Sales

This content covers the business and commercial aspects of running a storage provider business.

Running a storage provider business is not just about having technical expertise and providing storage services. It is also about building and maintaining relationships with clients, negotiating contracts, and managing finances effectively. A storage provider must be able to communicate the value of their services to potential clients, as well as ensure that current clients are satisfied and receive the support they need.

Sales skills are important for storage providers to differentiate themselves from the competition, market their services effectively, and attract new customers. This requires an understanding of the market, the needs of potential clients, and how to tailor their services to meet those needs. Storage providers should also be able to identify opportunities for growth and expansion, and have a strategy in place for pursuing those opportunities.

In addition to sales skills, financial management skills are also crucial for running a successful storage provider business. This includes budgeting, forecasting, and managing cash flow effectively. It is important for storage providers to understand the costs associated with providing their services, and to price their services appropriately in order to generate revenue and cover their expenses.

Overall, sales skills are essential for storage providers to succeed in a competitive market. By combining technical expertise with strong business and commercial skills, storage providers can build a successful and sustainable business.

Business aspects

Running a storage provider business involves several business aspects that require careful attention to ensure long-term success. The first and most obvious aspect is investment in hardware and FIL as collateral. Hardware is the backbone of any storage provider’s business, and ensuring that you have the right equipment to provide reliable and high-performance storage is critical. Additionally, FIL is the primary currency used within the Filecoin network, and as a storage provider, you need to ensure that you have a sufficient amount of FIL as collateral to cover your storage deals.

As your business grows, the amount of hardware and FIL needed will increase, and it is important to have a clear plan for scaling your business. This involves not only investing in additional hardware and FIL but also managing operational costs such as electricity, cooling, and maintenance. Having a skilled business team that can manage and plan for these costs is essential.

Another important aspect of running a storage provider business is managing your relationships with investors, venture capitalists, and banks. These organizations can provide much-needed funding to help grow your business, but they will only invest if they are confident in your ability to manage your business effectively. This means having a strong business plan, a skilled team, and a clear strategy for growth.

In summary, the business aspects of running a storage provider business are critical to its success. This involves managing investments in hardware and FIL, planning for scalability and managing operational costs, and building strong relationships with investors, venture capitalists, and banks.

Commercial aspects

A storage provider needs to get storage deals to grow his network power and to earn money. There are at least 2 ways to get storage deals, each one requiring specific sales skills.

• Obtaining data replicas from other storage providers and programs:

  Filecoin data programs specify the minimum amount of replicas for a deal. Programs like Slingshot and platforms like Estuary require a minimum of 6 replicas per deal. This means deals need to be stored across multiple storage providers in the ecosystem, so you can work with peers in the network to share clients’ data replicas.

  Working in the ecosystem and building connections with other storage providers takes time and effort, and is essentially a sales activity.

• Onboarding your own customers:

Acquiring your own customers, and bringing their data onto the Filecoin network, requires business development skills and people on your team who actively work with data owners (customers) to educate them about the advantages of decentralized storage.

It takes additional effort to work with customers and their data, but it has the additional advantage of being able to charge your customer for the data being stored. This means an additional revenue stream compared to only storing copies of deals, and earning block rewards.