This is a great use of AI for MSPs: Figure out your Ideal Client Profile

I'm running a 12 week programme at the moment called MSP Marketing Kickstarter.

I've got a whole bunch of very lovely MSPs. And in bi-weekly calls we're working through all the fundamentals they need to get right in their business to start generating leads.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about forming an ICP, which stands for an Ideal Client Profile.

aka Who do you really, really, REALLY want to work with?

You must have this 100% nailed down and written on paper before you can go on to:

• Create your USP (Unique Sales Proposition)
• Get your website and LinkedIn messaging right
• And in fact, align all your marketing and make it laser focused. If you don't know exactly who you're targeting, how can you make your marketing relevant to them???

At the risk of throwing acronyms at you... do you have an ICP in your MSP?

If your ICP is “any business with 1–50 staff that needs IT support" then sorry, but you have a problem.

That's the marketing equivalent of saying you'll go on a date with anyone who has a pulse. The reality is somewhat different, right?

( in fact, as someone who was single for a few years and did a LOT of dating, the more you date, the more you form a clear vision about who you don't want to date. Sometimes, forming a list of clients you don't want to work with is the easiest route to discovering who you DO want to work with )

Your ICP needs to be specific, detailed, and hooked into their emotions more than their cognitive thought process. It’s not just about size or sector. It’s about why these clients buy, what they fear, how they make decisions, and what kind of relationship they want with their MSP.

And this is where your AI tool of choice can become your best brainstorming partner.

I believe AI is most powerful and valuable when we use it as a research assistant.

When we get it to question us on what we really think about things and really drill down into details. Unlike a human assistant, it never gets tired of going over the same thing again and again. Or looking at the same points from different angles to try to find the right answer.

My belief is that people who use AI for basic search are completely missing a trick. Its real power is augmenting our brain to help us reach unique conclusions that only we could have reached... but FASTER.

Here's a simple 3 step process you can use to get your AI to help you form an ICP.

Step 1: Start with what you know

Open your AI. You might choose to put it into deep research mode if you have that available, or even switch on agent mode and give it the parameters it can operate within. There are pros and cons to each of these, but the best thing to do is to experiment.

Brief it on the kind of business you run and what you're trying to achieve. Something like:

“Hey there! Got a challenge for you. You are a marketing strategist for a Managed Service Provider that works with small to mid-sized businesses. Help me define my Ideal Client Profile. Are you up for the challenge?”

Then feed it a few details about your existing clients:

• The ones you love working with (and why)
• The ones who drain you (and why)
• The industries you have most experience in
• Any local focus or specialisation

This gives the AI some context. You might even choose to give it actual URLs of your clients. And ask it to research their websites to form a better understanding.

Step 2: Let it ask you smart questions

A good prompt here is:

“Ask me 15 detailed questions to help define my Ideal Client Profile for my MSP.”

Here are the kinds of questions you would hope to get. If your AI isn't going in the right direction, then feed it this list of sample questions and tell it this is what you want it to ask you:

• What problems do your best clients call you about most often?
• What values or attitudes make your favourite clients easy to work with?
• What kind of technology maturity do your ideal clients already have?
• How do they usually find you? Referrals, ads, networking, or something else?
• What kind of relationship do they expect: Hands-on support or strategic partnership?

Take your time to answer each of these questions properly.

I personally use ChatGPT, so I'm not sure if this exists on the other AIs. But on ChatGPT, you can put it into a voice mode where you're just having a two way conversation with it. Depending on your ability to multi-task, this is something you could do while you're driving somewhere!

( goes without saying that you should always drive safely... )

Step 3: Build your profile

Once you’ve fed your answers back, you can ask:

“Based on my answers, help me create a detailed Ideal Client Profile for my MSP, including demographics, firmographics, psychographics, pain points, buying triggers, and the decision process.”

PS firmographics are like demographics, but for businesses. They describe things like a company’s size, industry, location, and how it’s set up. And psychographics describe what people care about... their interests, values, opinions, and lifestyle. What makes them tick.

You can then take the output and ask your AI to shape it into something useful for you.

• For most MSPs, this is something that's no more than a couple of paragraphs long with lots of bullet points, very easy to read
• You might ask the AI to rewrite it so it can be understood by a 12-year-old. Nothing wrong with that. The easier you make something to understand, the more likely it is to be used within the business
• Perhaps even the information contained within a super simple graphic that you can use to educate everyone within your business
• Or you might be looking for something more detailed because you want an in-depth document to debate with your senior leadership team.

That preference is down to you.