If you are building a profitable and scalable Cloud Business, you know that times are changing for Cloud buyers. In the past, it may have taken six months to start a business. Now you can start a business in six days, or less. Small to medium businesses are keeping up and surpassing big enterprise when it comes to Cloud adoption. Is your Cloud sales and marketing strategy in line to take advantage of the opportunity? A 2015 International Data Corporation (IDC) report on Building a Cloud Practice, sponsored by Ingram Micro Cloud, offered five tips to tune your Cloud sales and marketing strategy.

Capitalize on Cloud as a Door-Opener

Cloud computing has become a household term. Small to medium business owners are curious to know how the Cloud can help them solve real business problems. Have a “Cloud First” discussion with your customers to tee up the dialogue:

• Address security concerns to proactively shorten the sales cycle

• Consider including a readiness assessment for Cloud

• Network Security

• Business Continuity

• Getting your your foot in the door with a Cloud First motion will lead to next steps

Recalibrate your Cloud Sales Compensation

Cloud Computing is sticky and a land grab. Use Cloud Computing as a way to grow you marketshare! This is an imperative to your long term growth and health as a Cloud Service Provider (CSP). In a recent study, IDC unearthed a growing trend that 70% of Cloud Service Provders (CSP) are either currently using or considering up front incentives as a sales compensation model. Sales incentives with up front commissions drive focus on new customer acquisition. Consider adding up front incentives to drive Cloud adoption with your team to fuel Cloud Adoption.

IDC unearthed a growing trend that 70% of Cloud Service Providers (CSP) are either currently using or considering up front compensation as a sales compensation model.

Pay Attention to Farming

You work hard to earn new Cloud Customers. It is worth the extra effort to make sure you retain those customers and farm them for cross sell and upsell opportunities. Define a role in your organization for account management to retain customers and farm them for service attach opportunity.

Move to Digital

According to IDC, digital is you most efficient source of leads. Having a solid digital presence combined with consistent digital communications should be the cornerstone or your sales and marketing strategy. Is email marketing dead? It is if you haven’t communicated to your customers and prospects in over a month. Consider publishing a monthly enewsletter;  give your website a refresh with a Cloud First message; add a solid call to action for Cloud related downloads, blog articles and assessment tools to leverage Cloud Content that attracts Cloud Buyers.

Build Your Brand With Leadership

Building your brand is about marketing vs. selling. Creating a vendor neutral voice by using white papers, blog articles and commenting on other third party content positions your organization as an expert. Consider setting a digital cadence of bi-weekly blogging and a monthly newsletter to politely inform and educate your base, priming the pump for future sales.

There is no silver bullet for building your Cloud sales and marketing strategy. It is hard work to transform your business to the Cloud, so get started today – the market opportunity is there!  If you would like to know more on this topic come to this weekend’s Jam Session in Redmond hosted by O365Nation or contact ClikCloud for an assessment of your sales and marketing strategy.