UJET Names Ex-Talkdesk, 8x8, RingCentral Exec New Sales Head

Channel veteran Keith Dennis has a lengthy chronology of working in sales for organizations with flourishing channel programs. On Tuesday, he told Channel Futures, he will continue that trend. Dennis says his passion for numbers will suit him in his new role as senior vice president of sales at UJET, where he will work in tandem with UJET's freshly-appointed vice president of channel sales, Geoff Works.

Most recently, Dennis worked with partner organization Six 8 Advisors. Six 8 is one of tech services distributor Avant Communications' largest partners. He will remain on the Six 8 advisory board.

Before working at Six 8, Dennis was with 8x8 as its VP of West, Central, United States and Canada. He also served as RVP of enterprise sales, North America West at Oracle, and had a five-month stint as VP at Talkdesk.

Dennis further held the title of VP of enterprise sales at RingCentral for more than four years. He said his inspiration to move to UJET was twofold.

UJET's Keith Dennis

"UJET’s unique and highly differentiated product suite and my relationships and experience in the channel community," the former RingCentral exec shared.

Dennis officially makes his entrance into the role on June 17.

New UJET Sales Lead Seeks 'Channel Harmony'

With a relationship dating back to 2012, Dennis said he plans to work closely with Works when selling to large enterprise organizations, calling that association type UJET's "sweet spot," which primarily shines through via its partnership with Google Cloud that spans nearly four years.

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Dennis told us he and the team plan to grow on that success.

"What I am also here to do is build and scale the technology service distributor go-to-market (GTM) motion, which is something Geoff and I both have had a great deal of success doing," Dennis added.

He's excited to help UJET grow.

"When I left 8x8 in 2016 to join RingCentral as their first enterprise front-line sales leader, I did so for one of the same reasons I am joining UJET: I want to leverage the channel community as a force multiplier," said Dennis.

The former RingCentral exec said that channel "harmony" is top of mind as it's not something he always experienced in previous roles. In fact, he cited at least one disagreement with executive management over its go-to-market strategy that was the impetus for him leaving the company.

Recreating the Glory Days

His days at RingCentral, however, aligned more with what he hoped to achieve — notably less conflict with direct sales.

"[RingCentral channel leader] Zane Long was building a 'Channel Harmony' [partner] program that allowed my direct enterprise sales team to work closely with the channel community, where customers received the same pricing. My sales reps were paid the same whether the customer had a preferred channel partner or simply chose to sign direct. The alignment worked beautifully internally and externally.

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That type of cohesion is something he wants to replicate in his new role with UJET sales.

"My sales team sold the deals and the channel team sold the Channel Harmony program, and if you look at where RingCentral and 8x8 were in June of 2016 from a revenue and market cap perspective and where they both are today, it indicates how the sell with/through channel model quickly separated RingCentral from 8x8," he said.

Dennis says the proof is in the pudding, sharing that RingCentral's revenue from 2016-2024 − which overlaps four of his years at the company − more than tripled.

"... The channel program was the catalyst RingCentral needed to grow faster than the competition," he said. "And that's exactly what Geoff [Works] and I plan to do together at UJET — align our best subject-matter experts with the best partners in the channel to leverage the No. 1 reason I am joining, which is a unique and highly differentiated product portfolio."