of the founder brand.

“Your job as a business owner is to make sure you never run out of money,” Michael told Jacob. “Technicians don’t sell, they’re technicians. Someone’s got to find people with problems, and that’s you.”

LinkedIn as a Lukewarm Lead Generator

Michael has almost 12,000 connections on LinkedIn, and he thinks about them differently than most people do. He calls them “lukewarm connections,” and the distinction matters.

Warm contacts are people you actually know. Cold contacts are strangers. Lukewarm contacts are people who kind of know you, have seen your content, and would probably remember your name if you messaged them.

LinkedIn lets you create these lukewarm relationships at scale. You connect with people, they see your content over time, and when you eventually reach out, you’re not a complete stranger.

The message is the same as with warm contacts. “I solve this problem for this type of people. Do you know anyone like that?”

The beauty of this approach is volume. Michael can send one-to-one messages to 12,000 people who already have some awareness of what he does. That’s a lot better than cold outreach to complete strangers. It’s just good MSP marketing.

When Outbound Sales Hit a Wall

During the Hot Seat segment, an MSP asked about outbound sales fatigue.

Their cold emails and LinkedIn messages were getting ignored, and they wanted to know how to cut through the noise.

Michael’s answer cut straight to the point. If people aren’t engaging with your outbound activity, you’re not connecting your activity to their problem.

“If Jacob broke his foot and a doctor cold called him saying ‘I’m driving around town resetting people’s feet, I’ll give you 50% off a cast,’ Jacob would engage with that outbound sales because Jacob has a problem.”

The issue isn’t your delivery mechanism. It’s that you don’t know their problems well enough to describe them in a way that makes people say “holy smokes, I just struggled with that this morning.”

Michael’s solution is to study your target market until you can put words in their mouth. Until you can say “people like you have this exact problem, they try to solve it this way, and it doesn’t work for these three reasons.” When you can do that, people reply.

What This Means for Your MSP

After listening to Jacob’s conversation with Michael, a few things became clear to me.

First, most MSPs are making sales harder than it needs to be. We’re talking about uptime percentages and monitoring capabilities when we should be talking about the specific problems our prospects deal with every day.

Second, the warm contacts in your phone right now are probably your best untapped resource. Not because they’ll all become clients, but because they’ll introduce you to people who might.

Third, if you’re a founder trying to delegate sales because it makes you uncomfortable, you might be giving away your biggest competitive advantage. The founder brand is powerful, especially in the small business world where most MSPs operate.

Michael plans to get a t-shirt made that sums it up perfectly: “And you shall know their problems and their problems will set you free.” The better you understand what keeps your prospects up at night, the easier everything else becomes.

Sales stops feeling gross when you realize you’re actually solving problems. And solving problems is likely what got most of you into this business in the first place.

What’s your biggest sales challenge right now? I’d love to hear about it.

Danny Mitchell