Gartner says the disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) market will grow from less than $1.7 billion this year to more than $11.1 billion by 2021.

That’s about a 46 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and it’s all monthly recurring revenue. If your DRaaS numbers aren’t growing by double digits, you’re doing something wrong.

During this Channel Partners Conference & Expo concurrent education session titled “DRaaS: Sales Boot Camp,” moderator Rachel McNeese, president and founder of Richardson Communications; and panelists Lester Keizer, CEO of Business Continuity Technologies, and Carmen Sorice III, senior vice president of channels at Sungard Availability Services, will help you beef up your DRaaS sales and marketing strategy.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, McNeese, Keizer and Sorice give a sneak peek of what they’ll share with partners.

Channel Partners: How do partners know if their DRaaS sales and marketing strategy is working the way it should?

Rachel McNeese: Billing revenue.

Lester Keizer: It is more than closing the sales and getting new leads. The best way to know if your DRaaS sales and marketing strategy is working is by the “bragging rights” of your customers. If they can brag to their other business friends that they sleep well at night, you have accomplished what you set out to market and sell.{ad}

Carmen Sorice: Partners need to make sure they are maximizing DRaaS opportunities with their customers and prospects. Many partners focus on the IT production side, and the recovery services are an afterthought.  DRaaS needs to be a core part of the partners’ selling motion. Key metrics include: pipeline quarter/quarter growth (and) acceptable win rates against the pipeline.

CP: What are some of the components of a successful DRaaS sales and marketing strategy?

RM: Compelling call to action, communication of clear value, selecting the best medium to find prospects (and) “peeling back the onion” on the different market offerings and find out what is contained in their DRaaS offering, then productizing and customizing it to your client’s specific needs.

LK: Your marketing generates credible leads, your customer retention track record is stellar, you are selling an experience, not just a product or a solution, (and) your case studies are compelling.

CS: Vendor to partner: messaging around how DRaaS will help partners sell more of what they …

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… already sell. Vendor to partner: integrating DRaaS into the partner’s existing selling motion. Partner to customer: explanation of business impact if production services go down or are breached. Partner to customer: solutions that cut across physical and virtual environments.

CP: What are some of the common pitfalls partners should avoid when forming a DRaaS sales and marketing strategy?

RM: Not gaining a good understanding of what each supplier calls DRaaS, and how you articulate that and align it with your customer’s needs. Rationalizing what you think should work. Underfunding the marketing campaign. Not enabling analytics from the start of the campaign. Not staying focused on the long-term strategy.

LK: “Sell and run,” commoditiz(ing) the sales process, canned marketing strategy, no gutsy branding to set you apart.

CS: Can’t be single-threaded … the partner needs to provide a continuum of solutions that meet customers’ needs — from low-cost/long RTO all the way to higher value/lower RTO solutions.{ad}

CP: What do you hope partners learn and walk away with from attending this session?

RM: When selling DRaaS, it is important to remember that you truly want them to have business continuity, not recovering from a disaster. So, as a client advocate, how do we ensure that the DRaaS solution we are putting in front of them will assist them in continuing to do business?

LK: Inspired to create a sales strategy that is long-term, coupled with a marketing initiative that is head and shoulders above the competition.

CS: How to identify recovery opportunities by asking the right questions to customers. How to weave DRaaS into production conversations. How to communicate the value of business continuity to customers.