Brightworks Group Combines Process & Platform to Achieve Growth

An MSP Company Providing Human-Focused IT Solutions 

Brightworks Group is a managed service provider (MSP) and managed security service provider headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Founder and CEO Doug Miller brings more than 30 years of industry experience. Over that time, he has built a reputation for operational excellence, but he recognized that sales presented a persistent challenge.

Brightworks Group’s technical capabilities were strong, but converting prospects into clients required a sales process built for the trust-driven nature of the MSP industry.

Big Investments with Little Return

Before finding a solution in Membrain’s B2B growth platform and Fox & Crow Group’s MSP Sales Process, Brightworks Group faced a familiar yet frustrating cycle: investing heavily in sales and marketing efforts, only to see little or no return. 

“At one point, I was spending 5 figures a month on sales coaching, marketing, HubSpot, and producing zero leads. And I'm not exaggerating, I really mean zero leads,” Miller shared.

The challenges were systemic. The MSP market is competitive, trust-based, and relationship-driven, making it difficult to find salespeople who understand the industry. 

Brightworks Group hired salespeople along the entire spectrum of early-career reps to sales veterans and from throughout the industry, but the problem remained that they “didn’t really understand how to sell what we have,” Miller said.

Previous attempts to outsource sales or marketing also fell short. Industry-standard CRMs were expensive, complicated, and poorly aligned with MSP workflows. Even internal efforts were unsustainable: when salespeople failed to produce activity, the organization was forced to “hit the reset button” every 18 months, cycling through hires and investments with limited results.

Ian Richardson, founder of Fox & Crow Group, noted that this is a challenge familiar to many MSPs, including his own.

“If you name a sales mistake, I can guarantee you I've made it at least twice,” Richardson shared.  

Based on Richardson’s experience as an MSP operator, Fox & Crow helps MSPs build repeatable, scalable sales systems to break the cycle and start growing.

Combining Process and Technology 

Brightworks Group partnered with Fox & Crow and Membrain to implement a structured, repeatable MSP sales process that could be embedded into daily workflows. The approach combines data-driven insights with hands-on coaching to reinforce best practices.

Richardson’s foundation for the methodology is based on the analysis of data from thousands of outbound dials and appointments revealing a number of patterns. 

“And so what we've done is leaned into using the technology that Membrain brings to the table at the core: the ability to lay out and train to enforce and reinforce – through coaching and training and smart-alerting and visibility – processes for every part of the funnel.”

The process spans the entire customer lifecycle, from generating new leads to managing and growing existing accounts, while balancing technical precision with relationship-building. 

Richardson emphasized the human side of the process complements the technical solution. Having alignment at the individual level with salespeople on the same page about how they support their buyers is key.

“Because if you think about the buyers who are buying managed services, they're non-technical most of the time, and only through really helping lean into the business outcomes that the relationship starts to mature,” Richardson said.

The integration with Membrain was critical. The platform embeds the process directly into the CRM, giving sales teams real-time guidance and making performance visible to management. 

Miller saw immediate benefits of working in Membrain’s platform.

“Right in front of your face is everything Ian is talking about: all the processes, all the documentation, everything your reps need to know, everything your account managers need to know is there,” Miller said. “As the rep encounters an objection and maybe doesn't know how to respond to it, they have that information in front of them.”

Structure for Continued Growth

Brightworks Group is now focused on scaling its sales engine and building on the foundation established with Membrain and Fox & Crow. The organization has moved from reactive, inconsistent sales efforts to a structured, repeatable process that delivers measurable results.

Richardson framed the vision for the broader MSP community:

“Sales at the core of it, isn't about a personality. It's a process. You don't need to go find a closer. You need to have an engine. The cool thing about process, about engines, is you throw in the inputs, and you get the outputs. That's what we're working on creating, so if you're ready to get an engine, let's go – let's build an engine, let's go change the world together.”