For founder-led MSPs, VARs, and technology solutions providers

Most growth problems come back to a number that lives in someone's head.

A risky hire, a slow ramp, a team that's stopped hunting, a project that never turns into the next one. Most owners read these as people problems. Usually they come from the same place: the business can't yet measure what it delivers. Fix that and growth stops depending on who's in the room. You can also start charging for results instead of hours or seats.

Start a conversation How the day works

Define, baseline, deliver, measure. The loop every fix comes back to.

Where it usually starts

Which one sounds like you?

Here are five ways owners put it to us. Under each is a number the business can't see yet, and next to it, what outcome-ready looks like.

"We need another seller. What's the least risky way to bring one on?"

Sales

The seat has no number. Nobody can say what a new seller should close, or by when, because the win rate, deal size and cycle length that would tell you aren't anywhere you can pull them from. So the hire is a bet and the ramp is a guess.

Outcome-ready → The seat comes with a number: what a new seller should close, and by when, built from your own win rate, deal size and cycle length. You hire against a target you can defend, and you can tell early whether it's working.

"Learning our services takes months, and nobody has time to teach it."

Pre-Sales

Scope lives in one engineer's head. Without a written handoff from what was sold to what gets built, every new seller learns it by shadowing, and ramp gets measured in quarters.

Outcome-ready → Scope is written down and checked against what delivery costs, so a new seller can promise a result the team can keep.

"The team is great with our existing customers. They've stopped hunting."

Customer Acquisition

Nobody can see pipeline by source. The growth plan assumes the team will start hunting again, and nothing shows whether it's happening until the quarter is gone.

Outcome-ready → Pipeline is visible by source, and the team sells a result they've delivered before, so every new deal doesn't start from scratch.

"We bought a firm. Now how do we sell all of this?"

Delivery

The capability came with the deal. One offer didn't. Neither did a clear view of what the combined offer costs to deliver, and you can't price or sell what you can't cost.

Outcome-ready → Margin is visible by contract, so you know what an outcome costs to produce before you put a price on it.

"The project went fine. So why does every next one feel like a new sale?"

Retention

The result never gets reported back. The project closes, the team moves on, and nobody goes back to show the customer what changed. So the next project gets bought on price, against whoever else bid it.

Outcome-ready → Every project ends with a result the customer can check against where they started, so the next one starts from what you delivered, not from a fresh bid.

All five come from the same place. The engine runs through a few people, so nobody can measure it, teach it or promise it to a customer. We fix that.

Our point of view

Build the firm that outlasts the AI rush

Growth, spending, and the way AI is being bolted onto businesses have reached a fevered pitch. We don't think it holds up as built. The firms that come through it will be the ones paid for business outcomes, not for more output.

That takes a foundation that doesn't depend on which tool wins next. You need a clear account of what you deliver, procedures that work without heroics, and customers who believe your numbers. The tools will keep changing. A firm its customers trust can change tools without losing them.

Why so few firms sell outcomes. Mostly it comes down to trust. The buyer doesn't trust the seller to deliver the result, and most sellers couldn't prove it to themselves either. We think that gap closes from the seller's side first: a firm has to trust its own numbers before a customer will pay against them.

Trusting your own numbers means you can do four things with an outcome:

Define itBaseline itDeliver it repeatablyMeasure it

Only one of those belongs to sales. The other three live in scoping, delivery and account management, which is why this is an operating problem before it is a pricing one, and why a new rate card doesn't fix it. It's also why the same work that makes you outcome-ready makes the next hire a safe one.

Why this year. MSPs already using AI in service delivery are reporting 15% to 25% gains in technician productivity and 40% to 70% reductions in ticket resolution time. The work is getting faster now, in firms that look like yours. What most of them can't yet show is what that bought the customer.

Robin Ody, head of MSP research at Omdia, in Channelholic, March 2026
Who you'd be working with

Two operators

The partners you meet are the partners who do the work.

DPDan Patnode
Dan Patnode
PARTNER · SELLS AND DELIVERS

Since 2014, selling technology from the provider's side of the table: hardware, software, cloud and managed services, and the complex solutions that tie them together. Worked strategic account portfolios from mid-market companies up to the Fortune 100, nationally and internationally.

JBJon Braught
Jon Braught
PARTNER · METHOD AND DELIVERABLES

Fifteen years selling enterprise technology from the reseller's side of the table: networking, server, storage and the Microsoft stack, and the architectures that tie them together. Went from hunting strategic accounts in healthcare and energy to running the teams responsible for every stage of the cycle, from the direct reps to the sales engineers and technical staff.

Read the full bios →
Who this is for

Run by people still close to the revenue

If you can see yourself in these three, the rest of this page is about you.

What you are

MSP, VAR, or technology solutions provider

You sell technology and the services that go with it.

How many sellers

Typically 1 to 10 sellers

Whether that's the founder still selling alone or a team of ten.

How you're run

Founder-led or a lean executive team

A few people make the calls, and they're still close enough to the revenue to change how it runs.

How it starts

One day on site, and a number you didn't have before

A fixed-scope read of how outcome-ready your revenue engine is today, done in your building, with your people in the room.

1

The week before

A handful of exports from your own systems, so the day itself is the work.

2

The day

You and up to three of your team. Twenty criteria, scored in the room, with your people there to argue with the answers.

3

Before we leave

Your outcome readiness score, the one leak costing you most in your own numbers, and the three things to fix first. The full report follows in two business days.

Some owners take that and run it themselves. That's a fine outcome. If you want help installing the fix, the next step is six weeks that move one real number, then we install it with you, stage by stage, until it runs without us. Fixed price, quoted before we start.

See the full engagement arc →

Start with one day on site.

You don't need a long contract to find out whether we're a fit. Tell us which of the five sounds like you, and we'll tell you plainly whether the day is worth it.

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