Fanatical Prospecting for MSPs: The Secret to Filling Your Pipeline and Closing More Deals!

If there’s one book that completely shifted the way I think about sales for MSPs, it’s Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount. I read a ton of books (mostly while I’m on the treadmill), but this one? Total game changer. Whether you’re struggling to keep your sales pipeline full or want to sharpen your prospecting habits—this book has the goods.

In this blog, I’m going to break down the exact lessons I pulled from it and how we used them to grow our MSP into a seven-figure business before launching Cloud Services for MSPs! Let’s dive in.

Lesson 1: The 30-Day Rule

This was an eye-opener! The 30-Day Rule simply states that the effort you put into prospecting today shows up in your results 30, 60, or 90 days from now. Back when we ran our MSP, if we skipped prospecting—even for a few weeks—we felt the pain months later. It didn’t hit us right away, but it definitely hit hard…

Our fix? We created a structured prospecting routine and treated it like gospel. Whether it was 30 minutes a day or 10 calls a day, we stuck to it. Trust me, consistency is key!

Lesson 2: The Law of Replacement

Celebrate your wins, but not for too long! Every time you close a deal; you’ve got to replace that prospect in your pipeline. We made it a rule to add at least one (preferably three) new prospect every time we lost or closed one!

Where’d they come from? We hit marketing from all angles—telemarketing, networking events, referrals, you name it. We also leaned hard into automation. Tools like Active Campaign for email and Publer for LinkedIn helped us stay consistent without burning out.

Lesson 3: The Four-Step Prospecting Framework

This was one of my favorite takeaways:

1. Target the Right People – Define your Ideal Client Profile (ICP) and stay laser-focused. Don’t waste time on businesses that don’t fit.
2. Use Multi-Touch Prospecting – It takes 8–12 touches to move a cold prospect to a sales conversation.
3. Deliver a Clear Value Proposition – No more generic “we do IT services” pitches. We told prospects exactly how we’d reduce downtime and help them scale.
4. Be Relentless – If you give up after two or three tries, you’re toast. Keep showing up: MSPs who stick with it stand out!

Lesson 4: Time Blocking

“I don’t have time to prospect.” Sound familiar? We used to say the same thing… until we made it non-negotiable. We blocked out 90 minutes every day—no calls or distractions, just focused outreach.

Eventually, when we grew, we were able to outsource prospecting. But if you’re just starting out? Make the time. Your future pipeline depends on it!

Lesson 5: Mindset is Everything

Prospecting is tough. It’s not always fun. But it’s absolutely necessary! We adopted a fanatical mindset. That meant not taking “no” personally. No didn’t mean never—it just meant “not right now.” So, we’d recycle those leads and check back in six months.

Jeb nails it with this quote: “The key to success is the discipline to do what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it.” Yep, we lived by that.

Lesson 6: Define Your ICP (Ideal Client Profile)

Still wondering who to target? Here’s how we defined our ICP back in our MSP days:

• Business Size, Industry, and Location – For us, it was companies in disaster-prone areas that needed reliable cloud solutions.
• Tech Stack – We looked for businesses using tools like QuickBooks or ERP systems we knew inside and out.
• Pain Points – Security issues? Compliance headaches? Remote workforce challenges? Know what keeps your prospect up at night.
• Decision Makers – Don’t waste time pitching to office managers when you should be talking to the business owner.

Once we locked in on our ICP, our close rates went through the roof!
Start Prospecting Fanatically!

Let’s wrap with this: the brutal truth is that an empty pipeline is the number one reason MSPs fail at sales. And the root cause of an empty pipeline? Inconsistent prospecting. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

Here are your challenges for the week:

1. Set a daily or weekly goal – How many calls? How many emails? How many LinkedIn touches?
2. Block time – Get it on your calendar and protect it.
3. Replace every lost or closed deal with at least three new prospects.

And finally, let me leave you with this gem from Jeb Blount himself:

“Sales is a contact sport. The more people you talk to, the more deals you close.”

Now go out there, start prospecting like a fanatic, and fill that pipeline!