36 hours in the mind of a prospect (and what it means for your MSP)

Fun fact, I'm a frustrated fiction writer... for now, this is the closest I'm going to get to creating the next Evan Smoak or Jack Reacher (that's for damn sure)...

"Enough": A made up story by Paul Green

This is a story about John. He's our rugged hero.

John doesn't kill bad guys, but he does kill "making stuff". He owns a manufacturing business with 38 staff and a production line that runs six days a week. He’s been in business for 14 years and he’s damn good at what he does.

However, he’s not good at IT. He’s never pretended to be. That’s what he pays his MSP for.

Or rather. That’s what he used to pay his MSP for (there's a bit of foreshadowing for you...).

Monday. 7.14am.

John gets to the factory before anyone else. He likes it that way. Thirty minutes of quiet before the day starts.

He makes a coffee, opens his laptop, and finds an email from his IT company. Sent at 11.47pm the night before. Something about a major server problem that will take a few hours to be resolved today.

John sits with that for a moment.

This isn’t the first time. Last month it was a broadband outage that took out the office for four hours and he only found out when his operations manager rang him in a panic. The month before that, three of his machines couldn’t access the system they use to log production runs. It took two days to fix. Two days.

Meantime he's noticed that the IT company's service levels have been gradually dropping. It seems to be a different person answering the phone every time he calls and problems seem to take longer to be resolved. At the same time the invoice amounts have been creeping up

He’s been telling himself it’s fine. That all IT companies have issues. That switching would be more hassle than it’s worth.

But sitting here at 7.14am with a lukewarm coffee and another problem he didn't need, John makes a decision.

Enough.

Monday. 8.30am.

The day swallows him whole. Production meeting, a supplier issue, a call with a customer who’s unhappy about a lead time.

He doesn’t think about IT again until he’s driving home.

But he thinks about it then. Properly.

What would it actually take to switch? Would it be disruptive? What if the new company was worse? What if he moved everything over and then had a nightmare for six months?

He doesn’t know enough about IT to know what questions to even ask.

That feels like a problem.

John doesn't need more problems.

Monday. 10.48pm.

He should be asleep. He’s not.

He’s lying in bed with his phone, and he’s typed “IT support for manufacturers” into Google.

A list of results comes back. He scrolls. Clicks on one. It talks about “proactive managed services” and “seamless IT solutions” and “our expert team.” He can’t find anything about manufacturing. Or what they actually do when something goes wrong. Or what it costs.

He clicks back. Tries another one. Same kind of thing.

He tries a third. This one has a page specifically about manufacturers. It talks about production line uptime. About legacy systems. About the cost of downtime in a factory environment.

He reads the whole page.

Then he goes to their About page. There’s a photo of the owner. A short video. He watches it. The guy seems normal. Knowledgeable. Not trying too hard.

He doesn’t fill in the contact form. He’s not ready for that. But he does remember the name of the company.

He puts his phone down and goes to sleep.

Tuesday. Lunchtime.

John remembers the name of the IT company from last night. He searches for it on LinkedIn.

The owner posts regularly. Not every day, but often enough. The posts aren’t about IT. They’re about business. About the mistakes manufacturers make with their technology. About what happens when a production system goes down and nobody has a plan. About a client who saved $40,000 by catching something early.

John reads four or five posts. Doesn’t press like on any of them, or comment. But he reads them.

Then he checks the company’s Google reviews. Fourteen reviews. Four point eight stars. He reads the ones with the most detail. One is from a manufacturing company. It mentions the owner by name. It says they’ve never had to worry about IT since switching.

He goes back to the website and looks at the pricing page. There's a price estimator which gives him a rough idea of how much it will cost for his business. it's more than he's paying now.

He thinks about the two days his production system was down.

John clicks on the IT company's live calendar and books a 15 minute discovery call...

What this means for your MSP

I had fun writing that!

John’s story might be fictional but it isn’t unusual. This is roughly how most business owners make the decision to look for a new MSP. Not in one dramatic moment, but across 48 hours of quiet research, second-guessing, and late-night Googling / AI-ing.

And at every stage of that journey, there’s something your MSP either has or doesn’t have.

• A website that speaks to his specific world, not just generic IT services
• An about page with a real human on it
• Relevant content on LinkedIn
• Google reviews from businesses like his
• Some indication of what things cost, or at least what affects the price

If those things are there, you’re in the conversation in his head. If they’re not, you're not.

People like John never tell you they are looking. They definitely don't tell you why they don't get in touch. They just... don't get in touch.

Right now, somewhere in your area, there’s a John. He’s had one too many bad experiences with his current MSP. He’s not ready to call anyone yet. But he’s starting to look.

The question is: when he finds you, what does he see?

Email and let me know. I read and reply to every message (Reacher never leaves a job unfinished, and neither do I).