Over the past 3 months we have rolled out our first integrated 360◦ channel sales and marketing campaign. The goal was to address the market opportunity presented by file based storage capacity, which according to IDC, is expected to increase more than 54% per year through 2015*.
Targeting Dell partners who’ve gained storage competency, the campaign initially introduced the new Dell NAS portfolio and provided supporting sales, technical and marketing tools to help increase revenues by promoting and selling new Dell storage solutions to existing Dell customers. The campaign comprised of a phased set of deliverables and unlike previous campaigns, included distinctive sales and technical messaging:
- Phase 1: Awareness
- Phase 2: Sales Enablement
- Phase 3: Demand Generation
In addition to the communications plan which saw the emails broadcast by our channel sales and technical teams to their contacts, and was supported by a number of Social Media posts via both Twitter and LinkedIn, the campaign included:
- Sales and Technical Training
- Sales Incentives
- Product Promotion
Read On To Find Out More >>
Please find below full details of this campaign together with links to download each of the supporting emails for more information.
Please note: emails and a number of the supporting materials are available in French, German, Italian and Spanish. Please contact your Dell Storage Sales or Technical Rep. for copies or visit the Consolidation tab in Dell Storage for sales tools and tech papers: French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Campaign Objectives:
- Increase your sales by positioning Dell as the vendor of choice when selling unified block and file storage.
- Enable you to sell the Dell Fluid File System and supporting products:
- Provide reasons to call your current install base of Compellent, EqualLogic and PowerVault customers to position the new products.
- Address current and future objections from customers.
- Arm sales, technical and marketing audiences with supporting collateral.
- Provide training to enhance your sales and technical team’s.
Phase 1: Awareness
This initial phase of the campaign introduced the new Dell Fluid File System, which adds NAS file storage capabilities to Dell SAN devices. Dell Fluid File System, a component of the Dell Fluid Data architecture, is a clustered file system that avoids traditional architectural limitations by scaling capacity and performance non-disruptively. With Dell Fluid File System you can help your existing Dell customers to:
- Manage one storage pool for NAS and SAN
- Increase system performance without disruption
- Scale capacity and performance as business needs change
- Improve the efficiency and utilisation of your storage space
The Dell NAS Solutions Portfolio leverages Dell Fluid File System v2.0 software and includes the following products:
- Dell Compellent FS8600 – bringing the agility Compellent customers enjoy on the Storage Center platform into the NAS environment, with significantly increased capacity and performance.
- Dell EqualLogic FS7600/7610 – a purpose-built NAS appliance that delivers the core EqualLogic values: peer scaling, ease of use and all-inclusive software licensing.
- Dell PowerVault NS3600/3610 -affordable unified storage and NAS functionality for midsize and smaller deployments
Learn More >>
Download the 1st supporting sales and technical emails and access the supporting sale-out NAS video and NAS Positioning Guide or Dell Fluid File System Technical white paper.
Phase 2: Sales Enablement
November saw us move into the Sales Enablement campaign phase with 3 supporting emails designed to provide you tools to promote, sell and support Dell Unified Storage Solutions to answer 3 common customer issues.
Learn More >>
- Increase Performance – Dell NAS solutions allow customers to add performance and capacity as needed without having to remove existing hardware or change software tools – download the Sales email or Technical email.
- Control Costs – Dell Unified Storage solutions allow customers to share backend capacity which can be expanded dynamically for both file and block needs, thereby removing the overhead and complexity of separate storage systems – download the Sales email or Technical email.
- Manage Risk – With Dell storage solutions customers can deploy a single, unified strategy for data protection with distinctive active-active clustering and cache mirroring for controller pairs, to increase data availability and performance – download the Sales email or Technical email.
Key deliverables available via these emails include:
- Dell Storage Competitive Tool (registration is required for 1st time users)
- Channel Sales Aid
- EasyMatrix
- How to Migrate to Dell Fluid File System Technical Paper
- Compellent FS8600 Best Practices
Wrap Up
Finally, as we wrap up the communications element of the campaign we have developed a final email (combining sales and technical audiences) that brings the messaging back to focus on the strength of our entire storage portfolio and includes NAS as part of that story.
Find Out More >>
To convey this message and help you win net new storage business join us for a webcast on 10th January, register here.
Partner Training
Providing training to enhance your sales and technical knowledge was a key element throughout this campaign and we included a number of different courses and mediums for you to take advantage of. Many of these courses will remain available into next quarter:
- Introduction Solutions Broadcast (recorded webcast on the Partner Learning Center) – Dell Unified Storage Solutions Broadcast (Recorded 25 October, 2012)
- Series of online sales and technical training courses, available through NetExam and supported by a Partner Advantage incentive – to access these courses please log in to the PartnerDirect Portal and look for the eLearning link
- Face to Face technical training courses available from the Partner Learning Center.
- On-Site Training – schedule an appointment with a Dell Sales Specialist to provide on-site training in your offices.
Supporting Promotions and Incentives
Sales Incentive
In addition to the online training incentive (see above) additional Partner Advantage points are also available for sales of Compellent FS8600 and EqualLogic FS7600.
FS7600 Promotion
Free Dell FS76x0 Appliance when you sell 2 x EqualLogic PS61x0 or PS65x0 Arrays
Phase 3: Demand Generation
The final phase of this campaign is demand generation. The objection is to help you develop marketing activities and programs to generate Dell storage leads through Q1 and beyond:
- Marketing How To Guide – this is designed to help you structure a own marketing program and is complimented by recommended copy blocks for use in emails, newsletters and banner adverts as well as social media content.
- Co-branded direct mail promoting a recent Forrester white paper commissioned by Dell which examines how to reduce storage complexity to improve IT agility. Later this month we will be adding an promotional email our Segment colleagues sent to Dell customers, together with a talking points script to aid follow up.
- Solution Showcase event – event-in-a-box content including co-branded invitations, sample presentations and customer solution brief to enable you to host a technical workshop for your customers.
Learn More >>
If you are interested in planning a Dell Unified Storage campaign please download the assets from Campaign Builder or contact your local Dell Channel Field Marketing Manager for more details.
Please note: all customer facing demand gen. materials are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.
Further Information
For more information on any element of this campaign please don’t hesitate to contact me, your Dell Storage Sales or Technical Rep. or visit the Consolidation tab in Dell Storage Master tool.
*Understanding Demand for File-Based Storage: Results from IDC’s 2012 File-Based Storage Survey, May 2012
