Persistence Pays Off!
By The Business Solutions Network
This MSP’s $60,000-per-month private cloud services deal started with a cold call, providing a list of its top competitors, and a 12-month sales-nurturing process.
If there’s one thing no one needs to convince managed services provider (MSP) and HTG peer group member Cal Net Technology Group of, it’s the importance of persistence — and good timing doesn’t hurt either. This belief was further reaffirmed last year after one of the MSP’s salespersons contacted the CTO of a 70-employee financial services firm. “The CTO was fed up with his incumbent service provider, and he was ready to start looking at other options,” says Luca Jacobellis, president and COO, Cal Net Technology Group. “It would have been tempting for the salesperson to move on to another prospect after being asked to provide the CTO with the names and contact information of our three biggest competitors. But I have to give him credit for seeing the bigger picture and thinking strategically rather than emotionally.”
Prepare For A One-Year Sales Cycle
A closer look at the financial services firm’s business revealed it was steeped in computer malfunctions and network downtime, and the services provider’s delayed response times made the problem worse. “The incumbent services provider was responsible for managing the client’s IT infrastructure in a nearby co-location facility,” says Jacobellis. “The firm’s infrastructure was aging, and it never received guidance from the services provider about when and how it should upgrade its technology.”
After getting a better understanding of the problem, Cal Net Technology Group proposed migrating the client’s data and applications to a private cloud environment, where the firm wouldn’t have to worry about updating servers, switches, and circuits ever again, adding in help desk support (level 1 through 3), and virtual CIO (vCIO) services. And the MSP proposed upgrading the firm to a redundant WAN.
The prospect was interested in Cal Net Technology Group’s offer, but wanted more time to consider all options. And thus began a yearlong courting process. “During that time, we met with additional decision makers, such as the CEO, COO, CFO, and applications people,” says Jacobellis. “In addition to regular conference calls, we met with them in their office and at their data center on multiple occasions, and we even scheduled a two-day road trip with a few key stakeholders to visit our private cloud data center in Austin, TX.”
Jacobellis believes the road trip was what ultimately tipped the deal in Cal Net Technology Group’s favor. “The 
client liked the private cloud environment compared with the public cloud offerings our competitors had proposed. They shared with us that they liked having more freedom in choosing their preferred solutions for servers, backup and disaster recovery, virtualization, and firewalls. Additionally, working with a private cloud provider allows us to access and manage the client’s infrastructure at a deeper hypervisor level than a public cloud environment.”
Migrating To The Private Cloud
After inking a five-year contract with the firm, the MSP began the data migration process, which entailed working with the previous services provider. “They were very upset that they lost this customer, and they made it apparent that they were not going to be cooperative during the transition,” says Jacobellis. The second hardest part of the implementation was setting up redundant connectivity between the client’s facility and the data center. We had to validate everything the telecom and cable companies did to ensure it worked properly.” The overall install, including data migration and configuring new servers, switches, and routers in the private cloud data center, took six months. Although it was a lot of work on Cal Net Technology Group’s part, the switchover was transparent to the client. “They were already used to accessing their data from a remote location, so the big upgrade didn’t change how they worked,” says Jacobellis. “The one thing they did notice is that their response times went from days and weeks to minutes and hours, including a one-hour SLA [service level agreement] for support issues.”
Earn $60k Per Month In Recurring Revenue (With Upsell Opportunities )
The client signed a five-year contract with Cal Net Technology Group for a total cost of $60,000 per month. “We have a vCIO working with this client every week, and on a regular basis we talk to them about their budgets, new technologies, and their business strategies,” says Jacobellis. “Most recently we talked to them about migrating their legacy on-premise phone system to a ShoreTel and Microsoft unified communications solution that could be run in the same private cloud as their other IT infrastructure. Now that the client has time to focus on strategic IT issues, it’s a pretty sure bet they won’t be asking us to provide them with the names of three unified communications competitors before going with our recommendation.”