LAST UPDATED: JULY 2026
This is a deeper dive on the same topic. There's no workbook question here, since you already answered it in the 101 lesson. Read for the extra detail, then continue to the next topic below.
Mapping Your MSP Customer Touchpoints
The 101 lesson described the three-stage framework that every MSP prospect moves through. This lesson turns that framework into a diagnostic tool.
By mapping the actual touchpoints your clients experienced before signing, you can find exactly where your funnel is strong and exactly where it leaks.
Once you can see the leak, fixing it is straightforward.
This exercise works best for MSPs that have at least five signed clients. If you're brand new, complete this exercise with however many you have and revisit it as your client base grows.
Why It Matters for MSPs
Understanding your touchpoints matters because it moves your marketing from guesswork to evidence.
MSPs that rely almost entirely on referrals are in a strong position today and a fragile position tomorrow. Referrals produce high-quality leads, but they're not predictable or scalable.
If a key referral partner retires, relocates, or starts recommending a competitor, the pipeline can dry up with almost no warning.
The touchpoint map helps you see this fragility clearly, and gives you a concrete argument for investing in awareness channels that don't depend on any one person.
Going Deeper
What an MSP Customer Touchpoint Is
A touchpoint is any moment a prospect encountered your business before they became a client. Some touchpoints are intentional: an ad you ran, an email you sent, a post you published.
Others happen without your direct involvement: a peer mentioned your name, a prospect found a review you didn't know existed, or a directory listed your business with outdated information.
Example: "River City Managed Services" in St. Louis traced a new client back and found three touchpoints: a LinkedIn post about local phishing scams (Awareness), a visit to their "Law Firm IT" service page (Consideration), and a discovery call booked through their website (Decision).
Touchpoints aren't all equal. An organic referral from a trusted peer carries far more weight than seeing your LinkedIn ad once.
But every touchpoint contributes to the picture a prospect forms of your business before they ever talk to you.
That picture determines whether they reach out at all, and how seriously they take you when they do.
The Backward Trace Exercise
Pick your last five clients, ideally the five you're most glad to have. For each one, reconstruct the path from the moment they first encountered your business to the moment they signed.
TOOLS CAN HELP WITH THIS
Free spreadsheet tools exist to help with this. Book a free call with us to see what we recommend for your MSP.
You can do this in a conversation with the client, a quick email asking a few questions, or by reviewing whatever notes you have from the sales process. The questions to answer for each client:
- How did they first hear about you? Was it a referral? A Google search? A local event? A directory listing? A social media post?
- What did they do next? Did they visit your website? Look at your reviews? Ask someone else about you? Do nothing for a while?
- What pushed them to reach out? What changed between first awareness and picking up the phone or sending an email? Was it a triggering event or did they just feel ready?
- How long did the process take? From first awareness to signed contract, how many months or weeks?
- What almost stopped them? Was there a competing MSP they seriously considered? A concern about price? A moment where they nearly walked away?
Mapping Touchpoints to the Three Stages
Once you have the story for each client, place every touchpoint on a simple map with three columns: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
Awareness touchpoints are the moments before active evaluation: hearing your name mentioned, seeing your company in a search result, reading a piece of content you published.
The prospect wasn't shopping yet.
Consideration touchpoints are the moments during active evaluation: visiting your website, reading your Google reviews, watching a video, downloading something, or attending an event where you spoke.
Decision touchpoints are the moments in the final stage: the initial call, the discovery meeting, the proposal, or the reference check.
Most MSPs find that their awareness column is nearly empty. The vast majority of their clients found them through a direct referral.
That's not a problem, but it means the business is entirely dependent on referrals for new business and has almost no visibility to prospects who aren't in the referral network.
Finding the Leak
After mapping five clients, look at where the pattern breaks down. The "leak" is the stage where prospects who found you went quiet.
They encountered your business but didn't move to the next stage.
You likely won't have data on prospects who found you and didn't convert, because they never contacted you.
But you can infer the leak from two sources: the absence of touchpoints in certain stages, and the conversations you did have with prospects who didn't convert.
Common patterns to look for:
- No awareness touchpoints at all. Every client came through a referral. You're invisible to anyone who doesn't already know someone who knows you.
- Awareness but no consideration activity. Prospects are finding you but not engaging with your content or visiting your website.
- Consideration activity that doesn't convert to contact. Prospects are visiting your website and reading your reviews but not reaching out.
- Initial contact that doesn't convert to proposal or meeting. This is usually a follow-up or response speed problem.
What to Fix First
Fix the earliest leak first. Patching a hole in the decision stage doesn't help if you're losing most prospects in the awareness or consideration stage.
Work upstream.
If your awareness touchpoints are near zero: choose one awareness channel and commit to consistent presence for six months before evaluating results.
The rest of Foundations will help you decide which channel fits your situation best.
If your consideration materials are weak: prioritize your website (clear service pages, visible contact information, testimonials) and your Google reviews.
If your consideration is strong but contacts aren't converting: look at your response time, your first-call process, and whether your follow-up is consistent.
Repeat this exercise every six months. As you add marketing channels, the touchpoint map will start to fill out.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake is ignoring the Awareness stage because it's hard to measure.
Another mistake is assuming a referral means you don't need a website. Referrals still check your Consideration materials before they call you.
Don't try to fix every stage at once. Focus on the earliest gap in your map.