An MSP referral program is a written rule for who may introduce a client, what counts as a qualified referral, what you pay them, and who follows up. Write those decisions down, then ask the people who already trust you. What to pay is a separate page.
OpenText Cybersecurity surveyed 1,019 MSP managers and executives in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada in September 2025. Referrals were the leading source of new SMB customers, at 32%, ahead of online search and digital ads (29%) and technology marketplaces (25%). OpenText Cybersecurity, September 2025.
A 2023 MSP Success survey found that 70% of respondents named referrals as the marketing activity that drove the most new business. That is a share of MSPs, not a share of their clients. MSP Success.
Who refers
Clients who already use you.
Vendor reps who meet the same buyers you do.
Adjacent providers: accountants, IT consultants, telecom partners, and peer MSPs who do not cover the same work.
How that motion shows up in a pipeline is on the MSPs page.
The setup steps
Decide if this is an ongoing program or a one-time campaign.
Write down who is allowed to refer.
Write what a qualified referral is, in one sentence a referrer can repeat.
Pick the reward for that kind of referrer. The amounts are on the fee page.
Ask after a recovery, a clean audit, or a quarterly review, and give them one way to introduce you.
The rules most programs skip
Most write-ups stop at the reward and the ask. The program holds together only if these are written down before the first introduction.
One person on your team owns the next step the day the referral arrives.
Acknowledge the referrer the same day, then contact the prospect.
If two people send the same company, the written rule says who gets credit.
Write when the reward is earned, on signature, invoice, or collection, before the first referral.
Tell the referrer what happened, including when it does not close.
Rewards and fees
A client thank-you, a share of monthly recurring revenue, and a white-label margin are three different deals. This page does not repeat the amounts.
A referral that lives in an email thread has no owner, no record of a duplicate, and no note of whether the reward was paid. A spreadsheet gets the same gaps once a second person is involved.
Common questions
OpenText Cybersecurity surveyed 1,019 MSPs in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada in September 2025. Referrals were the leading source of new SMB customers, at 32%, ahead of online search and digital ads at 29% and technology marketplaces at 25%. A 2023 MSP Success survey is a different count: 70% of respondents said referrals drove the most new business, which is a share of MSPs, not a share of their clients.