Every managed services proposal in March is measured against a number somebody wrote in October. Three providers try to get under it. One provider wrote it.
A managed IT provider gets a request in March from a distribution company with about 80 employees. The controller wants proposals for a support contract, a replacement server, the workstations past their useful life, a backup that actually restores, and the security items the cyber insurance renewal asked about. She mentions the owner approved a figure for IT this year.
Four providers respond. Three are trying to get under that figure. One of them wrote it, because they ran the network assessment in October.
In short
- The range a managed IT provider gives a controller in October becomes the IT line every spring proposal is measured against.
- Run the assessment, write the range before you leave, tie it to a scope you wrote, and keep per-seat pricing out of it.
- October is the last month a range can reach an operating budget before it goes to the owner in November.
How an October range becomes the budget line
Go back to last September. The controller was building next year’s operating budget. She knew IT was a problem: the server had gone down twice, the sales team complained about slow laptops, and the insurance questionnaire had a column of “no” answers. What she did not have was a number.
A managed IT provider spent half a day on a network assessment and left a two-page summary. Server age and support status. Workstations past their useful life. Backups that run but have never been restore-tested. Multi-factor sign-in switched off for email. A monthly range for support and licensing, and a separate one-time range for hardware.
| Month | What happens | Where your number is |
|---|---|---|
| September | Controller starts building next year’s operating budget | She knows IT is a problem and has no figure for it |
| October | You run the assessment and leave a two-page summary with a range | Your range is the only number written down anywhere |
| November | The budget goes to the owner | Figures from inside your range are in the spreadsheet |
| December | Owner approves. Questions come back. | The controller calls you, because you wrote it |
| January | Money is assigned to specific line items | The IT line exists because you gave it a size |
| February | The controller writes the request | The scope is your scope, because it is the only one in writing |
| March | Four managed services proposals come in | Three are pricing your list against your number |
Nobody decided to favor that provider. The number was simply the only one in the room when the spreadsheet was open.
The security items are the easiest part of that summary to justify, because the guidance is public. CISA’s multi-factor authentication guidance is written plainly enough to hand to an owner, and “phishing-resistant MFA is the standard all industry leaders should strive for” is a line a controller can put in a budget request without needing you in the room.
Why every other managed services proposal is measured against yours
By the time the request goes out, three things are already true.
The scope is yours. The request describes the work the way you described it. Nineteen workstations, not twelve and not thirty. A tested restore is on the list because you put it there. Multi-factor on email is on it because you flagged it. Everyone else is pricing your list.
The number is yours. The budget figure came out of your range. Anyone well above it looks expensive. Anyone well below it looks like they left something out, and the controller will ask you whether they did.
The relationship is yours. When the owner asked in December whether the server could go one more year, the controller called you. Nobody else got that call.
October is the window
Abstrakt sets appointments with the owners, controllers, and operations managers planning next year’s IT spend. Your engineers run the assessment. We do the calling that fills the calendar.
How to give a range without giving away the managed services proposal
Account managers worry about this, and they are right to. If you hand over a number in October, are you not telling every competitor where to aim? Not if the range is built properly.
A price
Belongs in the managed services proposal, in the spring.
- Per-seat rates and license markup
- Project hourly and terms
- Something to be signed
A range
Belongs in October, in a two-page summary.
- A monthly band and a hardware band
- Tied to a scope you wrote
- Something to be budgeted
01
Give a range, not a price
Wide enough to cover what you find in the server room, narrow enough that the controller can put it in a cell.
02
Tie it to a scope you wrote
When a competitor comes in low, the first thing the controller checks is whether they included the restore testing and the security items.
03
Keep per-seat pricing out of it
A monthly band, a hardware band, and a scope. Your rate card lives in the spring proposal, not the fall summary.
04
Say what you did not price
“This range does not include the warehouse software upgrade.” Now the controller knows what to expect if a cheaper proposal skipped it.
What to do this week
Pull your twenty-account list. Get the assessment on the calendar with the controller or the owner inside four weeks. October is the last month a range reaches a budget before it goes upward.
Write the range before you leave the building. Not after an engineer has had it for three days. The range in their hands the same afternoon is the one that gets typed in.
Ask for the submission date. “When does this go to the owner?” Then call the week after and find out what made the cut.
The line that gets you the assessment
“If you are putting next year’s budget together, I can run an assessment and leave you a range for the IT line. No proposal, no obligation, just a number you can defend to the owner.”
Controllers say yes to this because the number is the part they cannot produce themselves.
The honest part
Sometimes the controller takes your range, puts it in the budget, and in March signs with someone who came in under it. That happens, and it will keep happening.
But the provider who wrote the scope, gave the number, and took the December call is in a different conversation from the three who first heard of the company when the request landed. Be that one, and lose on price occasionally rather than lose on absence every time.
Before November
Operating budgets go to the owner in November. Abstrakt books the assessments while the budget is still open, so your team spends October in server rooms instead of finding names. The assessment, the number, and the contract are yours.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do small companies set next year’s IT budget?
On a calendar fiscal year, the controller builds next year’s operating budget in September and October, sends it to the owner in November, and gets approval in December. Money is assigned in January and requests go out in February and March. That sequence is why a range given in October carries so much further than one given in February.
Should an MSP give a price before the managed services proposal?
Give a range, not a price. A range is a budget tool and a price is a proposal. Tie the range to a scope you wrote yourself, state plainly what it does not include, and keep per-seat rates and license markup for the proposal in the spring. A range costs you nothing and puts your scope in the request.
What goes in a managed IT network assessment summary?
Two pages. What you found: server age and vendor support status, how many workstations are past their useful life, whether backups have ever been restore-tested, and whether multi-factor sign-in is switched on for email. Then a monthly range for support and licensing, a one-time range for hardware, and a line saying what the range does not cover.
How do you write a managed services proposal that wins?
Most of the work happens months before you write it. The proposal that wins usually describes a scope its author defined during a fall assessment, priced against a budget figure derived from that author’s own range. If you are writing a proposal cold against someone else’s scope and someone else’s number, the document itself has limited room to save you.
Does giving a range in October help competitors undercut you?
Only if the range is a bare number. Attached to a written scope, a low competing bid becomes a question the controller asks that competitor rather than a problem for you: did you include the restore testing and the security items? A range with a scope behind it is defensible. A number floating on its own is not.
Does this apply outside managed IT?
Yes. Roofing, HVAC, paving, cleaning and electrical contractors all face the same sequence: a range given while the budget is open becomes the figure every later proposal is measured against. Only the assessment and the equipment change.
Keep going
- Comparing MSP lead generation agencies
- Outsourced SDR services
- Cold calling services
- When to send a commercial cleaning bid
- What to say when you cold call a facility manager
About this article
Jeff Winters is Chief Executive Officer at Abstrakt Marketing Group. Reviewed by Neil Erker, Chief Marketing Officer. Abstrakt sets appointments for managed IT providers and commercial contractors across the trades, and the patterns here come from that calling.
Jeff Winters is the CEO of Abstrakt Marketing Group, a U.S.-based B2B lead generation and appointment-setting company that books qualified sales meetings for clients across the commercial trades, IT and managed services, manufacturing, and B2B services. He has spent his career building and running outbound sales programs at scale, and he breaks down what actually works in sales and lead generation on Abstrakt's podcast, The Grow Show.
