Barracuda Preaches ‘Partner Empathy’ Under New Channel Leadership

Barracuda is adopting a more empathetic approach to partners, according to its global channel leadership.

The security provider named Jason Beal, VP, worldwide partner ecosystems, to that newly created role six months ago. His appointment is one of several investments by Barracuda in its channel following its acquisition by global investment firm KKR last year.

Beal maintains that having partner empathy would separate the vendor from the “myopic approach” adopted by other vendors.

He told partners: “Sometimes, vendors in the industry … can be accused of what I call vendor myopia. Only looking at the world from their products’ perspective, or the vendor’s go-to-market perspective.

“What I’ve seen firsthand with Barracuda is this term that I’ve coined “partner empathy.” [It is] really taking an outside-in approach to the partnerships, really better understanding how Barracuda and our partnerships can solve problems together and help our clients to be successful.”

Barracuda Channel Leadership Walking In Partners’ Shoes

The exec was speaking last week at the vendor’s EMEA partner summit, Barracuda Discover 23, in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Beal said a partner-empathic approach by Barracuda channel leadership is based on listening and learning to both partners and customers about their businesses. To that point, the company has also established a partner advisory board since its acquisition.

“I’ve had the opportunity to talk to partners in EMEA, APAC, Americas, our corporate advisory board members, and our smallest and our largest partners,” said Beal. “We need to learn from you and what our customers are saying every day. Partner empathy also means taking this outside-in perspective. As I like to say, putting ourselves in our partner’s shoes. It’s only by doing that can we really build a successful win-win.”

Beal likened Barracuda to an ingredient in a cake the partner is selling.

“Not, ‘Hey, partner, we want you to take this Barracuda product and just sell it.’ Sure, we want you to do that. But we know you’re selling broader solutions. And so, the more we understand how we can be a part of your solution, the better this partnership will be,” Beal said.

He also said it was important to learn about Barracuda’s partner business from a financial perspective. He referred to their cash flows, goals and comp plans.

“We can tailor a partnership and programs to meet your needs and build a successful partnership,” he added.

Barracuda’s Partner Multiplier

At Barracuda Discover 23, Beal went on to talk about the partner ecosystem economic opportunity, or partner multiplier. He said Barracuda did research showing that partners that embrace pre-sale services and consulting, post-sale services, implementation, training, managed services, cloud consumption and product pull earn a much greater multiplier on every $1 of Barracuda sold than other partners do.

He also told partners they need to meet “the new needs and the new preferences of your end customers. If you’ve got a great resale and professional service practice with Barracuda, how do you add a managed services practice? If you have a managed services practice, how do you add a cloud enablement or cloud services practice? Think about how do you not just sell more technology, but build different business models in a different practice with us?”