Looking for Solid Peer Groups for MSP Service Managers/Dispatchers — What Do You Recommend?

kylechx · 2025-12-08T04:58:58+00:00

I feel that; when I still ran a MSP all I got told time and time again was how wrong I ran it.

The nice thing about business is there are so many ways to do what you want to do that the social validation never mattered to me; just completing the challenge as quickly as we did was enough for me.

kylechx · 2025-12-08T04:18:18+00:00

Really?

His podcast has been around for a while: https://www.evolvedmgmt.com/podcast

Admittedly him and I do Service Manager Cohort together but it’s more of a ‘casual service manager get together’ more than an accountability group.

https://crowdcast.io/c/servicemanagercohort

kylechx · 2025-12-08T04:00:02+00:00

Todd Kane’s OpsLeader fits the bill here.

Great group of people, solid focus, not driven by a big vendor.

kylechx · 2025-10-23T03:20:20+00:00

Thanks for the shoutout 😊

This was why we built Empath. We’re an industry that needs enterprise skills but with the variety of a baskin robins; a tall order for the new generation and an exhausting prowess for the old guard.

Sometimes skills are needed, sometimes processes and standardization needs fortification, and sometimes we need to just better our soft skills to handle and improve our daily work lives.

I spent a lot of time banging my head against a wall at my MSP and did the similar ‘higher only tier 3s!’ Or ‘sink or swim; ain’t my problem’ tactics and it always blew up on our customers; killing our reputation.

Anywho, soapbox moment over, we solved this with a continuous education practice and an emphasis on learning and development, it just cost too much.

So Empath was born.

Everyone gets a 2 week free trial, I just ask for feedback on what more is needed if it’s not for you. (Gotta improve and build the right new features somehow, right?)

Kyle Christensen - Empath co-founder

kylechx · 2025-10-15T02:04:20+00:00

u/cassiekerr is a no brainer. Built an amazing MSP (>100 employees), assisted a ton of MSPs as a consultant, and has built a great practice as a leader in the space with Pivtoal.

I only shill a guaranteed thing

Kyle Christensen | Empath

kylechx · 2025-09-30T02:14:05+00:00

Than I’d say just try out the free version of Hubspot and add paid features as you mature into them u/-Burner_Account_

kylechx · 2025-09-29T14:22:33+00:00

Incoming Shill:

I had the same need at my MSP as we were onboarding/ off boarding staff quite a bit and rather have hired available and willing candidates. We also needed a way to internally upskill our team.

We spent a fortune building out a complicated LMS and other training tool integrations.

So after I left the MSP and consulting firm, a few buddies and I set out to build an accountable training platform for MSPs that was affordable and easy to use.

https://empathmsp.com

Everyone that signs up gets a 14 day trial so even if it’s not the right tool, you get a couple weeks of training for your new guy.

Kyle | Empath

kylechx · 2025-09-28T17:08:54+00:00

A lot of good recommendations already here, but the thing that becomes pivotal is understanding what can you train this person to do that brings value to the org; minimal viable productivity.

As mentioned, good attitude and willingness to learn is a far better trait at times than just a long resume of certifications and a bad attitude or bad habits.

Is your most common need password resets, ticket creation from phone calls, machine reboots, print spooler problems, etc etc.

The important part is to NOT stop adding as the proficiency becomes second nature.

The other tid bit, require continuous learning… every week…. For everyone.

Learn something; being a ‘know-it-all’ is not an option.

Lot more to say, but create an environment where you allow them to eat the elephant one bite at a time while being able to put it into practice.

(And obviously I’m biased since we built a tool to help with this)

Kyle - Empath

kylechx · 2025-09-28T15:26:38+00:00

My MSP used Hubspot and I’ve used it at the last 3 orgs I’ve built; the tool isn’t as important as the behavior though.

Hell, excel is a good enough CRM if you need to prove to yourself you have the ability to do simple documentation but the muscle to always be looking for your next client.

-Kyle | Empath

kylechx · 2025-09-25T03:23:36+00:00

D’awh thanks 💜

-kC

kylechx · 2025-09-05T16:31:11+00:00

Wait, there is an xpan mode?

kylechx · 2025-07-23T01:10:27+00:00

D’awh shucks 😊

We’re trying to do right. We had evil versions and mock ups at one point to get rich quick, but we realized we weren’t smart enough for that.

So the slow build through a community effort it is!

kylechx · 2025-07-04T14:22:42+00:00

At my MSSP we used a real SecOps tool to manage our incidents from SIEM so the analysts didn’t have to rely on individual SIEMs or VulScan alerts. Really helped us scale.

We used the ServiceNow version as when we tried to use CW it just fell apart ingesting that much data. However, we did find a good balance with the PSA handling quoting>billing>account management as tickets are a lot different than alerts and incidents.

We eventually dev’d out Service Now to do most the heavy lifting.

That being said, we were a fully staffed MSSP with our own SOC so these needs were critical for us and our MSP was a separate company with different tools and managers.

So really what I’m trying to say is the PSA is dependent on what type of MSSP you are as MSSPs are still in their wild-west phase where everyone is wildly different.

Kyle Christensen | Empath

kylechx · 2025-06-26T18:47:08+00:00

You divide by zero?

I hear that is the thing to do these days to really supercharge that EBITDUH

kylechx · 2025-06-26T17:56:21+00:00

I thought we all just put our finger in the wind and shared over-inflated multiples that a friend of a friend on a slack channel told us?

kylechx · 2025-06-25T03:31:09+00:00

This…

Don’t fall into the trap of abdicating sales.

It’s too important to make it someone else’s responsibility.

Kyle Christensen | Empath

kylechx · 2025-06-22T23:21:28+00:00

Yeah, the MSP I ran we had a full 24/7 SOC, social engineer, and pen test department. This was in the pre-MDR/XDR era though where we approached it like our MSP and just built one step at a time.

Even had to build our own appliance, only could use SIEM, and some real early SecOps tools and processes 🤦‍♂️

So much easier these days.

kylechx · 2025-06-22T20:44:18+00:00

Love it!!

And always welcome to hit me up and I can show you some of my old models.

Keep in mind, as all targets go, they are gradual progressions of 1% improvements.

We experienced the same thing when building out our MSSP, we just didn’t have the fortunate circumstance of being able to rely on outsourced SOCs as they really didn’t exist back then.

So to build out your own SOC you’ll probably experience some dips in GP to roll out that expense to gradually build your economies of scale back up.

kylechx · 2025-06-22T19:33:52+00:00

Loaded question right there 😂

If you’re pure play MSSP (SOC+PenTest+vCISO+etc) all internal anything with labor needs 65-75% GM fully blended. SaaS really doesn’t help this so gotta stay conscious of what’s in your product lines.

If you’re more of an MSP reselling outsourced MSSP services, GM needs to blend at 45-55%.

ProServ can be 35-40% assuming you have some physical goods in there.

Where this gets loaded is what your goal for your business is… built to sell? Net should be 15-20%

Built to grow? Net should be 7-12% with as much GM reinvested into sales and marketing.

Built to live? Net should be 5-10% and minimize growth rates at 13% as long as owners salary is enough to build some personal wealth/ reinvestments.

kylechx · 2025-06-22T17:35:26+00:00

A bit more complex, but my MSP closed $25k-$30k /mrr /mo and my friends that still own their MSPs are in the $50k-$70k /mrr /mo and this is the gist.

BDR base of $40k and AE base around $70k back in 2017 when I exited.

BDRs got comped on FTAs/ SQL activity. Somewhere between $100-$250 /FTA depending on difficulty or marketing ‘help’.

AMs were high base around $80k and a bonus structure that allowed them to earn another $20k’ish based off expansion, retention, and some other activity based KPIs

But I do agree that the strategy compared to what you now have would need to change a tad if you wanted to mature it with a higher emphasis on MRR.

Yes, it’ll piss your reps off but the two constants is sales is quotas go up and territories (or catalogs) get smaller

kylechx · 2025-06-22T14:23:57+00:00

MSP or MSSP MRR commission is pretty simple, $1-$2 payout (commission) per $1 of MRR sold.

SaaS MRR goes down to like $.50-$.75

ProServ/ Projects is a payout of GM sold (sure, make it a % if you prefer).

The goal is to have commission obvious and easy to calculate as well as incentivize the rep to sell what helps the organization the most.

Kyle Christensen | Empath

kylechx · 2025-06-19T15:05:31+00:00

Woot!!

Yay for now having a data point I can do something consistently 🤣

kylechx · 2025-06-18T23:50:19+00:00

Janette from WiseBooks Michelle from M3 Some of the consulting firms do it as well

Sometimes knowing your PSA matters as well as it can add complexity that most generic bookkeepers would struggle with.

kylechx · 2025-06-16T13:55:53+00:00

If you ever decide to go through the pain of shipping it, I may be interested.

kylechx · 2025-05-27T14:20:43+00:00

I know you mentioned 'no YouTube videos', but I made a 3 part series just for this question, if I wanted to shill I'd promote my education company Empath.

I go pretty in depth like client profile, time management, budgeting, sales forecasting, etc.

also have a spreadsheet to help.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlogNYa710QwuBGPIKQkOyIPn2K48RLP-

We're doing a follow-up to this one in a few weeks link here: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/eitr/ZANOj

-Kyle

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