If your sales team isn't adding power solutions to the bottom of every quote, they're leaving money on the table for one of your competitors, according to Eaton's Jeff Kennedy, speaking Tuesday at the Best of Breed Conference in Orlando, Fla.

"Just have your sales team add it to the bottom of the quote. Just ask that one question: Mr. Customer, what are you doing for power management in your network closet? A lot of times that question simply doesn't come up and because it doesn't come up, someone else is getting that opportunity because the customers are still buying it," Kennedy said.

Kennedy also pointed to the strength of some of Eaton's integration partnerships that give it unique capabilities, including supervision and shutdown for NetApp ONTAP, power-capping for Cisco Unified Computing System as well as validations for EMC VSPEX and VCE Vblock.

The company is pursuing additional integration alliances with the likes of Nutanix and Simplivity because that's what customers want, he said.

"[IT managers] want everything to work and talk together, and work as one," Kennedy said.

BoB Conference attendee David Alger, CTO of Mobius Works, an MSP based in Westfield, Mass., said that while his company doesn't yet work with Eaton, it does try to incorporate power solutions into as many sales as possible.

"It's more about peace of mind for our managed services because when you protect the hardware and can properly maintain it, it generally leads to better revenues," Alger said.

Kennedy said a large percentage of a typical Eaton-based power management solution includes not only hardware but also software and services, opening the door to healthy margins and additional sales opportunities.

"Everybody knows, the best thing about services is you get repeat touches on those customers," Kennedy said. "You get to go back six months from now and touch them again, and they may have an opportunity now that they didn't then. It may not even relate to power management but if on phone and having conversation, chance that going to win or have a shot at that business is right in front of you."