Aesopians E10: The Growth Story Of A Healthcare MSP Ft. Benson Bashford Of AZComp Technologies
One of the first questions people tend to ask about MSP growth is, “What channel worked?”
It’s a fair question, but after working in MSP marketing for a while, I think it’s usually the wrong way to look at the problem.
A company might grow through SEO for a few years, get a bunch of mileage out of Google Ads, pick up customers through referrals, and then hit a wall with all three. The channel matters, but the bigger story is how the business keeps adapting when the thing that used to work starts slowing down.
That’s what I liked about my conversation with Benson Bashford, VP of Marketing at AZComp Technologies.
Benson has spent nearly 13 years helping market AZComp as the company evolved from a business heavily centered around Medisoft practice management software into a broader healthcare technology company offering managed IT services, revenue cycle management, chronic care management, remote patient monitoring, and other services for independent medical practices.
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🎧 Listen on Spotify Apple & More:
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/aesopians/episodes/Aesopians-E10-Healthcare-MSP-Growth-Ft–Benson-Bashford-of-AZComp-Technologies-e3nr23g
📺 Watch On YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CTCasxy5Qw
🔗 Benson’s Website:
https://www.azcomp.com/
🔗 Benson’s LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensonvbashford
🔗 Hunter’s LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/huntern/
How Benson Ended Up In MSP Marketing
Benson didn’t start out as a marketer.
He studied construction management and eventually moved into sales for a subcontractor. While he was there, he noticed that some competitors weren’t constantly fighting through the bid process. They had relationships with buyers and were getting deals negotiated directly.
That raised an interesting question: how do you get in front of someone early enough that the sale doesn’t turn into a commodity bidding process?
Benson started talking about that problem with his longtime friend Lance Foster, the founder of AZComp. Lance’s answer was pretty straightforward. That’s marketing.
Benson started experimenting with lead generation, learning how to build relationships before a buyer was ready to make a decision. When a marketing role eventually opened up at AZComp, he made the jump.
He’s been working on some version of that same problem ever since.
Medisoft Created The Foundation For AZComp’s Growth
AZComp didn’t start as the healthcare focused MSP it is today.
Lance originally came from the computer side of the business. An early opportunity supporting Medisoft eventually turned into an opportunity to sell and support the medical billing and practice management software.
That became a significant part of the company.
AZComp became the number one Medisoft reseller in 2005, and Benson says the company has maintained that position for 21 years. Along the way, it built relationships with a large number of medical practices across the country.
Well, that customer base ended up giving AZComp something most new MSPs would love to have.
A place to start.
When the company decided to move back toward its IT roots and build a managed services offering, it didn’t have to sell the first contracts to complete strangers. It could introduce managed IT services to medical practices that had already worked with AZComp for years.
That made the early sales process a lot easier and gave the team a chance to learn how to deliver the service before trying to generate managed IT leads at scale.
Recurring Revenue Changed How The Business Operated
Another major part of AZComp’s growth story was the move toward recurring revenue.
The older Medisoft model depended more heavily on individual software purchases and annual upgrades. Benson described a business where whatever was sold that month had a pretty direct effect on how comfortable the month felt financially.
AZComp started changing that.
Instead of only selling the software as a standalone purchase, the company created a monthly offering that could include Medisoft, support, training, cloud backup, and other services.
The result was a more predictable revenue base.
I think this is one of the more important points in the episode because recurring revenue changes more than billing.
When you know more of next month’s revenue is already accounted for, it becomes easier to make hiring decisions, invest in marketing, improve service delivery, and think farther ahead than the next batch of sales.
MSP Lead Generation Didn’t Follow A Straight Line
Once AZComp moved beyond selling managed IT services to existing customers, Benson ran into the problem most MSP marketers eventually run into.
How do you consistently generate qualified leads from people who don’t already know you?
His first answer was Google Ads.
For roughly the first 18 months to two years, paid search worked pretty well. Then something changed. AZComp kept spending money and kept getting clicks, but the clients stopped showing up at the same rate.
Eventually, Benson paused the campaigns.
SEO wasn’t any cleaner.
When Benson joined AZComp, the company had effectively lost its organic search traffic following earlier SEO problems. He had to learn the channel through YouTube videos, webinars, seminars, conversations, and a lot of trial and error.
The company also tried structured referral campaigns, postcards, larger direct mail pieces, and phone follow-up.
Some of those produced leads.
None of them became a permanent answer.
That’s probably the part of Benson’s story that lines up most closely with what I see working with MSPs. Marketing channels have a shelf life. Sometimes it’s a long shelf life, but I don’t think you can assume that because something worked for the last three years, it’ll work the same way for the next three.
The better approach is to build a marketing system that can change with the market.
Going Deeper Into Healthcare Created New Services
AZComp’s healthcare specialization also became more valuable as the company grew.
The company originally entered the medical space through Medisoft, but years of working with independent practices meant the team was seeing a much broader set of problems.
Medical billing is a good example.
AZComp was already training people to use Medisoft and helping practices with the software. Over time, the team could see that the bigger problem for some customers wasn’t the software itself.
It was the claims process.
Practices had to submit claims correctly, deal with denials, follow up on payments, and make sure the work they were doing actually turned into revenue.
Eventually, AZComp expanded into revenue cycle management and started handling more of that process for customers.
I think there’s a useful lesson there for MSPs.
Your next service might be sitting immediately beside the service you already sell.
If you keep seeing the same customer problem before or after your part of the process, it’s worth asking whether you’re in a position to solve more of it.
Vertical Specialization Makes The Marketing More Specific
AZComp didn’t always market managed IT services exclusively around healthcare.
When Benson first started running Google Ads for the MSP side of the business, the strategy was much broader. The company targeted general searches from businesses looking for local IT help in the Phoenix market.
That worked for a while.
But as AZComp went deeper into healthcare, the company accumulated something that’s difficult for a generic MSP to replicate quickly: context.
The team understands medical practices.
It understands the software they use, how billing affects cash flow, how staff work, and where technology fits into daily operations.
That changes the marketing conversation.
You’re no longer just another company saying you provide responsive IT support. You can talk about the problems a medical practice actually recognizes.
In my opinion, that’s one of the strongest arguments for vertical specialization in MSP marketing. The more specific your understanding of the customer gets, the easier it becomes to make your website, SEO, advertising, sales conversations, and service offering more relevant.
Good Service Gives Marketing Something To Work With
The last piece of the AZComp story has less to do with lead generation and more to do with what happens after the sale.
AZComp has been deliberate about building its culture around an idea it calls “deliver phenomenal.”
Customer surveys go out regularly. When an employee receives top scores across the survey, AZComp calls it a “high five.” Those scores and customer comments are shared internally, monthly winners receive a cash reward, and the annual winner receives a vacation and a trophy.
That might sound like an operations or HR story.
It’s also a marketing story.
If customers are consistently happy, reviews get easier to earn. Testimonials get easier to collect. Referrals become more natural. And when a prospect starts checking the company out, there’s evidence that the service experience matches what sales is promising.
You can make a website look good.
You can buy clicks.
You can rank in Google.
But if the delivery side falls apart, eventually the marketing catches up with it.
What MSPs Can Take From AZComp’s Growth Story
If I had to simplify Benson’s story down to one idea, it would be this:
Stop looking for one permanent growth tactic and start building a company that can adapt.
AZComp’s growth came in stages.
Medisoft created the customer relationships.
Those relationships gave the company a way into managed IT services.
Recurring revenue gave the business more stability.
SEO, Google Ads, referrals, direct mail, and outbound campaigns each played a role in generating leads at different points.
Going deeper into healthcare exposed the team to new customer problems, which led to additional services.
And strong service delivery gave the marketing team better proof to take back into the market.
None of those things on their own explain the company’s growth.
Together, they do.
That’s why I think Benson’s perspective is useful for anyone marketing an MSP, cybersecurity company, SaaS business, or other B2B technology company. Growth usually isn’t one campaign or one channel. It’s a long series of decisions about where to focus, what to offer, what to stop doing, and what to try next.
If you want to hear the full story from the VP of Marketing’s perspective, check out the episode and follow Benson Bashford and AZComp Technologies.
Visit AZComp Technologies at https://www.azcomp.com/ or connect with Benson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensonvbashford.
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