CONTENTS
What's inside
Seven questions, one page per offer, and the templates to package your first service.
01 Introduction
A portfolio is a promise you can keep
07 Price the promise without losing margin
The price floor and the premium
02 The P.R.O.M.I.S.E. framework
Seven questions every offer must answer
08 Turn the portfolio into an operating system
From catalogue to billing
03 Why custom selling doesn't scale
The cost of vendor-led, bespoke selling
09 Sell the portfolio as a decision
The internal decision pack
04 Choose the customer outcome & ICP
Jobs, triggers and constraints
10 Launch one v1 and learn
Six launch phases
05 Build the service blueprint
A one-page product record per offer
A1-A3 Appendix: templates Offer sheet, service catalogue entry, pricing worksheet
06 Design your portfolio architecture
Baseline + modules
A4 Appendix: worked pricing example The price-floor formula with every number shown
INTRODUCTION
A portfolio is a promise you can keep
A prospect asks for managed IT, Microsoft 365, security, backup, a new firewall, and maybe a migration. Sales assembles a bespoke quote from old templates and supplier portals. Delivery reads the signed PDF and asks what was included. Finance rebuilds the billing lines. Six months later, account management can't see what the customer doesn't yet have.
That is a collection of transactions.
Productisation is the discipline of turning recurring commercial promises into repeatable operational services that customers can understand, sales can sell, delivery can execute, and finance can bill correctly.
THE CORRECTION
Vendor stack → outcome-led tier → better selling and margin
Customer outcome, then a defined promise, then a commercial package, then operational design, then contract and billing, then evidence and evolution.
THE CORE FRAMEWORK
The P.R.O.M.I.S.E. framework
Seven questions every productised offer must answer.
P. Problem. What customer situation, trigger, or business change makes this offer relevant?
R. Result. What outcome do you commit to enable: better, safer, faster, or more predictable?
O. Operating model. Which people, processes, tools, responsibilities, and service levels make the promise real?
M. Money model. What is recurring, one-time, variable, and subject to approval?
I. Inclusions and interfaces. Where does scope begin and end? What depends on the customer or a third party?
S. Success evidence. What proves onboarding success, service quality, risk reduction, or business progress?
E. Evolution. How does the offer version, expand, and retire over time?
CHAPTER 01
Why custom selling doesn't scale
The cost of vendor-led, bespoke, disconnected selling.
Bespoke selling taxes sales, delivery, billing, and growth for the entire life of the customer.
- Sales Every deal is a one-off quote. Nothing repeatable to learn.
- Delivery Each signed PDF is re-interpreted. Scope drifts.
- Billing Finance rebuilds lines from the quote.
- Procurement Supplier sprawl with no governed substitution.
- Account growth No one can see the gaps in the installed base.
- Positioning Selling a vendor list invites comparison.
CHAPTER 02
Choose the customer outcome and ICP
Sell the job, the trigger, and the constraint.
SITUATION, TRIGGER, PORTFOLIO RESPONSE
- Risk and resilience. Trigger: ransomware, an insurer requirement, an audit finding, or a new regulation. Response: security baseline, identity, backup and disaster recovery, monitoring, incident readiness.
- Workforce productivity. Trigger: hybrid-work friction, headcount growth, device inconsistency, Microsoft 365 underuse. Response: modern workplace, device lifecycle, collaboration, endpoint management.
- Governance and compliance. Trigger: certification, a customer audit, a regulated vertical, privacy obligations. Response: compliance module, reporting, policy, vCIO and governance cadence.
- Change and modernisation. Trigger: an acquisition, a new site, a cloud migration, an incumbent replacement, an aging estate. Response: discovery, remediation, migration, onboarding, a project programme.
- Cost and operating discipline. Trigger: rising IT spend, vendor sprawl, internal IT overload. Response: standardisation, vendor rationalisation, a managed-service foundation.
The wedge: start with one ICP and one high-volume, high-margin outcome. Don't productise the entire MSP at once.
CHAPTER 03
Build every offer as a service blueprint
A one-page product record turns productisation from branding into a reusable operating capability.
Secure Modern Workplace WORKED EXAMPLE
TARGET CUSTOMER
Professional-services firms, 25-250 users, Microsoft-centric
CUSTOMER PROBLEM
Inconsistent devices & identity, rising cyber/insurance pressure
OUTCOME PROMISE
A secure, managed, measurable workplace, productive anywhere
INCLUDED SCOPE
M365 admin, endpoint, patching, helpdesk, identity, backup
EXPLICIT EXCLUSIONS
Major projects, legacy remediation, after-hours unless selected
COMMERCIAL RULES
Per-user minimums, term, setup fee, review terms, thresholds
SUCCESS EVIDENCE
Security baseline, onboarding milestones, SLA & reporting
VERSION
SWP 2026.1: owner + migration rules The format is the productisation. The content is the current version of the promise.
CHAPTER 04
Design your portfolio architecture
Tiers are one pattern. Use a decision guide instead.
- Clear standard baseline. One mandatory baseline package, plus outcome-led modules.
- Distinct maturity or risk profiles. Two or three clearly differentiated packages, each viable alone.
- Multiple verticals or customer types. A shared foundation, plus vertical solutions and evidence.
- Transformation, migration or change. A baseline, plus a separately scoped transition programme.
- Existing-customer growth. A capability roadmap: current state versus target state.
Standardise the minimum safe and profitable baseline. Modularise the legitimate sources of variation. Never turn critical controls into optional add-ons.
CHAPTER 05
Price the promise without losing margin
Design from delivery economics. Price to value. You need both.
PRICE FLOOR
(Recurring delivery cost + required contribution) / (1 − target gross-margin rate)
The number you are not allowed to go below.
COMMERCIAL PRICE
Price floor + value, risk, urgency and differentiation premium
Prevents pricing a meaningful outcome as a commodity.
PRICE EVERY COMPONENT EXPLICITLY
Recurring managed service
Per user, device, site, tenant, or workload
One-time onboarding Discovery, documentation, tool deploy, baseline
Remediation / transformation Technical debt, migration, security uplift
Third-party licences & hardware
Separate cost category and rule
Consumption / overage Out-of-scope, after-hours, variable cloud
Risk & complexity premium Legacy estate, regulation, transition risk Never bury inherited complexity in recurring managed-service pricing. Identify it, scope it, price it, and resolve it as a transition or remediation programme.
CHAPTER 06
Turn the portfolio into an operating system
One offer definition must flow end to end, so a signature creates work.
Catalogue, then proposal, then contract, then PSA, then onboarding. Procurement, then billing, then reporting, then account growth. If a signature forces your team to re-read the proposal to know what to do, the portfolio is not yet productised.
PORTFOLIO GOVERNANCE: TREAT IT AS A PRODUCT
MONTHLY
Detect variance
Margin by offer, discounting, support effort, SLA, exceptions
QUARTERLY
Improve, version, retire Win/loss, utilisation, attach rates, feedback, vendor changes
ANNUALLY
Review architecture & terms Supplier & labour costs, demand, positioning, indexation
CHAPTER 07
Sell the portfolio as a decision
Productisation helps the buyer agree internally.
94% of B2B buying groups rank their shortlist before they talk to a seller. A clear, named offer helps you get onto that list.
6SENSE B2B BUYER EXPERIENCE REPORT, 2025 · ~4,000 B2B
BUYERS (NOT MSP-SPECIFIC)
A strong portfolio makes a strong, decision-ready proposal possible.
EVERY OFFER SHIPS WITH A DECISION PACK
- Executive outcome and reason to act.
- Scope and operating model for IT and operations.
- Risk, security and compliance story.
- Commercial model for finance and procurement.
- Transition plan and dependencies.
- Evidence and success measures.
CHAPTER 08
Launch one v1 and learn
Six phases. Don't productise the entire MSP in a workshop.
- Choose the wedge One ICP, one high-margin outcome → Productisation charter
- Discover the truth Quotes, effort, revenue, discounting, exceptions → Economics baseline
- Design the v1 offer Blueprint, commercials, onboarding, evidence → Decision-ready offer
- Pilot on new work A few prospects or selected customers → Objection & handover learnings
- Operationalise Catalogue, templates, PSA, billing, reporting → Sell-to-deliver workflow
- Expand deliberately Modules, adjacent offers, vertical variants → Versioned roadmap Start with one promise you already deliver repeatedly. Grow breadth only after v1 is profitable and stable.
CLOSING Do not productise technology. Productise the customer promise.
A true MSP offering is a defined outcome with repeatable service design, protected economics, clear scope, executable handover, measurable success, and a path to evolve.
P.R.O.M.I.S.E.
Seven questions every offer must answer.
Blueprint
One page per offer, versioned and owned.
Baseline + modules
Never make critical controls optional.
V1 first
Version it like software, then expand.
ABOUT SALESBUILDR
Salesbuildr connects portfolio design to quoting, PSA execution, procurement, billing, and customer growth, so a signed promise becomes operational truth.
NEXT STEP
Book a Portfolio Readiness Review or the Productise One Offer workshop.
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APPENDIX
APPENDIX A1 · OFFER SHEET
Offer sheet template
One page per offer. If you can't fill a box, the offer isn't ready to sell. Sales, delivery and finance sign it off together.
P Problem Which situation or trigger makes a client need this? (new site, insurer demand, staff growth)
R Result What will be better, safer or more predictable after 90 days? One sentence the client would repeat.
O Operating model Who delivers it, with which tools, at what service levels and hours?
M Money model Monthly per user or device, one-time onboarding, usage items, licences. Which items need approval?
I Inclusions & interfaces Included. Not included. What the client or a third party must do.
S Success evidence What you will report: onboarding milestones, SLA, security baseline, review cadence.
E Evolution Version number, owner, next review date, what triggers a new version.
Offer name & target client Name the offer by its outcome. Client size, vertical, platform.
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A2 · SERVICE CATALOGUE ENTRY
Service catalogue entry template
Put each offer in your quoting tool and PSA exactly once, so every rep quotes the same bundle and finance bills the same lines.
FIELDWHAT TO ENTEREXAMPLE (FICTIONAL)
Offer name Outcome-led name, as clients see it Secure Modern Workplace
Version & owner Version code, accountable person SMW 2026.1 · service manager Billing unit Per user, device, site or tenant Per user per month Minimums & term Minimum users, contract length, notice 10 users · 24 months · 90 days Bundle contents Each product and service line, with PSA code Help desk, endpoint mgmt, M365 admin, backup, MFA Shown to client Bundle total only, or expanded lines Bundle total, lines on request Exclusions What is quoted separately Projects, hardware, after-hours Add-on modules Optional modules that fit this baseline Compliance reporting, after-hours desk Contract & PSA mapping Contract type and billing lines it creates Recurring contract, one line per user Approval rules Discounts or changes that need sign-off Any discount over 10% → owner
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A3 · PRICING WORKSHEET
Pricing worksheet
Work from the bottom up. Price one-time onboarding, remediation and licences on separate lines, never inside the monthly fee.
LINEYOUR NUMBERHOW TO WORK IT OUT
A · Labour per month Hours per month to deliver × loaded hourly cost B · Tools per month RMM, backup, security tools per user or device
C · Other delivery cost Storage, third-party services you pay for
D· Recurring delivery cost A+B+C E · Required contribution Share of overhead and profit this offer must carry F · Target gross margin As a decimal, e.g. 0.45
G · Price floor (D + E) ÷ (1 − F) H · Premium Value, risk, urgency, differentiation: as a % on G I · Commercial price G × (1 + H). Divide by units for the per-user price J · Margin check (I − D) ÷ I. Must be at or above F
APPENDIX
APPENDIX A4 · WORKED PRICING EXAMPLE
The price formula with real arithmetic FICTIONAL EXAMPLE
The Secure Modern Workplace offer from chapter 3, priced for a fictional 50-user client.
LINEFICTIONAL EXAMPLE: 50 USERSRESULT
A · Labour 25 hours × €48 loaded cost €1,200
B · Tools €6 × 50 users €300
C · Other Backup storage €150
D· Delivery cost A+B+C €1,650 E · Contribution Overhead share and profit €450
F · Target margin 45% 0.45 G · Price floor (€1,650 + €450) ÷ 0.55 €3,818 ( ≈ €77 per user) H · Premium Insurer evidence pack included: +10% × 1.10 I · Commercial price €77 × 1.10, rounded €85 per user · €4,250 a month J · Margin check (€4,250 − €1,650) ÷ €4,250 61%, above the 45% target
Priced separately Onboarding: 40 hours × €95 = €3,800 one-time.
Remediation of the old setup: scoped after the audit.
Microsoft licences: at cost on their own line.
All numbers are fictional and chosen to show the arithmetic. Use your own costs and margin target.
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