Episode #99 of the Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast features Joshua Feinberg, CEO at DCSMI.
- Discover how to market and sell colocation and data center infrastructure effectively
- Identify the key components of an ideal client profile, including geography, company size, and industry.
- Create tailored playbooks for local and global sales strategies.
- Understand the importance of buyer personas and how to align your sales approach with their goals and challenges.
- Earn trust and build long-term relationships with data center clients.
- Gain insights into crafting a go-to-market strategy for energy storage with sodium-ion battery technology.
- Master techniques to avoid spam filters while conducting outbound lead generation.
- Close more data center sales with ICT clients by leveraging buyer journey insights.
- Develop specialized strategies for selling green data centers to banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications clients.
- Position your team as trusted advisors and subject matter experts in the data center industry.
- Segment and personalize marketing and sales efforts.
- Explore the role of educational events and content in building trust and driving engagement.
- Align your sales and marketing strategies with the modern self-driven buyer’s journey.
Host:
Joshua Feinberg, CEO
DCSMI
Joshua Feinberg discusses strategies for marketing and selling data center infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of understanding ideal client profiles, including geographic location, company size, and industry.
He highlights the need for a detailed go-to-market strategy, focusing on educational events and personalized outreach. Joshua also addresses the challenge of earning client trust by positioning sales teams as consultants and subject matter experts. He also covers the importance of avoiding spam filters in lead generation and the necessity of tailored approaches for selling green data centers to industries like banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Joshua emphasizes the importance of subject matter expertise in selling green data centers to various vertical markets: banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications. He advocates for specialists who are deeply knowledgeable in their specific areas rather than generalists. Joshua also stresses the need to tailor marketing efforts to ideal client profiles, considering factors like company size, employee count, and geographic location.
Action Items
- Analyze the company's historical success to identify the ideal geographic regions, company sizes, and industries to target.
- Document the company's ideal client profile, including geographic location, company size, and industry.
- Research to understand the buyer personas, their biggest goals and challenges, in their own words.
- Develop an educational content and event strategy to position the company as the definitive experts in the target markets.
- Evaluate the need for specialized sales teams and account executives dedicated to each key vertical market (banking, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications) for selling green data centers.
Outline
Marketing and Selling Data Center Infrastructure
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the importance of understanding geographic regions and company sizes for successful marketing and selling data center infrastructure.
- He emphasizes the need for a detailed ideal client profile, including geographic location, company size, and industry.
- Joshua highlights the significance of having two different playbooks: one for local sales and one for national or global sales.
- He explains the importance of educational events, search engine optimization, and virtual marketing strategies for smaller companies.
Ideal Client Profile and Buyer Personas
- Joshua Feinberg stresses the need to know the ideal client profile, including geographic location, company size, and industry.
- He explains the importance of understanding the buyer personas and their goals and challenges.
- Joshua advises researching to get insights from actual people in the target market.
- He emphasizes the need for a strong content strategy and educational events to build trust and educate prospects.
Earning a Data Center Client's Trust
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the importance of understanding buyer personas and their goals and challenges.
- He explains the need for client-facing team members to show up as teachers, consultants, and trusted advisors.
- Joshua highlights the significance of providing value throughout the buyer's journey.
- He advises on making investments to be seen as the definitive go-to experts in the data center industry.
Creating a Go-to-Market Strategy for Energy Storage
- Joshua Feinberg emphasizes the need to understand historical success with energy storage and sodium-ion battery technology.
- He advises building a target account list based on the ideal client profile.
- Joshua explains the importance of understanding the stakeholders and their goals and challenges.
- He highlights the need for a strong educational content strategy and events to build trust and educate prospects.
Avoiding Spam Filters in Lead Generation
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the importance of adding value in outbound lead generation to avoid spam filters.
- He advises on understanding the ideal client profile and buyer personas.
- Joshua explains the need for a strong segmentation strategy and personalized email marketing.
- He highlights the importance of providing valuable educational events and content to build trust and educate prospects.
Closing Data Center Sales with ICT Clients
- Joshua Feinberg emphasizes the importance of understanding the buyer's journey and deal stages.
- He advises using granular deal stages to track progress and confidence.
- Joshua explains the need for a strong sales enablement strategy and content marketing.
- He highlights the importance of providing value throughout the buyer's journey to close more data center sales with ICT clients.
Selling Green Data Centers to Different Verticals
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the need for separate go-to-market strategies for different verticals: banking, health care, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
- He advises having dedicated account executives for each vertical.
- Joshua explains the importance of providing value and being seen as the definitive go-to experts in each vertical.
- He highlights the need for a strong compliance and certification strategy for each vertical.
Approach to Selling Green Data Centers
- Joshua Feinberg emphasizes the importance of showing up as teachers, consultants, and trusted advisors to clients.
- He explains the need for subject matter experts within the company who are focused on specific intersections of green data centers and vertical markets.
- Feinberg compares the expertise required to that of a specialist who only performs specific medical procedures, not a general practitioner.
- He highlights the importance of being the definitive go-to expert in green data centers, tailored to specific parts of the data center industry.
Targeting Specific Vertical Markets
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the strategy of separately targeting banking, healthcare, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
- He mentions the need to focus on ideal client profiles, including geographic regions, company sizes, and employee numbers.
- Feinberg stresses the importance of marketing, selling, and servicing within the company's comfort zone.
- He outlines the segmented approach to selling green data centers, emphasizing the need for industry-specific expertise.
Final Thoughts and Call to Action
- Joshua Feinberg concludes the episode by addressing the final question for the week's Data Center Go-to-Market Sales and Marketing Q&A show.
- He reiterates the mission of the Data Center Sales and Marketing Institute (DC SMI) to elevate the role of sales and marketing professionals in the data center industry.
- Feinberg encourages listeners to like the episode and share their ideas for future questions in the comments.
- He promotes the DCSMI email newsletter, which provides educational events and resources, and invites listeners to subscribe.
Encouragement and Closing Remarks
- Joshua Feinberg wishes listeners great success in growing their influence, their team's influence, and their company's influence within the data center ecosystem.
- He expresses excitement about the future and looks forward to seeing listeners in the next episode.
- Feinberg signs off, wishing everyone to take care and stay tuned for the next week's episode.
- He emphasizes the importance of the data center industry's growth and the role of sales and marketing professionals in it.
Resources
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