Stop pulling your hair out. It’s not you, it’s them — your customers. You’re not the only one facing obstacles when selling data backup and disaster recovery (BDR) and business continuity solutions. And here’s just one example to prove this point to you.

“I like to show my clients evidence that disasters can happen to them,” says Jim Turner, president at Hilltop Consultants, a Washington, D.C-based managed services provider (MSP).

Turner plays the role of lead interrogator when sitting down with customers. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Law & Order, you know what I’m talking about. Two cops (usually a good and a bad) sit down with a suspect at the police station in a dimly lit room to lay out the evidence on the table.

In Turner’s case, he begins presenting evidence of what could happen to customers if they don’t have a business continuity solution in place (for example, data loss due to a building fire).

He says he does this to overcome three of his biggest challenges when selling BDR and business continuity to customers:

Placing the data in front of potential customers is what brings them back to reality. It makes them believe they’re going to be at risk if they’re not properly protected with some kind of a solution.

“I overcome the challenges by showing the value of the service,” he says. “When I show the client the math, they see the value of the service.”

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