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Changing Channels uncovers what it takes to get the next generation of technology to market. Join Larry Walsh, chief analyst and CEO of Channelnomics, for candid conversations with thought leaders, channel chiefs, and partner executives sharing actionable insights, best practices, and lessons learned in a channel that’s constantly changing. Each episode provides expert go-to-market guidance for enhanced performance in the channel.
Episodes
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
Tuesday Nov 29, 2022
Cheryl Cook, senior vice president of global channel marketing at Dell Technologies, joins Larry Walsh to talk about the state of channel marketing, how marketing to and through the channel is evolving, and how to craft market-leading channel marketing programs.
Successful channels require a combination of good products with demonstrable value propositions, training and enablement to transfer skills required to sell and support the offerings, and marketing resources and support to drive the demand that leads to revenue and profitability.
Every vendor has channel marketing resources and functions that support partners’ go-to-market activities and keep partners engaged and informed about a vendor’s value propositions, programs and activities, and opportunities in the market. The effectiveness of channel marketing varies by vendor. Some vendors do a relatively good job of channel marketing, while others are merely scratching the surface. And all vendors are challenged to keep up with the latest techniques and tools for communicating their messages to and through partners.
Productive and effective channel marketing requires a combination of well-defined objectives, clear messages, systems and tools for conveying messages, and resources and support for guiding partners’ marketing efforts. The challenge is persistent as channel marketing must continuously evolve with changing market conditions.
In conversations with partners worldwide, one company keeps coming up as a good example of a vendor doing channel marketing right: Dell Technologies. For this episode of Changing Channels, we went right to the source to find out what makes Dell’s approach different from others. Cheryl Cook, senior vice president of global channel marketing at Dell, joins Changing Channels to talk about the current and evolving state of channel marketing and how to put together an effective channel marketing program.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Cheryl Cool: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylscook/
In the Margins: https://tinyurl.com/2sun9z5s
© 2112 Enterprises LLC
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Tuesday Nov 08, 2022
Dan Tomaszewski, executive vice president of channels at Kaseya, joins Larry Walsh to talk about what it takes to enable managed service providers for success and how to get partners to put skin in the game on joint efforts that result in growth.
Managed services providers (MSPs) are the most sought-after partners in the channel. Built on recurring revenue models and service delivery, MSPs have the attributes that vendors adopting and developing subscription-based sales models seek in their go-to-market channels. The conventional wisdom: MSPs get what vendors want and need, so partnerships should be simple, fast, and productive.
MSPs know the service and recurring revenue model, but generating a return on investment for vendors isn’t automatic. MSPs vary in their capabilities, capacities, and productivity. They require support in training, business development, technology adoption, and sales.
Many vendors that support or sell through MSPs offer training and other development resources. Most MSP partner programs follow traditional approaches in this regard, offering these enablement resources for free or having partners earn them based on performance. The result is a mixed bag.
Kaseya approaches MSP development differently in that it offers paid engagement. MSPs buy into a program that gets them access to resources and support — often through veteran MSP practitioners — to aid technology adoption, service development, marketing activities, and sales. The result is telling; MSPs that participate typically show better and more consistent growth.
Dan Tomaszewski, executive vice president of channels at Kaseya, joins Changning Channels to discuss Kaseya’s MSP enablement approach and why getting partners to put skin in the game is a good way to drive better results in managed services.
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Tuesday Oct 25, 2022
Eric Buck, director of commercial partners and global distribution at Google Cloud, joins Larry Walsh to talk about the role two-tier distribution models and distributors play in aiding cloud service providers in engaging channels and supporting partners.
Technology is increasingly being delivered via the cloud and sold through subscription payment models. End customers — from SMBs to enterprises — appreciate the ability to acquire and utilize computing resources hosted in public cloud infrastructure and available from virtually anywhere.
The digitalization of computing infrastructure and resources has many channel pros questioning the necessity of selling cloud services through traditional two-tier distribution models. Without physical products that require warehousing and logistics support for fulfillment, cloud services seemingly negate the need for working with distributors to reach the channel and end customers.
Yet cloud service providers and cloud-based technology companies have discovered that bypassing distribution isn’t necessarily the wisest choice. Distribution continues to play a vital role in helping vendors reach and influence partners, provide access to sales and technical support services, and enable transactions. From the perspective of partners, distribution is an aggregation point for different cloud resources, and distributors provide direction on what services to sell and how to make them work together.
Changing Channels asked Eric Buck, the director of commercial partners and global distribution at Google Cloud, to explain why even the hyperscale cloud service providers such as Google are working with distributors, the value and support they receive from distribution, and how vendors can measure the efficacy and return on investment they get by engaging a two-tier model.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Eric Buck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-buck-6213211/
In the Margins: https://tinyurl.com/2sun9z5s
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Todd Palmer, senior vice president of global partner sales at Tanium, joins Larry Walsh to talk about the mythical “right partners” that vendors always seek to sell their products and why it’s important to set the right expectations when developing go-to-market partnerships.
Vendors often say that they want to work with the right partners — resellers and solution providers with the ability and willingness to sell their products, support their customers, and, most of all, book consistent sales and beat revenue expectations.
“The right partners” are the white whales of the channel — a bit of a myth, if not misnamed. A partner’s appropriateness for a vendor’s go-to-market needs and program depends on alignment of the right product, vendor brand and product marketability, and sales economics, and on the partner’s alignment in capabilities, capacity, and willingness to invest resources.
That’s a pretty tall order, which is probably why the average vendor generates about 95% of its indirect revenue through less than 5% of its partners. And that’s also probably the reason why so many channel people say they want “the right” partners. In the survey for our 2022 Channel Chief Outlook, 83% of channel professionals said they’re challenged in getting partners to meet their sales goals and revenue expectations.
It’s an endless pursuit to identify, recruit, enable, and engage partners that will self-actualize in the market, hunt for net-new opportunities, and build books of business that accelerate revenue growth.
Channel veteran Todd Palmer, senior vice president of global partner sales at security vendor Tanium, joins Changing Channels to discuss ongoing efforts to find the right partners, how it’s often an unrealistic pursuit, and how vendors should approach the issue of finding qualified and capable go-to-market partners.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Todd Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-palmer-310807/
More videos by Larry Walsh: https://tinyurl.com/mr25a4cy
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Tuesday Sep 27, 2022
Lou Serlenga, chief revenue officer at Nile, joins Larry Walsh to talk about the launch of a new Network-as-a-Service company that’s leveraging channel partnerships to take on the incumbents in the staid, commoditized networking segment.
New technology companies spring onto the IT landscape all the time, but few launch into a well-established and commoditized segment that’s dominated by a giant such as Cisco Systems. Yet that’s what the folks at Nile are doing.
Under the leadership of chairman John Chambers, former CEO of Cisco, and Pankaj Patel, former executive vice president and chief development officer at Cisco, Nile is looking to disrupt the networking segment with a pure as-a-service model that allows customers to pay only for the networking services they consume. It’s not a new idea, but the Nile approach is much grander in scope and ambition than what others — including the established networking companies — have tried.
Working entirely through channel partners, Nile launched with more than 50 resellers and integrators in its Nile Connect channel program, which is as unique as its product and business model. There are no tiers or certifications, just an ease of access that allows partners to build recurring revenue on Nile’s services.
The job of building and expanding Nile Connect belongs to Lou Serlenga, the company’s chief revenue officer and a Cisco veteran. Serlenga is looking to develop a broad and vibrant channel program to disrupt his former company’s long-held leadership position in the networking market by giving partners and customers an alternative to buying boxes. Serlenga joins Changing Channels to discuss the launch of Nile and its ambitious channel program.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Lou Serlenga: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louserlenga/
Larry Walsh on interest rates impacting the channel: https://youtu.be/Ta5QDNTANlg
More videos by Larry Walsh: https://tinyurl.com/mr25a4cy
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
Thursday Jul 21, 2022
T.C. Doyle, vice president of strategic content at Channelnomics, joins Changing Channels host Larry Walsh to discuss the challenges all vendors face in transitioning from transactional to recurring revenue models.
Services sold through subscription or recurring contracts are fast becoming the dominant go-to-market model for all vendors. While cloud service providers are built on the recurring-revenue model, even hardware and component vendors are pivoting toward the predictable revenue model.
Recurring revenue is attractive, but it’s not easy to generate when a vendor has a legacy of transactional sales. Recurring revenue is — or should be — a replacement for transactional sales. In theory, transactional revenue should go down while recurring revenue increases, over time creating an “X” pattern on a graph.
The challenge is that many vendors try to maintain, if not grow, their transactional sales while building a book of business on recurring revenue. This creates conflict as partners and customers are caught between making choices that often stymie the transition process. This is what Channelnomics calls the X-Chasm.
Navigating the X-Chasm requires understanding the nature of the revenue transition process and how it influences partners and customers, making choices in channel strategy, and adjusting priorities for internal stakeholders responsible for managing legacy and future business units. In this episode of Changing Channels, industry veteran T.C. Doyle talks about his cover story in the premier issue of Channelnomics Quarterly that details the X-Chasm phenomenon and how channel chiefs can navigate the trap successfully.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest T.C. Doyle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tcdoyle/
Credits
Production: Changing Channels is produced by Modern Podcasting. For virtual content capture and video-first podcasts, check out http://www.modpodstudio.com.
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Voice-Over: Denise Quan
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Wednesday Jun 22, 2022
Justin Crotty, senior vice president of channels at Netenrich, joins Channelnomics Changing Channels host Larry Walsh to discuss how data and device telemetry is transforming managed service delivery and value propositions.
Managed services in the channel are nothing new. Partners started delivering them more than 20 years ago, augmenting and replacing their legacy break/fix support with remote monitoring and management.
Increasingly, vendors — particularly legacy hardware and software vendors — are discovering the power and value of service and subscription models. Vendors want the same predictable recurring revenue that partners have generated for years. Wall Street and private equity investors are rewarding vendors that make the transition from transactional sales to service-based subscriptions.
Services ranging from endpoint management to cloud administration are generating petabytes of data. Through the telemetry of the data broadcasted by devices and applications in the field, vendors and partners have a rich source of analytics to diagnose performance and security issues.
While managed services have always promised customers quick responses to performance issues and system failures, the reality is that services are reactionary. Something has to happen to trigger an alert so a vendor or partner can take action. That’s changing, though, as data analytics become more available. Vendors are beginning to leverage telemetry to identify issues as early as possible so that they and their partners can take anticipatory action and prevent system failures for end users.
A vendor on the forefront of this trend is Netenrich, which is offering managed service providers a vendor-neutral capability to tap into the telemetry stream to identify and anticipate customer performance issues before they can cause more serious problems. Justin Crotty, senior vice president of channels at Netenrich, joins Changing Channels to discuss this growing trend of enabling partners to be more proactive.
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Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Justin Crotty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justincrotty/
Credits
Production: Changing Channels is produced by Modern Podcasting. For virtual content capture and video-first podcasts, check out http://www.modpodstudio.com.
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Voice-Over: Denise Quan
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Larry Walsh, chief analyst at Channelnomics, discusses the performance challenges that channel chiefs face, explaining that they’re rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of partner business models and ill-conceived presumptions about partner capabilities.
Being a channel chief isn’t easy. Channel leaders face numerous challenges, including getting partners to perform in a way that contributes to company goals and revenue-generation expectations. This underlying challenge is amplified by the struggles that come from transitioning channels to new service and subscription models.
In the 2022 Channel Chief Outlook report, Channelnomics reveals that 85% of channel chiefs say they’re challenged in getting partners to adopt new products, technologies, and services, while 83% say they’re grappling with getting partners to meet or exceed their sales goals. And 71% struggle to get partners to adopt new go-to-market models — mostly based on services and subscriptions.
What’s the source of these challenges? Walsh posits two possible answers: myopic thinking and a fundamental misunderstanding of partner business models.
Over the past two decades, resellers and integrators evolved their business models beyond transactional product sales and break/fix services. Partners make most of their money on managed and professional services. But vendors continue to think that they have to lead partners into the future of services and that partners are behind in their service capabilities.
In this episode of Changing Channels, Larry Walsh, chief analyst at Channelnomics and host of the podcast, details what vendors get wrong about their partners’ business models and capabilities and what they need to do to overcome the challenge of generating superior channel performance that contributes to their corporate goals.
Follow us, Like us, and Subscribe!
Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
2022 Channel Chief Outlook report: https://channelnomics.com/product/channel-chief-outlook-the-2022-report/
Channelnomics Quarterly: https://channelnomics.com/cq/
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Tuesday May 03, 2022
Ingram Micro Cloud’s John Dusett joins Changing Channels host Larry Walsh to discuss new cloud research — conducted by Channelnomics and supported by Ingram Micro Cloud, Microsoft, and Google Workspace — and how the customer experience is crucial when it comes to service renewals and expansions.
The cloud computing market continues to grow at double-digit rates. Over the next decade, businesses will continue to migrate systems and mission-critical workloads into cloud environments. They’ll adopt cloud-based applications to replace legacy client-side licenses, and they’ll subscribe to managed services to support their cloud resources.
To say that it’s a good time for reselling and supporting cloud computing services is an understatement. According to our recent report — “Buying the Cloud: The As-a-Service Experience From the Customer Perspective” — 47% of SMB IT buyers, the prime target for the channel, plan to buy more cloud computing products in the next 12 to 18 months. End users are adopting infrastructure services, productivity software, business applications, and backup services. Moreover, they’re expanding their cloud utilization to include customer support applications and Internet of Things infrastructure.
Cloud computing provides solution providers with recurring revenue. Customers pay for services on monthly or annual schedules, providing resellers with predictable income. The recurring-revenue model works well as long as the customer keeps paying, renewing contracts, and expanding service utilization. As solution providers have learned through managed services, customers are more apt to expand their cloud capacity when they have positive experiences and recognize the value of their spending.
Customer experience is becoming a significant factor in solution providers’ cloud value proposition. While vendors are the source of cloud services, solution providers are the managers of cloud resources and customer experiences. If solution providers can facilitate a positive, seamless experience, customers are more apt to renew and expand their cloud contracts. According to the research conducted by Channelnomics and Ingram Micro Cloud, 38% of cloud buyers base their decision to renew contracts on their experience with a solution provider.
In this episode of Changing Channels, John Dusett, Ingram Micro Cloud’s executive director of cloud services for the United States, joins us to discuss the increasing importance of customer experience in cloud computing engagements and what solution providers need to do to impress and satisfy their clients.
Follow us, Like us, and Subscribe!
Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest John Dusett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johndusett/
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
TeamViewer’s Patty Nagle and Rob Thiele join Changing Channel’s Larry Walsh to discuss how they’re revamping their channel program to accelerate the company’s evolution into more use cases and market opportunities beyond their remote-access foundation.
Many products start out as free, consumer-oriented offerings to capture market share for what’s often a singular purpose or value proposition. Over time, they evolve into more business-ready, enterprise-centric solutions. The trick is building the sales capacity and coverage to make the leap from legacy to future. The channel is often that evolutionary catalyst.
One company that’s using the channel to make this leap forward is TeamViewer. Best known for products that enable remote access and control for endpoints, TeamViewer is expanding beyond its core into collaboration, workflow management, and augmented reality. While it maintains the freemium offerings that got it started, TeamViewer is increasingly looking to channel partners as a means of identifying new opportunities and servicing an expanding total addressable market.
In this episode of Changing Channels, Patty Nagle, TeamViewer’s North America president, and Robert Thiele, vice president of strategic alliances and partners for the Americas, join host Larry Walsh to discuss how they’ve reshaped their channel program to account for different types of partners, customers, and use cases to facilitate growth beyond the traditional core.
Follow us, Like us, and Subscribe!
Channelnomics: https://channelnomics.com/
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2NC6Vli
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Channelnomics
Changing Channels Is a Channelnomics Production
Follow @Channelnomics to stay current on the latest #research, #bestpractices, and #resources. At @Channelnomics — the voice of thought leadership — we define #channel trends, chart new #GTM strategies, and #partner with industry leaders to champion #diversity in the channel.
Episode Resources
Host Larry Walsh: https://bit.ly/3beZfOa
Guest Patty Nagle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattynagle/
Guest Robert Thiele: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robthiele/