Dropbox Recruiting MSPs With Deal On ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’

‘We can take a look at your entire customer base and run a query on all those accounts and see who is using Dropbox Business already, and if they are, we can flip that business your way and you can get paid on the business that they’re already paying for,’ Zach Evans, partner account manager, tells MSPs at XChange 2019.

Dropbox Business represents a sales opportunity around storage, business collaboration and security as well as integration that makes it easy to build into existing networks, but the company is now offering to help MSPs turn existing end-user accounts into recurring revenue.

The cloud storage juggernaut is wooing MSPs by offering to help them identify which of their existing customers are using the paid version of Dropbox and then turning those accounts into recurring revenue for them .

“We can take a look at your entire customer base and run a query on all those accounts and see who is using Dropbox Business already, and if they are, we can flip that business your way and you can get paid on the business that they’re already paying for,” Zach Evans, partner account manager with Dropbox, told MSPs at XChange 2019, hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company. “We’re really big on low-hanging fruit at Dropbox. I want to dangle the carrot of what we have to offer.”

Even skeptical MSPs were excited by the offer.

“My first question was why would someone go for Dropbox since you have other services by Microsoft and iCloud? Then when I saw all the differences and the options that they have and the integrations, it’s like having [something] extra [added] to what you already have, and that’s what I love,” Miguel Moreno, president of Alfa Logos, an MSP in Quebec, told CRN. “It was eye-opening.”

As a Dropbox partner, an MSP gets five Dropbox Business Advanced licenses that give it unlimited storage and all the features of the company’s flagship product for use in their business, according to Evans. Via the Dropbox partner portal, MSPs have access to training and resources and can manage their customers’ accounts.

“Would you rather these people have 40 individual basic accounts that are all independently managed by each one of them, or would you rather have one team that consists of 40 individuals and you have full visibility and line of sight and management capabilities over how and what and when they’re consuming the Dropbox technology?” Evans said. “That’s the high-level reason why you would want Dropbox Business over Dropbox Basic.”

Greg Mayer, owner of One Click Fix, an MSP in Ashville, N.C., said while the offer to convert customers’ accounts into recurring payments is a winner for his business, he likes that Dropbox is interested in working with MSPs of all sizes, regardless of specialty.

“It was also evident during the speech that they’re prepared to work with every format. No matter who you bring to the table,” he said. “I have no specific vertical markets. Dropbox is the one thing that everyone has heard of and everyone understands. No matter what my clients bring to the table, Dropbox could solve some issues for them. “

Mayer said the advantage of Dropbox is that end users are already familiar with the product, but even though many of them have only used the free version, the brand represents quality and ease of use,, which creates an upselling opportunity.

“Dropbox has always pushed that they have better models for business users, so they’ve never gotten stuck in this [lower-end] grouping,” Mayer said. “Zach really tied it up when he said, ‘Become a Dropbox reseller and you can sell Dropbox to the people who need it to apply it to these solutions.’”