blog

The only thing better than getting a great deal is paying nothing at all! Of course, giving solutions away makes it difficult to stay in business, so this is where IT solution providers need to get creative. If you can find a way to deliver a solution at no incremental cost to your client, you’re delivering a profound value, increasing revenue and saving your client money relative to its current budget. With backup and restore solutions, you have a shot at accomplishing this.

The balancing act comes down to cost versus return, as it does with any IT investment. The nature of backup and restore solutions is such that you can find waste easily and deliver a solution that cuts excess spending while providing value.

Here are four ways to make a backup and restore solution pay for itself:

Read the rest of this entry »

Datacenter “greening” periodically goes in and out of fashion. Usually driven by broader economic factors, IT professionals tend to mull the notion of going green when the broader public debate over energy prices and climate change reaches a fever pitch. With the recent discussion at Copenhagen again bringing climate issues to the front of the global economic community, talk of green has again arisen in the IT world.

The latest from Forrester Research is that regulation won’t drive the adoption of green IT solutions. In a survey of IT professionals at 600 companies around the world, regulatory compliance ranked #7, garnering only 16 percent of responses. Unsurprisingly, cost drivers were most important. Sixty-six percent of respondents indicated that energy cost savings could lead to the proliferation of green IT solutions, with 42 percent citing the ability to cut IT operating expenses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Disaster recovery and business continuity solutions should be easy to sell. Everybody needs them, and some businesses are required by regulatory bodies to meet specific and demanding standards. They also represent a place where IT solution providers and manufacturers can distinguish themselves because DR/BC is not only a cost, but one that will show a benefit only rarely. So, a company that can shorten backup and recovery times, consume less storage space and lessen demand on datacenter staff is likely to find a willing audience.

But, there are factors that can frustrate the DR/BC sales effort. There’s plenty of competition, making it harder for our voice to be heard and causing sales fatigue to set in among CIOs and other IT decision-makers. Further, the technologies that can have the greatest impact can disrupt IT — and end-user — operations, a situation that many IT departments seek to minimize. So, what’s intuitively an easy sell can become rather complex.

Here are five ways to tip the odds in your favor:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tell a prospect that he needs virtualization, and he’ll ask why. Ask him how he plans to cut costs and increase IT operational efficiency, however, and he’ll invite your ideas. IT manufacturers and resellers spend far too much time pitching systems, and not nearly enough time understanding their clients’ businesses. The latter is what leads to near-term sales and long-term relationships … not to mention referenceable projects and referrals.

Don’t think about selling technology – that’s what your competitors do. Instead, become a true “solution provider.” Take a consultative approach through the sales process. Work with your clients to understand the business problems they face, and you’ll have the opportunity to develop and implement technology solutions that solve problems inside and outside the datacenter. The key is to get as specific as possible and show how the pain can be alleviated in a manner that improves the business operation while reducing costs or increasing revenue.

Read the rest of this entry »