Perhaps even more challenging than keeping customers and prospects engaged throughout a long sales cycle is riding the wave of an unpredictable one. Such is the ever-present challenge faced by Rackmount Solutions, an industry leader in supplying custom server racks, cabinets, cases and accessory products for the IT/network professional.

“There is no rhyme or reason to the sales cycle,” explains Deborah Petty, Rackmount Solutions’ president. “It is truly one of the great challenges we face in this industry with the heavy Web presence we have. A $100,000 order may come in, completely unexpected, one phone call, order, pay, ship. Another quote may take up to two years as we work with the end user on his configuration, layout, budget, rework over and over as his plans change. It boggles my mind sometimes and makes ‘planned growth’ for our company a real challenge.”

Controlling the spin
Although little can be done to control the business’s erratic sales cycle, how Rackmount Solutions engages its target audiences throughout the cycle is something the company takes great pride in strategically managing. In January 2010, Rackmount Solutions launched its quarterly email newsletter and called upon the Proven Systems team to manage all aspects of the newsletter. It was a calculated decision to educate and inform rather than sell to the company’s customers and prospects.

“Everybody expects sales spin,” explains Petty. “Most don’t really trust it. Our customers can trust us to do what we say and that our products do what we say they do. So I want them to gain real value from our newsletter that is not just based on our product offering. The benefit to my customer is that as he reads articles that make sense for him and his business, he will trust that our products make sense for his business as well. And that we operate with his best interest in mind.”

Partnering for success
The desire to stay in front of its customers in a positive, informative way drove the decision to launch the Rackmount Solutions newsletter. Wanting to make a professional impression on customers through quality design, content, navigation and list maintenance prompted the decision to outsource the newsletter to Proven Systems.

Explains Petty: “I don’t have anyone on my staff who has the time or expertise to produce a newsletter. Just throwing together words does not make for a successful newsletter. A proven team of professionals can do that a whole lot better than we can. Managing our customer list is another big area. We don’t have time to cull, revise and re-sort the thousands of names on our mailing list.”

After researching Proven Systems, its team and its menu of services, Petty felt confident that Rackmount Solutions had found a trustworthy partner to produce its newsletter.

“Proven Systems is unbelievably easy to work with,” she states. “After the first two issues, they [Proven Systems] knew more about what I want in the newsletter, as far as content, than I do. Sometimes the ‘creative’ companies are very hard to work with. It’s really nice not to have to fight to get the type of copy and articles I want.”