Many agencies and managed service providers (MSPs) struggle to grow client lifetime value (LTV)—not because their services aren’t good, but because they’re selling to the wrong clients or the wrong people inside those organizations. When those two things are clearly defined and understood, client relationships are easier to sustain and expand over time.
Agencies and MSPs can increase client lifetime value by defining ideal client profiles (ICPs) and aligning their services with the buying committees inside those organizations.
Clear patterns emerged when we analyzed data from 165 high-performing agencies across the web services industry to understand what actually drives long-term client value. Collected in partnership with Promethean Research, a firm specializing in performance benchmarking for digital agencies, the research revealed that agencies and MSPs that clearly define their ideal clients and understand how buying decisions are made consistently achieve higher client LTV.
As part of a series exploring 12 key levers that influence LTV for agencies and MSPs, this post explores how defining the right ICPs and understanding buying committees directly shape who you sell to, how you sell, and how long those client relationships last.
What is an ideal client profile (ICP)?
An ideal client profile (ICP) is a clear definition of the type of customer that delivers the most long-term value to your business. For agencies and MSPs, an effective ICP goes beyond company size or industry. It identifies clients whose business depends on digital infrastructure to operate, grow, and protect their brand.
At a minimum, a strong ICP includes:
- Industry or sector: the type of business they’re in and any common technical or operational needs that come with it.
- Company size: how complex their environment is, not just how many people they employ.
- Geographic location: where they operate and whether that location affects service delivery or compliance.
- Core pain points: the problems they’re actively trying to solve or avoid.
- Purchase triggers: the events that push them to seek help, like growth, change, or risk.
When these elements are clearly defined, it becomes easier to recognize clients who are more likely to renew contracts, expand services, and build long-term service relationships.
Why ICPs matter for client lifetime value (LTV)
ICPs directly influence LTV because they determine where you invest sales effort, onboarding time, and ongoing support resources.
Agencies and MSPs that define and target strong ICPs see higher LTV because those clients are more likely to:
- Have recurring technical needs: their businesses evolve continuously, creating a constant need for infrastructure to be updated, extended, or adjusted.
- Require ongoing management, not one-time fixes: rather than solving isolated issues, these clients need active oversight of critical services to keep their digital presence stable and secure over time.
- Bundle services under one provider: clients that depend on their digital presence are more likely to bundle services like domain management, DNS, hosting, email, and security under one provider to simplify ownership, reduce risk, and ensure continuity.
- Stay longer and churn less: as more core services are managed together, switching providers becomes both less attractive and more disruptive.
Let’s look at how this works in practice, using a service we happen to know pretty well: domains.
While not every client may need managed domains, high-LTV clients frequently do. When an ICP includes organizations launching new brands, locations, or products—or managing multiple websites or email domains—domain management naturally fits a recurring service model. The same holds true for clients with compliance, security, or uptime concerns, or those without in-house DNS or domain expertise.
In these cases, domains stop being a simple setup task and become an ongoing responsibility. Monitoring renewals, applying security controls, managing access, and making changes as the business evolves all support stronger retention and create more opportunities to expand the relationship over time.
That pattern is reflected in the Promethean Research LTV report, which found that:
“Agencies that define and target ICPs consistently outperform on average client tenure, deal size, retainer value, and upsell activity.”
What is buying committee within an ICP?
A buying committee is the group of stakeholders within a client organization who influence or approve a purchase decision. Buying decisions typically involve technical, business, and financial stakeholders, each assessing services from a different perspective.
Identifying the buying committee within each ICP helps agencies and MSPs understand not just who is involved in a deal, but which roles influence the decision, who controls budget, and who has final approval. Different stakeholders tend to evaluate services through different lenses:
- Technical stakeholders focus on reliability, security, and operational efficiency
- Business leaders look for brand protection, uptime, and support for growth
- Finance teams prioritize cost predictability, renewals, and risk control
How aligning ICPs and buying committees drives higher LTV
To effectively align ICPs and buying committees, a deliberate approach that connects who they target with how purchasing decisions are made within those organizations is necessary.
This means:
- Building ICPs around clients with ongoing operational needs. Focus on organizations where managed services support core business functions and evolve over time. These clients are more likely to value long-term service relationships rather than one-off engagements.
- Mapping who influences service-related decisions within those ICPs. Identify the technical, business, and financial stakeholders involved so sales conversations address the right concerns at the right time.
- Positioning services as managed, ongoing offerings—not commodities. Emphasize continuity, governance, and risk reduction—not one-time purchase price.
Using domains as an example makes these differences in perspective especially clear.
For technical stakeholders, domain management is infrastructure. DNS configuration, security controls, and change management directly affect uptime and system stability. Managed domains reduce operational risk and day-to-day overhead, making the value immediately apparent.
With business stakeholders, the conversation shifts to outcomes. Framing domain management around brand visibility, continuity, and customer-facing reliability connects it to growth initiatives while reducing the risk of disruptions that impact customers or revenue.
For financial stakeholders, positioning is equally important. Domains are ongoing commitments, not one-time purchases, which makes renewal timing, ownership clarity, and cost predictability critical. Presenting domain management as a standardized service creates consistency, limits surprise expenses, and reduces the risk of costly issues like expirations or lost access, making it easier to approve as part of a recurring contract.
When these perspectives are addressed through each of these lenses, domain management becomes easier to position, price, and package as part of a broader service offering rather than debated as a standalone line item.
By doing this extra work to identify ICPs and buying committees upfront, revenue generation becomes more effective and customer acquisition costs (CAC) are reduced over time.
What are the next steps?
Putting this into action doesn’t mean starting over or walking away from your existing clients. Identifying stronger ICPs and understanding buying committees is about being more intentional with where you focus, how you sell, and how you structure services going forward.
To start applying these ideas:
- Audit your current clients and identify which relationships already resemble a high-LTV ICP
- Map buying committees for your most successful accounts to understand who influences decisions and why
- Update sales conversations to address both technical, business, and financial concerns more intentionally
- Look for opportunities to bundle related services into cohesive, managed offerings
- Standardize renewals and governance across services to reduce risk and operational friction
From there, domain management is a natural place to apply these principles. Domains touch multiple stakeholders, require ongoing oversight, and benefit from clear ownership and renewal processes—making them well-suited for bundling into managed service packages alongside other recurring services.
Over time, this approach leads to lower churn, higher average revenue per client, and positions your business as a strategic partner rather than a transactional service provider.
Final thoughts
Client lifetime value doesn’t grow by accident. It’s the result of being more intentional about who you serve and understanding how purchasing decisions are made within those organizations.
ICPs and buying committees provide the structure agencies and MSPs need to focus their efforts, tailor conversations, and build service relationships that last. When managed services are positioned, packaged, and priced with those dynamics in mind, it becomes easier to retain clients and expand accounts over time.
Domains are a practical example of how this approach can play out, especially when they’re offered through a solution like OpenSRS Storefront, which lets you resell domains as part of a white-labelled, client-facing experience that fits naturally within a broader service offering.
For a deeper look at the research behind these insights, explore the Promethean Research Agency Lifetime Value Report.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
An ideal profile (ICP) is a clear definition of the type of customer that delivers the most long-term value to your business.
Buying decisions typically involve technical, business, and financial stakeholders, each assessing services from a different perspective.
Customer acquisition costs (CAC) are reduced when agencies and MSPs do the extra work upfront to define ICPs and align with buying committees, making revenue generation more effective over time.
Agencies and MSPs that define and target strong ICPs see higher LTV because those clients are more likely to have recurring technical needs, require ongoing management, bundle services, stay longer, and churn less.