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VIRTUAL SERVERS | DISASTER RECOVERY | NETWORK SERVICES

Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

The cloud is here. Now. ................................................................................................................................ 3

What we do really well. ................................................................................................................................ 3

Market facts & figures .............................................................................................................................. 4

Product Portfolio ........................................................................................................................................... 5

DRaaS ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

Why backup sucks. ................................................................................................................................ 5

ServeRestore Disaster Recovery and Restoration ................................................................................ 6

Disaster recovery competitive analysis................................................................................................. 6

Stacking us up against the competition. ............................................................................................... 7

NEW ExpressRestore Disaster Recovery and Restoration .................................................................... 7

IaaS ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

Four things we do differently than the rest. ......................................................................................... 8

Virtual server competitive analysis ..................................................................................................... 11

Stacking us up against the competition. ............................................................................................. 11

Green Cloud – Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud Options ................................................................... 12

Customizable Options ......................................................................................................................... 13

Common Objections to the Cloud........................................................................................................... 14

Selling .......................................................................................................................................................... 15

The art of selling a new product. ............................................................................................................ 15

The five basics of a good sales call. ..................................................................................................... 15

Our proprietary pathway to the cloud sales strategy. ............................................................................ 18

Pathway to the Cloud Customer Example .......................................................................................... 19

The lifecycle customer that makes you money. ..................................................................................... 20

Creating a compensation plan. ............................................................................................................... 20

Marketing .................................................................................................................................................... 21

Who are you? .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Setting Goals ........................................................................................................................................... 22

Getting Started. ....................................................................................................................................... 22

Lead Generation & Prospecting .............................................................................................................. 22

About Us ..................................................................................................................................................... 26

2

Introduction Thank you for partnering with Green Cloud Technologies! Our priority is your success and our promise to you is simple – we’re here for you. From training to marketing to sales and installation, we are your partner and will be here to assist you every step of the way. And that starts here.

We’ve compiled information on our products, including best practices and processes we highly recommend. So let’s get started! This isn’t your average, boring training manual. It’s short and sweet and to the (cloud) point.

The cloud is here. Now. And it’s simple. If you’re not talking to your clients about the cloud, someone else is. And if they’re talking about cloud, they’re probably talking about the other services you offer as well. This is what we tell partners and potential partners every day. Cloud-based services are being aggressively marketed to end user customers. And because your customers have embraced cloud offerings, like iCloud and Dropbox, there is a prevailing comfort level with the security and efficiencies of cloud-based solutions.

The growing value proposition for hosted infrastructure and disaster recovery services, like powerful replication and impressive recovery times (RTO) has forever disrupted the traditional, on-premise server and backup model. So, you’ve chosen us as a partner (we’re blushing) to deliver these amazing products to your customer base. We think you made a good choice.

What we do really well. Our business is the cloud. It’s all we do. It is not a side business or buzzword for us. We are 100%

dedicated to providing our partners and their clients with cloud solutions that work and with support you thought wasn’t possible.

In the cloud world, our sweet spot is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). And we’ve developed our proprietary “pathway to the cloud” selling methodology you’ll read about later exclusively for our partners.

From our people to our products, we’ve built this company focused on the partner and customer

experience. We offer real people… not snazzy automated interfaces. We have engineers (with names), marketing forces to help you sell your cloud service, and U.S.-based customer service resources that are available – all day, all night.

The bottom line: everything we do is to make you, our partner, successful. In fact, nothing would make us happier. And it starts here.

Let’s do this!

GREEN CLOUD DIFFERENCE

• Real People • 100% Customer Service

Satisfaction • Reliable, secure infrastructure • Repeatable process

3

Market Facts & Figures So, who is in the market for cloud services, anyway? Well, any business that has data. From small shops to companies with hundreds of employees, we serve businesses that have one thing in common: their data is a vital part of their operations.

Our clients span a wide spectrum of industries, from healthcare to legal, from staffing to technology. We have companies that clean office buildings. Companies that provide workplace health clinic services. Companies that sell machining technology. And companies that sell cupcakes.

Market: growth Okay, here come the numbers and the bottom line: the opportunity in the Cloud marketplace is huge and will continue to grow and grow and grow.

DRaaS: The global DRaaS market is estimated to grow from $640.8 million in 2013 to $5.77 billion by 2018. Compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.2% in five years (2013 to 2018).

IaaS: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), including cloud compute, storage and print services, continued as the fastest-growing segment of the market, growing 42.4 percent in 2012 to $6.1 billion and expected to grow 47.3 percent in 2013 to $9 billion. By 2016, total (IaaS) to approach $24 billion.

*Gartner

Market: prospects Characteristics of ideal cloud prospect:

Tired of spending thousands of dollars on hardware or maintenance

Has experienced data loss or CANNOT experience a data loss Has 1-50 servers Often buys software applications or has to upgrade existing

software applications Lack of experienced IT resources or doesn’t want to spend

money on experienced IT Has a backup solution that has never been tested or has no

disaster recovery plan for their servers

Healthcare

Legal

Financial

Software

Manufacturing

Marketing

Retail

Construction

WHO IS IN THE MARKET FOR CLOUD

SERVICES?

4

Product Portfolio Let’s get down to brass tacks. Green Cloud offers two types of cloud solutions - IaaS and DRaaS – as well as certain network services.

DRaaS DR is like backup but WAY better. Before we go on and on about how our product is better, let’s take a step back and look at what your clients may be using and why it might not be effective.

Why backup sucks. This history of backup goes something like this:

Oldest: Tape backup > Older: Disk to disk > Old: Appliances > New: Disaster Recovery

Any business still utilizing old, older and oldest solutions has probably experienced one of the following issues:

1. Extended Recovery Time: Can a business afford to be without a server for 4-10 days? (Retrieve backup: 1-2 Days, Buy new server: 3-4 Days, Rebuild a server: 1-4 Days)

2. Babysitting Backups: When managing backups, what is the percentage of error-reporting you receive from your backups? 1%? 10%? 30%? Out of those errors how many are real or false alarms? Then what?

3. Lack of Testing & Ongoing Monitoring: Has backup been tested? If so, how often? Is backup forgotten (or left at home?)

4. High Capital Expenditures: Hardware is expensive. And on top of that you have to buy replacement hardware when the time comes.

5. It’s Not Disaster-proof: If backup is located on premise and the building is destroyed by a disaster, recovery is not an option.

6. No Migration to the Cloud: If your business or your client’s business plans to move to the cloud in the future, backup – even most cloud backup – provides no migration to the cloud permanently.

DRaaS

•ServeRestore•ExpressRestore

IaaS

•Private Cloud•Hybrid/Public

Cloud

Network Services

•MPLS•Bandwidth

53% of the organizations surveyed revealed they do not conduct daily backups

_______

32% of IT administrators surveyed revealed their organizations do not test their backups

_______

32% of respondents say maintaining backups is not an efficient use of their time

THE TRUTH ABOUT BACKUP

5

ServeRestore Disaster Recovery and Restoration: Our DR solution is unlike any on the market today. It’s chock-full of bonuses that other solutions (tape, BDR, cloud backup, etc.) just can’t provide. We call it human restoration vs “plug and pray” (that it works).

• Recovery time in as little as 4 hours (access & consume) • Full server backup AND recovery in the cloud • Expert tested recovery with mock restoral– and you can take it for a spin • Documented disaster recovery processes if disaster strikes • Hands-on customer experience • Standard 4 Hour Recovery Time Objective SLA • iMeet virtual meeting room • Automatic daily backup • Low upfront capital expenditures • No charge for incremental backup

For clients looking to migrate to the cloud, our DR solution provides a stepping stone to do just that. Other providers will restore a business on a backup device temporarily and the business must go buy another server. As you can see, even though our technology is superior to hardware, tapes, etc., we are competitively priced.

Disaster Recovery Competitive Analysis

EX. Green Cloud vs. BDR appliance: Pros and cons and cost over three year period.

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Stacking us up against the competition. Comparing our solutions to other solution provider’s products can be a pretty tedious process. Trust us, we’ve done it. Bottom line is this. Some companies provide beautiful, sophisticated web portals and that’s a great tool. But we believe people are better. We provide a team of engineers with hundreds of years of experience (seriously) to oversee each customer’s environment and monitor it for potentially disastrous situations. If a disaster strikes, that same team will be there to assist in the recovery. And that includes constant communication from our team of engineers based right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. That’s what we do differently (since obviously a web portal can’t do THAT.)

NEW ExpressRestore Disaster Recovery and Restoration: The newest product in our arsenal is an accelerated recovery solution for existing virtual environments. This solution provides businesses with the ability to replicate with or without cloud recovery in as little as 15 minutes.

With production class replication targets, NetApp Filers or Tintri VMStore™, ExpressRestore provides:

• NetApp SAN-to-SAN Replication • Tintri SAN-to-SAN Replication • Zerto Hypervisor Level Replication

The target market for this product is mostly larger enterprises that would typically have a full team of in-house technology resources. Whereas ServeRestore would be a good fit for the majority of SME’s, ExpressRestore is a great solution for the smaller niche market of larger enterprises.

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IaaS There are a lot of IaaS solution providers. We mean A LOT. You have your options, so what do we offer you that’s different than all the rest? Well, a few things.

Four things we do differently than the rest. Like every product ever created, there are cost components of the cloud. The primary components that make up the pricing are: CPU, RAM, Storage, Bandwidth, and Support. Other providers like to combine these components into a nice little package and charge you for things you may or may not need. Recall the days when you had 10,000 minutes on your cell phone plan? Yea, that’s what we’re talking about here.

Difference #1 – Bandwidth charges. (This is a biggy.) All the big players work in a similar manner. They let you move as much data as you wish into their cloud servers (incoming) , but when it comes to pulling data out, it's on your dime after a certain threshold (charges called outgoing explained below).

By comparison, Green Cloud offers two options:

1. Up to 3TB of bandwidth, INCOMING and OUTGOING with every virtual server. This is an average of $500 of outgoing fees for other providers.

2. The option to have unlimited bandwidth based on port speeds. This is not an option with some providers.

www.rackspace.com

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Difference #2 – Excessive CPUs. CPU is the hardware within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program. VMware, the industry experts, says best practice is to allocate 1 vCPU to a virtual machine and then do performance testing to ensure that CPU utilization in Windows is acceptable under load. If you have a VM that needs more, add another vCPU and test your VM again.

Oddly, some providers disregard this and offer packages that provide more CPU than a server needs. Example:

Green Cloud follows VMware’s best practices and only includes vCPUs you request or need to maximize the performance of your server.

www.singlehop.com

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Difference #3 – Tying RAM to CPUs. This is a little sneaky. So, RAM is computer data storage. Other providers are jacking up the number of vCPUs based on the RAM you need. Again, this is not a good practice. Cloud buyers should look at this example of how targeting a specific amount of RAM (24GB) can force you to purchase more CPU than is needed. The table below compares some pre-packaged and independently configurable VMs available with a minimum of 24GB of RAM.

Green Cloud allows a customer to customize vCPUS and RAM to maximize the performance of the server while not paying for a bunch of extras that are not needed.

Difference #4 – Customer Support Charges. So, remember how we talked about our hands-on engineers that manage our DR solution? Well, our engineers and customer support team also work with our IaaS solutions to ensure each environment located in our infrastructure is operational at all times. Other providers charge for this type of support. Green Cloud provides it at no additional cost.

*www.amazon.com

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All cloud providers price their products differently so it’s important to understand what’s included and what’s not. At Green Cloud, we don’t do “smoke and mirrors”. Our products are customizable so you get a product that fits your needs and our pricing structure allows you to only pay for what you use. Truly.

Virtual Server Comparison Recap Green Cloud Virtual Servers

• Customizable CPUs, RAM and Storage options

• Free sales support • Free, on-time U.S. based customer

service with current 100% satisfaction rating

• Free technical guidance • 3 TB of bandwidth included

Other Providers

• Package deals so you may pay for something you don’t need.

• Little to no sales support • Limited customer support • No technical support or expertise • Limited bandwidth • No firewall protection included • Proprietary technology making

migrating very difficult

Virtual Server Competitive Analysis

Stacking us up against the competition. There are literally a bazillion (yes, bazillion) different ways to compare products and pricing. If you’re stacking us up against another solution provider we just ask you to do one thing. Start peeling back the onion. We think you’ll find that our product provides the bang (and support) for the buck. It’s kind of like a boutique service without the boutique price tag. And if that’s what your client is looking for, then we are probably a pretty good fit. Now, let’s talk about the customizable options our virtual server

product provides.

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Green Cloud – Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud Options PUBLIC: Green Cloud’s public cloud offers the greatest level of efficiency in shared resources as well as more bang for the buck. Utilizing VMware’s virtualization software, we create top-notch virtual machines that have assigned storage, CPU, memory, network bandwidth, using NetApp filers and powered by Cisco servers. High availability, performance and security make this the obvious choice for most SMEs.

PRIVATE: Green Cloud’s private cloud services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network. These clouds offer the greatest level of security and control, but they require the company to still purchase and maintain all the software and infrastructure, which reduces the cost savings. The private cloud is designed for larger organizations that rely heavily on data and applications or must conform to internal or industry specific regulations and audits.

HYBRID: Green Cloud provides the option to use a hybrid approach with both our public and private cloud offerings based on the varied needs of your customers. By spreading things out over a hybrid cloud, you keep each aspect at your business in the most efficient environment possible.

For example, your client offers services that are tailored for different vertical markets. They could use a public cloud to interact with the clients but keep their data secured within a private cloud.

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Customizable Options In addition to offering public, private and hybrid cloud options, Green Cloud also offers different types of storage and backup options enabling your clients to optimize and prioritize their environments and get the most bang for their buck.

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Common Objections to the Cloud As with any product, especially one in a newer product category, there are going to be customer objections. The Cloud is no different. The good news is that if a client is talking through their concerns with you, they are obviously interested in what you are selling. Otherwise, why would they waste their time?

Security Data breaches, data loss, information hijacking. That is the world we live in today. This makes securing critical business data more important than ever. And security is something Green Cloud takes very, very seriously. Our datacenters adhere to strict SSAE16 SOC 1 Type II auditing standards, require card and biometric access, and employ video monitoring and network operations center (NOC) management and staffing 24x7x365.

Green Cloud is forthright and transparent on the topic of security. We welcome any questions regarding policies and procedures. And you can find more about our security and protection policies here.

Bandwidth costs It’s a necessity to supply Cloud services and it’s not cheap. Cost of bandwidth has been a major concern to some businesses looking to move their infrastructure to the cloud. The good news is, “technology and infrastructure expansion have led to bandwidth prices at record lows, down over three-fold in the past five years.” (Forbes)

Trending like this, bandwidth costs should only be a temporary concern, if at all.

When the cloud may not be a good fit. This may sound like crazy talk, but the cloud may not be a good fit for your clients. Here are some common limitations.

• Shaky access to bandwidth. In some areas, access to bandwidth may be limited at best. DSL or other low connectivity options are not a good fit for cloud services.

• Applications that stream a prohibitive amount of data. Applications, such as AutoCAD, are not typically a good fit for cloud services.

• Proprietary applications that are not compatible to run in a virtualized VMware environment.

There may be other circumstances that warrant further review so our sales engineers and operations team are always available to determine if your client is a good fit for cloud services.

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Selling This is our favorite part (and probably yours too). At Green Cloud, we’ve spent countless hours refining our proprietary sales strategy and philosophy and recommended processes to pass only the best information along to you.

If you’ve talked with us, you’ve probably heard some of this. It is our tried and true approach to selling cloud services. And here’s an inside secret, we may have recruited you to sell our services using the exact approach we describe here. Pretty convincing, huh?

So, first, let’s breeze through the basics.

The art of selling a new product. When redefining or creating a new product, the art of marketing and selling is different. In many cases, your primary role will be this: to sell your client something they didn’t even know they needed or wanted.

One of the most common questions we get is “who are your main competitors?” At this very moment, as this is being written, our primary competition is the status quo. Unless your client has experienced a specific pain point (i.e. a complete and total data loss), most folks are pretty much okay with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” tune.

The five basics of a good sales call. #1 - Make sure you’re talking to the right person at the right time. Any good sales call will start with a qualified lead. There are different models sales teams use and unfortunately, the most common model is RANDUM: Rarely Any Need, Decision, Urgency or Money.

What we’ve found effective is a model called ANUM: Authority, Need, Urgency and Money. It’s important to start with the authority and move to need – if you build the need you’ll have urgency and money following quickly after. But if you don’t want to take our word for it that ANUM is the best way, then by all means test it for yourself.

IF I HAD ASKED PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANTED, THEY WOULD HAVE SAID FASTER HORSES."

–HENRY FORD

A = Authority. When you are talking to the decision maker, make sure to make note of what their title and function is so you can align their needs with your product. N = Need. Make sure to find lists of companies in the target industry you’re seeking and their size. U = Urgency. Keep up with companies and their latest news releases. If a sales rep is sensitive to the urgencies of companies it can seriously help the sales process M = Money. Know where the money is. If a company is growing, recently announced a round of funding, or are older, more established companies then they have the funds. www.insidesales.com

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#2 - Be genuinely curious. Too often, sales folks do what we call “show up and throw up.” I mean, you’re excited about this new solution so everyone should be, right? Wrong. In order to identify pain points, you should be genuinely curious. This means you must ask good questions.

• What are you currently doing to back up your servers? • What Disaster plan do you have in place to recover your data on your servers? • How are you testing your backup and disaster plans? How often? • What is the recovery time of your existing back up and DR plan? • How much money would you lose if you could not access your servers for an hour? Day?

And, you’re going to think we’re off our rockers, but the cloud may not be a good fit for them. And, if it’s not, it’s okay to walk away. Have you ever heard the saying “some will, some won’t, so what, who’s next”?

#3 - Suggest simple solutions. We’re all about simplicity. Even though we’re talking about highly technical products it’s best to avoid presenting multiple, complicated solutions. Stick to presenting 2-3 options in a good, better, best format.

#4 - Don’t leave without a next step. The future must be clear. If you’ve gotten this far, this is something you do not want to forget. You must have the next step. Here are some things you should do:

• Reinforce urgency. • Ensure you are on the same page. • Quantify pain. • Schedule next conversation.

#5 - Don’t complicate it. One of the most common misconceptions about selling technical services is that you have to be an engineer. We often heard:

“I need to be able to talk about every technical detail to sell these highly technical products.” OR

“The cloud is this whole new thing that I know nothing about.” OR

“The customer expects me to be an expert.”

This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can sell cloud services without being an engineer. What is essential is understanding the customer mind set.

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Avoiding the technical quiz trap. It happens to all of us. The conversation is flowing, we feel excited about the next step, and then someone has to start poking questions at us like we are Wikipedia.

This is especially true in the world of technology where everyone is trying to be the next Steve Jobs. So, here are some tips on addressing the technical aspects of cloud technology that you may not be as well-versed in.

TIP: Change the conversation to the relevant one

Don’t be afraid to be honest and admit you don’t know but you will find out.

Show the risk of inaction is greater than the risk of the cloud solution.

Compare and contrast the positives of Green Cloud’s solutions with their current environment. Turn their fears back on their current situation.

“That’s a great question, and I’ll get you an answer for that but… “

TIP: Focus on the solution aspect, the people aspect

Most solutions we have for their problems are iterative. You aren’t selling a product, you are selling a solution. This

provides a trust building aspect as you move them forward. Focus on how both you and Green Cloud build and provide a

solution over time. We don’t have to answer it all today. Sell to their comfort level and move them through the lifecycle.

Examples

Question: “How are your data centers protected against data theft?” “What certifications do these data centers have?” “How redundant is the network infrastructure?”

Answer: “These are world class data centers, and I will be glad to get you specifics on that, but since you asked are you completely comfortable with that in your current environment?”

Question: “What is the average CPU ready time in the VMWare environment? How have their engineers gotten past the CPU right-sizing problem?”

Answer: “Wow! That’s definitely above my pay grade, but I can absolutely find out. Given that question let me ask you this, if you are concerned

Customers are afraid of change or of the unknown. Their “technical” questions are often just an expression of that fear. What they want is a solution with limited or no risk.

You don’t need to try to be a cloud expert. Many times the questions they ask are “technical quizzes” to see not what you know, but to see if they can trust you.

______

Ultimately, the only way to make them comfortable and gain the trust needed is by listening to them, then showing them what we can do.

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

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about Green Cloud’s technical prowess, why don’t we focus on a plan for backing your systems up while you learn more about them by actually using their services?”

Question: “How do I know if I have enough bandwidth?” or “How do you know that application X will work in the cloud?”

Answer: “That’s an excellent question. The answer is we won’t truly know until we try. That’s the beauty of Green Cloud’s DR solution and why I sell it. Your specific environment gets installed, tested, and based on the results we can create a plan of how to use what you have and move towards running in the cloud. Regardless of the results we are backing you up in a managed reliable way offsite, and as a bonus once we have solved this for DR, we’ve solved it for migrating to the cloud and the risk to your day to day is minimal.”

Our proprietary pathway to the cloud sales strategy. For those new to selling cloud services or for those with clients who are not necessarily considered “early adopters”, listen to this. There is a way to sell a “baby step” to the cloud. Some call it “dipping your toes” in the cloud water before taking the big plunge (cannonball). We call it the “Pathway to the Cloud” and it goes like this.

When you start making sales calls, you’ll likely find that many companies already have infrastructure in place and they’re not exactly ready to throw it in the dumpster. They will also realize the value proposition of cloud solutions but may not have a strategy to get there. So, we propose providing disaster recovery service on all of the existing infrastructure. That way, when something fails (which it will), the customer can be recovered quickly in the Green Cloud virtualized environment.

What happens next? The customer is allowed to remain on Green Cloud’s virtual server for 14 business days while they decide if they would like to continue to use a virtual machine or rebuild the infrastructure. To date, 100% of our customers have chosen to remain in the cloud.

This is what we call building a lifecycle customer.

REMAINVirtual Server

Customer

RECOVER on Virtual Machine

DISASTER(hardware

failure, disaster, etc)

PURCHASE DR

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Mepkin Abbey is a community of Roman Catholic monks established in 1949 on the site of the historic Mepkin Plantation located on the Cooper River, north of Charleston, South Carolina. Founded by the monks of Gethsemani in Kentucky, the brothers of Mepkin belong to the worldwide Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance popularly known as Trappist. Following The Rule of St. Benedict, the monks at Mepkin Abbey devote their lives to prayer, spiritual study, work and hospitality. CHALLENGE Mepkin Abbey had three network servers that were more than nine years old and “on their last leg”. Utilizing a tape backup system that frequently failed, Mepkin Abbey experienced a strain on resources allocated to manage backups. And, like many organizations, they needed a disaster recovery solution to continue to run these critical applications in the event of a server failure. After researching different solutions, Mepkin Abbey’s IT provider, Brian Heffner of Enterprise Technologies, recommended Green Cloud. SOLUTION Understanding Mepkin Abbey’s need for a more efficient data backup and recovery plan, Green Cloud recommended a disaster recovery and restoration solution. This solution provides a full restoration of Mepkin Abbey’s servers and operating environment located in the cloud in as little as four hours. With Green Cloud’s reliability and rapid recovery time, Mepkin Abbey found exactly what they were looking for – fast, reliable server restoration and backup. They also found something they hadn’t considered - a server restoration and business continuity plan that Green Cloud provided at no additional cost. “The business continuity plan Green Cloud provides with their services is outstanding,” says Heffner. “This document is very valuable in preparing for the disaster BEFORE it happens.” And disaster did strike. Within three months of deploying Green Cloud’s disaster recovery solution, a rather unusual ice storm and subsequent power outage hit the area causing one of the monastery’s physical servers to crash. Green Cloud was notified and immediately started recovering the server and configuring it to run within Green Cloud’s virtualized environment. Mepkin Abbey was fully restored and back in business in about 3.5 hours. Green Cloud’s disaster recovery solution provides 14 days of the virtualized server environment at no additional costs. During this time, the client can choose to purchase and rebuild a physical server or remain in a virtualized server environment. Mepkin Abbey decided not to replace the physical onsite server but rather keep this server in the cloud permanently.

Pathway to the Cloud Customer Example So, we’ve told you how it works, now let us show you a real-life customer example. Our partner’s client, Mepkin Abbey, a monastery located in Charleston, SC purchased our DR solution for some aging servers and months later experienced a disaster. And to answer that burning question: yes, even monks have critical data.

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The lifecycle customer that makes you money. So, now that you’ve seen this example, the next important concept of the lifecycle customer is this: data is a growing beast. Though ideally it can expand AND contract, mostly it just expands and grows and grows and grows. I mean, how often do you delete files from your own PC or laptop? Like squirrels, businesses hoard data (their nuts) for the “just in case” scenario. Some of this may be regulatory requirements but the bottom line is this – data grows and with it your commission grows.

Here is an example:

Just over two years ago, Green Cloud provisioned a 500GB virtual server for Virtual Image Technology (VIT), a leader in document management solutions. (Read full testimonial here). Today, VIT has two virtual servers with more than 3.5 TB of storage. This is what that would look like if VIT were your customer.

Then Now Virtual Machine Storage 500GB 3.5TB Sale $600/month $1750/month Commissions Calculate Calculate

And, with the most recent addition in storage, VIT signed a new three-year contract. For sales, this is gravy. Aside from the proposal, there is nothing you have to do and your commissions continue to increase over time.

Lifecycle customers are sticky. Really sticky. If they are happy with their virtual environment and the service they receive, they will be with you for the long haul. And it’s important for you to understand that what starts out small will continue to grow. Compared with telecom write downs that some of you may have experienced, the future is bright (cha-ching) with selling cloud services.

Creating a compensation plan. Having a compensation plan for your sales reps is imperative if you are looking to build a cloud practice. Typical compensation plans should carry a percentage of the upfront commission based on monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Many of our partners have also included a small back end residual for their sales reps (typically 1-2%) that helps build tenure and sales rep loyalty.

For example:

Compensation Plan A

Upfront commission = 45% of monthly recurring revenue

Residual commission = 1.5% of total billed revenue

So, as the rep sells more and more customers, their residual is steadily getting larger and larger.

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Marketing So, we’ve talked about how to run a sales call. But how do you even find those qualified prospects? We have a detailed step-by-step guide we (happily) share with our partners to make your cloud marketing dreams a reality. But, if you lack resources (or interest), Green Cloud also offers complete marketing design and implementation services. If you’re interested in our services, check out our marketing menu. If you’re a DIYer, here are some of our suggestions on tapping into your base and turning them into new customers again.

Who are you? One of the most critical steps to marketing starts before you even begin. It’s often overlooked. But knowing who you are, how you communicate and who your ideal buyer is will go a long way in the success of your marketing campaign. Here’s a good way to get started.

ANSWER

WHO: Buyer Persona. Who is this person? What problems does this buyer have?

WHAT: Problems you solve for this buyer.

Why are they/would they buy from you? Do they know you offer cloud services?

WHY: How are you remarkable?

What value do you bring? Do you have proof… credibility indicators, testimonials, etc?

WHERE: Where are they? Offline, online? Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc?

HOW: Your company personality.

What kind of company are you?

Creative/design. How does your company look and feel? Does it accurately represent the services you offer? High tech? Traditional?

Tonality Language you’d use. Formal? Casual? Technical?

Keyword Phrases What words are buyers typing into search engines to find your services?

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Setting Goals Knowing what you’re looking to get from your marketing is the next step. Here are some examples:

Participate: Sign up for an email list “Like” on Facebook Follow on Twitter Register for a webinar Purchase: Propose Buy Renew

Getting Started. The key to getting started. Just do it. Divide your initiatives up into things you can do today and do them. Today, you may be able to create a twitter account. Tomorrow you may be able to create and send out a new email campaign.

Things you can do today. Things you can do next week.

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4.

5.

Lead Generation & Prospecting Ever heard the term “method to the madness”? Well, there is a pretty simple process we suggest using to market to and qualify cloud prospects. And it goes like this.

Download: Webinar White paper/Case study/Testimonial Toolkit

Inquire: Forms Questionnaires Applications

EventEmail 3

Follow up call

Email 2

Follow up call

Email1

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We highly recommend starting with a personalized email, then follow-up with a phone call. Repeating this process, often referred to as a “drip campaign”, will allow you to further qualify prospects so by the time you engage in an event (i.e. webinar, lunch and learn, happy hour) you should be talking to the right people interested in cloud solutions.

A Sample Marketing Campaign It’s up to you how many prospects you want to try to engage in your campaign. The science behind this technique says that if you have 200 prospects you engage over the course of a campaign, you will get about 70% to respond either positively or negatively. Of those you will typically set about 10 meetings.

So, if you have limited resources, you may want to start small. Instead of sending to the entire list of 200, you may want to start with 50 or 75. You can make it as big or as small as you want, just remember you must follow up.

NOTE: You will want to use an email management system that allows you to track opens and click through rates (CTR). In addition, you will want to use one that allows your users to opt-out if that is what they prefer. It’s the law, so better to be safe than sorry.

Mailchimp.com offers a great system and offers a number of free options and reporting.

Step One - First Email The first email should be short and customized.

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Step Two - First Phone Call Take a look at the email opens and responses and choose 10-15 to start following up with via telephone.

Script:

Step Three – Second Email At this point you should filter out a prospect or client who has responded.

Step Three – Second Phone Call Again, take a look at the response from both round 1 and round 2 and choose 10-15 to call.

Script:

Step Four – Third Email (the invitation email) The purpose of this email and subsequent event is education. Depending on your resources and budget you could choose to do one of the following: webinar, lunch & learn, or happy hour & learn (very popular).

Once you determine the type of event, you can decide if you want to send it out to your entire contact list or just those you feel are more qualified than the rest. It’s completely up to you. As with baby and wedding showers, you can typically expect about 30-35% will attend.

Hi Joy, this is <your name> calling from <business name> did I catch you at a bad time?

Well I sent you an email the other day and it’s probably in your spam folder or you didn’t have a chance to look at it. Do you mind if I take 30 seconds, tell you why I’m calling, and you tell me if this may be worth your time?

Hi Joy, this is <your name> calling from <business name> did I catch you at a bad time?

I left a message the other day but I just wanted to check in one last time. Do you mind if I take 30 seconds, tell you why I’m calling, and you tell me if this may be worth your time?

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Step 5 – The Event Once you determine what type of event you are going to hold, an event planner can help you coordinate the details.

Green Cloud offers event speakers and assistance so contact us to learn more.

The event should be educational. Attendees do not want to hear a heavy sales push, they want to learn about the service and, generally, they want to hear how “easy” it is.

The attendees of your event should be considered qualified leads.

The Extra Step The reality is the business world changes every 90 days. What may not have been a good fit in January may be top of mind in April. And, if it does, you want to be one they call.

To do this you want to sort your contact by the date of last contact and response of last contact. Then, start following up!

SCRIPT:

Hi Joy, this is <your name> calling from <business name> . How are you?

Good, I just wanted to check in and share a story that reminded me of you. You may have heard of XYZ business… they’re a client of mine. The recently had a terrible storm and their server crashed… luckily they had the business continuity solution I talked with you about. Do you think it might be a good time to revisit this for your business?

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Happy Selling! We hope you found this guide helpful (or at least not as boring as you originally thought). Just remember, this is one resource to assist you in your successful cloud business. We are here for one-on-one or group trainings, customer events, marketing assistance, you name it (as long as it’s legal).

We’ll leave you with a few facts about our company (since we didn’t want to stuff it down your throat earlier).

About Us Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Green Cloud Technologies is a Cloud solutions provider dedicated to providing channel partners and dealers with turnkey Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions. With channel-only distribution, Green Cloud enables value-added resellers, managed service providers, and telephony providers to market an expanding portfolio of virtual server, server restoration and recovery solutions. Led by a team of industry veterans that helped found NuVox Communications, Green Cloud operates world-class data center facilities with industry-leading technology platforms, including VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO). More information may be found at www.gogreencloud.com.

• Partner/Channel ONLY • Financially strong with over 12 million dollars in funding • Experienced leadership and working Relationships from companies like CTG and Windstream

(Nuvox) • Easy-to-sell Product Portfolio • Competitive commission structure

Founded: 2011

Headquarters: Greenville, SC

Regional Offices: 4

Charleston, SC Nashville, TN Jacksonville, FL Baton Rouge, LA

Leadership

Charles S. Houser, Chairman

Shay Houser, CEO

Dan Sterling, President

Keith Coker, CTO

Charles L. Houser, SVP Marketing

Eric Hester, VP Engineering

Partner Contacts

Partner Support & Commissions: General Sales & Escalations: Marketing: Janis Johnson Stephen Rieck Whitney Evans janis@gogreencloud.com stephen@gogreencloud.com whitney@gogreencloud.com 864.551.4251 904.236.6927 864.551.4256

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