Is This The End For MSP Specialists?

Pros: Positioning yourself as a specialist — an expert, even — in one area provides your brand more clarity.  That is, it becomes very apparent to customers what it is that you offer. It’s often easier to sell and market your company on a niche set of services (management of cloud-based file sharing, for instance), when there is a definitive focus.

Cons: Companies that view you as a specialist in certain areas may not be able to see through to the other services you can offer them. Most likely companies will require more than a few core services, including everything from file-sharing, security, data backup & recovery and more in a single package. If not explicit, you might get overlooked by potential clients. Furthermore, you inadvertently exclude yourself from growing markets and trends by appearing too specialized.

Pros: Trends in IT services are always shifting. As companies discover emerging needs and requirements, the generalist MSP appears more at the ready to onboard those companies to the latest solutions. No matter what the client is looking for initially, positioning yourself as a generalist makes it easier to up-sell/cross-sell your solutions over the long term.

Cons: Most of the time, prospects contact MSPs with specific needs in mind. Thus, positioning yourself as a generalist can make you (and your services) seem overly vague. And while the generalist will have more opportunities to cross-sell/up-sell, they also run the risk of getting pulled in directions they don’t want and hadn’t plan for (e.g. enterprise security, network monitoring, etc.).