White label MSP services are almost as old as the IT industry itself, and it’s how hundreds of new and growing MSPs have moved from a single city to a national and sometimes global player.
Article Contents
This article will cover what you should know about white label services for a growing MSP and how to choose the best white-label solution for your business.
If you require field services in multiple locations and you’re looking for a solution Nerds On Site can support your MSP.
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What is a White Label MSP?
“white label is a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they made or provide it.”
In the context of an MSP, business A provides the client, whereas business B (acting as business A) provides the service.
Writing in plain business English, your MSP would subcontract another MSP to complete IT service with the understanding they represent your organization to the Client.
Why would an MSP offer white label services?
Size.
The type of managed service providers offering white label services would typically be large enough to have unique problems a regional player may not have yet experienced.
- Large Service Portfolio
- Large Team Across Multiple Regions or Countries
- Large Support Staff
While larger MSPs come with larger marketing budgets, organizational growth across multiple regions depends on growing the service portfolio and including services like a white label solution to increase productivity and profitability.
Why Would Managed Service Providers Need a White Label Solution?
Size.
In the IT world, everything comes down to size when we’re talking about the growth of an MSP service.
Regional players can have issues breaking into new markets:
- Finding Qualified Talent (and keeping them busy with multiple Clients)
- Attracting new Clients (How to get managed service Clients)
- Being able to provide all services
Whereas larger MSPs may have a lot of talent & a deep service pool, a smaller MSP has the opposite. This is where a white label partner comes in.
This isn’t the only example where white label services would benefit your MSP.
Look at the big picture & don’t limit your service portfolio.
You may have gotten into IT because you like dealing with infrastructure.. do you like cyber security? Are you a team of cloud experts?
Different customers have different needs; if your MSP service doesn’t provide for those needs, someone else will.
One of my favorite stories when talking to new nerds is the “Hypothetical Cyber Security Story”:
A Client to whom we offered infrastructure normalization and cyber security services. The client declined our offer of services as they believed they could handle it in-house.
Unfortunately, this client had a ransomware event.
The ransomware destroyed all systems and all backups. The client no longer had any accounting, inventory, or customer data.
What do you think the Client’s first step was when they realized this had happened? They called us.
What do you think the Client’s first step would have been if we had not tried to protect them in the past?
Your reputation with your Clients is essential to the services you offer; if you lose that reputation, you will lose that Client.
Cybersecurity is one example, but you may be missing out on recurring revenue if you don’t offer a full suite of services.
How Do I Find White Label Services For MSPs?
After the following sentence, I will try to be as impartial as possible, but before I do that, you should know I believe we’re your best choice.
Nerds On Site was founded in 1995 and provides on-site Business IT Solutions in most major North American cities, covering 9 Canadian provinces and 44 US states. We have a deep portfolio of managed services, and we’re proud to say we’ve received over 96,000 5-star reviews. Did I mention we’re a publicly traded company?
Speak to humans, not search engines. Use social media communities.
No… not Facebook Groups.
If you’re not familiar with Reddit, you should become familiar. It’s the front page of the internet, after all.
Reddit has communities, otherwise known as “subreddits.”
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Reddit is not driven by people with real profile pictures, names & a follower count; it’s driven by monikers and offers a certain level of anonymity. Because of this, it’s a popular haunt for many tech folks, including a thriving community of managed service providers.
r/MSP and its Discord server MSPs R Us is a great place to build a relationship with the MSP community. You’ll be able to ask questions about what has worked for others and what businesses they recommend as a white label partner.
You could also try MSP forums, like MSPAlliance or MSP-Ignite.
What Are The Biggest Benefits of Using a White Label Partner?
You don’t need to run a traditional IT company to be an MSP; you only need to have a good understanding of IT and be good at relationships and managing projects. The sky is the limit once you find a reliable IT MSP.
You won’t be limited to traditional managed services or “the other projects”; you can leverage the same full-suite support as the big players while remaining nimble.
Knowledge is easy; experience is hard.
Gaining customers while breaking into new services can be difficult for a growing MSP as while you might know how to execute a solution for clients, most of the battle is reacting to problems effectively.
Avoid the fake it until you make it mentality and ensure you have the support to execute things right the first time. MSPs are a critical service provider for many businesses; if we fail, they fail.
Scale with your clients.
When onboarding new Clients, I always ask what challenges they faced with their previous provider, and almost all of them say one of three things.
- We were using a one-person or regional MSP that couldn’t support our growth
- They could only offer remote support
- We were constantly being upsold
Don’t just be a remote provider.
When you have your initial sales meeting with a potential business, and the topic moves to how support is offered, most businesses expect first-level remote support. Still, they also want to hear that you’ll be able to provide someone onsite quickly when needed.
It is also worth noting that many larger MSPs offer 24/7/365 remote & phone support, so if this isn’t something you currently offer, you’re behind the 8-ball already.
Have the right services today, don’t introduce new managed services and inundate clients with marketing materials.
You want to grow your recurring revenue streams, and the easiest way is to leverage existing Clients. But, easy isn’t always the right way.
The best way to service Clients is to complete a full initial assessment and provide the services they need.
During this process, you should advise the Client of a solution that you could offer and how this would improve either their profitability, productivity, or pleasurability of their business. If the business declines these services, you’ve done your duty as an MSP.
Contrary to popular marketing belief, you do not need to inundate your Clients with marketing materials. Every time you communicate with your Clients, it needs to either solve a problem or add value for their business.
Having a white label partner means you could:
- Provide high-quality products & services.
- Gain experience in delivering new products or services.
- Provide onsite support in multiple regions & countries.
- Have the ability to always say yes to your client.
Nerds On Site can support your MSP
We can support you in one of two ways.
Join the Nerd network.
Nerds On Site runs a unique business model where our team comprises IT Franchisees. Each team member is the CEO of their own IT enterprise with the entire marketing, administrative, buying power & knowledge support of our brand.
Nerds never need to worry about the administration, product development, or vendor relationships again. You also have access to the knowledge base of the entire nerd network, supporting you whenever you need it.
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Partner with Nerds On Site.
We’ve been providing business IT solutions since 1995. We have a deep service portfolio, can handle a wide variety of IT projects on your behalf, and provide onsite and remote services in most major Canadian provinces & US states.
Our Business IT Solutions are for you if you’re looking for a global team of experts that provides quality services.
More Reading:
Technology Assessment Checklist For Small Businesses
Small Business Tech Support – Ever wondered how the nerds do it?
