Intelisys, Suppliers, Agents Take Aim at the Partner Marketing Gap
Marketing is historically a second thought for the sales-focused world of technology advisors.
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Intelisys Pre-AMP'd Marketing Forum
Representatives from Cisco, Lumen, Nice inContact and Talkdesk joined a panel to share their insights on partner marketing.
For Jay Clark, channel marketing director atNice inContact, agents are dealing with a mix of opportunity and obstacles.
“Channel partners face mounting challenges– they have new buyers to engage with a variety of needs who own a potentially large set of digital solutions,” Clark told Channel Futures. “The good news is, those same partners don’t lack for enthusiasm and have more avenues to reach buyers than ever before, with the ability to leverage new affordable technology (short form video, social media, targeted ABM tools).”
For a partner who is looking to spend money on marketing, what is the smartest first step? Should they hire a marketing person? Should they outsource it.
“It really just depends on what your goals are at the end of the day and what you’re looking to get out of.
Caitlin Follett of Talkdesk said answer comes down to the partner’s long-term goals.
“If you’re looking to increase your lead generation and the demand for what you’re offering, you should hire and invest in it. It will pay off. It’s not going to pay off right away, but it will pay off in some way, shape or form in the future and allow you to continue to grow your business and focus on what you do best,” she said.
Follet also pointed to the logic of understaffed agent firms turning to their much larger vendor partners to fill gaps in their marketing strategy.
“We have these huge marketing teams at suppliers that are creating content and churning it out and putting on webinars and events with vertical-focused or focused on a particular product or customer like a challenge. And if we can replicate that, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” Follett told Channel Futures.
An interesting topic of the summit was farming versus hunting. Although agents may associate marketing with hunting – the pursuit of new customers – subject matter experts at the summit suggested that marketing goes both ways.
“One of the things that executives are really focused on are new labels,” said Elaine Goodman, who heads up Cisco‘s agency route to market. “That’s great, but our question is, ‘How do we farm and mine the customers that we already have.”
Clark pointed to content as a foundational piece of marketing.
That might be, for example, a survey of some of a handful of existing CIO customers. An agent can take the results of that survey and repurpose it into blogs, social media posts and other media.
“Whatever path you take, content is pretty critical. Like ripples on a pond, you can take that content and use it in so many different spot,” Clark said.
Hobson, who is two and a half years into a sales role at the 25-year-old partner firm TelNet Choices, has leaned into online branding.
For example, she launched a Youtube video series called “Tech Talks,” where she analyzes technology trends and shares thoughts on digital transformation investments. She said she hopes that content brings value to current and prospective customers.
“I wanted to get more engaged in video and social media to create a personal brand. For me, I see personal brands create a deeper relationship with not only partners but potential new partners,” she told Channel Futures.
Attendees engaged in workshops alongside marketing leaders from Intelisys and its sponsors, Cisco, Lumen, Nice inContact and Talkdesk. Intelisys hosted the forum as a precursor to its regional AMP’d event in Newport Beach.
Attendees put pen to paper to fill out the written portion of their workshop. Partners, suppliers and their Intelisys facilitators envisioned a marketing plan for a hypothetical agency. The agency, which had developed a strong customer base but had plateaued, employed three people, none of which focused in marketing. It also had yet to build a website and only updated its LinkedIn on a monthly basis.
As you can imagine, attendees had their work cut out for them.
Michael Sterl in his keynote encouraged partners to think about their ecosystem play. That could mean framing their value around a particular vertical ecosystem, such as real estate. Or it might mean framing their value around a particular technology or vendor and they extra services they can provide in that area.
“You have to think about it, because the market is changing around you, and there’s a lot of specialty partners coming into your ecosystem that are going to eat your lunch. And we’re seeing it every day. So we have to shift our value and hone in on our value in order to drive this forward,” Sterl said.
Mayka Rosales-Peterson, Intelisys’ senior manager of partner marketing joined Adam Rushlow, Intelisys’ director of marketing operations, to share why Intelisys launched the inaugural event.
Rushlow said agents have expressed their need for advice and resources in the area of marketing and lead generation.
“We hear from partners all the time asking ‘How do I generate more leads? How do I build brand awareness? How do I move outside of the marketing experience I currently have to get more business?'” he said.
Sam Sundstrom of Lumen, who participated in the vendor panel, called the event a great example of channel collaboration. Representatives from the four vendor sponsors sat at tables with partners and participated in the workshop with them.
“Training and enabling our channel partners to be great marketers is what will power strong growth for Lumen and the technology industry. The interest and engagement from partners in today’s content shows they are eager to elevate their marketing game to win with us,” Sundstrom. “Thank you to the Intelisys/Scansource Team for another stellar education event.”
Clark agreed.
“This Intelisys event was a great blueprint for the immediate and foreseeable future of marketing education – collaborative in nature, manageable breakouts, two-way dialogue with subject matter experts, and a well-paced agenda,” he said.
Intelisys program marketing analyst Kayla Holzschuh led attendees through the workshop portions of the event, finishing with pop quiz for prizes.
Sales partners, supplier partners and ScanSource employees gathered for a happy hour Wednesday evening.
Many registered attendees for Thursday’s main AMP’d event arrived on Wednesday evening to take part in the festivities.
Many registered attendees for Thursday’s main AMP’d event arrived on Wednesday evening to take part in the festivities.
INTELISYS PRE-AMP’D MARKETING FORUM– More channel partner organizations are recognizing their need to formally engage in marketing efforts. And at the same time, they’re grappling with their limitations to do so.
A select group of agent leaders gathered in Newport Beach on Wednesday for a bootcamp of sorts on how to use marketing to expand their funnel. ScanSource-owned tech services distributor Intelisys, hosted the forum, which it described as a first-of-its-kind in the channel.
One of the reasons for its uniqueness is the historically disconnect between technology advisors (agents) and marketing. Many partners, particularly those under ten employees, openly admit that they don’t engage much in marketing. And in those cases staffing and capital are obvious factors. Hiring marketing personnel or an outsourced marketing firm is a costly endeavor that requires patience for return on investment, and agents are already playing the long game with their op-ex focused business model. And if they lack the budget, agent leaders can only do so much with their time.
Talkdesk’s Caitlin Follett
“They’re focused on revenue, driving top-line and creating future pipeline,” said Caitlin Follett, senior manager of partner marketing at Talkdesk. “They’re not focused on a social campaign that can target CTO-speak or writing a guest blog that can increase their thought leadership.”
Those resource challenges explain why agents would turn to their vendor partners for co-branded marketing content and events.
“We want to enable and engage with all of you when you want to do marketing,” Lumen director of marketing Sam Sundstrom said.
Lumen’s Sam Sundstrom
Referral Cultural
And while part of the reluctance to do marketing comes from limited resources, it also stems from a cultural mindset. Many technology advisors have historically lived on referrals for their pipeline. And most say that model gives them plenty of fish.
But times are changing, Intelisys senior vice president of partner success Michael Sterl said.
“What’s fascinating to me is the journey we’ve been on since 2016. It was much easier back then. We had relationships, and we had referrals. We sold internet, we sold voice, and we moved on. And we thought, ‘Maybe we’ll have a website? Maybe not.'”
Intelisys’ Michael Sterl
Sterl warned partners that the buyer persona has changed. Chief among that trend is the emergence of business-to-consumer (B2C) platforms like Amazon that have deeply shaped the way business purchasers operate.
“The consumer model is what drives the business model,” Sterl said.
A New Generation of Buyers
And that consumer model taps deeply into the digital world. A 2018 Merit Marketing study found that 73% of digital natives were involved in purchasing decisions at their companies. No doubt that number has grown even larger. Thus, partners must learn to speak their language.
Intelisys’ Mayka Rosales-Peterson
“Digital natives are the majority of folks in key purchasing decisions. They’re the ones deciding what platforms and software they want to work with and what partners to work with,” Intelisys senior manager of partner marketing Mayka Rosales-Peterson said. “What influences those behaviors is marketing. What are you doing right now in order for them to work with you?”
So where does that leave a referral-based business? For Ashley Hobson, director of empowering customer success at TelNet Choices, it’s not about departing from a referral model, but rather adding to that.
“I believe that in order to create a portfolio, you will need both referral and outreach. Referrals are invaluable, and trust is built easier, but they can only go so far in the chain due to your connections,” Hobson told Channel Futures. “However, when you have outreach, you have an endless amount of opportunities to help customers, and need to gain that trust through interactions, whether online or in person.”
For Joe Jonovic, partner and chief revenue officer at SOLUS Technology Solutions, establishing a digital footprint is table stakes. That means website revamps and LinkedIn profile updates. Even if business is coming from referrals, those referrals are going to visit your website and LinkedIn profile, Jonovic said.
SOLUS Technology Solutions’ Joe Jonovic
“My business is growing organically, but you still have one chance to make a good first impression,” he told Channel Futures. “So it’s important that you have something that’s fresh and appealing to the appropriate audience that you’re targeting.
Channel Futures was on the scene, snapping photos of the workshop and happy hour. Scroll through the images learn more about marketing trends in the agent channel, and to to see who attended the event.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email James Anderson or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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