IT Services and MSP Lead Generation

Smirnov Consulting Group books qualified meetings with IT directors, CIOs, CFOs and operations directors at small and mid-sized companies for IT services firms, MSPs and IT consultancies, using cold email and LinkedIn.

IT services company: from 3 sales calls per month to 51, and 6 contracts averaging $200,000 each.
IT company in Germany: 5 contracts worth about EUR 1,250,000 in 35 days, after its own SDR had booked 2 calls in 3 months.

Smirnov Consulting Group is a Prague-based B2B outbound lead generation agency that runs cold email and LinkedIn campaigns for founder-led B2B companies and books qualified sales calls. 12 years in outbound, hundreds of B2B companies, 24 countries.

Who this is for

IT firms that sell ongoing services and expertise, not one-off software projects:

Managed service providers (MSPs) and managed security providers
IT support and infrastructure companies
Cloud, Microsoft 365 and network consultancies
Cybersecurity and compliance consultancies
IT consultancies with a niche specialty, such as ERP, data or one industry

Most are owner-led, and the client base came from referrals, vendor partners and the owner's network. If you build custom software on a project basis, our software development page fits you better.

The person who hires us is usually the owner, founder or managing director. In larger firms it is the head of business development, the head of sales or a practice lead.

The people we book into your calendar:

IT directors and IT managers
CIOs, CTOs and heads of information security
CFOs and finance directors, who often sign the MSP contract at smaller companies
COOs and operations directors
Practice managers at law firms, accounting firms and clinics

Deal size: a managed services contract runs monthly for years, so one new client is worth its monthly fee times the length of the contract. In the case below, contracts averaged $200,000.

Why outbound is hard for IT services firms

Most of your prospects already have an IT provider. You are asking a company to switch, and companies switch at specific moments.

A contract renewal. A security incident or a bad outage. An office move. A new CFO or COO. A cyber insurance questionnaire they cannot answer, or a customer asking for ISO 27001 or SOC 2. Outreach that ignores timing mostly hears "we are happy with our current provider".

The in-house IT manager can read your pitch as a threat. At a company with its own IT staff, "managed services" can sound like "we will replace you". The same offer framed as co-managed IT, meaning extra hands for the projects they never get to, lands very differently.

Every MSP website says the same thing. Proactive support, 24/7 monitoring, fast response times, a trusted partner. Your prospect cannot tell you apart from the last ten who emailed.

We saw this with an IT company in Germany: one of its SDRs had booked 2 calls in 3 months. We added two new angles to its existing offers and rewrote its website copy before the first message. It then booked 34 sales calls and signed 5 contracts in 35 days.

Technical buyers spot generic copy fast. A CTO stops reading at "innovative IT solutions tailored to your business". If whoever writes your outreach cannot explain the difference between break-fix (paid per incident) and managed services (a fixed monthly fee), your buyers will notice.

Your market may be local. A national list full of companies outside your support region wastes budget and burns domains.

How we run outbound for IT services and consulting

1. Pick the service and the vertical. For example managed IT for law firms or accounting firms, co-managed IT for companies with a small in-house team, or security and compliance for companies facing a cyber insurance or SOC 2 deadline. "Full IT services for businesses" gives a buyer nothing to reply to.

2. Rebuild what buyers check first. Gone are the days when you could sell yourself on the call. IT buyers decide before they ever speak to you, and they check the owner's LinkedIn profile, the website, a sales video, case studies, partner status and certifications. In the case below, we rebuilt the profile, the website, the sales video and the case studies before a single outreach message went out.

3. Lists built on triggers and territory. We build lists in LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Apollo by industry, headcount and location, cut to the radius you can actually serve.

Then we filter for timing: a company hiring its first IT manager or a systems administrator, a new CFO or COO, a new office, companies on the platforms you specialize in.

4. A different message for each title. CFOs and COOs hear about cost, risk and a predictable monthly spend. IT managers hear about co-managed help and the project backlog. The owner of a 30-person firm hears about fewer interruptions, and being ready when a client asks about security.

5. LinkedIn from the owner, email where the law allows it. An IT buyer is handing over the keys to their systems, so they want to know whose hands those are. The first touch comes from the owner or the technical lead on LinkedIn, and a warm email follows it (an email that arrives after the LinkedIn touch).

Cold email to the wider list runs as its own campaign, only in markets where B2B cold email is allowed, such as the US and the UK. An entry offer helps, such as a short security review or a cyber insurance readiness check.

6. Compliance. Most of our campaigns target the USA, the UK and English-speaking Europe. Business contacts only, a simple way to opt out in every email, and anyone who asks to stop is removed and not re-added. Your current clients, open deals, vendor partners and anyone you name are excluded before launch. We follow CAN-SPAM in the US and UK GDPR and PECR in the UK. Germany is not our specialty: when a campaign needs it, we apply our own stricter rules and prefer LinkedIn to cold email there. In Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, where business email needs prior consent, we do not send cold email without a compliant basis. This is how we work, not legal advice.

Case study: IT services company, from 3 to 51 sales calls per month

Client: an IT services company selling to other businesses.

The starting point: 3 sales calls a month, after years of trying.

What we changed first: the foundations. The LinkedIn profile, the website, the sales video and the case studies. That is what an IT buyer looks at before replying to anyone. Only then did outreach start.

The result, within weeks of launching outreach:

51 sales calls per month, 17 times the starting point
6 contracts signed
Average contract value: $200,000
About $1.2 million in combined contract value

Our view: most IT firms that "tried outbound and it did not work" sent more messages from a weak base, or spent the year chasing new tools. Your buyers never see your CRM or your automation. They see your profile, website and case studies. With contracts at $200,000, the time spent fixing the base first is cheap.

A second result: the IT company in Germany mentioned above, 712 replies, 34 booked calls, 28 held and 5 contracts worth about EUR 1,250,000 in 35 days. The full breakdown is on our software development companies page.

More results in our case studies.

Timeline and price

About 15 days from signed contract to launch: onboarding starts in the first week (usually one 60-minute call plus a few emails), then service and vertical chosen, profile, website and case studies reworked, territory and trigger lists built, domains and inboxes set up. If the foundations need a full rebuild, as in the case above, that work comes first.
First 30 days live: first replies and booked calls. In the case above, calls climbed from 3 a month to 51 within weeks of launching outreach.
Months 2 and 3: we keep the message that works for each title, drop what does not, and add LinkedIn and email accounts running in parallel.

Judge the first month on calls, not on signed contracts. A managed services or consulting deal often takes 6, 9 or 12 months to close, so a call booked in the first 30 days may turn into a contract four months later or more. That is why we recommend at least 3 months, and why about 6 months is the industry average for outbound to work fully.

Who runs your campaign. Senior people only: lead generation experts, GTM architects, GTM engineers and AI specialists. No interns, students or juniors write to your IT buyers. We keep a small number of clients so each gets full attention, and we take full responsibility for results. A senior team member is your day-to-day contact, and you have a direct line to Artem, the founder. You get a weekly and a monthly report, live notifications every day, and a client portal with live campaign data if you want one. Cheaper agencies often put junior or offshore SDRs on this work, writing to technical buyers in their second language. We keep the team senior and the client list short instead.

Price. From USD 3,000 (about EUR 2,500) per month, up to USD 10,000+ for firms that need more channels, markets or volume. The final number depends on scope, markets, volume and team size. The fee covers all our work: strategy, list building, copy, campaign setup, sending management, reply handling and reporting. Tools, sending domains, mailboxes and data are paid by you directly, because the right stack depends on your market and volume. If the foundations are missing, such as the website, LinkedIn profiles, case studies or a sales video, a one-time setup fee may apply, agreed case by case. No minimum contract, one month's notice to cancel. Full details on the pricing page.

Not a fit if

You sell hardware or one-off break-fix jobs at thin margins. The contract value has to carry the cost of outbound.
Your service area holds only a few hundred companies of the right size. The list runs out before volume can work.
Your team has no capacity to onboard new clients in the next 60 to 90 days.
You build custom software on a project basis. See our software development page.

FAQ

How do IT services companies get new clients besides referrals?

Through outbound: a list of companies that match your best clients, one specific offer, and outreach timed to the moments companies switch providers. One IT services client of ours went from 3 sales calls per month to 51 and signed 6 contracts averaging $200,000.

Who do MSPs typically hire to fill their sales calendar?

MSPs usually choose between an in-house rep, a freelancer and an outbound agency. An in-house rep needs months to ramp and a list to work from. An outbound agency like Smirnov Consulting Group brings the list, the messaging, the sending infrastructure and the booked calls. The owner or a technical lead takes the calls.

Should a small IT services firm try LinkedIn before cold email?

Start with LinkedIn from the owner's profile, because IT buyers want to see who they would work with. Add warm email follow-ups after the LinkedIn touch. Then run cold email to the wider list as a separate campaign, where local law allows it. Using only one channel caps how many buyers you can reach each month.

What should a small IT consultancy expect to pay for outsourced outbound?

Our programs start from USD 3,000 (about EUR 2,500) per month and can go to USD 10,000+ for more channels, markets or volume. Tools, domains, mailboxes and data are paid separately and directly by you. There is no minimum contract and one month's notice to cancel, though we recommend at least 3 months. Check the price against your contract value: with contracts like the $200,000 average in our case study, one signed deal covers a long program.

Can I hire one experienced person instead of an agency with a 12-month contract?

Yes, two ways. We can run outbound for you with no minimum contract and one month's notice, and the people doing the work are senior, never juniors. Or we work with you 1-on-1 as consultants: we set up the system and coach you or your salesperson to run it. A freelancer can also work, but then everything depends on one person.

Is outbound realistic for a Czech IT services company selling to Germany?

Yes, with LinkedIn doing the work. German law requires prior consent even for business email, so we do not send cold email to German prospects without a compliant basis. Germany is not our specialty, and when a campaign needs it we apply our own stricter rules. LinkedIn outreach from the owner's profile, with precise and formal messages, is the channel there. Our office is in Prague, and we have run campaigns for IT companies in Germany.

Our IT consultancy has a niche specialty. Will an outbound agency understand it?

Only if they learn it before they write. We start by going through your best clients, their problems and the words they use, and you approve the first messages. A narrow specialty helps outbound. A consultancy for one ERP platform or one industry has a clearer list and a sharper message than a generalist.

Outbound lead generation for IT services and consulting firms