The process
How the engagement works, stage by stage
For MSPs and IT services companies. Month 1 identifies the offers with the most demand and the least competition, builds an SEO-optimised website against them, and projects what that is worth. You receive two reports and the website.
The sequence
Select any stage to move to it.
Phase 1
GTM Foundation
- 01 Capability intake Your services, site and market, and whether local search applies.
- 02 Report 1 Opportunity analysis The three offers with the most demand and the least competition.
- 03 Website Website build An SEO-optimised site on your branding, one page per opportunity.
- 04 Report 2 Impact modelling Projected rankings, and the revenue those rankings imply.
You receive two reports and an SEO-optimised website ready to deploy.
- If you stop here Both reports and the website are yours to deploy. No further cost, no licence, no claw-back.
- If you continue We execute against the opportunities the research identified.
Phase 2
Growth Engine
Phase 1 — GTM Foundation
Month 1: find the opportunity, build the asset, model the return
A fixed-fee engagement delivered in four weeks. Four stages producing three deliverables: the Opportunities Report, an SEO-optimised website ready to deploy, and the GTM Foundations Impact Report.
Capability intake
We establish what your firm actually sells, to whom, and in which markets — the inputs every later stage is analysed against.
What we start from
- Your company, website and full service list
- Client roster, tenure and contract structure
- Revenue, margin and retention by service line
- Your genuine service area and delivery capacity
What we do
- Identify services delivered with real depth, not merely offered
- Locate margin and retention concentration by segment
- Surface vertical concentration that accumulated unintentionally
- Determine whether local search is relevant to your model, or not
What you receive
A defined input set for the analysis: the services worth taking to market, the segments worth defending, and a clear answer on whether local search applies to your firm. Not every MSP or IT services company is a local-search business, and treating one as though it were wastes the budget.
Opportunity analysis
The central question of the engagement: of everything you could sell, which offers carry the most demand against the least competition?
What we start from
- The service list and capability findings from stage 01
- Search demand across your markets
- The competitive set ranking for each candidate term
What we do
- Assess demand against competitive difficulty for every service you offer
- Identify the three strongest opportunities — highest demand, weakest competition
- Shape each as a land-and-expand offer in the $5,000–$10,000 range
- Validate the pricing against what the market currently pays
- Size each opportunity and establish the keywords that reach it
What you receive
Deliverable 1 — the Opportunities Report. Your three strongest offers, each with the size of the opportunity described in plain terms, the keywords that reach it, the competition you would rank against, and a validated price point. Written to be read by your leadership team, not decoded by them.
A sample Opportunities Report
Deliverable 1 — Opportunities Report
Northway IT
Local search relevance
Relevant — service area concentrated in three counties
Roughly two thirds of demand for this firm's services carries local intent, so map visibility and review volume gate the result. Where a provider sells a specialised service nationally, this section returns the opposite finding and the strategy changes accordingly.
The three opportunities
| Opportunity | Demand / mo | Competition | Validated price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Co-managed IT for in-house teams | 1,240 | Medium | $6,500 |
| Microsoft 365 security hardening | 880 | Low | $7,500 |
| HIPAA compliance readiness assessment | 390 | Low | $9,000 |
Ranked by demand against competitive difficulty, not by volume alone. Each is shaped as a land-and-expand offer and priced against what comparable firms currently charge.
Opportunity 1 — co-managed IT, in detail
Why this one. Northway already supports four organisations with internal IT staff and retains them longer than any other segment, at a higher margin. The market term is searched consistently and the pages currently ranking are thin service listings from generalist providers.
Who it is for. Organisations of 100+ seats with one overextended IT manager — too large to outsource entirely, too small to build a team.
Price. $6,500 for the initial engagement, validated against six comparable offers in adjacent markets. Positioned as the entry point to a full co-managed agreement.
| Keyword | Searches / mo | Top-ranking page strength |
|---|---|---|
| co-managed it services | 720 | Weak |
| co managed it support | 310 | Weak |
| it support for internal it teams | 210 | Moderate |
| Total addressable demand | 1,240 |
Website build
The opportunities become a working asset. We build the site rather than specifying it.
What we start from
- The three validated opportunities and their keyword targets
- Your existing branding, which the build carries through
- Current site structure, content and any equity worth preserving
What we do
- Build an SEO-optimised home page positioned on the strongest opportunity
- Build a dedicated, individually optimised page for each of the three opportunities
- Write all copy from the research, for your review
- Apply technical SEO throughout: structure, speed, metadata, structured data
- Configure analytics, conversion tracking and enquiry routing
What you receive
Deliverable 2 — the website. A complete, SEO-optimised site carrying your branding: an optimised home page plus one page per opportunity, ready for you to deploy. All copy, the build and the analytics are owned outright by you.
Impact modelling
What the work is projected to be worth, stated in revenue rather than in rankings.
What we start from
- Your current search positions and visibility
- The opportunity keywords and their competitive difficulty
- Validated pricing from the Opportunities Report
What we do
- Establish where your current website ranks today
- Project where it ranks once the new site is deployed
- Model the further ceiling available through best practice — an authoritative reference presence, managed LinkedIn content, outbound and reputation
- Apply cited industry averages at each conversion step: search to visit, visit to booked meeting, meeting to revenue, and initial revenue to longer-term engagement
What you receive
Deliverable 3 — the GTM Foundations Impact Report. Current rankings, projected rankings after deployment, and the ceiling available once best practice is applied — each converted through cited industry benchmarks into meetings and revenue, so the investment can be assessed on expected return rather than on traffic.
A sample GTM Foundations Impact Report
Deliverable 3 — GTM Foundations Impact Report
Northway IT
Ranking projection
| Target term | Today | After deployment | With best practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| co-managed it services | Not ranking | 11–16 | 4–7 |
| microsoft 365 security | Not ranking | 14–20 | 5–9 |
| hipaa compliance it | 38 | 9–14 | 3–6 |
| Brand name | 1 | 1 | 1 |
"With best practice" assumes an authoritative reference presence, managed LinkedIn content, consistent outbound and active reputation management alongside the deployed site.
From rankings to revenue
- Monthly search demand across the three opportunities 2,510 Combined volume from the Opportunities Report
- Clicks to the site at projected positions 188 Applying published click-through rates by ranking position
- Enquiries and booked meetings 9 Applying benchmark B2B visit-to-enquiry conversion
- Closed engagements 2 Applying benchmark meeting-to-close rate for professional services
- Initial revenue per month $14,500 At the validated prices in the Opportunities Report
- Expanded annual value $96,000 Applying benchmark land-and-expand rates to ongoing agreements
Every rate above is cited rather than asserted. The projection is a model, not a guarantee — it shows what the identified demand is worth if benchmark conversion holds.
What raises the ceiling
- An authoritative, citable reference presence for the firm
- Managed LinkedIn content aimed at the same three opportunities
- Outbound to the accounts that match each opportunity
- Sustained review generation across the service area
These are the difference between the "after deployment" and "best practice" columns above. The report quantifies each so the next investment can be prioritised.
The decision point
Month 1 ends. You decide what happens next.
You make this decision holding the finished work — both reports and a deployable website — rather than a proposal describing it.
-
Option A
Stop here
Both reports and the website are yours in full — deploy the site, work the opportunities, and apply the Impact Report's recommendations internally or through another firm. No licence, no ongoing fee, no claw-back, nothing that ceases to function.
-
Option B
Continue to Phase 2
We execute against the opportunities the research identified: search, content, outbound, reputation and reporting run as one system and measured on booked meetings. Review the scope.
Phase 2 — Growth Engine
Execution against the opportunities
Optional, and decided only once Month 1 has been delivered. The opportunities identified in the research are worked across every channel where those buyers can be reached.
Execution
Not a content subscription. The identified opportunities, worked as one system and reported against pipeline.
What we start from
- The Opportunities Report and the Impact Report recommendations
- The website as the conversion surface
- CRM access and an agreed definition of a qualified meeting
What we do
- Inbound: SEO execution against the opportunity keywords, landing pages, conversion work
- Outbound: list construction, sequenced email and LinkedIn, appointment setting
- Reputation: review generation, Google Business Profile, monitoring
- Content: service, vertical and sales-support material that shortens deals
- Infrastructure: CRM configuration, routing, attribution and reporting
What you receive
Monthly reporting against booked meetings, opportunities created and revenue by source, measured against the projections set out in the Impact Report — with leading indicators such as reply rates, rankings, review velocity and conversion by page reviewed alongside them.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What exactly do we receive at the end of Month 1?
Three things. The Opportunities Report, setting out the three offers with the most demand and the least competition, each sized, keyword-mapped and priced at a validated figure. An SEO-optimised website carrying your branding, with an optimised home page and a dedicated page for each opportunity, ready for you to deploy. And the GTM Foundations Impact Report, projecting where you rank now, where you would rank once the site is live, and the ceiling available with best practice applied — converted into meetings and revenue through cited industry benchmarks.
How much of our time does the process require?
Approximately four to six hours in the first fortnight: a kickoff session, interviews with you and one or two technical leads, access to client and financial data, and a content review. Two further review checkpoints follow. We require your knowledge, not your labour.
How long does Month 1 take?
Four weeks from kickoff, provided interviews and content review happen on schedule. The most common cause of extension is an internal disagreement about which opportunity to lead with — a disagreement that needed to surface regardless, and one we would rather resolve than build around.
Who writes the website copy?
We do, drawn from the research and from interviews with your team. You review and approve it. Asking an MSP principal to draft their own service pages is the most reliable way to leave a website unfinished for a year.
Why are the offers priced between $5,000 and $10,000?
Because that range is where a land-and-expand offer works. It is substantial enough to constitute a real engagement rather than a trial, and small enough that a prospective client can approve it without a procurement process. It establishes the relationship that larger managed services agreements are subsequently built on, which is why the final conversion step in the Impact Report models initial revenue through to longer-term engagement.
Is Phase 2 required?
No. It is a separate decision made after Month 1 has been delivered. The separation is the point: you evaluate the quality of the analysis before committing to execution, and we earn that engagement rather than bundling it.
Begin with the first call
Thirty minutes. We review your services, your client base and your market, and give you a candid assessment of where your position most likely lies — before any commitment.