Table of contents
Episode Summary
In this episode of Syncronized, Brandon Garcin welcomes Corbitt Grow, Director of Business Development at Anderson Technologies, to explore how MSPs can scale their sales operations as they mature. Corbitt shares insights from his experience at a mid-tier MSP, highlighting the critical transition from early-stage “sell anything to anyone” approaches to more strategic, targeted growth strategies.
The conversation examines how MSPs can expand service offerings while maintaining focus on recurring revenue. Corbitt explains how Anderson Technologies developed a service catalog by breaking down comprehensive offerings into specialized services that serve as entry points for new client relationships. He emphasizes that even project-based work should be viewed as a pathway to long-term managed services contracts.
Corbitt outlines the importance of cross-departmental collaboration in sales success. By involving technical team members early in sales conversations, MSPs can prevent overpromising and ensure alignment between what’s sold and what’s delivered. This team-based approach creates trust both internally and with clients.
The discussion also addresses the challenges of hiring and growth transitions. Rather than focusing solely on technical knowledge, Corbitt recommends finding sales professionals who speak the language of target industries. He describes the MSP sales process as a “slow burn” requiring patience, relationship-building, and a commitment to trust as the foundation for successful client partnerships. Listen to the full episode to discover more strategies for scaling your MSP sales team.
Guest-at-a-Glance
💡 Guest: Corbitt Grow
💡 What he does: Director of Business Development
💡 Company: Anderson Technologies
💡 Noteworthy: Second-generation family MSP leader focused on relationship-driven IT sales
💡 Where to find Corbitt: LinkedIn
Key Insights
Moving Beyond Transactional Sales to Partnership-Based Relationships
MSP sales require patience and relationship-building rather than quick transactions. The most successful MSPs position themselves as strategic partners who understand both technology and business needs. Develop specialized offerings that serve as entry points for deeper relationships, allowing prospects to experience your capabilities without full commitment. This approach builds trust gradually while demonstrating your specific strengths. For established clients, don’t mistake silence for disengagement—quiet clients are often your most profitable ones because they’ve invested in proper infrastructure. Regular value demonstrations keep these relationships strong.
Cross-Functional Alignment Prevents Costly Misalignments
Technical team involvement in sales conversations prevents overpromising and creates unified service delivery. Engineers provide expertise that builds prospect confidence while ensuring what’s promised can actually be delivered. This collaboration eliminates the “lobbing it over the fence” problem where sales closes deals that operations struggles to fulfill. Regular processes involving all stakeholders before proposals go out create shared ownership of opportunities. Beyond improving service delivery, celebrating new clients as team achievements rather than sales victories fosters organizational unity. The trust built within your organization directly impacts your ability to build trust with clients.
Finding Your Ideal Customer Profile Drives Sustainable Growth
Technical team involvement in sales conversations prevents overpromising and creates unified service delivery. Engineers provide expertise that builds prospect confidence while ensuring what’s promised can actually be delivered. This collaboration eliminates the “lobbing it over the fence” problem where sales closes deals that operations struggles to fulfill. Regular processes involving all stakeholders before proposals go out create shared ownership of opportunities. Beyond improving service delivery, celebrating new clients as team achievements rather than sales victories fosters organizational unity. The trust built within your organization directly impacts your ability to build trust with clients.
Listener Takeaways
Evolving Your Service Portfolio to Win New Business
Anderson Technologies found success by breaking down their comprehensive MSP services into specialized offerings that serve as entry points for new relationships. This approach lets prospects experience their expertise through smaller engagements before committing to full managed services. By creating a service catalog of standalone offerings derived from their work with existing clients, they developed “spear tip” opportunities to demonstrate capabilities while opening doors for future expansion.
“We decided to kind of dissect what we were already doing for our full-service clients and piece that out into smaller offerings. And now those are somewhat spear tip offerings that we can put out there. So if we’re having conversations and maybe the full gamut of MSP services isn’t what they’re looking for, but there is this certain piecemeal item, it’s a great opportunity for us to get in there and show them what we’re capable of.”
Partnering with Internal IT Teams Instead of Replacing Them
Rather than positioning themselves as replacements for internal IT teams, Anderson Technologies finds opportunities to supplement and partner with them. This co-managed approach recognizes that MSPs bring unique advantages through their broad exposure to different environments and technologies. Because MSPs work across multiple client environments, they can often implement projects significantly faster than internal teams, offering a compelling value proposition for time-sensitive initiatives.
“Internal IT might take six to nine months to do that. But he’s like, if we were to do it, it’d be like four to six weeks. That is an edge there. So approaching teams that have internal IT, we’re not there to steal or replace them, but to say, ‘What are things that are going to be this huge drawn-out project for you, that maybe we can come in, supplement, do it in a lot shorter timeframe and work hand in hand with you?’”
Building a Sales Team That Speaks Your Clients’ Language
When growing an MSP sales organization, finding representatives who understand your target industries can be more valuable than technical expertise alone. Different industries have distinct vocabularies, priorities, and cultures – representatives who naturally fit into these environments can build trust more effectively. This might mean looking beyond candidates with MSP experience to those with backgrounds in your target verticals who can establish credibility with prospects in those spaces.
“Think about the financial industry versus manufacturing versus K through 12. Very different profiles of people that work in those industries. So how do you need somebody, whatever your target vertical is finding reps and bringing people in who can fit that? It maybe sounds superficial, but someone who can talk that language. Especially in finance, there’s a lot of jargon. It’s viewed as this club almost. So somebody who you feel can talk that language and keep up with that.”
Creating Alignment Between Sales and Technical Teams
Preventing sales from “tossing deals over the wall” to operations requires deliberate processes that bring technical stakeholders into the sales cycle early. Anderson Technologies implements regular meetings where everyone who will be involved in service delivery can weigh in on proposals before they go to prospects. This collaborative approach prevents common friction points where sales promises capabilities that operations struggles to deliver, while ensuring technical expertise shapes customer conversations.
“Anytime a new opportunity comes up, whether or not the sales engineer was on those meetings or not… Finding a way to have regular processes and meetings where you’re bringing in all the needed parties – project management, technical operations, service coordination. Everyone who’s going to have a part to play in that project, getting them in the room so they’re able to weigh in before things get back out the door or to the prospect. That way everything’s accurate and they’re kept up to speed throughout the lifecycle of the sale.”
Syncronized is the MSP podcast that drives MSP growth, from startup to scale-up. In each episode, we dive into the topics that matter most to IT providers, such as automation, AI, service delivery and profitability. Join us as we engage with experts and gain hands-on insights and practical advice you can directly apply to propel your business forward.
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