Is Your Data Center Colocation Sales and Marketing Living in the Past? (SlideShare)

Is Your Data Center Colocation Sales and Marketing Living in the Past?

Sponsored by DataCenterLeadGen.com

The way in which IT professionals research and purchase services has changed more in the past five years than in the previous 25 years


Joshua FeinbergCo-Founder and CMOSP Home Run Inc.

It’s Not Your Father’s Buyers Journey



10 years ago, if you were looking for an outsourced IT services partner,



how did you go about developing your shortlist of credible alternatives?



Fast forward to today’s colocation buying process



What’s changed?



The Empowerment of Buyers and the Revolt Against Interruption Marketing for Data Center Colocation



Both during the early stages and middle stages of the sales process for colocation,



the empowered evaluators, and decision-makers won’t be ready for a conversation with your sales team



Why? Because they don’t need to.



Buyers are much more in control today, doing all of their own research, at their own pace,



without being influenced by traditional, interruption marketing and sales



Sales Is Completely Out of the Loop During the First 60% to 90% of the Decision Making Process



Information is no longer a scarce commodity



What’s scarce now? Their attention



How the Modern Buyer’s Journey Works



Reading helpful blog posts



Devouring insightful white papers



Interacting with powerful planning tools



Watching educational videos



And perhaps attending educational webinars



This is how the modern buyer’s journey works



And unless your target decision makers -- your ideal buyers -- are technophobes who are repulsed by search engines, social media, and mobile devices,



you’d better make sure that your data center colocation firm is getting found by the right ideal buyers, in the right places, in the right context,



and most of all, as early as possible in the buyer’s journey



So now that you know that 75%, on average, of the buyer’s journey is over before potential clients are ready to speak with you and your sales team,



you begin to appreciate just how different the role of your sales professionals needs to be in these late stages



Why the Order Taker That’s Living in the Past is On Borrowed Time



10 years ago, sales professionals needed to be hyper-aggressive closers



Today’s sales professionals need to reposition as trusted advisors, consultants, and industry experts,



who know that prospects are incredibly well-educated on the issues at hand



So who at your firm controls that first 75% of the buyer’s journey if your sales team isn’t getting a seat at the table early on?



Marketing. Seriously, it’s marketing.



But it isn’t the marketing team from 10 years ago.



It’s about understanding who your ideal buyers are



It’s about knowing their goals, plans, and challenges better than you know your own



Rebalancing Your Data Center Colocation Sales and Marketing Engine



If your team for example has 10 sales reps that are largely only involved in conversations with prospects in the final 25% of the sales process,



how much full-time equivalent headcount does marketing need to keep your competitive in the first 75% of the sales process?



Chances are, if your firm doesn’t yet have an effective Inbound strategy and it lacks sales and marketing alignment,



there’s an excellent chance that your revenue growth is anywhere from stunted to handcuffed



The question is: Will your colocation firm show up and have a seat at the table during the first 75% of the buyer’s journey?



Or will it be as if your firm doesn’t even exist?



Is your colocation firm keeping up with how its best potential clients navigate the modern buyer’s journey?



Or is it living in the past?



Share your take in the Comments box below



Recommended ReadingLearn How Multi-Tenant Colo Providers Can Develop a Scalable, Data-Driven, Marketing and Sales Funnel That Powers Growth


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Is Your Data Center Colocation Sales and Marketing Living in the Past? (SlideShare)