Leveraging Your Customers’ Cloud Adoption for Deeper Sales
MSPs can sometimes run into hesitation from customers on adoption of cloud-based file sharing or other cloud services. The fact is, most of these companies unwilling to make the move to the cloud already have. With employees, vendors and other services already using the cloud, it is being integrated into most businesses whether the business leaders want it to or not.
Last year, 87 percent of organizations were using a public cloud. If you are dealing with a company that isn’t ready to move their business processes into the cloud, highlight the fact that they are most likely already there. Here are a few ways companies may already be involved with cloud services without knowing it.
If a company is using email, they are probably using the cloud. Most employees need to access email from any location or device. Even for businesses not concerned with accessibility, a locally hosted Exchange Server is usually to complex and expensive.
File Sharing and Storage
Employees are always looking to make their jobs more efficient and flexible. Even if the organization doesn’t use cloud-based file sharing or storage, employees will still look to gain the advantages of these services by using them without the permission of the organization. This usually means utilizing consumer-based cloud services. Sure, employees get the benefit, but it puts the organization's data at risk.
Website Hosting
It's not practical for most businesses to host a website on its own servers. While many business leaders may not realize it, using a website hosting service is using the cloud. If you are working to sell an executive on the benefits of the cloud, you could start by talking about the benefits they already receive from hosting their website in the cloud. It is easy for employees to make updates to it from any system and if third-party contractors need to make changes, it is simple to provide and control access.
Business Applications
Business leverage many applications that are delivered or accessed on the cloud. These applications provide mission critical functions such as time management and customer relationship management, made more practical because they are accessible via the cloud.
Your customers use a wide variety of cloud-based services. Understanding those can help you in many ways. First, find out the cloud services customers already use and highlight the benefits of those services to demonstrate the value of adding more cloud solutions. If they appreciate the fact that they can access their email from anywhere or easily share and sync client information, point out that they enjoy these benefits because of the cloud. Then show them that they can enjoy the same benefits in their file sharing, storage and other business operations.
Also, businesses may not realize how much their organization or their employees are already using the cloud. The fact that employees are using consumer-facing cloud services means that their files are being shared in the cloud, but they aren’t being shared securely. Setting up a cloud infrastructure that they control will ensure that their data remains safe.
The fact that 87 percent of companies are using the cloud already demonstrates what a ripe opportunity cloud services are for MSPs.
