How To Sell Storage In Five Easy Steps

Storage is a complex sell that involves a unique implementation for each and every client,regardless of who they are, how big their company is, or what their requirements appear to be.

"I think it's safe to say that every client is a custom opportunity," says Mark Milford, senior vice president and general manager of the storage business unit at Computer Associates (CA), based in Islandia, N.Y. "I've yet to find a cookie-cutter approach."

According to VARBusiness' proprietary research, more than 35 percent of solution providers surveyed say they currently deploy, service and/or support storage-management software, including storage-area networks (SANs) and network-attached storage (NAS), in their customer solutions. That's up from 32 percent in 2000. So, how can you get in the act? Here are the five main points to consider.

The Pitch
When trying to sell a storage solution, provide your clients with "the right information on the right device for the right price," advises Randy Settegren, channel development manager at StorageTek, a Louisville, Colo.-based manufacturer of virtual storage solutions.

That means you must emphasize the buzzwords potential storage customers need to hear: scalability, reliability and, of course, return-on-investment. "Selling storage is not about terabytes or gigabytes,it's about selling around the solution, driven by the business requirements of a client's storage," says Todd Pekats, director of professional services at Neartek, a storage VAR based in New York.

To put it in more tangible terms, ask: What is your company's information worth? And, how much is it going to cost you if it's not there? Those answers will provide a clear picture of what the client needs and what your plan should be.

Listen And Learn
Assessing customers' needs is the top priority. Often, they are experiencing a change in business environment,growing, expanding their focus, or merging with or acquiring another company.

"Our most important attribute is that we use a consultative-type sales approach," Settegren says. "We try to listen to what the client is actually facing. We want to understand exactly what they are trying to achieve, both in the short term and long term."

CA's Milford describes that process as understanding business drivers. As a solution provider selling storage, you need to ask what your clients forecast their storage growth to be. What are their current assets? What are their expectations of your solution? What kind of post-implementation services will they require?

"Overall, if you go in with a one-size-fits-all approach, both you and the client are going to get into trouble," Settegren says.

Storage Assessment

Often, a client loses track of how much storage space he has on hand. "It's imperative to take inventory of what a client already has," Milford says. "Clients typically have at least 25 percent to 30 percent more storage than they realize."

You also need to determine whether the client's existing architecture will be suitable going forward. For example, a customer with a growing business and a decentralized setup might best be served with a centralized SAN solution that distributes storage capacity.

"Sometimes a client's expectations are a little mis-set," says Scott Slack, vice president of marketing at Adexis, a Columbus, Ohio-based solution provider. "Perhaps they want a quick fix or a less costly fix. [In most cases], you're dealing with a complex storage architecture, and you need to be able to effectively accommodate it."

Scalability And Availability
Make sure the solution you implement can grow or, depending on the state of the economy, scale back based on a client's needs. Without that capability, ROI goes out the window. Access to data, another key element, also changes with the ebbs and flows of the industry, and an effective solution should be able to accommodate that.

"In a large account, a blend of many different technologies may be the answer," says George Karabatsos, vice president of sales for the U.S. VAD/VAR channel at StorageTek. "Some information might need to be accessed 24/7 real-time, while other information may not be [as time-sensitive]. The need to have data instantaneously is just not there, so somebody might say, 'Why would I want to pay extra money to have storage on a [24/7] basis when I just don't need it?'"

Remember Recovery
Backup and recovery are essential value-adds that shouldn't be left out of the overall solution. "Everybody talks about backup and recovery, but you spend 90 percent of your time talking about backup and 10 percent talking about recovery," CA's Milford says. "What happened on Sept. 11,a lot of people didn't plan, obviously, for that kind of disaster, and it's taken quite awhile to get back online."

That tragedy underscores not only the importance of backing up data, but also housing that data in a remote location. Companies that require real-time, high-availability backup often use a process called remote vaulting. Every time they make a transaction, it's mirrored and sent through high-speed telecommunication lines to a remote facility where it can be recovered in bulk fashion.

"You'll see [remote vaulting] with investment firms, financial firms, on Wall Street,it's a very expensive way of doing things," Settegren says.

But what's even more costly? Not looking into your options before disaster strikes.