Cytracom Channel Chief: Lots of Changes Coming

Cytracom, the hosted VoIP and UC provider, plans to roll out its first formal partner program with Dave Goldie at the helm as its new vice president of channel.

Goldie will serve as Cytracom’s North American channel chief and will be responsible for the company’s overall channel sales strategy and execution. He previously was vice president of channel at IT Glue, which was acquired by Kaseya. Before that, he held sales leader roles at a variety of companies in Canada.

“Dave has an intimate knowledge of the pain points that MSPs face and the critical role communication plays in their success,” said Zane Conkle, Cytracom’s CEO and co-founder. “This, along with his impressive channel development track record, make him the perfect fit as we continue to enhance our partner program in 2019.”

Cytracom delivers fully managed, enterprise-grade hosted VoIP for small businesses. The company sells only through the channel and offers month-to-month pricing.

Cytracom’s Dave Goldie

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Goldie talks about why he’s a good fit for Cytracom and what’s in store for partners in the coming months.

Channel Partners: Why did you want to join Cytracom?

Dave Goldie: I’ve been actively involved in the channel for a number of years now as a channel leader. I worked for a company called IT Glue for a number of years, working directly with MSPs and selling our software directly to MSPs. We scaled that business pretty rapidly. When I started with IT Glue, they were just a small, 10-person startup and we grew that business to over 125 staff, and we were doing about $1 million annually when I first joined, and within three years scaled that business to over $25 million in annual recurring revenue. And recently that company was sold to Kaseya, so now it becomes part of a quarter-billion-dollar organization.

So my primary expertise is in helping businesses grow, and the focus of that growth is growing revenue and people. I joined Cytracom because there’s a massive opportunity for growth. So it was a great fit, a great opportunity for me to grow and a great opportunity for me to help Cytracom grow.

CP: How will your experience with IT Glue come into play in this new position?

DG: Originally when I joined that organization we were direct sales, and our target customer, or really our only customer, was MSPs, and Cytracom is a channel-only organization. So what really spoke to me with Cytracom was the strategy to remain channel-only. At IT Glue, we introduced a new product that was a sell-through product, so I had some experience in building the sell-through strategy, the partnership sales strategy, partnering with MSPs to offer value to their customers — and that’s really the only way that Cytracom sells. And for Cytracom to be channel-only, it again gives me the opportunity to directly partner with MSPs to offer a valuable product to their customers.

CP: Are you planning changes to Cytracom’s channel program?

DG: I’ve been working behind the scenes with Cytracom for a couple of months now. There are some very significant changes and strategic plans that we’ve developed over the last couple of months, and there will be more information released very soon. I think one of the most significant pieces of news is we will be introducing a formal partner program, so a tiered partner program that will give our partners more added benefits, more incentives to grow the partnership with Cytracom. And in its simplest form, that means selling more phones. Our pursuit as an organization is to sell more phones, we only sell those phones through MSPs, and so the only way we’re going to be successful is by growing our partnerships with MSPs. There will be some significant benefits, including …

… financial benefits, for MSPs to continue to growth their partnerships with Cytracom. That’s probably the biggest, most exciting news, but there [are] lots of changes coming. We will be introducing the partner program in [the first quarter].

CP: What sort of feedback have you received from partners? Also, did their feedback come into play while formulating the partner program?

DG: I have spoken to a couple of our partners, and members of our executive team and channel team have gathered feedback from our partners as to what’s going well and what could we be doing better. And there [are] various components of the partner program that will incentivize partners to grow that partnership, but also to position us more competitively in the market. There’s been a lot of feedback gathered from our partners and there will be a lot more gathered from partners as we’re introducing this plan and engaging more feedback.

Another key strategic plan that we have is to introduce our partner advisory council — and that will be a [first quarter] goal. That will allow us to gather a lot more feedback on our process, on our products and how to continue to successfully grow our partnerships with MSPs.

CP: What do you want partners to know about you and what it’s like to work with you?

DG: I think a lot of MSP owners and operators know me. I’ve been very active in the channel for many years and attending many, many events. A couple of years ago I spent 150 days on the road traveling to events all across North America to connect with MSPs directly. So I think a lot of them know my voice. They may not know this current voice, though. Some know the story of how many years ago I started losing my voice due to overuse and misuse, and it was a three-year journey and a couple of surgeries for me to repair that voice. So it’s interesting that I’m bringing a new voice that’s not as raspy or weak as some of them might be used to, so I’m excited to bring that. I bring a lot of energy to the space and I love getting the opportunity to connect directly with small business owners and talk about some of the challenges … and talk about some solutions to overcoming those challenges and focusing on how small businesses can continue to grow, maximize profits and continue to employ the majority of America and North America.

CP: What do you hope to have accomplished a year from now?

DG: For me it ties back to the “why Cytracom?” There’s a very clear goal for us from a revenue perspective and I think any sales leader needs to start there as the No. 1 measurement of success. So at the end of 2019 [if] we have doubled the revenue, then I’ll believe that we’ve [been] successful. Growth is No. 1 for me, so we’ve grown Cytracom, we’ve grown the human resources and a number of other resources. We’ve introduced a number of other assets to better support our partners and grow those partnerships, and to better support their customers to ensure that Cytracom is positioned as the best option for voice continuity in the MSP market. We’re not looking to compete in other markets; there’s a lot of competition in VoIP. We’re very focused on MSPs and we want to be positioned as the only option for VoIP in the space.