Free Newsletters for the Channel
Register for Your Free Newsletter Now
Dell/SonicWALL VP: Make Marketing Personal
Steve Pataky, vice president of worldwide security sales, insists deeper relationships should be a key goal of any marketing strategy.
2 Min Read
Steve Pataky has the secret solution to how Managed IT Services companies can hit a home run with all of their marketing and sales activities. “Make it personal.”
According to Pataky, SonicWALL partners who inject personality into their businesses consistently outperform their competitors.
How can a SonicWALL Managed IT Services company accomplish this? Pataky’s advice is simple; it starts with getting to know their clients.
“There isn’t a sales pitch that works,” Pataky said. “It is really about knowing what matters most to your customers and having a conversation with them.”
As a Managed IT Services marketing professional myself, this is pretty clear.
Clients of Ulistic who make their marketing personal, inject their own personalities into their marketing, and simply sit down with clients, constantly outperform those Managed IT Services companies who approach marketing with a transactional mindset.
At ICON 2016, the annual Infusionsoft conference held each March in Phoenix, keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk echoes the same approach Pataky and I discussed on the Las Vegas strip.
Vaynerchuk advises small businesses that marketing is all in the relationship and not about the transaction. However, too many small businesses stress over Google Analytics, what they are spending on Google Analytics, and likes on social media.
“These are all starters, but the power of these tools comes with what do you next,” said Ulistic account manager Robin Benard. “It is all about investing in the relationship.”
“Clients (should) understand a lead or a business card collected is just the start of building a fruitful relationship,” he continued. “The sale will eventually come when you personalize your marketing.”
How can SonicWALL Managed Services companies accomplish this?
Forget about the sales pitch. Use the initial contact as a conversation starter.
Enable and train customers and prospects using a lifecycle marketing system to educate those in your CRM.
Host cyber security and compliance education events, such as this example from Houston with CITOC and BJ Farmer. Think outside the box to what will get the attention of business decision makers.
What else can Managed Service Providers do to win new business opportunities with SonicWALL?
Pataky had three great strategies for SonicWALL MSPs:
Use global management systems (GMS) and Cloud GMS to show prospects and clients how your security systems work.
Embed and enable SonicWALL SWARM (Generate Application Risk Management/Swarm) to demonstrate to clients and prospects what is actually happening on their networks.
Affiliated Marketing; Team up with ISPs, hosted server providers and software companies who can promote your cybersecurity solutions to their customer bases.
One last word of advice from Pataky was about “social marketing.”
MSPs must understand and use social media solutions to share insight and education on how they are working with clients and prospects to keep them secure.
Reputation marketing and social proof are the best strategies to position a Managed IT Services company as a security expert and go-to SonicWALL partner.
About the Author
You May Also Like
Mar 24 - Mar 27, 2025
Mar 24 - Mar 27, 2025
The Channel Partners Conference & Expo, co-located with MSP Summit, is the gathering place for the technology services community. Agents, VARs, MSPs, integrators and service providers will converge to share ideas and drive discussion on the topics shaping our industry.
REGISTER NOW