Storage marketing: How to stand out from the crowd

What is it exactly that storage resellers need nowadays to stand out in a crowded marketplace? This is not always an easy subject since, as the various partner programs are testament to, there is such a wide availability of tools and services which promise to dramatically grow a reseller business.

Wading through them all can be a job in itself, said Greg Hutton, business development manager for vendor StorageWorks. He said that while the company is proud of its storage offerings, storage customers are much more inclined to buy solutions than a piece of hardware. “For example, within the broad StorageWorks product range, we have adopted a solution approach to the SME segment with the All-in-One Storage System. The AIO is promoted as a complete storage solution focusing on consolidation, data protection and ease of use, rather than speeds and feeds.”

Overall, Hutton said, reseller marketing strategy should be focused around business outcomes, rather than on technology for technology’s sake.

Ross Smith, channel sales manager for WA and SA, Quantum, agrees. “Every product has its niche and we recommend that resellers find the core selling value proposition and work it hard in the messaging to the market.

“For example, within Quantum’s range, many people sell tape products for backup and recovery. Unique market advantage can be obtained by positioning the relative merits of, for example, virtual tape libraries (VTLs) or VTLs with data duplication technologies to augment regular tape for backup and recovery. Not everyone is talking about this, so they can make the market, rather than being a laggard.”

Chris Casey is general manager of storage vendor EqualLogic. A networked storage vendor, EqualLogic currently undertakes a range of marketing activity for its partner channel, from sales training and online partner marketing tools to webcasts/webinars, trade shows and customer seminars.

Casey told CRN that he is not convinced that the channel should be altering its marketing strategy for the different storage products. “Our take is that once a reseller channel has chosen the market he is looking to target, it should be partnering with the correct partners that suit this.

“The partner they choose should enhance that business strategy with a view to enhancing that strategy and providing increased value to the customer as an end result.

“For instance,” said Casey, “a partner may have 10 legal firm customers which may have very specific compliance requirements. The partner should choose the best-of-breed technologies that fit with each firm, rather than trying to change the business plan. This may only end up in them getting de-focused and less likely to succeed at the job in hand.”

As for any unique marketing ploys, Casey advises on the tried-and-tested customer demonstration model. “We always believe in getting customers to ‘test drive’ products before they actually purchase. Storage products lend themselves very well to this type of marketing and I think it is also a very cost-effective way of getting people used to our products.

“Additionally, and as we have found in the US, once we have our partners doing this with their customers, we have then found that those customers can also enter into the marketing process by talking about the user experience with the products themselves.”

Casey admits that this is a fairly medium- to long-term strategy in terms of sales. “But it is certainly a cost-effective and easy one.”

Hutton agrees that marketing storage does not always have to mean anything complicated for resellers. Highlighting the concept that the easiest ideas are very often the best, he mentions cross-promotions with advertising. “We always tell resellers to use a cross-promotional idea in their advertising. For instance, they can lead with a storage product, but should always include a reference to other HP complementary products.”

John Donovan, vice president Channels, at Symantec, remains convinced that resellers need to firstly understand their customer, their specific issues and business needs and only then market the storage product or solution to meet those needs. “Resellers should really start with their strengths and market to customers using storage products from vendors that complement their proficiencies.”

Once proficient in a storage product from a marketing, technical and sales perspective, he said resellers should expand their proficiencies into areas associated and adjacent to their foundation storage proficiency, such as system recovery, archiving and storage management, and then use their existing marketing to gain incremental sales in these new areas.

Donovan believes that in order for resellers to use their marketing spend to reach a broad customer base, they should market overall solutions to address commonly perceived issues in the market. “Also,” he said, “they should use existing marketing from vendors such as Symantec which offer opportunities to participate in campaigns such as the Backup Exec Challenge, or leverage rebates offered in programs such as Opportunity Registration. Resellers can market special product agent/option bundles and use marketing resources such as our ‘Hal, the IT admin guy’ videos to engage with their customers.”

Actively engaging in product/solution renewal programs, Donovan adds, opens up the opportunity for resellers to revisit existing customers and create a deeper relationship with them.

As with many in the market, Donovan is adamant that providing ‘value add’ services to customers is one of the most effective and enduring techniques that resellers can employ when thinking about their marketing.

“Resellers can pick a niche that they may see in the market and go after it, not only in terms of selling product, but also take the opportunity to provide associated services.”

In addition, he said, “resellers should leverage a vendor’s storage products or solutions that complement the market segment that they are targeting. It is very important that they use training from a vendor so that they can advertise that they are ‘experts’ in a particular product or solution from the vendor.”

“Reseller marketing strategy should be focused around business outcomes.”

“Every product has its niche.”

By Louise Durack.