Most MSPs doing competitive research are looking at the wrong things.
Follower counts. Engagement rates. Whether a competitor posted three times last week or once. Some of this is useful information – an up-to-date, active social media presence can immediately indicate whether a competitor values or understands digital marketing.
What really tells you something useful is what they’re saying online and whether they can back it up.
Social media is more than a vanity metric exercise. Your competitors’ social media posts can be a valuable MSP positioning map for anyone who knows how to analyze them.
Social content shows strategy, not just activity
When a competitor starts posting heavily about AI-powered IT support, that’s not usually random. Someone decided. They determined that AI is what they want to be known for.
Maybe they attended a conference, or a vendor pitched them. Whatever the reason, they’ve made a strategic bet, and they’re broadcasting it publicly.
That’s useful to you.
Frequency tells you something, too.
An MSP posting two or three times a week is investing in growth. An MSP posting once a month, sporadically, with no real theme?
Maintenance mode.
They’re not trying to acquire new logos. They’re coasting.
That’s a different kind of competitor, and you should treat them differently in displacement conversations.
Audience targeting is visible if you pay attention. Are they talking to 5-person offices or mid-market operations teams? Are they using compliance language that signals a vertical focus, or are they speaking generally to anyone with a computer? This tells you who they think their buyer is, and by extension, who they’re ignoring.
Check what’s on their website
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Pull up a competitor’s last 30 days of posts and then go look at their service pages.
Do they match?
Often, they don’t. An MSP can post about AI automation four times in a month and have a services page that says absolutely nothing about it. No offering; no framework; no case study. Just a generic “we support your technology” paragraph they wrote in 2019 and never touched.
That gap is a credibility problem for them, and an opportunity for you.
When you’re in a sales conversation, and a prospect mentions that they’ve looked at a few providers, including that competitor, you can ask a very simple question: “Did they walk you through their specific AI implementation process, or was it more of a high-level conversation?” You already know the answer is likely the latter. You’re not guessing. You did your homework.
Messaging without an underlying infrastructure falls apart under direct questioning. Your job is to ask the questions that expose it, without sounding like you’re attacking a competitor. Let the gap speak for itself.
Timing outreach around competitor positioning shifts
When a competitor pivots, their existing clients notice. Maybe not right away, but they notice.
If an MSP that built its reputation on white-glove support for 10-20 seat companies suddenly starts posting content aimed at enterprise security and 100+ seat organizations, they’re trying to move upmarket. That’s a legitimate growth strategy.
Tracking those changes helps you build better displacement campaigns, and deploy those campaigns much faster.
You’ll find out quickly that their attention is shifting away from the smaller accounts they’ve had for years.
Those smaller clients are worth calling.
Not with an aggressive pitch. Just a conversation.
“We’ve been providing support to companies in your size range for over 15 years, and we wanted to introduce ourselves.”
You’re not telling them their current provider is abandoning them. You’re showing up at the right time with the right message. MSP displacement strategies are most effective when your timing is good, and competitor social activity hands you that timing on a silver platter.
The same logic applies when a competitor goes all-in on one service area.
If they’re posting compliance content five days a week, they’re likely investing resources in building that practice. That often means something else is getting less attention. Automation, maybe? Cloud migrations? Day-to-day support responsiveness?
Something’s got to give.
Probe those adjacent areas in your sales conversations. “How are they handling X for you?” is a much better question than “Are you happy with your current provider?”
A practical 30-minute exercise
Pick three competitors.
Look at their last 30-60 days of posts across LinkedIn and whatever other platforms they’re active on. Write down:
- The dominant theme (security, AI, compliance, general support, hiring, etc.)
- Is the theme consistent or scattered, does their website support the theme, and is their messaging skewed toward a specific size or vertical
Thn build two or three sales questions that test those claims in real conversations. Not ‘gotcha’ questions. Just honest questions that a curious, informed buyer would ask.
“How long have they been doing compliance work specifically?”
“Do they have a dedicated team for that, or is it handled by the same techs doing your helpdesk?”
This is not complicated.
It takes less time than most MSP owners spend scrolling LinkedIn for their own entertainment.
If you’re already doing outbound prospecting, and you’re not building this kind of competitive context into your calling scripts and discovery questions, you’re leaving displacement opportunities on the table. Your reps are having conversations without the right ammunition.
Knowing your sales KPIs matters, but knowing what your competitors claim matters just as much. The gap between their claims and their delivery is where your MSP wins deals.
Go look at what your local MSP competitors are posting on social media.
Then go ask your prospects better questions.
If you’d like a list of questions you should be asking on all outbound calls, check out the Fox & Crow Group blog for free MSP sales discovery content without a paywall.
Photo: New Africa / Shutterstock
