Sandler Partners Promotes Intelisys, XO Alum to Chief Revenue Officer

Technology solutions distributor Sandler Partners has tapped a well-known name in the channel as its chief revenue officer.

It’s a promotion for Justin Marano, a veteran of both XO Communications and Intelisys. He was Sandler’s senior vice president of sales in the East for the last two years. The new position puts him in charge of all revenue generation as well as overseeing recruitment of partners and providers. He’ll also recruit and oversee regional sales leaders and national sales support.

Sandler Partners’ Justin Marano

“Justin is well respected by our industry partners, our internal teams, and by our leadership,” managing partner Alan Sandler said. “We are excited to have his experience, knowledge, drive and energy help continue our rapid growth in existing areas and expansion into new markets.”

Sandler Partners’ Alan Sandler

The promotion comes as the privately held solutions distributor expands its team. Sandler in January announced the promotion of Gerry Davis to senior vice president of sales engineering. It also recently hired Ben Edwards as senior sales engineer.

Joining Sandler

Marano moved to the tech solutions distributor from Intelisys in 2020. He had most recently served as Intelisys’ northeast vice president of sales. Marano in a call with Channel Futures spoke highly of his time with the Intelisys team. Moreover, he said the culture he initially glimpsed at Sandler Partners reminded him of his initial days at Intelisys. It was a privately held, approximately 80-employee company that was generating more than $100 million, Marano said. He added that Sandler in 2020 was bigger than Intelisys when he started at Intelisys.

However, he said Sandler was only generating 1% of its revenue on the East Coast. Sandler had grown significantly in places like its home state of California, but markets like New York, Boston and Charlotte had gone virtually untapped. And Marano had the experiences and relationships to help there.

“These are some of the largest markets in the country, if not the world,” he told Channel Futures. “It was kind of a square peg in a square hole.”

He joined Sandler in February 2020, just in time for the pandemic. Marano considered halting his plans to grow the East team as COVID-19 surged. But Alan Sandler approached him, telling him that he felt confident about investing in the company despite the uncertain economic outlook.

“I started to move the conversation forward with folks that had reached out to me to be a part of the team I was building. And then I started making hires. So where Sandler previously had no presence, now all of a sudden they have about 10 people that are here to fly the Sandler colors and build the Sandler brand on the East Coast,” Marano said.

Culture

When asked what drew him to Sandler, Marano pointed to people and culture. He said he had previously worried that his positive experience at Intelisys was a once-in-a-lifetime deal, but Sandler proved him wrong.

“I now only hope to have the people say about me in this organization what I’ve said about Intelisys historically, and that’s what drives me every day,” he said.

He also pointed to Sandler’s commissions recovery program as a differentiator for Sandler.

Marano said he has spent more than three-quarters of his career working as a front-line contributor. And that experience, he said, has helped him as a leader.

“Keeping a healthy line of communication with a lot of people is the foundation for what has driven and will drive the success of all those partnerships. And you need to be somewhat organized to do that,” he said. “Having been on the front lines as long as I have, when I’ve asked my team and people to adapt, I’m not telling them or asking them to do things that I haven’t done in the past.”

Marano said he brings skillsets that are complementary to what Alan Sandler provides to the team.

“I just feel very lucky and blessed to be a part of such a great organization, and I’m extremely thankful to Alan and the other leaders for believing in me and giving me an opportunity to continue to build on this great company that they’ve helped create,” he said.