The Solution
You can’t blame your prospect. They know that IT is a 24/7 need, and they’re wary of entrusting their operations to someone who doesn’t appear big enough to deliver 24/7 support.
But Paul always has an answer ready. As an Intermedia partner, he can provide the same solutions as the big guys, without the price tag that comes from big overhead.
While his company has only eight employees, he’s actually got hundreds of Intermedia employees working on his behalf. By partnering with us, Smith’s “team” includes 350 employees around the globe who work 24/7 to maintain, provide, and extend the Office in the Cloud.
“What does a big company usually tell their prospects?” Smith asks. “‘We have a million dollar datacenter’ or ‘We have a 24/7 support center.’ Well, Intermedia partners can say that, too.”
And he does. “I’m backed by the cloud services industry leader,” Smith tells prospects. And though he uses Intermedia’s white-label capabilities to brand his own services, he has a strategic reason for disclosing his partnership. “I like to tell people that I’m backed by such a large and powerful company. It instantly adds credibility. What’s more, it makes them comfortable in a long-term relationship, because they know that multiple eyes are watching their infrastructure.”
Once the conversation moves beyond size, Smith employs his favorite tool for converting prospects to take what they perceive to be a risk: he takes a risk along with them by leveraging Intermedia’s offer of a 30-day money-back guarantee.
He explains to his clients that if they’re willing to risk trying the cloud for 30 days, he’s willing to invest all the time and energy it takes to set them up and migrate them over.
“This offer is the best thing that Intermedia has ever done,” he says. “We can show value while helping our clients take that first step, then walking them to the other side.” By demonstrating to his prospect exactly how much effort this takes on his part, he shows them that he’s got full faith in the outcome—and a lot of skin in the game.
“That’s why Intermedia makes sense,” he says, and that’s part of the reason why he so freely discloses his relationship with us. “I say to my clients, ‘Why do you want that headache anymore? Simplify your life. It’s a fixed cost. It’s a guaranteed service. It makes sense.’”