What most companies get wrong about lead generation
Vendors generally treat leads like lottery tickets. Win or lose. Convert or move on. The moment a deal goes cold, the relationship dies with it.
Hitachi Vantara could have done the same. In late 2013, they received a $50,000 enterprise storage lead from Leads on Demand (our agency before TechnologyMatch). The prospect, Jamaica Hospital in New York City, evaluated the solution, considered the fit, and ultimately chose EMC. Deal closed-lost. Case closed.
Except it wasn't.
What happened next turned a modest, forgettable opportunity into one of Hitachi's most valuable decade-long partnerships, generating $7 million annually and $12-15 million total over ten years, not including the additional accounts it helped unlock.
Not through aggressive follow-up. Not through discounting. Through something simpler and far more powerful: service before the sale.
The partnership that didn't happen(at first)
When Brenda Stephanopoulos generated the initial lead, it looked ordinary. Just another $50K storage deal in a crowded field. A New York City hospital running Epic for its electronic health records, an EMC shop facing constant storage failures, limited capacity, and tight budgets.
Dan Ross, then National Partner Manager at Hitachi, took the call. They walked the prospect through the solution, ran a data flow analysis, and made their case. But when decision time came, the hospital's VP of Infrastructure went with EMC.
Most sales reps would have marked it closed-lost and moved on. Dan didn't.
Instead, he picked up the phone, not to re-pitch, but to ask why. He listened. He learned. He found out that the hospital’s real challenges extended far beyond that one transaction.
"EMC gave them a sweetheart deal and they told me to 'stay in touch and maybe, you know, we'll do something later'." - Dan Ross, Partner Manager, Hitachi Vantara
Building trust when there's nothing to gain
Jamaica Hospital was financially challenged. They were having multiple system failures. Their Epic health record system (the one running pretty much everything) was running out of storage space. EMC's solution was extraordinarily expensive, and the problems weren't going away.
So, Dan made an offer: a no-cost assessment. Current state, desired state, and a clear roadmap showing what was at risk. No sales pitch. No obligation. Just an honest snapshot of their environment with a red-yellow-green risk analysis.
“We couldn’t have done it without you. We had no luck getting in. The CFO wouldn’t see anybody, the CIO took no vendor calls. That lead opened the door,” said Dan. “You prepared me. I took a step back and followed your guide.”
The VP agreed. Hitachi spent 2-3 days doing a complete data scrub. Analyzing every application, every data flow, every potential failure point. Then they delivered a comprehensive view of where they were exposed, what could go down, and what the business impact would be if it did.
So, when the next buying opportunity came up—one that did fit Hitachi's strengths—the customer didn't run an RFP from five different vendors. They called Dan.
Because trust shortens sales cycles. And service earns trust faster than any pitch ever will.
What a decade of trust looks like in numbers
The initial deal in 2013-2014 was $3 million, structured as a financial lease because the hospital had no money and very bad credit. The following year, they added another $2.5 million.
Within 12 months, that "lost" $50K opportunity had turned into $7 million in closed business.
From 2013 to 2024, Jamaica Hospital became one of Hitachi Vantara's cornerstone accounts:
- $7-8 million in annual revenue at peak
- $12-15 million total over the ten-year partnership
- Last refresh in 2023: $1.5 million
- Account still active today as a long-term strategic partner
“Over ten years, it’s still a live account. We just did our last refresh for one and a half million. You couldn’t ask for a better lead,” said Dan.
Every 2–3 years, the hospital refreshed or expanded its infrastructure, choosing Hitachi every time. Competing vendors like NetApp, EMC, and PureStorage tried to break in, but each time, the hospital remembered Hitachi for “showing up” when it mattered.
But the story doesn't end there.
Jamaica Hospital became the reference that unlocked three to four other major healthcare accounts:
- Montefiore Hospital in New York
- Penn Medicine in Philadelphia
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- Major facilities in Washington, DC
“Over the course of ten years now, it’s probably a $12-15 million run. It didn’t all happen initially, but it still has. And it also served as a very nice reference. We used them to get into Montefiore, Penn Medical, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.”
These referenced accounts, still active today, represented tens of millions in additional pipeline.
All traced back to a lead that didn't convert.
When Hitachi reconnected with TechnologyMatch recently, they still remembered Brenda's name. Not because the first deal closed but because it opened the door to a relationship built on service, sustained by trust, and measured in decades.
Why this story matters for IT leaders and vendors alike
Most lead gen programs are built for speed: generate, qualify, convert, repeat. But the best relationships that compound over time are built differently.
They're built on:
- Listening beyond the immediate ask — Dan didn't just sell storage. He asked what else the customer needed.
- Serving without a guaranteed return — He ran assessments, provided insights, and stayed engaged even when there was no deal in sight.
- Staying engaged after "no" — The relationship didn't end when the first opportunity closed.
- Playing the long game — Hitachi prioritized trust over transactions, and it paid off for a decade.
For IT leaders drowning in vendor pitches, this approach is rare. Most reps disappear the moment you say "not right now." The ones who stay are the ones you remember, the ones you call back.
For vendors, this story is a reminder: pipeline isn't just about sales quotas and numbers. It's about the relationships you're building today that will pay off for years.
Dan's process was simple but disciplined:
- Always do a pre-call with the partner before meeting the prospect
- Review the lead notes thoroughly and don't wing it on the call
- Lead with questions, not pitches
- Offer assessments to earn the right to propose solutions
- Stay in touch even after losing
The lead gen model that prioritizes relationships, not just conversions
“The thing that impressed me was the data you offered, the thoroughness of your notes — nobody beats it. Nobody takes the time to do that. You can hand over a grade-A lead, but if reps don’t know how to handle it and move it into a real meeting, it fails and that’s what you do best."
Dan told us that the key elements of TechnologyMatch’s impact were:
- High-Quality Lead Intelligence: Each opportunity came with deep insights like buyer role, pain points, environment data, past solutions, and behavioral cues.
- Pre-Call Strategy: Encouraged reps to hold mandatory pre-calls with partners before meeting prospects, a process Dan later made standard across all MDF-funded programs.
- Enablement & Training: Through TechnologyMatch’s sales workbooks and question frameworks, Hitachi’s team learned to move from transactional conversations to value-based discovery.
At TechnologyMatch, we don't just send you a spreadsheet of names.
We connect IT buyers with vendors who are the right fit, and we help both sides build relationships that last.
Hitachi turned a $50K lead into $15 million because the right people were in the room, the reps had the right info, and service came before the sale.
That's the model we've carried forward.
Because the best deals don't close in 30 days. They unfold over months, years, and sometimes decades through trust that simply can’t be manufactured.
