Q&A With XO Channel Chief Brian Law

By Khali Henderson

In February XO Communications Inc. named Brian Law as its vice president of indirect channels, filling a post vacated by the resignation of Jim Delis. Law has been at XO for more than 10 years, the past two as vice president of sales for the central region, where he oversaw business and enterprise sales for the company in 10 major metropolitan markets across seven states. Law has had oversight of direct and indirect channel sales for XO since the company moved responsibility for the channel to local markets in 2006. PHONE+ interviewed Law in late May about his first few months as channel chief and his plans for the XO partner program. 

PHONE+: Since you most recently came from a direct sales role, can you explain your channel experience?

Brian Law: Ive had channel responsibility for more than five years at XO Communications, both as a general manager of our Tennessee, Missouri and North Carolina markets and then as vice president of XOs Central Region where I managed our direct and indirect sales teams for the entire central United States. Within our sales regions, the direct and indirect sales teams report to the local market and regional sales leaders. So, I have worked closely with our indirect sales teams and channel partners for many years.

P+: How has the combination of those experiences impacted your channel leadership?

Law: Leading direct sales teams with month-to-month revenue, sales and retention targets, I have an appreciation of the more tangible business and financial aspects of being a sales leader. With the channel, the focus is more on the relationship aspect of the transaction, enabling your partners to get the quote they need as fast as possible, working with them to build the best solution and getting the 360 [-degree] feedback to improve how you support them on a day-to-day basis. So, my channel leadership style is to see those as two sides of the same coin.

P+: How have you found running channel sales different?

Law: Its more relationship-oriented and having the right team in place with that customer-first mentality. If you dont have that focus, partners will just go elsewhere. It takes a lot of time to build that trust. Our goal is to be the best and be partners carrier of choice.

P+: Has the program been changed in any way since you took over?

Law: We have not made any significant changes since I have taken over the leadership of the program. Our partners tell us that XO has one of the best channel programs in the industry. Our goal is to transform from being one of the best to being the very best. Today, we are very good at serving the small and medium-sized business segment. We will continue to expand the channel to include this segment plus serve larger customers to match XOs overall up-market strategy. Our network and broad portfolio of advanced IP and managed network services are ideally suited to multilocation businesses in the midmarket and enterprise segments.

P+: How much revenue does the channel bring to XO? Do you expect that to change in 2010?

Law: Today, the channel generates just over one quarter of our total revenue. We absolutely want this to grow. The first quarter of this year was our best quarter ever for the channel in terms of sales and revenue, which means were off to a great start in 2010.

P+: How many agents are in the XO program? Do you expect that to change in 2010?

Law: Today, we have approximately 300 channel partners. We will continue to evaluate our partners and work with those who are committed to the XO Business Partner program. We want our program to be a win-win for both organizations, and we will invest in partners that invest in XO.

P+: In 2009, XOs agent cuts upset the community to the extent that some have been discussing joint legal action. Can you speak to the rationale behind that decision?

Law: All service providers regularly evaluate their channel programs, see which partners are participating and end relationships with those that are not committed to their programs. That is nothing unique to XO. Its happening across the industry. I believe XO receives a lot attention when we do make changes because we have one of the best channel programs in the industry.

Although this happened before my taking over the leadership of the XO Business Partner program, I think we need to clear the air about the facts of this. We want partners who are committed to XO Communications over the long term partners that sell our services and solutions on a consistent basis. When they do that, we invest in them through our local teams, incentives, tools and support. The agents that we terminated relationships with last year were underperforming agents who were not meeting their contractual obligations to XO Communications.

That said, our channel program is growing, and XO is investing more money in our partners than it ever has in its past. Last year, revenue from the channel grew by 20 percent and revenue from our top partners grew by 35 percent. Those are the facts, and they speak for themselves.

P+: What are you goals for the XO channel program in 2010?

Law: We have one of the best channel programs in the industry. We know that our network reach, services, programs and support set XO apart from the competition. My goal for 2010 and beyond is about delivering the best possible experience for our partners and customers. And that is as much about execution as it is about attitude. We will become the carrier of choice for the partner community, and we will do this through a relentless focus of exceeding their expectations of every minute of every day. That is the attitude we are building within the XO Business Partner program. If we succeed in that, then we create a win-win relationship for our partners that helps them increase sales, increase revenue and grow their reputation together with XO.

P+: What are your key partner-enablement initiatives for 2010?

Law: We have a number of initiatives planned for 2010. These include enhanced quoting capabilities through our new quote desk team, expanding our channel account managers duties, expanding the ability of partners to work with XO on our largest account opportunities and working with partners in non-XO markets to offer our services like XO Connect, MPLS IP VPN, DIA and Ethernet for multilocation solutions.

P+: What do you think will be hot product/solution opportunities for partners in 2010?

Law: I believe the services that will be most in demand will be those that enable enterprises to do more with either their current telecom spend or even less. Specifically, were talking about MPLS IP VPN, Ethernet and SIP-based communications services services that help customers be more efficient, get better performance and reduce costs.

These are all services that can help businesses, particularly multilocation enterprises, increase performance while optimizing their capital and operational spending. WAN solutions like MPLS IP VPN and Ethernet VPLS enable enterprises to create application-aware networks that are more cost-effective and maximize network utilization by prioritizing traffic. SIP-based voice networks can transform distributed networks and help large enterprises take a lot of costs out of their networks, such as the capital and operational costs of managing PBXs and local voice trunks at each location.

P+: What will be the biggest challenges for channel partners generally in 2010?

Law: I believe that the continued uncertainty with economy will be the biggest challenge. This makes it hard to predict when businesses will be returning to the table and making the investments we all want to see them making in their IT infrastructures and communications networks.