Why Most MSP SDR Hires Fail

The success rate with MSPs successfully installing the outbound function — calling specifically, with a BDR, an SDR, an ISR, something like that — the success rate of MSPs who successfully do that, to the extent where they've got appointments that sit, that convert into pipeline, that convert into clients that don't churn, is very low. And I say this as somebody who helps companies do this, helps MSPs do this. I've been working in the MSP space for eight years — coaching, consulting, building sales processes, helping recruit, hire, sales coach — and I have seen hundreds of stories of MSP owners who made the decision to start outbound calling, and it failed.

And the reason isn't that there's one common mistake, like you always hire the wrong person, or the comp plan's wrong, or the training wasn't proper, or the KPIs weren't the right ones. It's that that one decision is actually a hundred decisions. If you're not aware of what those hundred decisions are, or that you're even going to need to make them, then it can, one, come as a surprise, and two, set you up to fail — because in the process of making those decisions, you kind of determine, hey, are we going to be successful at this or not?

What I'm going to do in this video is share with you why that one decision is a hundred decisions, and how you can reframe this, or think about this, to determine for sure: do we really want to do this? And then two, if we do, how do we improve the probability of success here? So stick with me for 10 minutes or so and I'll break this down for you.

Now, to share it, the context I'm going to give you sounds unrelated. I promise you that it is, though. It's a short gym story.

My wife and I have been going to F45. It's this gym that does some cardio, some strength training, some mobility stuff, and it's a class environment. You go there, there's a group, there's a coach, they kind of dictate, hey, this is what we're going to do today. Class starts at this time, class ends at this time. And we've been going only for like a week or so, and I really like it.

For the past year or so, I've been going back and forth on workout plans, because I'm addicted to walking. I'm a habitual walker. I walk minimum 90 minutes a day, and it helps me think, for a whole number of reasons. I just love walking. I understand the importance of strength training — and listen, we all want some muscle, right? And I'm 46. I've got to start thinking about mobility and stuff like this.

So I've started to think, hey, I need to take my cardio plan, I need to make sure that I'm doing the strength training, I need to make sure that I'm incorporating some mobility. And I have one decision to make, which is: I need to balance my workouts.

That one decision has turned into hundreds of decisions. So I say, listen, I haven't done weights in three, four days, I'm going to get to the gym. What time am I going to go to the gym? Which gym am I going to go to? Once I get there, what's my workout plan? Am I going to do upper body, lower body, back and bis? What exactly am I doing? There's all these other decisions that come with it.

The new gym — the reason it feels easier is because it's basically one meta decision. I say the night before, am I going to go tomorrow at 6:45 or not? Okay. Am I going to go to the club? Maybe two. Am I going to go, and then what time am I going to go? And then I RSVP for that, and then I'm in. All the other decisions have basically been made for me. It's a gym that kind of changes every single day that you show up. They're focused on balancing the cardio and balancing the strength training and balancing the mobility. And so it's all laid out. I'm going to go this time, I show up, it's all done. And if I do that thing, then I get the result that I want — because I've offloaded, or offboarded, some of those sub-decisions, we'll call them.

Now, how does this relate to your outbound?

I realized today, as I was walking back, I said, it's really interesting how much easier this has been to achieve my goal of more balanced workout plans with this system, with this F45, than it has been trying to work the plan. And by the way, building a plan is not something I can't do, especially with AI now — I've been physical and athletic for years. So this has been easier because it comes down to one or two meta decisions that cascade into everything else.

The same thing basically applies when you're thinking about going outbound for your business. You know, we're going to hire an SDR, a BDR or whatever — we're going to hire an SDR, we're going to go outbound. Who are you going to hire? Where are you going to find them? How much are you going to pay them? Are you going to do remote, in office? Are they just going to call? Are they going to do other stuff too? What script are they going to call on? Is it a good script? What list are they going to call on? Is it a good list? Do you have any marketing campaign? Do you have an offer? Do you have the right KPIs? Do you have training for this?

There's all of these other things that happen. And when we think we're making the decision — we've got to start doing outbound calls — we're actually turning on the gate to all of these other decisions that need to be made.

If you're not aware of what those decisions are, first of all, that can feel really overwhelming, right? Like, as soon as you get going, you're like, dude, it's one thing after another after another after another. Does this ever end? And then, by the way, there's usually a ramp to all of this stuff and figuring things out. So it can be overwhelming.

The second is, the probability that you make the right call on all those — if that's not something that you have a lot of experience in doing — can substantially change the probability of success. Did you hire the right person? Is that the right comp plan? Is that a good script? Is it a decent offer? You know what I mean? So there's a qualitative component to it as well.

First of all, understanding that when you make that one call, when you make that one decision to go outbound with a rep, recognizing all of the decisions that you're going to have to make afterwards, I think is really critical. I think it's very important and imperative to say: I know that by making this decision, it's a commitment that's going to require a bunch of work and a bunch of decisions afterwards, and potentially a lot of figuring it out and a lot of trial and error.

But the ROI on this — which it is, by the way — the ROI on installing that function successfully, given the economics of an MSP, is very, very good. You get one good SDR in there to get you X number of deals per year, and the multiple on dollar in, dollar out makes this a no-brainer. And that's why all of those decisions, and a lot of the figuring out, can be worth it. But when you make that decision, knowing it's a commitment that comes with a bunch of other stuff, that's super helpful, and it increases the likelihood that you are going to stick to that decision.

Okay. The second thing about this is, oftentimes you can simply make one decision — like F45 has done for me — that takes a bunch of those things off my plate, or guides me right through them, makes them so much easier.

And the way that you do that with the SDR function — frankly, that's what we do. That's what MSP Sales Partners does. We're fractional sales management. We have an SDR-specific function where, instead of you having to figure out who you're going to hire, where you're going to hire, how much you're going to pay — we have recruiting, we have a training plan set up, we have the KPIs, we have the dashboard, we have sales managers who are listening to calls, we have the coaching. We have this whole system, in a similar way to F45, that's saying: you know what, I'm going to make the decision, but I'm going to hand a lot of these sub-decisions either over to you, or I'm going to ask you to help me make them, because you're aware of what they are and you probably have a much better idea of what good looks like. And so my probability of success skyrockets.

That's the whole reason we have a program. That's not just to be a pitch — but there are ways that you can do this, not just with this, but within your business in general. Can I make one decision that then makes it easier? And do I recognize that one decision is a hundred decisions? And then, is there anything that I can do to reduce that, so I'm not overwhelmed by it and I increase the likelihood that I'm making the right call throughout this entire process?

And that realization really resonated with me, because I'm thankful — I am grateful — that I just have to make this call and this call, and then obviously I've got to do the work, but I show up, I do what I'm asked to do, and lo and behold, I'm going to get the result that I want.

And in very much the same way, that's how we have our systems structured, so that you can make that one decision — whether to partner or not. And then we go in, we help you, we either make these calls for you, or we do them with you, or we direct you: hey, here's exactly where we need you, here's exactly what we need you to do. And that makes your life easier. And that's basically why we exist.

Now, there is one catch, and I'll shoot you straight, because you'll understand this more as an MSP owner than almost anyone else. And it is that when you build something that is systematized to match what you know to be your expertise, and what you know to be necessary for you to get the result that you want, it may not be 100% customized to you.

So at the gym, what that means is: 6:45 — maybe I wish it started at 6:30. Maybe I wish it started at 7. So it's not perfect. Or maybe I wish it had just a little bit more strength training in it, right? Or a little bit more cardio. It's not 100% customized and personalized to Ray Green when I walk in the door.

In much the same way, our SDR program — it's going to work, it's going to get the result, and it's going to take into account the hundred decisions behind the decision. The trade-off, and the reason I say you know this better than anyone else, is because it's the same thing with the IT services, right? Your services aren't 100% tailor-made. You're not changing your tech stack for every single customer, where they get this type of firewall and they get this kind of firewall, and they do this and they do that. You've got to create enough structure that you know it gets the result for all of your customers, and there may be some small trade-offs on absolute personalization and customization.

The trade-off, though — and the reason the juice is worth the squeeze, because it makes it easier to decide, easier to commit to, and a higher probability of success in the decision — the trade-off is: it's the workout I'll actually go do. It's the thing that I will do. I could continue to work on personalizing my own plan, and customizing this, and trying to get it just right — the right number of days within the perfect schedule, and this and that. But you know what's funny? As hard as I tried to make it personalized to me, it wasn't working. I wasn't getting the result that I wanted. I wasn't doing the thing that I wanted. That was, in and of itself, the problem.

So the 90% solution that is not 100% tailor-made for me, but the one that makes it easy to decide and creates the accountability system for me to go and get the results that I really want — the one that I'll do — is better than the more personalized one that I won't do.

That same applicability is the same with the SDR program. It's the same with your MSP services, right? You could have somebody running around the building trying to get the exact right cyber strategy, the exact right networking setup, the exact right person to help with the help desk, blah blah blah blah. Or you could just hire you, and you can take all that off their plate, and they can trust and have peace of mind that the stuff's actually getting done, right?

So that is the trade-off. But at the end of the day, understanding that the one decision is going to be followed by a hundred decisions is the starting point — and recognize that if you make it, the others are to come. And then, how do you improve the probability of success?

If that's something we can help you with, cool, let us know. But even if not, the success that you'll have if you implement this on your own, or in other aspects of your business, when you understand a lot of these decisions are really many, many, many other decisions behind them — changing the way that we think about them oftentimes changes the decision itself. Because we may say, no, that's not the right time. That may be the right call for you. But recognizing it is the first step in getting this thing right.

And as many stories as I've seen with the lack of success here, I trust that this will help a little bit. Hope it helps you. Adios.