MSP Marketing Models Lag Behind Structural Shift in B2B Buying Behavior – Ilan Vagenshtein

Managed service providers are confronting a widening gap between how they market their services and how enterprise and mid-market buyers evaluate technology partners. This is creating a structural inefficiency that is limiting growth across the sector. 

At the center of this trend is a fundamental shift in buying behavior. Technology buyers are no longer entering vendor-led sales processes at the beginning of their journey. Instead, they are completing the majority of their evaluation independently, often narrowing their consideration set before any direct engagement occurs. 

The shift was a central observation of Ilan Vagenshtein, a fractional CMO specializing in managed service providers, in a recent BizTechReports executive vidcast interview. The pattern Vagenshtein describes is consistent with broader shifts in B2B buying behavior documented across the industry.

Recent research from Gartner found that 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. Most conduct independent research through digital channels before engaging vendors.

“And yet, so many MSP organizations are still marketing for a buying process that no longer exists,” Vagenshtein said.

The traditional MSP sales motion was built around early vendor engagement, where prospective customers entered the process with limited information and relied on direct conversations with providers to shape their understanding of the market.

Buyers today increasingly conduct the majority of their research independently before contacting providers. They rely on digital content, seek peer validation, and engage with expert-led content from both third-party sources and specific MSPs themselves to form initial trust.

Indeed, industry research suggests that buyers are nearly 70% through their journey before contacting vendors, and 81% have a preferred vendor in mind by the time they make their first contact. A survey from 6sense shows that 95% of deals are ultimately won by vendors that were already on the buyer’s shortlist at the start of the process.

“If they didn’t already vet you and they don’t contact you, then your chances of entering mid-process and influencing the outcome, per ample industry research, are very low,” Vagenshtein said.

As a result, the competitive landscape has moved upstream. Vendors are effectively being selected or excluded before they enter the formal sales process or are even aware of that specific opportunity. This compresses the influence of sales teams and elevating marketing as the primary driver of vendor consideration.

Demand Concentration Limits Campaign Effectiveness

Compounding the issue is the distribution of demand across the market. Only about 5% of B2B buyers are in-market at any given time, reinforcing the long-tail nature of demand. This creates a structural constraint on short-term marketing strategies.

“Campaign-based approaches such as email outreach, webinars, and digital advertising are typically designed to capture active demand. However, they inherently target a narrow segment of the market while leaving future demand largely unaddressed,” he explained.

Organizations that rely heavily on these tactics may experience diminishing returns as competition intensifies within the same limited pool of buyers.

Commoditization Driven by Generic Positioning

At the same time, many MSPs continue to position themselves as broad-based service providers capable of supporting multiple industries and use cases.

While this approach reflects operational flexibility, it reduces differentiation in the eyes of buyers who are increasingly seeking providers with domain-specific expertise.

Generic messaging reinforces this perception. Widely used syndicated content packages contribute to a homogenized market narrative in which providers appear interchangeable.

More than half of B2B buyers report having strong knowledge of vendors before engaging them, often based on independent research and peer validation.

“If you are solving all issues for all types of customers, then you are invisible,” Vagenshtein said.

In an environment where buyers complete significant portions of their evaluation independently, this lack of distinction becomes a critical disadvantage.

Measurement Gaps Obscure Performance Drivers

The transition to a more complex buying process has also exposed limitations in how many MSPs measure marketing effectiveness.\

A common approach is to evaluate campaign inputs against final outcomes, such as the number of new clients acquired over a defined period. This binary view overlooks the intermediate stages that influence conversion.

Modern B2B buying is non-linear and involves an average of 20 or more touchpoints across channels, making simplistic attribution models ineffective.

“You are measuring the beginning of the process and the final result, but everything in the middle is ignored,” Vagenshtein said.

More mature marketing organizations track a progression that includes initial contacts, lead qualification, marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), sales-qualified leads (SQLs), and sales-qualified opportunities (SQOs). Each stage provides insight into where friction occurs within the pipeline.

Without this level of visibility, organizations may misattribute underperformance to marketing as a whole (i.e. “marketing doesn’t work”), whereas the real issue may be someplace else entirely.

Content Strategy Shifts Toward Expertise-Led Models

As buyers rely more heavily on self-directed research, the quality and specificity of content become critical factors in vendor selection.

Generic content fails to establish authority or build trust.

Over three-quarters, 77%, of buyers rely on peer recommendations and reviews, while vendor content published on their websites, but also reputable third-party research outlets, remains a key input in decision-making.

This reinforces the need for expertise-led, differentiated content grounded in real-world experience.\

Vagenshtein emphasized that this expertise must originate within the organization, not from syndicated sources. Structured interviews with internal subject matter experts can be used to generate original content that reflects real-world experience and domain knowledge.

The adoption of generative AI is accelerating content production across the industry, but it is also contributing to increased uniformity. Analysts at IDC report that 77% of buyers now use AI tools during their purchasing process, increasing exposure to large volumes of similar content.

“Do not automate the thinking process. You can automate parts of writing, but must review and edit, you should never trust AI blindly. You can also automate the execution of parts of campaigns, but the ideas must come from you,” Vagenshtein said.

AI-generated material often reflects common patterns in language and structure, making it harder for providers to stand out without original thinking. Organizations that rely on automation without strong editorial direction risk reinforcing the very commoditization they are trying to avoid.

Physical Engagement Retains Strategic Importance

Despite the shift toward digital research, in-person engagement continues to play a critical role in building trust.

Buyers typically interact across more than ten channels and touchpoints during their decision process, reinforcing the need for both digital and physical engagement (https://butteredtoast.io/b2b-buying-trends/).

“Trust building works much faster in real life compared to digital,” Vagenshtein said.

Industry events, peer forums, and direct interactions provide validation that is difficult or takes much longer to replicate through digital channels alone. It’s important to integrate digital and physical into one, complete strategy, rather than treat them as separate initiatives. This is what leading organizations do.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Click here to learn more about Ilan Vagenshtein