Ep. #13 Joshua Feinberg, CEO of DCSMI | Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast

Episode #13 of the Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast comes from the webinar 10 Ways for Colocation Data Centers to Find the Right Niches and Avoid Commoditization.

Learn strategies for finding the right niches and avoiding commoditization in the colocation industry
Discover how to assess product/market fit and analyze competitive positioning
Understand how to generate highly qualified leads through educational content and events
Gain insights on repositioning sales and marketing professionals throughout the buyer's journey
Scale revenue growth through customer success and personalized marketing

Host:
Joshua Feinberg, CEO
DCSMI

Special Guest:
N/A

Joshua Feinberg discussed the challenges faced by colocation data centers in the evolving data center industry, including finding the right niches, avoiding commoditization, and maintaining pricing power. He emphasized the importance of differentiation, identifying the right clients and partners, and growing the sales pipeline through automation, business continuity, and disaster recovery. Feinberg also highlighted the need for a thorough competitive analysis, attracting the right stakeholders and decision-makers, and prioritizing lead generation and customer success for colocation services.

Action Items

Develop strong educational content tailored for key buyer personas
Analyze competitive positioning and your own content/digital assets
Generate more highly qualified leads through content and events
Improve onboarding and customer success to boost referrals
Track metrics to refine initiatives and close the loop

Outline

Data center industry growth and marketing strategies.

Joshua Feinberg discusses the blurring lines between data center business models, highlighting the challenges of maintaining pricing power and identifying the right clients and partners.
Shares insights from a webinar on how colocation data centers can find the right niches and avoid commoditization, including assessing product/market fit and attracting the right decision-makers.

Finding niches and avoiding commoditization in colocation data centers.

Shares insights on finding the right niches for colocation data centers.
Audience members discuss their biggest sales and marketing challenges, including finding the right customers and growing the business.

Assessing product/market fit and avoiding commoditization in the colocation industry.

Assessing product/market fit, avoiding commoditization, and scaling revenue growth.
Discusses how national and global colocation providers can differentiate themselves in the market.
Horizontal colocation providers market to anyone with a valid form of payment, while vertical colocation experts specialize in a narrowly defined industry or niche.
Vertical colocation experts offer consultative services that feel like free consulting, providing unique insights and anticipating where prospects are going.

Evolution of IT services, from managed services to colocation.

Joshua Feinberg discusses the evolution of managed services and colocation.
He highlights the shift from on-premise to cloud-based services, with clients seeking a single point of contact for hosting, cloud apps, and more.

Challenges faced by colocation providers and MSPs in the industry.

Colocation providers must manage services to maintain a competitive edge.
Colocation providers face similar struggles as MSPs in scaling and differentiating their services.

Assessing product/market fit for colocation providers.

Assessing product/market fit for colocation providers involves understanding buyer personas and metrics.
Knowing LTV, CAC, and sales cycle length for target buyer personas is key to product/market fit.
Understanding these metrics for different personas can help colocation providers prioritize and optimize their efforts.
Discusses the changing nature of the sales journey, citing Gartner research showing that 83% of the buyer's journey is now over before meeting a prospect, a significant increase from 56% in the mid-2010s.
Feinberg attributes this shift to the increasing reliance on smartphones and the expectation of immediate gratification, likening it to the spoiled behavior of Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

B2B buyer preferences and the importance of educating and differentiating in the sales process.

Highlights the importance of being a trusted advisor throughout the buyer's journey.
Traditional sales approaches are no longer effective, and buyers now prefer digital experiences.

Analyzing competitive position using publicly available metrics.

Shares examples of companies' competitive positions, including one that has undergone a rebrand.
People from large companies praised the session, despite some companies' M&A activities making it difficult to keep content current and evergreen.

Competitive analysis for colocation companies, focusing on LinkedIn and website presence.

Identifies competitors in colocation space, including direct, indirect, and non-business model competitors.
Emphasizes the importance of LinkedIn for colocation operators, given its dominant channel for buyer personas.
Emphasizes the importance of tracking LinkedIn and YouTube metrics for buyer persona validation.
Suggests analyzing a company's website for educational content, calls to action, and mobile friendliness.
Local colocation providers struggle with competition from national operators due to a lack of investment in digital channels and talent.

Repositioning data center sales and marketing professionals as partners, not vendors.

Emphasizes the importance of being present throughout the buyer's journey.
Sales professionals must reposition themselves as partners, not vendors, to stay relevant.

Attracting the right clients for colocation services.

Colocation operators must prioritize revenue-focused metrics over vanity metrics.
Emphasizes the importance of positioning colocation services as a trusted advisor, not a vendor.

Lead generation strategies for colocation services.

Emphasizes the importance of lead generation for colocation businesses, highlighting the need for high-quality leads to drive sales opportunities.
Outlines strategies for generating leads, including creating valuable content, prioritizing primary, secondary, and tertiary leads, and using webinars to nurture early-stage leads.
Highlights the importance of educational content for colocation leads, emphasizing the need for a minimum of one offer each covering awareness, consideration, and decision stages.
Stresses the need for content that addresses the full buyer journey, tailored to specific personas such as CTOs, CFOs, and compliance officers.

Scaling revenue growth through customer success and personalized marketing.

Emphasizes the importance of understanding target personas and providing premium content that addresses their specific needs and concerns.
Stresses the need for automation, events, and personalized webinars to engage leads and control the agenda.
Developing structured onboarding for new clients to maximize value and potential for future services.
Personalizing content and regular serving events for existing clients to drive more revenue.

Tracking and analyzing customer data for better marketing strategies.

Closed-loop reporting and tracking of campaigns' influence on new clients is crucial, but third-party cookies' reliability is declining due to Apple and Google's actions.
Initiatives like colocation require the right building blocks, talent, technology, and strategy to succeed.

Improving sales cycles for data center businesses.

Emphasizes the importance of identifying the right customers for colocation services.
Advises companies to prioritize their happiest clients and build ideal client profiles to find the right customers.
Recognize buyer journey changes and adapt sales approach.
Differentiate and position competitively to avoid commoditization.
Simplify the sales process for 80% of buyers and be present throughout the cycle.

Business growth strategies, demand generation, and account-based marketing.

Define SMART growth goals with specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound objectives.
Discusses demand generation and account-based marketing strategies for B2B companies.
Emphasizes the importance of creating valuable content offers and personalized email nurturing campaigns.

How to find the right niches and avoid commoditization in the data center industry.

Emphasizes the importance of delivering valuable content to attendees, citing the need to educate and build trust with key decision-makers.
Highlights the challenges of reaching decision makers, citing the increasing trend of decision by committee and the role of great content in facilitating introductions to key stakeholders.
Suggests using a "who else" strategy to grow the number of people within a particular account talking about your content.
For colocation operators with 10-50 employees, an in-house marketing manager is likely, while larger companies have more specialized roles.
Small companies easier to reach the right person, while larger ones require more targeting.
Differences in buyer preferences and research habits impact go-to-market strategies.

Guest Resources

Do you want to stay up to date about upcoming episodes?

Subscribe to the Data Center Sales and Marketing Newsletter

Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast