1. Find Your Vertical

Which verticals are the best business bets? It’s not always about going after the “hottest” sector or the one that seems to be turning the highest profit. It’s what, and who, you know. The healthcare vertical might be the best fit for an MSP that is already working with dental offices or hospitals, but if most of your clients are in food services, then position yourself as a hospitality (or restaurant market) vertical specialist. If you work with small real-estate offices or accounting firms, you might want to brand yourself as a professional services firm specialist. Pick one market where you excel – and where you have the majority of your clients – and then stake your claim and brand yourself as the specialist or trusted advisor in that area.

2. Target Your Vertical

Once you know the area you want to focus on, begin branding and marketing to these managed IT services verticals. A good starting point is to speak with some of your peers, maybe in a vendor-networking or an industry association group, and get their best practices and ideas. Ask what has and hasn’t worked for them! Continuum conducted a session on this topic during its annual Navigate user conference this past September. Titled “Best Practices for Vertical Market Success” and moderated by Dan McCoy of Micro Enterprises, the panel discussion featured our partners that have experienced solid ROIs by positioning themselves as vertical market specialists within their respective regions. Some have even garnered this achievement on a national level.

McCoy began by discussing how he has become a leading MSP for the chiropractic industry in his area. He did this by narrowing his approach, which allowed him to gain additional market share through this hyper-targeting. McCoy said that if his business took a more general approach to the healthcare vertical, then he would be in a situation where he would have to do it all — something that’s difficult to achieve unless you are a massive firm, and even then it can be daunting.

Another panelist at Navigate — our partner event scheduled for September 28-30 this year — Kim Kiernan of SurfCT, shared how her firm has successfully penetrated the dental market. SurfCT works with dentists mainly in Connecticut, but also has clients outside of this area. Kiernan said they are highly specialized in this vertical, to the point of having an actual dentist serving as a consultant to advise the MSP on solutions that might (or might not) make sense for clients. Furthermore, she and her colleagues attend dental industry trade shows and events to network, gain brand visibility and educate themselves on the practices they serve on all levels — not just from a technology perspective. They learn how the business works and build around that.

While speaking their dental clients’ “language” or terminology and avoiding nondescript IT jargon helps SurfCT reinforce trust in the solutions it offers its current clients, their business’s high level of industry knowledge also attracts potential clients who need IT providers that understand their business needs and challenges.

Case in point, a recent win for SurfCT was getting its technicians certified in installing digital X-Ray equipment for their dental clients. While the training is expensive, Kiernan said that the ROI more than paid for itself! They have since gained several new customers as a result of having this specialized training. The MSP can basically do anything that a dental office requires, including custom projects like lighting and audio/video setups for meetings and events.