Episode 151 of the Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast features Joshua Feinberg, CEO at DCSMI.
- Discover strategies to differentiate colocation data centers in crowded markets.
- Identify key challenges facing data center operators and learn solutions to address them.
- Understand how to build a strong sales pipeline for design, construction, and consulting firms.
- Segment your ideal client profile and target account lists for maximum impact.
- Leverage educational events and hyper-local efforts to generate client trust and engagement.
- Prepare your organization for the future by converging colocation, network, and IT services.
- Streamline hyperscale data center sales cycles through process standardization and stakeholder mapping.
- Compete effectively with public cloud providers by understanding repatriation, hybrid, and private cloud models.
- Target and educate key decision-makers, including CFOs and CIOs, on the benefits of colocation.
- Position your MEP infrastructure firm as an expert through tailored content and hosted events.
- Build trust and gain mindshare within the data center and digital infrastructure ecosystem.
Host:
Joshua Feinberg, CEO
DCSMI
Joshua Feinberg discusses strategies for colocation data centers to stand out in crowded markets, emphasizing hyper-local engagement and professional development. He outlines a two-pronged approach: local events for specific industries and virtual webinars for long-distance clients. For data center design, construction, and consulting firms, he stresses understanding historical successes and targeting specific stakeholders.
He highlights the importance of channel partnerships and self-service models. For hyperscale data centers, he advises standardization and early engagement with key stakeholders. Competing with public cloud providers involves understanding client motivations, particularly cost and control issues, and offering hybrid solutions. Joshua Feinberg discusses strategies for a data center MEP infrastructure firm to attract engineering and design clients.
He emphasizes the importance of niching down if a firm is small and identifies potential ideal clients as hyperscalers, colocation operators, or enterprises building their own data centers. Feinberg suggests creating multiple go-to-market teams or identifying a common client profile. He advises focusing on companies with 500-5000 employees, understanding their specific needs, and building trust through educational resources and events. He also highlights the importance of segmenting target accounts and stakeholders to create tailored educational content.
Action Items
- Focus on hyper-local efforts to get the right people in the local marketplace to know about the colocation data center, visit the facility, and visit multiple times for professional development.
- Document the ideal client profile, build a target account list, and understand the top goals and challenges of the prioritized buyer personas for the data center design, construction and consulting firm.
- Determine the standardization and process for the hyperscale data center facilities to enable streamlining the sales cycle.
- Identify the key stakeholders (CFOs, CIOs, CISOs, etc.) at target companies that are looking to repatriate from public cloud and educate them on the colocation, managed IT and connectivity solutions.
- Define the target industry, company size, and key stakeholders for the data center MEP infrastructure firm, and create educational content and events to position the firm as experts.
Outline
Colocation Data Centers and Market Differentiation
- Joshua Feinberg emphasizes the importance of hyper-local efforts for colocation data centers, focusing on getting local market awareness, visits, and professional development.
- He discusses the challenges faced by colocation operators, including density, power grid availability, and talent shortages.
- Joshua explains the differentiation strategies for large, mid-size, and small colocation operators, highlighting the use of brand equity and resource constraints.
- He outlines a two-pronged approach for small colocation operators: focusing on local events and industry specialization to build trust and educate potential clients.
Growing Sales Pipelines for Data Center Design, Construction, and Consulting Firms
- Joshua Feinberg explains the role of data center design, construction, and consulting firms in the data center ecosystem, differentiating them from operators and technology companies.
- He discusses the importance of understanding historical success and ideal client profiles, including company size, location, and industry.
- Joshua highlights the need for a strong understanding of stakeholders, including investors, community stakeholders, and mid-level executives in large enterprises.
- He emphasizes the importance of educational events and content marketing to build trust and educate potential clients, using a hyper-specific approach to cut through the noise.
Preparing for the Future of Data Centers
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the convergence of colocation, network services, and managed IT services, highlighting the financial benefits and differentiation opportunities.
- He explains the challenges of power density and cooling requirements, and the potential for repurposing legacy colocation facilities as edge data centers.
- Joshua outlines the importance of channel partnerships and self-service models for small to mid-size colocation operators, emphasizing the need for strategic decisions at the board level.
- He highlights the role of channel partner enablement programs in building long-term relationships and driving sales success.
Streamlining Sales Cycles for Hyperscale Data Centers
- Joshua Feinberg explains the importance of pattern recognition and consistency in mapping go-to-market strategies for hyperscale data centers.
- He discusses the need for a granular understanding of stakeholders, including CTOs, CFOs, and board members, and the importance of early and frequent engagement.
- Joshua emphasizes the role of standardization and process in streamlining sales cycles, highlighting the challenges of dealing with individual snowflake data centers.
- He outlines the strategic decisions involved in building and operating hyperscale facilities, including the importance of product/market fit and standardized platforms.
Competing with Public Cloud Providers
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the financial incentives for repatriating assets from public cloud providers back to colocation facilities, driven by cost, flexibility, and governance concerns.
- He highlights the importance of understanding the motivations of CFOs and CIOs in making these decisions, and the role of educational resources and events in building trust.
- Joshua explains the potential for partnerships with public cloud providers, offering private and hybrid cloud solutions to meet client needs.
- He emphasizes the need for a granular understanding of client profiles and personas, and the importance of hiring and training staff with expertise in public cloud platforms.
Attracting Engineering and Design Clients for Data Centers
- Joshua Feinberg discusses the importance of a data center MEP infrastructure firm having a strong competence in architecture, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and plumbing.
- He suggests that small firms should niche down into specific areas where they can successfully land and expand.
- The challenge is identifying common prospects and clients that allow selling all services to the same clients, such as hyperscalers, colocation operators, or enterprise data centers.
- Joshua emphasizes the need for more than one go-to-market team or finding the intersection of multiple client segments.
Identifying Ideal Clients and Market Segmentation
- Joshua explains the difficulty of having a vague ideal client profile and the need for more than one go-to-market team.
- He identifies potential ideal clients as hyperscalers, colocation operators, or enterprises building their own data centers.
- The importance of not spreading resources too thin and focusing on past successful clients is highlighted.
- Joshua suggests looking at financials and CRM data to identify commonalities among successful clients, such as location, company size, and industry.
Targeting and Engaging Clients
- Joshua discusses the importance of targeting companies with 500 to 5000 employees and understanding their specific needs.
- He emphasizes the need to identify influential stakeholders within these companies to build awareness and trust.
- Joshua suggests using customer insight research to understand the biggest challenges and goals of potential clients.
- He advises creating educational resources and events that address these challenges and goals, involving both internal and external subject matter experts.
Building Trust and Differentiation
- Joshua explains the importance of educating and building trust with potential clients to differentiate from competitors.
- He suggests running educational events and webinars to position the firm as experts in data center engineering and design.
- Joshua advises recording and making these events available on demand for those who cannot attend live.
- He emphasizes the need to segment target accounts and buyer personas to create tailored educational content.
Final Advice and Resources
- Joshua provides final advice on how to attract engineering and design clients for a data center MEP infrastructure firm.
- He encourages listeners to spread the word about the show and leave ideas for future topics or challenges.
- Joshua invites listeners to Subscribe to the Data Center Sales and Marketing Newsletter for upcoming educational events and resources.
- He offers to connect on LinkedIn for those who attended or watched the show, providing his LinkedIn profile and the DCSMI website for more information.
Resources
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