Not all clients are created equal—and hanging onto the wrong ones can sink your best work, your team’s morale, and your margins.
Every MSP has been there: a needy, low-paying client constantly demanding top-tier support but balking at every recommendation. These clients eat up resources, undercut your processes, and exhaust your technicians.
One Reddit MSP nailed the reality with brutal clarity:
“Focus on your A and B clients and give them great care. Work to get your C clients to move up and cut them loose if you can’t.”
It sounds harsh, but it’s the truth: not every customer is worth saving.
To run a scalable and profitable MSP, you need to start categorizing your clients. Here’s a breakdown of what A, B, and C clients typically look like:
Pay on time, every time
Trust your expertise
Follow your processes
Don’t fight on scope or value
Often grow and refer others
Mostly cooperative but may need coaching
Sometimes slow on payments or adoption
With effort, can move up to A-tier
Worth investing in—up to a point
Constantly question your pricing and methods
Cause the most tickets with the least revenue
Disregard contracts or timelines
Drain your team and destroy morale
“We learned the hard way that bending over backwards for C clients usually means short-term revenue and long-term headaches.”
It might feel counterintuitive to walk away from paying clients. But here’s what happens when you let go of bad-fit accounts:
Support queues drop
Ticket response improves
Your team’s morale climbs
Client satisfaction (and referrals) increase
Profit margins grow without adding new headcount
“It’s amazing how much better your team performs when they’re not drowning in bad-fit tickets.”
One MSP on Reddit summed it up perfectly:
“Some people operate their business by constantly trying to be a pain in the ass to their vendors. My motto is: let them be a pain in the ass to my competition.”
Here’s your practical playbook for handling C-tier clients:
Look at time spent vs. revenue earned
Identify consistent red flags (SLA abuse, slow pay, aggressive tone)
Offer a final opportunity to reset expectations
Be transparent about process violations or scope creep
Before you offboard anyone, collect all past-due invoices
Secure a written confirmation to prevent payment delays
Transition services professionally
Deliver final documentation, passwords, or exports
Protect your brand by ending relationships cleanly
The best way to reduce C-tier clients is to never onboard them in the first place. During onboarding:
Set clear expectations around communication, escalation, and scope
Use language that positions you as a partner, not a servant
Establish payment terms and reinforce SLA boundaries
Watch for red flags early: nickel-and-diming, excessive demands, constant reschedules
“These days we’re very upfront about expectations during onboarding and try to coach struggling clients into that B tier.”
It’s not about being selective—it’s about being strategic.