Cultivating Cloud Computing Business: “Shut up and listen” (Part 1)

When the concept of “Hosted IT services” and “Software as a Service” first appeared, many thought the market would explode as a new era of application delivery was born.  In reality, the growth of this particular sector of “Cloud Computing” has been slow.  It has only been in the last 12 months that demand for Hosted IT has really increased.

Extrasys, now in its fifth year of operations, has always been one of the main players in the UK Hosted IT services market.  The Extrasys service is certainly a fantastic cloud computing product.  Our client base still has the same basic business needs and drivers they did five years ago.  So why did the market take so long to develop?  Perhaps one of the most significant factors was effective communication. 

Educating Joe

Hosted IT services have taken a plethora of different names over the years.  Cloud computing, software as a service, application service provider, hosted IT, hosted desktop… the list goes on.  The sheer number of different solutions and the never-ending list of potential benefits seemed to overwhelm Joe Average, who was only to happy to “stick with what I know”.  It now seems we are entering a period of consolidation, however.  Joe’s starting to pick things up – he suddenly seems more familiar with the terms and the impact that such services can have on his business. 

This can be credited in no small part to the emergence of the big kids in the playground (such as Google Apps).  But Extrasys had learned a valuable lesson.  Extrasys have been delivering a reliable service for a number of years.  Everything was spot on technically, but it was important that we were able to effectively communicate the value that hosted IT services can provide, to educate the market place as a whole.  This was where the challenge lay.

Educating Extrasys

Over the past nine months, Extrasys have enlisted the skills and experience of a sales consultancy company.  Under their guidance, our company’s sales & marketing strategies and operations have been improved significantly. 

The consultants have acted as a sales director, mentor, and coach.  As a consequence, the number of real monthly opportunities has escalated and our lead generation campaigns have become slicker and more focussed.  What’s the secret?  It isn’t rocket science.  It isn’t some form of black magic.  It’s the “consultative sales process”.

Listen and Learn

Stop banging on about the benefits of cloud computing.  Rather than trying to make someone buy your product or service, consultative sales involves listening to the client’s problems.  It’s about analysing the client’s business drivers and needs, assessing their constraints and making a recommendation based on those needs.  It’s all about adding value for the client; taking them by the hand and helping them through their decision process.  It’s about clarity of thought, insightful questioning and, above all, listening to the customer.

Until recently, I had little or no experience in sales and have found the past few months a considerably steep learning curve.  Over the coming weeks I’ll reflect on the progress we’ve made and try to summarise the key lessons learned.