Key Points
- Deliver Strategic Value Beyond Break–Fix to Drive MSP Referrals: For an MSP, word-of-mouth begins with outstanding service. Elevate your offering from reactive support to a proactive partner delivering measurable business impact. This establishes the foundation for MSP referral generation.
- Ask Deliberately at the Right Moments and Make It Easy to Refer: Trigger referral requests when client satisfaction peaks (e.g., after a successful project or QBR) and provide referral-ready tools (email templates, one-click contact forms) so you convert client goodwill into actual leads with minimal friction.
- Build a Referral Routine with Persistence and Automation: Don’t treat referrals as a one-off “ask.” Embed referral prompts into your client journey, follow up when needed, and use CRM/automation to track referral sources and responses. This approach underpins a scalable MSP referral program.
- Leverage Digital-First Channels: Modern MSP referral strategies must go beyond traditional networking. Utilize platforms like LinkedIn, Slack/Discord communities, AI-enabled introduction networks, and partner ecosystems to extend your reach and amplify referrals in the digital age.
- Create Mutually Beneficial Partnerships That Expand Your Referral Pipeline: Establish strategic referral alliances—whether with non-competing MSPs, niche vendors, advisors (accountants, attorneys), or industry-specific specialists. Offer reciprocal value with clear boundaries, and you unlock a consistent source of high-quality referrals.
- Avoid “Pushy” Incentives and Focus On Authenticity: While incentives can help, avoid the appearance of “buying” referrals. Instead, emphasize gratitude, easy referral processes, and transparent tracking. Design your referral approach around trust, measurement (referral → conversion → ROI), and strong client relationships.
If you’re counting on client referrals as a primary driver of new business, you should learn how to increase your volume and frequency without coming across as pushy or desperate. In this article, we’ll cover some best practices for MSP referral marketing and suggest tactics on how to create (or improve upon) your MSP referral strategy.
The Importance of Referral Generation for MSP Businesses
If you’re an MSP and you haven’t had a lot of time or budget to devote to marketing, referrals are probably what you’ve built your business on—and for good reason. Back in 2013, Nielsen reported that peer-to-peer referrals were considered the most influential form of advertising.
Even now, referrals are one of the most affordable ways to generate new MSP customers. However, their value dries up awfully quickly when you aren’t proactively working to generate them.
If you aren’t sure how to actively pursue more referrals without being annoying or pushy, here are several easy-to-implement tactics to turn a sporadic trickle into a reliable flow of great referrals that generate interest, customers, and profit for your MSP company.
Focus on industries or services where you deliver the most value.
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7 Tactics to Steadily Increase Your MSP Referrals
1) Do an Excellent Job
First, the best way to get your customers to refer you is to provide exceptional IT service. For most successful MSPs, this means moving beyond reactive break–fix work and becoming a true partner that provides strategic value to your customers’ businesses. If you can do that, you’re off to a great start.
2) Ask Questions
Back in 2014, Spiceworks found that 97% of IT professionals relied on peer recommendations and reviews when shopping for new products or service providers.
Years later, the current referral environment is more automated and emphasizes more digital engagement, with clients expecting more value through proactive services. Nonetheless, if you want to be a highly recommended MSP, asking questions is still a worthwhile start.
For instance, if you’re getting great feedback in a client meeting, take a second to ask if they’d be willing to spread the word. It can be as simple as saying something like “I’m glad you’re happy with our services. Who else do you know who would benefit from working with us?” Keep it casual—but be direct and sincere.
What if they say they don’t know anyone else who needs an MSP or that they need some time to think about it? Don’t give up just yet. Remember that the second you stop asking for referrals is the second they start drying up.
3) Be Persistent
If you’ve been selling IT services for any length of time, it’s safe to assume you’ve gotten used to hearing “No” or “Let me think about it.” It’s basically a given—but what isn’t a given is how you decide to react to that answer.
“No” is actually the easiest answer to manage; let it be for now and plan to circle back with some of the methods we’ll cover later in this article. However, an answer like “Let me think about it” is a great opportunity to nudge the conversation forward.
If they still can’t think of someone to refer, let it go and acknowledge that there’ll always be another time. However, if they are able to give you a name, be sure to thank them by making it easy for them to connect you with their peer(s)—which brings us to our next tactic.
4) Do (Most of) the Work for Them
Since your customer is doing you a favor by referring you, do them a favor by making it as easy as possible with this email referral template:
Hey, [Referral Name],
I wanted to connect you with [Your Name].
[His/Her] IT company has been able to cut our unplanned downtime in half and saved us $35,000 last year in server expenses. Plus, [his/her] cybersecurity services kept us safe through that huge American Medical Collection Agency data breach that happened a few months back.
I thought you might be interested in hearing more about [Your Name]’s services. I’ll let you two take it from here.
Making it easy for your client to plug in the right information and hit “Send” in 30 seconds or less could be the difference between connecting with a warm lead and sending your millionth batch of cold emails.
5) Introduce the Topic of Referrals on Day One
Now that you’ve got a few tips when asking for referrals, start asking for them earlier than you may have thought necessary. In fact, you should ask your new client for a referral right after the agreement is signed. Why? Because they’re excited. They just invested in both their business and yours—and they’ll likely be open to telling someone the good news.
You can also ask for referrals during other high points along the customer journey. Look for opportunities at the end of a positive quarterly business review (QBR), the closing of a successful project, and so on.
6) Put Social Media to Work for You
If you’re not using social media business profiles to stay connected with current and potential clients, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to generate referrals that’ll attract new MSP customers.
The best thing you can do is be present, consistent, and engaging on whichever social channels you choose. We’re not saying you need to make a post every 30 minutes—just that you should be responsive and relatively easy to contact. This not only creates a positive and modern perception of your brand but also sets the stage for your socially active clients to refer you to their valuable, warm contacts.
More tactically, social media business pages are a great platform for requesting referrals and sharing client testimonials. In addition, social media makes it extremely easy for customers and other followers to share your brand, your posts, and their thoughts about your MSP services, enabling you to spend less time on manual marketing efforts.
If you’re on a social media platform like LinkedIn, chances are you’re already connected to a lot of both current and former customers. Nowadays though, for MSP referrals, the strongest channels may now include online communities like Slack and Discord, partner ecosystems, and AI‐enabled introduction platforms.
7) Create Mutually Beneficial Partnerships
Now it’s time to look beyond just your client base to develop referral-based partnerships with other businesses you know your clients use. These may range from other service providers to figures in trusted advisor roles like accountants, attorneys, etc.
Of course, be careful about partnering with anyone whose services overlap or may even just potentially overlap with yours. In most cases, it’s not worth the risk of conflict.
Tip: While providing monetary incentives for individual referrals isn’t exactly recommended (keep reading to learn why), it’s more acceptable to pay other businesses for referrals. A good place to start is offering the first month of MRR (monthly recurring revenue) generated by the new customer.
This brief video—7 Tactics for Getting More Referrals for Your MSP Business—walks through everything discussed in this article.
Simplify the referral process to encourage participation.
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What to Avoid When Establishing MSP Referral Programs
Remember that clients will refer you because you do excellent work that makes them happy. If you feel the need to show your appreciation for themin more substantive ways, however, just be sure that it’s sincere and well thought out.
Offering a discount or cash reward to someone who was planning to refer you anyway may be off-putting or, worse, may come across as some kind of bribe. On the other hand, offering to exchange value for referrals with a client who isn’t really that interested in your services at the moment can be detrimental to your professional relationship.
Generally speaking, the best way to keep it professional while showing your appreciation for client referrals is to gift something thoughtful and useful. Think along the lines of a gift card for a nice local restaurant or even a good bottle of whiskey or wine. While you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to send a small gift to the newly referred client to start your relationship on the right foot and build a virtuous cycle of appreciation and reciprocity.
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