Joshua Feinberg discusses how telecommunications companies can find the right data center clients by understanding their business model and target market.
He emphasizes the importance of using existing client lists to prioritize goals and create an ideal client profile, considering geographic, company size, and industry factors.
Feinberg highlights the need for educational content and events to engage potential clients early in their buyer's journey. Currently, 83% of the decision-making process occurs before vendor contact.
He stresses the importance of sales teams adopting a consultative approach to build trust and influence decisions effectively.
This video is excerpted from the podcast Ep. #61 Joshua Feinberg, CEO of DCSMI | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast.
Action Items
- Document the ideal client profile, including the geographic, company size, and industry vertical components.
- Build a target account list of potential data center operators with whom to do business.
- Identify the buyer personas and their shared goals, challenges, and language.
- Create an educational content and events calendar to attract and build trust with the target buyer personas.
- Ensure the sales team is positioned as teachers, consultants, trusted advisors, subject matter experts, and thought leaders, rather than traditional transaction-focused sales professionals.
Outline
Finding the Right Data Center Customers
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the importance of understanding the type of telecommunications company involved, whether a consultant, broker, carrier, or provider of niche products or services.
- The conversation emphasizes the need for a marketing and sales strategy tailored to the company's specific role in the telecommunications industry.
- Joshua highlights the significance of using a company's existing customer list to prioritize new client acquisition, growth, and revenue goals.
- The discussion includes the importance of documenting the ideal client profile, including geographic location and company size.
Geographic and Company Size Considerations
- Joshua inquires about the company's ability to sell globally or within specific regions, which is crucial for finding the right data center customers.
- The conversation covers the range of company sizes the telecommunications company has been successful with, from small co-location operators to large global data center operators.
- Joshua suggests setting up a band range for factors like megawatts, square footage, or employee count to identify the ideal client profile.
- The importance of understanding where account managers and customer success managers have had the greatest results is emphasized.
Regulatory and Business Model Considerations
- Joshua discusses the impact of regional regulations on data center operations and the need to consider these factors when building the ideal client profile.
- The conversation highlights the importance of aligning the telecommunications company's capabilities with potential clients' geographic and industry focus.
- Joshua mentions the need to understand the nature of the data center operator and whether the telecommunications company can support their specific needs.
- The discussion includes the importance of building a target account list of potential data center operators to focus on.
Identifying Buyer Personas
- Joshua explains the concept of buyer personas, which are semi-fictional representations of ideal stakeholders based on research and actual data.
- The conversation covers methods for identifying buyer personas, such as talking to them, surveying them, and analyzing their LinkedIn profiles and online behavior.
- Joshua emphasizes the importance of using the actual words of buyer personas to create detailed documents that capture their goals, challenges, and commonalities.
- The discussion includes building an educational content and events calendar to attract and build trust with these personas.
Educational Content and Early Engagement
- Joshua highlights the shift in how data center customers research and make purchase decisions. A significant portion of the journey happens before they contact the vendor.
- The conversation covers the importance of using educational content and events to engage with potential clients early in their buyer's journey.
- Joshua emphasizes the need for sales teams to be perceived as trusted advisors, consultants, and subject matter experts rather than traditional sales professionals.
- The discussion includes the significance of spending valuable time with ideal clients to provide insights and build relationships.
Adapting to the Modern Buyer's Journey
- Joshua discusses the need for telecommunications companies to update their sales strategies to align with the modern buyer's journey.
- The conversation covers the importance of being responsive to how buyers actually want to research and make decisions rather than clinging to outdated methods.
- Joshua highlights the acceleration of digital transformation during the early 2020s and the need to adapt to the changing landscape.
- The discussion includes the importance of building strong relationships with decision-makers, such as data center CTOs and telecommunications managers.
Resources
Watch the full podcast Ep. #61 Joshua Feinberg, CEO of DCSMI | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast
Resources
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