Joshua Feinberg discusses strategies for closing colocation data center deals amidst commoditization. He emphasizes understanding clients' multi-year contracts and the necessity of resources to buy out competitors.
The key to success is focusing on solving clients' business and technology problems rather than just closing deals. Effective strategies include educational resources, events, and premium content to build trust and educate prospects.
Feinberg critiques over-reliance on large conferences, suggesting a diversified approach with 28 touchpoints to maintain engagement throughout the buyer's journey. He advises spreading the marketing budget across various touchpoints to avoid losing prospects to competitors.
This video is excerpted from Ep. #65 Joshua Feinberg, CEO of DCSMI | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast.
- Identify the key challenges colocation data centers face with commoditization
- Recognize the importance of understanding client's business and technology challenges
- Develop educational resources to guide prospects through the buyer's journey
- Diversify marketing and sales investments beyond large conferences
- Engage the full decision-making committee within client organizations
- Implement a comprehensive strategy to build trust and expertise with prospects
- Conduct in-depth research on the most significant business and technology challenges that cause clients to become colocation clients
- Create educational resources such as downloadable content, podcasts, webinars, and live events to build trust and expertise with the entire decision committee
- Diversify the marketing and sales budget across various content and event formats, rather than focusing primarily on large conferences
Outline
Key to Closing Colocation Deals Amid Commoditization
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the challenge of closing deals for colocation data centers struggling with commoditization and finding the right segments.
- He emphasizes that many prospects and clients are bound by multi-year contracts, which can prolong the sales cycle unless the colocation provider has the resources to buy them out.
- Joshua highlights the importance of not appearing as a salesperson but rather as a problem solver for clients' business and technology challenges.
- He stresses the need to invest time in understanding the most significant business and technology challenges that cause clients to seek colocation services.
Educational Resources and Buyer Persona Research
- Joshua explains the significance of basic buyer persona research and one-on-one interactions to build educational resources for self-education and the buyer's journey.
- He mentions the value of creating amazing educational event experiences that allow clients to get to know the client-facing team and build trust at scale.
- These events and premium content resources help in circulating expertise among the full decision committee in companies.
- Joshua underscores the importance of understanding all stakeholders involved in the colocation decision-making process, including different types of people within the organization.
Effective Use of Marketing and Sales Budget
- Joshua criticizes colocation operators for spending a large portion of their marketing and sales budget on big annual conferences, which only account for one of the 28 touchpoints.
- He advises that if 80% of the budget is spent on two events, the remaining 26 touchpoints must be covered effectively to avoid losing prospects to competitors.
- Joshua uses a sports analogy to explain the importance of spreading the budget across various touch points, similar to how a sports team manages its payroll.
- He references the movie Moneyball to illustrate the need for a strategic approach to marketing and sales investments, which ensures a balanced portfolio.
Ensuring a Comprehensive Buyer's Journey
- Joshua emphasizes the necessity of having a way to stay with prospects throughout the entire buyer's journey, including customer insight research and creating downloadable premium content.
- He highlights the importance of engaging the entire decision committee through various touchpoints, such as podcasts, live streams, webinars, breakfast seminars, and lunch and learns.
- Joshua stresses the need for a cohesive strategy that includes a mix of events and resources to build trust and effectively educate prospects.
- He concludes that the key to closing deals in the data center go-to-market policy is to ensure a comprehensive approach that covers all aspects of the buyer's journey.
Resources
Watch the full podcast: Ep. #65 Joshua Feinberg, CEO of DCSMI | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast.
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