BroCoTec made two bold moves that propelled growth 800% in just a few short years after its founding in 2019: They realigned their pricing with “best in class” standards and refocused their marketing efforts. Then they leaned into analytics.
Everybody on the team has the mindset that sales and marketing are key to MSP growth, explains Nathaniel Kemberling, president and CEO of the Houston, Texas-based MSP. “That’s one of the things that’s propelled us to go faster than the average MSP.”
Kemberling continues, “At my previous company, I did not drive sales and marketing at all. We invented really cool stuff, but I realized it didn’t matter how good your product was if you couldn’t sell it. So, when it came to BroCoTec, our focus was getting our stuff to the people. And if you’re doing sales in any way, marketing is part of it. From day one, some of the other owners and myself took no paycheck. Instead, we paid for a full-time salesperson. Then it was really just a matter of using marketing campaigns to grow faster.”
Get Consistent, Get Better
BroCoTec began implementing marketing campaigns and strategies they had access to as members of Robin Robin’s Technology Marketing Toolkit.
“We failed drastically at our first [mail] campaign,” he recounts. “We got our hundred letters out for months and months. We decided to prioritize the first part of the recipe, consistency, then look to change, tweak, and improve the strategies. We kept pushing and getting better.”
BroCoTec expanded their marketing efforts into the digital sphere with Tech Tip emails and postcards. These delivered useful, timely, and relevant technology tips directly to their audience’s inbox.
According to Kemberling, the standout feature of their marketing campaign was what TMT calls a “Shock and Awe” box. They was sent it to new prospects to make a lasting impression. The box contained not only detailed information about BroCoTec and their offerings, but a BroCoTec-branded Yeti cup. “This personalized touch conveys the quality and uniqueness of our services from the very first interaction,” Kemberling explains.
Get The Price Right
Kemberling also learned that BroCoTec’s pricing structure fell well below the profitability threshold necessary to qualify as a “best-in-class” company. He discovered this by utilizing the Labor Efficiency Ratio (LER) from Simple Numbers author Greg Crabtree to analyze their existing pricing. To better align with industry standards and the LER, BroCoTec increased their prices by 20-30%.
Get Bang For Your Buck
To ensure BroCoTec got the most bang for their buck when it came to their advertising spend, they utilized Small Business Administration (SBA) insights to ensure that the people seeing their ads were part of their target demographic. With data such as payroll figures and employee quantities, they identified industries with the financial ability to invest in high-quality IT support and cybersecurity solutions. Then they extrapolated the average employee salary. “This strategic approach enabled us to focus our marketing efforts on sectors where the average pay per employee exceeded $50,000, indicating a robust financial capacity that could sustain a monthly investment ranging from $180 to $250 per employee for our services,” Kemberling says.
Get Undeniable Results
Of their incredible MRR growth—from $85K in December 2022 to $180K in December 2023—$74K came from new customers. An additional $21K of the MRR growth was due to existing customers upgrading their services. “As a company that started its journey in 2019, our growth story is nothing short of extraordinary,” says Kemberling. “Witnessing an 800% growth, from our first full year of revenue in 2020 to the close of 2023, not only speaks to our ability to adapt to market dynamics but firmly establishes us as a company with a vision for sustained success.”
This substantial growth also allowed the owners of BroCoTec to finally be paid suitable compensation for their jobs. Kemberling says, “This monumental shift not only signifies the financial success of our strategic endeavors, but also underscores the sustainability and profitability that our growth has brought to the forefront.”
Kemberling’s final piece of advice is to take the leap and commit to marketing. “Obviously, running an MSP takes more than sales and marketing,” he explains. “But growth from sales and marketing solves a lot of business problems. Don’t be afraid to jump all in.”
Nathaniel Kemberling is a finalist in TMT’s Annual Better Your Best contest and will be presenting at the IT Sales and Marketing Boot Camp. View his video interview with TMT founder and CEO Robin Robins here.
