Smart Selling Tips for Cloud Backup and Recovery Systems

When marketing cloud based backup and recovery services, it does matter if you are a vendor who markets cloud based backup and recovery on a large scale or on a small scale. This is because of the differing needs for home based services and SOHO (Small Office Home Office) offerings and finally, the megabucks operations of big businesses or even for that matter small and medium enterprise.

For instance, the recovery time for home based solutions can be in the order of a day or two or more whereas SME’s need un-throttled recovery and at the most an overnight lag in the delivery of storage media. On the other hand, the SOHO segment needs un-throttled recovery as soon as possible but it can do without media delivery. Further, the requirements are different in the area of vendor data storage location as well. Take for instance the fact that SOHO and SME segments differ in terms of regulatory compliance requirements with the former opting for native storage and seeing foreign locations as a disadvantage whereas the latter would certainly prefer foreign storage as an asset.

The next aspect in selling is to do with the fact that managed service providers or MSP’s and resellers need to have a varied marketing and selling plan based on the evaluation of the customer’s requirements. For this the MSP’s need to prepare a matrix comprising of the differing needs and requirements of customers and then they need to tailor this to the specifications of individual customers. The easiest is the home based customer who needs the cloud based backup as an option to exercise in case of emergency. Whereas for the SME’s and the big businesses, data backup is a necessity as well as regulatory compliance specific and hence the mission criticality of this cannot be overemphasized more. This places these segments as distinct as chalk and cheese and hence, this is an aspect that needs to be factored into the marketing plan.

The other aspect in marketing cloud backup services is to do with the geographical location of the customer as well as the vendor. As explained earlier, the differing emphasis on criticality of storage and backup means that the vendor has to have multiple locations catering to the geographical needs and the perceptions of offsite storage. Indeed, the country of location matters even in this globalized world and hence, this is an aspect that should be taken into consideration as well.

Finally, the meat of the sale is in the commissions that the MSP’s and the resellers get as well as the margins made by them when selling cloud backup services. In this respect alone, it makes sense to keep the number of channel partners low so as to remove unwanted complexity and eliminate redundancy. Considering that the cloud paradigm is all about efficiency, this should be on your mind as well when you finalize the sales and marketing plan for your cloud backup services.

It is important to note that mastering the complex process of tying up with partners and reaching out to customers must be done after adequate due diligence is done on the strengths of the partners and the requirements of the customers. It might be necessary to have preliminary studies done to assess the markets and potential partners before launching your service. The point here is that it is better to test the waters before you take the plunge and it would be a good idea to launch a pilot service or a proof of concept cloud backup offering or service.

Tagged as: cloud, Enterprise, marketing, MSP, Preetam, selling, solution