How Data Centers Segment to Differentiate

When data centers dump all of their leads into the same bucket and provide them with the same message, this is not only a huge problem but also a huge missed opportunity. Segmenting leads is highly critical. Failing to segment leaves a huge missed opportunity because it is one of the quickest ways to differentiate from:

• Your direct competitors
• Your indirect competitors
• Other people in the data center industry buying attention (non-business model competitors)

Differentiation, Segmentation, and Personalization for Data Center Providers

You will be way ahead of the game by just thinking about segmentation. Most data center providers act as if their prospects and clients are identical. Acting as if your prospects and clients are all the same is a huge mistake.

Is it possible to over-segment? Not really.

When considering segmentation, consider companies like Amazon, Apple (iTunes), and Netflix.

When you visit Amazon, you may feel they suggest products for you to buy based on thousands of other people’s selections; this is not the case. Amazon bases its suggestions on the following:

• Previous items you have purchased
• Things you searched for in the past
• Things you have in your cart
• Things you have previously put in your cart

Amazon does a tremendous job of targeting, partially, why they are disrupting on so many fronts, such as AWS and on the retail side of things where people are purchasing physical goods.

The Bottom Line

At the minimum, make sure you segment your leads by buyer persona. You should also consider segmenting your leads by:

• Lifecycle stages
• Leads
• Market qualified leads (MQLs)
• Sales qualified leads (SQLs)
• Opportunities
• Client evangelists

You should always know where leads are in their sales process.

The lazy approach of ignoring this may have worked ten years ago, but being lazy with this will no longer be effective. With the ridiculous competition for your prospects and clients, you have to nail that relevancy.

How does your data center differentiate from the competition? Have you ever used a segmentation approach? Let us know in the comments below.