Operations
How IT support companies turn a paid audit into a monthly contract
18 September 20269 min readRead
B2B practice
How IT support companies get clients: a 90-day plan
How your buyer buys: Nobody is searching for you. You go and find them.
An office rings an IT company on the day something breaks: email is down, the server will not start, a director is locked out. They search for IT support in their town and ring the first number that is answered by a person. That call is the whole sales process for break-fix work, and it is won or lost while your engineers are on site somewhere else.
The contract buyer is different. A practice manager, a finance director or the owner of a 20-person firm has decided the current arrangement is not good enough. They look for a company that already looks after firms like theirs, check Cyber Essentials and Microsoft partner status, and want a written proposal within the week. Then they wait, and whoever follows up gets the signature.
So the line is routed to a person while engineers are out, missed calls get a text, and the two or three strongest sectors each get a page, all in week one. Then the fixed-price audit, three named plans priced per user, and the credentials with numbers a buyer can look up. Then cold email to limited companies in one sector, a page per service and town, and a fixed follow-up on every proposal.
Step zero
The free checklist, before the plan.
The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.
The IT Support Company's DIY Growth Checklist
The free checklist for it support companies: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.
Where they look
Where your customers actually look.
Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)
IT support with your town, typed by someone whose email is down, ends on the map. Category Computer support and services, each service listed with your area, and a number that is answered.
LinkedIn(opens in a new tab)
Where the practice manager or finance director checks you after a recommendation. The company page names the sectors you look after, and the owner's profile shows the migrations that went live without drama.
Microsoft partner directory
An office that runs Microsoft 365 is told to find a partner. Partner status with a listing in the directory, and the same status on your proposal cover, is a credential the buyer can look up in a minute.
Clutch(opens in a new tab)
A reviewed directory of IT and managed service providers that larger buyers and procurement teams use. Verified client reviews naming the sector and the project are what move a listing.
Local chamber of commerce
The room where office decision-makers and the accountants who advise them meet. A member listing, and a monthly visit asking who looks after their IT today, is how a town learns your name.
FSB(opens in a new tab)
The Federation of Small Businesses runs local networks full of 5 to 50 person firms, the offices your plans are priced for. A member profile and a talk at a branch meeting on keeping email and backups safe reach them directly.
Your year
Steady all year, so start now.
Support contracts are bought all year; decision-makers are hard to reach in August and late December.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug: quiet
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec: quiet
Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.
IT support is bought all year. There is no peak month and no start-by date, so the plan runs in the order written. What moves is reachability: decision-makers are away in August and gone from mid December, so a proposal sent in those weeks waits. Send proposals in the first week of September and the second week of January instead, and use the quiet weeks for the audit report template, the per-user plan table and the service pages. The other calendar is the contract one. Every support contract you sign has an end date, and so does every competitor's; diary the renewal quarter for each prospect you audit and go back then.
The 90-day plan
Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.
Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.
Week 0
Answer the phone, text back missed calls
Route the line to a person or an answering service while engineers are on site, and text back missed calls asking if they are down
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result within a week
Sharpen the offer
Give your two or three strongest sectors a page each, naming the software they run and the problems they ring about
- Cost: Free
- Medium effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the bundleTell everyone you already know
Tell past break-fix customers and former colleagues that you now look after offices of 5 to 50 people on a monthly plan
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Month 1
Sharpen the offer
Sell a fixed-price IT and security audit for offices of up to 15 people, credited against a support plan
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 6 weeks
In the kit and the bundleA plan with a name and a monthly price
Offer three named plans priced per user per month, collected by direct debit
- Cost: £
- Medium effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the kit and the bundleGoogle Business Profile, complete
Choose Computer support and services as the primary category, and list each service with your area
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
Credentials a buyer can check
Show Cyber Essentials and Microsoft partner status, with certificate numbers a buyer can look up
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Months 2 to 3
Cold email to limited companies
Email limited companies in one sector and town, such as accountancy practices of 10 to 30 staff, offering the audit
To limited companies only: identify yourself, give an opt-out address, keep a suppression list.
- Cost: ££
- Medium effort
- About 2 hours a week
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
Limited companies onlyA page per service and per town
A page each for managed support, Microsoft 365, cyber security, backup and office moves, then one for each town you cover
- Cost: ££
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
In the bundleSame-day quote, then follow up
Follow up every proposal on a fixed schedule until you get a yes or a no
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 3 weeks
In the bundle
Month 3 onward
Gatekeeper partnerships
Get known by accountants, commercial letting agents, fit-out firms and serviced-office managers
- Cost: Free
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
Ask every client for a review
Ask for a review and a short case study the day a migration goes live
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the bundleGoogle Search ads
Bid on 'IT support' plus your town in working hours only, sending clicks to a page with a phone that gets answered
- Cost: £££
- Medium effort
- About 1 hour a week
- First result in 0 to 2 weeks
The cost of waiting
What doing nothing costs it support companies.
The leaks below are the ones the it support companies page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.
Industry estimates, not client results
Industry-typical ranges for a small managed service provider: a first-year support contract in the low thousands, about three in ten proposals won, and most clients renewing or adding projects within the year.
Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.
Where it leaks
Drains close rate
Proposals go out a week late, then never get chased
- Leaking now
- £1,920 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £768 a month
- The fix
- Quote follow-up automation (about £700 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.9 weeks
Drains enquiries
The website lists technologies, not the firms you look after
- Leaking now
- £1,920 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £768 a month
- The fix
- A website that converts (about £1,750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 9.9 weeks
Drains enquiries
New clients arrive by word of mouth or not at all
- Leaking now
- £2,469 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £741 a month
- The fix
- A website that converts (about £1,750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 10.2 weeks
Drains repeat purchases
Most of your income still depends on something breaking
- Leaking now
- £90 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £36 a month
- The fix
- Package and pricing design (about £700 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 84.3 weeks
On these figures
£6,459 a month leaking
Fixing every leak above gets back about £2,331 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline, regulars kept included.
- The Monthly-Contract System (£1,995)
- Pays back in 3.7 weeks
- The IT Support Growth Kit (£49)
- Pays back in under a week
Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for it support companies.
What matters most
The levers that carry the most weight here.
Four steps make an IT company's plan work. Answering the phone, with a person on the line while engineers are on site and a text back asking whether they are down. The break-fix call is won in the first minute. The paid first step, a fixed-price IT and security audit with a written report, credited against a support plan, because a free health check takes a day and leads nowhere. A page per service and per town, so IT support with your town lands on a page with a number that is answered. And cold email, to limited companies only, in one sector and town with the audit as the single offer, under your own name with an opt-out address. The three plans priced per user are what all four lead to.
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If you would rather we did this for you
The same plan, built and run for it support companies: the phone, the profile, the pages and the follow-up, priced up front.
See what we build for it support companiesNot sure which step comes first for your business?
The free audit asks about your trade, your numbers and your season, then ranks the fixes for you.