Most managed service providers offer cybersecurity awareness training because they know they should. Clients expect it, compliance frameworks increasingly require it, and cyber insurance providers often ask about it during assessments and renewals.
Security awareness training has become a standard part of the modern cybersecurity stack, and for good reason. Albert Einstein supposedly said “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” As such, human error continues to play a role in many security incidents, making user education an important layer of defense.
The problem is that many MSPs still treat security awareness training as a compliance checkbox rather than a business service. It's bundled into contracts at little or no additional cost, managed manually by technicians who already have plenty on their plates, and measured primarily by completion rates rather than meaningful outcomes.
Clients complete the training because they have to rather than because they see clear value in it. To most, it’s like listening to Bill from accounting telling you about his weekend every Monday - unavoidable and pretty dull, but just part of the job.
The result is predictable. MSPs struggle to charge for the service, clients remain disengaged, and something that should be contributing to recurring revenue becomes another operational expense. In many cases, awareness training ends up costing more in technician time than it generates in revenue.
The good news is that security awareness training doesn't have to work that way. With the right strategy, MSPs can increase revenue, improve margins, strengthen client relationships, and create a service that clients genuinely appreciate. The key is treating awareness training as a business service that delivers measurable outcomes rather than simply another compliance requirement.
The biggest challenge isn't usually the training itself. It's perception. Many clients view awareness training as something they have to do rather than something they want to do. If all they see is an annual training video and a compliance report, it's difficult for them to understand why they're paying for it. As a result, awareness training often gets treated as a necessary expense rather than a valuable service, making it harder for MSPs to position and price effectively.
Many providers unintentionally reinforce this perception by giving awareness training away. It gets bundled into service agreements without much thought, included as a free add-on, or treated as a loss leader to support other security services. While that may help simplify sales conversations in the short term, it often creates a profitability problem behind the scenes.
Every training campaign, phishing simulation, user onboarding request, reminder email, and stakeholder report requires time and effort. Even if the software itself is relatively inexpensive, technician time is not. If your team spends hours every month managing awareness training without charging appropriately for the service, you're effectively paying to provide it. That's where many MSPs leave money on the table without realizing it. And we know how much you HATE that.
There isn't a single correct way to price security awareness training. The best approach depends on your clients, your service offerings, and your operational model. What matters most is treating awareness training as something that delivers measurable business value rather than a compliance requirement that needs to be bundled in for free.
One of the simplest approaches is incorporating awareness training into a higher-tier security package. Instead of selling endpoint protection, email security, awareness training, and other security services individually, many MSPs package them together as a complete security solution. This allows clients to view awareness training as part of a broader risk reduction strategy while also increasing the overall value of premium service tiers.
Some MSPs find success offering awareness training as a standalone service or optional add-on. This can be particularly effective in industries such as healthcare, finance, and legal services, where compliance obligations, cyber insurance requirements, and the consequences of a security incident are often easier to understand. In these environments, awareness training can be positioned as a proactive investment in reducing business risk rather than simply another IT expense.
Tiered pricing models can also work, although they introduce additional complexity. For example, an MSP might offer a basic package that includes training, a professional package that adds phishing simulations, and a premium package that includes executive reporting and quarterly reviews. While this approach creates upsell opportunities, it can also increase administrative overhead if different clients require significantly different campaign structures and reporting processes. Before introducing multiple service tiers, it's worth considering whether the additional revenue justifies the additional management effort - because if you end up with more tiers than a Kardashian’s wedding cake, it’s going to be more trouble than it’s worth trying to keep track of.
Another effective option is offering a limited free trial. Security awareness training is often easier to sell once clients have experienced it for themselves. Giving prospects access to training and phishing simulations for a few months allows MSPs to establish baseline metrics, identify trends, and demonstrate measurable improvements. By the end of the trial period, conversations tend to focus less on theoretical benefits and more on actual results.
Pricing is only one side of the equation. Profitability matters just as much as revenue. Two MSPs can charge exactly the same amount for awareness training and achieve completely different margins depending on how much time their teams spend managing it. A service that generates recurring revenue can still become a drain on resources if onboarding, campaign management, reporting, and user administration require constant manual effort.
This is why operational efficiency plays such a significant role in the profitability of awareness training programs. The less technician time required to deliver a successful service, the more profitable that service becomes. Unfortunately, many awareness training platforms still create unnecessary work through manual processes and limited automation.
Adding a new client to an awareness training platform shouldn't take hours of configuration or require multiple rounds of manual setup. The same applies to campaign management. Training assignments, phishing simulations, enrollments, reminders, and reporting should be automated wherever possible. The more hands-off these processes become, the easier it is for MSPs to scale awareness training across their entire client base.
Multi-tenant management can have an equally significant impact. Many MSPs find themselves recreating similar campaigns across dozens of client environments. While each individual task may only take a few minutes, those minutes quickly add up when multiplied across an entire customer base. Platforms that allow administrators to create once and deploy everywhere can dramatically reduce the amount of repetitive work involved.
Reporting is another area where operational costs often grow unnecessarily. Stakeholders want updates, executives want evidence of progress, and compliance requirements frequently demand documentation. Creating reports manually every month can consume valuable technician time, particularly when the information being presented rarely changes. Automated reporting that presents meaningful metrics in a clear and accessible format not only saves time but also helps clients better understand the value they're receiving.
Even successful awareness training programs can create unexpected workloads. One positive sign that users are becoming more security conscious is an increase in reported emails. However, every reported email creates work for somebody. If triaging suspicious messages becomes a lengthy manual process, improved security awareness can unintentionally increase operational costs. That's why it's important to consider the efficiency of email analysis and investigation workflows alongside the training programme itself.
One of the biggest reasons awareness training gets undervalued is because MSPs focus on activities instead of outcomes. Clients don't care how many training modules were assigned or how many phishing simulations were sent. They care about whether the program is actually reducing risk.
Download the How to Prove ROI of Security Awareness Training to your Clients e-guide.
This is where reporting becomes critical. Effective awareness training should make it easy to demonstrate behavioural improvements over time, whether that's a reduction in phishing susceptibility, an increase in reported suspicious emails, or stronger training engagement across the organization. When clients can clearly see progress, conversations about renewal and expansion become significantly easier.
This is particularly important when speaking with CFOs and other business decision-makers. They're rarely interested in awareness training for its own sake - nobody ever became a CFO because of an innate interest in SAT. What they care about is reducing financial risk, supporting compliance requirements, satisfying cyber insurance obligations, and avoiding the disruption that follows a successful attack. The more clearly awareness training can be linked to those outcomes, the easier it becomes to justify it as an ongoing investment rather than an optional expense.
Beyond the direct revenue generated by the service itself, awareness training often delivers additional business benefits. Better-trained users are more prepared for common attacks, reducing security incidents and reactive support work. Clients increasingly see the MSP as a proactive partner rather than a reactive service provider, which can strengthen relationships and improve retention. It also helps differentiate your offering from competitors who continue to treat awareness training as little more than a compliance exercise.
Security awareness training shouldn't be viewed as an obligation or a checkbox. When packaged correctly, managed efficiently, and supported by meaningful reporting, it becomes a service that improves security outcomes while contributing to recurring revenue and long-term client retention.
For MSPs looking to maximize the value of awareness training, the goal is simple: reduce the operational effort required to deliver it, make it easy to demonstrate results, and position it as a business service rather than a compliance requirement. The right platform can make all three significantly easier to achieve.
If you're looking for security awareness training built specifically for MSPs, Phin helps automate administration, reduce operational overhead, and make it easier to demonstrate measurable value to your clients. Hear from this MSP about how they’ve increased profitability just by reducing manual labor with Phin.