Customers might feel like there’s no place like home for housing and managing their infrastructure, but channel partners are convincing companies of all shapes and sizes to take advantage of colocated and managed services like Web hosting to reduce cost, increase security and gain peace of mind. Web hosting providers and agents offer up the following tips for peddling this portfolio must-have.
The Consultative Crystal Ball. As with many telecom sales, the consultative approach is paramount in offering Web hosting. Vince Bradley, CEO of master agency World Telecom Group (WTG), said he knows of many agents that approach clients as consultants and come out as brokers. “We have some agents that use this focus by going in and consulting on the Web design, search engine optimization and recommending a hosting company. They then change hats by selling [carrier] services to them.”
Frank Ferdowsian, client advocate and co-president of idea! Communications Group, a master agent for Qwest Communications International Inc., said a consultative relationship is key to selling Web hosting. “Hosting is very much more complicated than selling a voice circuit or data circuit, so you really have to understand a customer’s business model in order to help them make the decisions,” he said.
Ferdowsian’s consultative approach is supported back at Qwest. Sandy Spencer, regional vice president of the Qwest Business Partner Program, said Qwest has hosting specialists available to for partners to engage as part of the consultation, design or implementation phases of the sale. “It’s important for agents or resellers to work closely with hosting and communications providers because the applications for hosting can be varied and complex,” said Spencer. “The Qwest Business Partner Program also has complete and non-competitive channel integration available to partners with Qwest’s direct sales force to provide additional support and expertise for customers.”
Steve Melchiorre, director of sales at Evanston, Ill.-based Converged Communication Systems, a Cbeyond partner, said understanding your customer before you walk in is important and everyone should do background research first. “Every salesperson should go to that potential customer’s Web site before they even walk in the door and have a discussion with them. How do they use it? What kind of company is it? That way, they can be more knowledgeable in their sales approach,” he said, adding that it also helps to know who you will be speaking to — an IT person or a non-IT person — and to tailor the discussion accordingly.
Indeed, for channel partners dealing with smaller businesses, “the most important thing for resellers to do is keep it simple,” said Paul Gies, senior director of products at service provider Cbeyond. “From landscaping companies to doctor’s offices to food distributors, these are not necessarily tech-savvy people. Each of them started their small business to run a company, not manage IT. The way to get through to them is to offer a service that is easy to understand and easy to implement — don’t overcomplicate it.”
