The Market Didn’t Set Your Price. You Did.
Here’s something I hear from MSPs constantly: “We can’t charge more because of the market we’re in.”
It sounds reasonable. It feels true. And it’s almost always wrong.
In nearly every market across the US, there are MSPs commanding best-in-class prices and MSPs chronically undercharging operating in the exact same geography, competing for the exact same clients. They’re not in different markets. They’re in different stories.
This is a textbook case of correlation not equaling causation. Yes, some MSPs can’t get a higher price. But blaming the market is the wrong diagnosis. The real culprit is operational maturity — or the lack of it — and the story that maturity (or immaturity) tells to prospective clients.
The Walmart vs. Nordstrom Test
Consider this: most markets in the US have both a Walmart and a Nordstrom. Both are thriving businesses. Both sell to the same geographic population. But they attract entirely different clientele, command entirely different price points, and tell entirely different stories.
Walmart doesn’t apologize for its prices. Neither does Nordstrom. Each has built a brand story so consistent and so clear that their ideal customer self-selects before they ever walk in the door.
The question isn’t whether your market can support premium pricing. The question is: which store are you?
If you want Nordstrom clients, you have to stop telling a Walmart story.
What Seth Godin Gets Right About Pricing
Marketing legend Seth Godin put it plainly in his April 2026 post, On Pricing:
“When someone says, ‘that’s too expensive,’ what they mean is that the story you’ve told them so far (and the reputation you’ve earned) doesn’t match the price you’re charging. You probably don’t need a lower price, but you might need to earn a better story.”
Read that again. The client isn’t rejecting your price. They’re rejecting the mismatch between your story and your price.
Godin also notes: “The customers you get because you are the cheapest are the first ones to leave when someone else is even cheaper.” This is the trap MSPs fall into when they compete on price — they win clients they can’t keep, at margins that don’t sustain them, and then wonder why the business feels like a treadmill.
The most durable position in any market, Godin argues, is this: “You’ll pay a bit more, but you’ll get more than you paid for.” That’s not a discount strategy. That’s a value story. And value stories are built on operational maturity.
What Operational Maturity Actually Looks Like
When MSPs say they can’t charge more, they’re usually revealing one of a few things:
- Their sales conversation leads with technology specs, not business outcomes
- Their onboarding, documentation, and service delivery aren’t consistent enough to justify a premium
- They haven’t defined (or can’t articulate) the specific problems they solve better than anyone else
- They haven’t done the work of building a reputation that precedes them
Premium pricing isn’t arrogance — it’s alignment. Your price is a signal. It tells prospects what category you’re in, what kind of relationship to expect, and what kind of client you’re built to serve. If your operations are strong, your delivery is consistent, and your communication is clear, your price should reflect that.
If it doesn’t, that’s not the market’s fault.
The Real Question to Ask
Instead of asking “What will the market bear?” — ask “What story am I telling, and does it justify what I want to charge?”
If the answer is no, the fix isn’t to lower the price. It’s to raise the story — by tightening your operations, sharpening your positioning, and building the kind of reputation that makes your price feel like a bargain.
As Godin writes: “It’s better to explain your fair price once than to apologize for low quality over and over.”
The market isn’t holding you back. Your story might be. And stories can be changed.
Want help building a pricing strategy that reflects your actual value? That’s what we do. Let’s talk.