In this article 8 sections
When prospects say “you’re more expensive than your competitor”, most MSPs discount or over-explain. These 3 plays hold price.
Why “you’re too expensive” usually means something else
When a prospect says you’re expensive, they can’t see what justifies the difference between you and the alternative. With nothing else to compare, price becomes the only lever they’ve got. Discounting then feels rational to them.
To you, it feels like death by a thousand cuts. Every deal closes 10-15% below your list rate. Margin compresses. You stop investing in the things that made you better in the first place. Two years later you’re competing with the cheap MSPs on price because you’ve turned into one.
The way out is to give the prospect a different way to compare. Specifically: a way that shows them what they’d lose by going cheap. Once that’s visible, the price gap stops looking unreasonable.
The 3 moves that hold price in the room
Move 1: Run a proof comparison they have to engage with
Bring a scoring sheet. Pick a framework the prospect cares about (CE+, ISO 27001, NIS2 controls, basic IT maturity). Score yourself in front of them on 5-8 criteria, and be honest about it. Then ask: “how do you think your current MSP would score on this?” Or “would the cheaper option score the same?”
Three things happen. First, the prospect realises they don’t actually know how their incumbent would score. Second, they realise the cheaper MSP probably hasn’t done the exercise either. Third, they start mentally docking the cheaper MSP for the gap.
Script you can use
“Before we talk about price, can we run something quickly? I want to show you the scoring framework we use to evaluate ourselves every quarter. Then I’d like to ask you the same questions about the alternative you’re considering. Just to make sure we’re comparing the right things.”
This is hard for the prospect to refuse because it sounds reasonable and only takes 10 minutes. By the end of those 10 minutes, the price comparison has been replaced by a quality comparison.
(Assurix does this job for you. It independently assesses 59 controls, 40 security controls aligned to NCSC CAF 4.0 and 19 operational controls built for MSPs, and shows the prospect whether each one passes. Live measures such as SLA response, patching and supported operating systems refresh every six hours, other controls on a set cycle. Leave a failure unfixed for 30 days and the Trustmark is suspended publicly. The prospect doesn’t even need you in the room to see it.)
Move 2: Anchor the cost of getting it wrong
MSPs sell themselves on what they do. Prospects decide on what would happen if you weren’t there. The cost of MSP failure for a regulated SME isn’t the MSP fee. It’s the contract they lose, the regulator action they trigger, the cyber insurance claim that gets denied because the controls weren’t in place.
Your job in the pricing conversation is to surface those downstream costs out loud, in the prospect’s words.
Conversation pattern that works:
Ask: “if your IT was down for 4 hours during a busy week, what does that cost you?” Most prospects can put a number on it within 30 seconds because they’ve already lived through one.
Ask: “if you lost CE+ certification, which clients would be at risk?” Get them to name the contracts.
Ask: “if your cyber insurance got declined because you couldn’t evidence basic controls, what’s your exposure?” If they don’t know, suggest they call their broker.
By the end, the £15-25k/year gap between you and the cheaper MSP is sitting next to a six-figure number representing what’s at stake. The framing of expensive vs cheap collapses.
Don’t do this preachy. Ask the questions, listen, let the prospect’s own answers do the work. If you sound like you’re trying to scare them, you’ll lose trust. If they realise the risk themselves, you’ll win it.
Move 3: Offer a proof window instead of a discount
When pushed hard on price, give them a structured trial period instead of cutting your rate. A specific milestone, a specific date, a specific outcome.
Example structure
“We’ll run our standard service for 30 days. By day 30, we’ll deliver a scored audit against [framework] showing where your environment stands. If we haven’t moved you forward in 3 measurable areas, you walk away with no payment. If we have, we continue at full rate.”
This holds price by shifting the risk from the prospect to you. It costs you nothing if you’re as good as you say, because by day 30 you’ve delivered visible value and earned the rate. It also disqualifies cheaper MSPs who can’t make the same offer because they don’t have a scoring framework or the confidence to put it on the line.
Two warnings on this play. First, only use it for deals where the contract value justifies the upfront work (£20k ARR and up, in our experience). Second, define the 3 measurable areas in writing before day 1, otherwise you’ll get a prospect trying to move the success goalposts at day 30.
Handling the most common closing manoeuvres
Prospects use a small set of repeating tactics in the final stage of MSP negotiations. Recognise them and you can hold price more often.
“Just split the difference and we’ll sign today.”
Classic anchor-and-close. The prospect is hoping you’ll discount 50% of the gap because the close feels imminent.
Counter: “I can’t move on rate without taking something out of scope. Tell me what’s lowest priority for you and we can drop it.” This forces them to choose between rate and value, not just demand both.
“We’ve got board approval at £X and not above.”
Sometimes true, often a tactic.
Counter: “Understood. Let’s structure it so the first year is at £X with a defined outcome by month 12. If we hit it, year 2 normalises to the proper rate. If we miss, you walk.” Holds your steady-state pricing while accommodating the apparent budget cap.
“Your competitor will do it for [number].”
Don’t take the bait of bidding against an unverifiable number.
Counter: “That sounds low for the scope you’ve described. Either they’re not pricing the same scope or there’s something they’ll cut once they’re in. Worth asking them which.” You’ve planted doubt without disparaging.
“Send the contract over and we’ll review the price internally.”
The prospect is about to negotiate against your contract in your absence.
Counter: “Happy to send the contract. Want to do a 15-minute call once your team’s reviewed it so I can answer questions in real-time? Saves you a back-and-forth.” Keeps you in the room.
Common mistakes when defending price
DO:
Translate every feature into a measurable outcome the prospect’s CFO would recognise.
Hold the rate at least once before considering any flex. The first “you’re expensive” is usually a test.
Give value (extra onboarding hours, free quarterly audit) at full rate rather than a percentage off.
Always present price in a meeting where you can frame it.
DON’T:
Justify your price by listing what you do. The prospect cares what changes for them.
Cave on the first push. Prospects expect a defended rate.
Use time-bound discounts. They cheapen you.
Send price by email before a conversation. The negotiation then happens without you.
The renewal squeeze (and how to set up to avoid it)
The hardest pricing conversation is with an existing client at year 3 of a contract who’s been told by their FD to “benchmark” the MSP spend. By that point you’re locked into a baseline rate and the only way is down.
Two moves that prevent the squeeze:
Build CPI-linked or RPI-linked uplifts into every contract from day 1. 3% annual minimum, more if your costs are rising faster. Trying to introduce uplifts at year 3 is a fight. Building them in upfront is a clause nobody argues with.
Run a value review every quarter from year 1, not a sales review at year 3. The QBR is the mechanism. Clients that see consistent operational improvement and rising compliance scores don’t benchmark MSPs aggressively. Clients that haven’t heard from their MSP outside of incidents do.
(The Assurix Trust Portal shows patching across all clients, SLA and CSAT, plus your own security controls, checked by Assurix. You can put it in front of a client at every QBR. Per-client views are on the roadmap.) Clients see what they pay for, so a cheaper quote has to match the standard, not just the price.
If you’re already at year 3 and being benchmarked, the play is to make the renewal a re-pitch. Open the QBR pack from quarters 1-12. Show what’s changed under your watch. Reset the comparison from “is the rate competitive?” to “what would it cost to replace what we’ve built?”. MSPs that hold this conversation often hold price plus uplift. MSPs that don’t lose 10-20%.
What to put in the proposal vs what to leave out
The job of a proposal is to keep the price defended in your absence. Most MSP proposals do the opposite by burying the proof and surfacing the price.
DO:
Your audit score against the relevant framework, on page 1.
Operational benchmarks (TTR, prevented incidents, satisfaction scores) backed by real numbers.
Independent verifications (CE+, ISO, trustmarks, named client references with role and company).
A specific scoped outcome for this client (“we’ll get you to CE+ ready in 90 days”), not a list of services.
DON’T:
About-us pages with team photos. The prospect doesn’t care.
Generic value statements (“we believe IT should be a force for growth”). Skim-fodder.
Your full service catalogue. Pick the 3-5 services relevant to this client.
Hourly rates buried as a backup price. Surface either fixed pricing or a clear monthly retainer.
What to do this week
If you’ve got a deal in flight where the prospect is pushing on price:
Score yourself against the framework that matters to them, before the next call. Bring it to the meeting.
Plan the cost-anchoring questions. 3 questions, written down, in the order you’ll ask them.
Decide before the meeting whether a proof window is on the table. If yes, write the structure beforehand.
Audit your contracts for CPI/RPI uplift clauses. Add them to every new contract from this week onwards.
The shortest path to a defended rate
Holding price is a function of how visible your value is, in the moment and in the months after the close. The 3 moves above work. They take time to build and discipline to maintain.
You can do it all yourself: build the scoring framework, maintain it quarterly, surface it in QBRs, hold the negotiating scripts in the team’s heads. Or you can hold an Assurix Trustmark, which puts independently assessed, live evidence in front of every prospect before they ask. Then the question is whether the cheaper one can show the same. The Trustmark does the scoring and the proof for you, from 2 hours a week.
