Bold Journeys Podcast

By Rob SpeeReligion & Spirituality Education Self-Improvement Religion

Bold Journeys Podcast episodes

June 26, 2019Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable
A Modern Way to Manage the Modern Channel
Partner ecosystems are very different than they were just 10 years ago. The channel is expanding to the point that potentially anyone, including your customers, could be a channel partner. This creates an awesome opportunity for SaaS partnerships. Yet at the same time, it is a huge challenge to manage such diverse partner types that require different incentives and different compensation models.
This week’s guest is Bryn Jones, founder and CEO of the channel tech company Partnerstack. We discuss how Partnerstack was created to recruit, connect and manage this modern partner ecosystem. Learn about channel trends and how you can make SaaS partnerships more profitable and drive faster growth through multiple types of partners.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Making SaaS Partnerships More Profitable
Building successful SaaS Partnerships takes time. Develop and roll out a step-by-step playbook for what you want to accomplish over a two-year period.
Consider all the different partner types that you could leverage in your partner ecosystem, including developers, influencers, resellers, affiliates, and customers.
For each partner type, define partner personas (ideal partner profiles) the same way that marketing defines buyer personas. Then find 10 channel partners that fit that persona for one partner type.
Work closely with that group of partners to show results in the first three to six months. Then move on to another group.
Building Successful SaaS Channel Programs
The channel has changed drastically, but vendors still often get stuck on one model. Run A/B testing with different incentives and business models, just like marketing A/B tests email campaigns. And give your partners options on their incentive structure.
The channel is becoming centralized. Bring your various channel programs such as reseller, alliance, and cloud into one flexible program and one management tool.
Channel leaders need to be heard at the board level where the return on investment and elevation of the channel as a profession should be discussed.
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The biggest trend I have seen in the channel is that it is beginning to centralize. Many programs that were run independently are now starting to come together. -Bryn Jones @bryncdn
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The best thing people can do is poll your partners and figure out what they want and give them different options. -Bryn Jones @bryncdn
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We are all going to benefit, and the customer is going to benefit in the end, by elevating the knowledge and capability of the channel for SaaS companies. -Rob Spee
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LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Bryn on LinkedIn and on Twitter
Learn more about Partnerstack
Register to attend the Webinar on Incentive Models for the Changing Partner Ecosystem
Listen to episode 15: 5 Reasons You Need SaaS Channels
The post Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable first appeared on Channel Journeys.
42 min
June 26, 2019 Bryn Jones: How to Make SaaS Partnerships Profitable- CJ26
B2B partner ecosystems are very different than they were just 10 years ago. The channel is expanding to the point that potentially anyone, including your customers, could be a channel partner. This week's guest is Bryn Jones, founder and CEO of the channel tech company Partnerstack. We discuss how Partnerstack was created to recruit, connect and manage this modern partner ecosystem. Learn about channel trends and how you can make SaaS partnerships more profitable and drive faster growth through multiple types of partners.
42 min
June 19, 2019Avanish Sahai: The 5 Myths of Application Platforms
Tips for Building Successful Application Platforms and Developer Channels
Application platforms provide a framework and a marketplace for a community of developers to create solutions on top of a SaaS vendor’s technology. Salesforce has been hugely successful in growing their business by offering the App Exchange platform for partners to develop custom applications on top of Salesforce CRM. Yet despite the many advantages of application platforms, there are still many myths holding partners and vendors back from leveraging this powerful channel opportunity.
This week’s guest, Avanish Sahai, is an expert in building application platforms and ecosystems of development partners. Avanish was previously the Vice President of ISV and Channel Alliances at Salesforce. There he launched App Exchange and grew the platform to over 2000 applications. He’s now applying his platform magic at ServiceNow where they just topped 500 applications on the ServiceNow store in four years. Avanish dispels five common platform myths as we talk about platform trends, developer partner ecosystems, and how to build a successful developer channel.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Top Myths of Application Platforms
Myth #1: Vendors want to copy their partners’ apps.
Platform vendors want their developer partner ecosystem to be rich and successful. Consequently, stealing partners’ ideas would severely damage trust and hamper success.
Myth #2: There is always a “winner take all” in any given category.
In any given category, there will be multiple vendors at different paces of innovation. Likewise, if a market is available and proven, there will be multiple partners who can and should participate in that market.
Myth #3: If you build it (an application), they (the customers) will come.
Partners need a go-to-market plan from a marketing, sales, customer support, and customer success perspective. Therefore partner should take ownership of marketing and selling their individual solution with support from the vendor.
Myth #4: Partners are being charged a tax to be on the platform.
Running an application platform and creating and connecting API’s for partners is not free for the vendor. That is why many vendors’ application platforms run on a revenue sharing model which helps the vendor build the partner ecosystem.
Myth #5: The only exit for partners is being acquired by the platform provider.
While nothing is certain, financial exits in a variety of forms can and will happen. Acquisition by the vendor, another partner, a private equity firm, or even an IPO, are all possibilities.
Application Platform Trends
From Healthcare to Education, developer ecosystems are growing very quickly. Customers are looking for partners with deep vertical expertise who are developing vertical-specific applications.
Global system integrator are building applications alongside their core service businesses. As a result, many are taking advantage of software vendor’s APIs and application platforms to expand their service offerings.
Building a Successful Developer Channel
It is critical for the vendor to have a thoughtful strategy around the building and maintaining API’s, the data exchange between partner, customer, and vendor, and business workflows.
As with any channel program, executive commitment at the CEO and board level with alignment up and down the organization is crucial for success.
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Our partners have specific domain expertise that we want to see coming to our application platform. Joint innovation delivers greater customer outcomes. @avanishsahai
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The days of closed, non-flexible offerings is over. Having a thoughtful vendor strategy around building and maintaining API's is absolutely critical. @avanishsahai
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A core role of a platform vendor is to help figure out the marketing mix. The partner should take ownership of marketing and selling their individual solution but will need support from the vendor. -Rob Spee
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LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Avanish on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Learn more strategies for building a SaaS Partner Program
The post Avanish Sahai: The 5 Myths of Application Platforms first appeared on Channel Journeys.
43 min
June 18, 2019 Avanish Sahai: The 5 myths of Application Platforms - CJ25
Avanish Sahai is an expert in building application platforms and ecosystems of development partners. He's now applying his platform magic at ServiceNow where they just topped 500 applications on the ServiceNow store only four years after launching. Avanish dispels five common platform myths as we talk about platform trends, developer partner ecosystems, and how to build a successful developer channel.
43 min
June 12, 2019Laura Steward: Asking the right channel questions
Are You Asking the Questions to Get the Answers You Need or the Answers you Want?
Business models are constantly changing and evolving. And companies that adjust and adapt are the ones that survive. Doing things the way we have always done them is what can leave our channel programs and our companies stagnant or on the verge of collapse. The key to avoiding this unwanted situation is found in the questions that we ask.
This week’s guest is Laura Steward, an entrepreneur strategist, author, and host of the “It’s All about the Questions” podcast. Laura is also a former Managed Service Provider and frequent channel speaker. Learn about diversity of thought and the channel questions we should be asking ourselves and our customers to uncover new opportunities and minimize new threats.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Diversity of Thought
Start by learning from people from all different backgrounds with different perspectives. This creates diversity of thought and forces us to examine ourselves and start asking the questions that matter.
Diversity is important, however diversity of thought is what moves innovation forward.
Diversity drives change. Learning from different people with different perspectives will change your channel journey for the better.
The best way to ask the right channel questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives than you. These are the people who will force you to examine your own way of thinking.
Asking the Right Questions
One of the first things we really need to do on both sides of the channel is just stop. We need to stop and give ourselves that moment to think about what we’re about to ask and the answers that we get.
At least once a quarter, stop and look at your businesses. Look at your client makeup. Determine who is buying your product and who isn’t. If they aren’t buying from you, why not?
Ask clients what is and isn’t working for them and how you can best help them. This is an important piece in learning what they truly need and how you can help them get there.
Channel Questions
Technology innovations including IoT, Cloud, and SaaS to deliver business outcomes rather than the traditional products and services is driving innovation and change in the channel. Do you have the right partners? What do you need to change to attract the right partners and get the results you are seeking?
Hacking is a massive problem and partners need to be looking more closely at what bad people could be doing. How are they thinking? What are the questions they’re asking themselves? Are they hacking your business to reach your clients?
Analyzing and Predicting Trends
Paying attention to soft trends and hard trends is important for businesses to recognize new opportunities and red flags of what is coming.
Channel pros need to be anticipating changes. Look forward to see where people and business are going and create environments to support and benefit from these changes.
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The best way to make sure you're asking the right questions is to surround yourself with people who think differently and have different perspectives. @TheLauraSteward
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Think carefully about the channel questions you're asking. Is your mind open to hearing the answers you really need and not just want you want to hear? @TheLauraSteward
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Partners need to be asking their customers where do they want to go? Customers aren't buying a product or a solution anymore, they want to buy a business outcome. -Rob Spee
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LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Laura on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube
Listen to Laura’s podcast It’s All About the Questions
Get Laura’s book “What Would A Wise Woman Do?“
Get Mastering Fear: A Navy SEAL’s Guide by Brendan Webb and The Anticipatory Organization by Daniel Burrus
The post Laura Steward: Asking the right channel questions first appeared on Channel Journeys.
46 min
June 11, 2019 Laura Steward: Are you asking the right channel questions? - CJ24
This week's guest is Laura Steward, an entrepreneur strategist, author, and host of the "It's All about the Questions" podcast. Laura is also a former Managed Service Provider and frequent channel speaker. Learn about diversity of thought and the channel questions we should be asking ourselves and our customers to uncover new opportunities and minimize new threats.
46 min
June 05, 2019Karin Fields: The Master Agent Evolution
How to win in this era of vendor and partner convergence

The agent/master agent channel of communications vendors is being disrupted by the convergence of IT and Communications. Telecom and communications suppliers are moving up the stack to offer more complex data and SaaS solutions. As a result, they are moving into the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Solution Provider channel once served almost exclusively by IT vendors. At the same time, SaaS vendors are starting to recognize an opportunity to leverage the telco agents to expand their reach.
This week’s guest, Karin Fields, has spent her entire career as a master agent with MicroCorp, rising all the way up the ranks to CEO. Karin shares where her business is headed, how the lines between telecom agent and MSP are getting blurred, and the new opportunities for her traditional agent channel. Learn how the communications channel is evolving and what you, as a vendor or partner, can do to win in this new landscape. And hear Karin’s tips for 20-something’s looking to enter this industry.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

MicroCorp’s Master Agent Evolution
MicroCorp is no longer interested in signing on more traditional connectivity partners. Her main focus now is on data center, security and SD-WAN. She’s moving up the stack into the SaaS space and encroaching into the Value-Added Distributor territory.
The MicroCorp team have been migrating their telecom agents to nontraditional conversations with their customers and end users, such as 365 licensing, UCAS, AWS connectivity, storage, backup retrieval, and other subjects that would normally be discussed with their MSP or VAR.
MSPs have an advantage because of their daily contact with their clients. However, MicroCorp offers solution sets that may be outside of the MSPs expertise. That’s why they offer engineering discovery and design expertise to help the MSP win business within most industry vertical and niche solutions.
Challenges with MSPs
The MSP is used to selling their own product that their own teams have been trained and certified on. Here they can usually control the customer or end user’s outcome.
One reason MSPs are uncomfortable with carrier services is because they lack control. They worry that an untimely delivery of services or installation would reflect poorly on them with the customer.
Tips for Young People Coming into the Industry
While coming into this industry is a lot of work and training, it offers a great quality of life and there is a significant need.
If a young college graduate can find a partner close to retirement to work for, they may be able to take over when their partner wishes to be done. Then they’ll have enough knowledge and the sophistication to have the type of conversations with their customers that they need to be having.
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I think the customer just wants to have a really good experience. And I don't necessarily know if they care about having one invoice or three invoices, as long as everything works and everybody works well together. @KarinFields
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There needs to be that impartial, independent partner who can pull the solution together from multiple providers and multiple products and services to make a fully meshed solution for the customer. @KarinFields
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LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Karin on Twitter and LinkedIn
Read Rob’s blog on Why Channel Convergence Won’t Happen
The post Karin Fields: The Master Agent Evolution first appeared on Channel Journeys.
42 min
June 05, 2019 Karin Fields: The Master Agent Evolution - CJ23
Learn about the evolving Master Agent business from Karin Fields, CEO of MicroCorp. Karin shares where her business is headed, how the lines between telecom agent and MSP are getting blurred, and the new opportunities for her traditional agent channel. Find out how the communications channel is transforming and what you, as a vendor or partner, can do to win in this new landscape.
42 min
May 29, 2019Ryan Walsh: What’s so different about Cloud Distribution?
Pax8’s mission to redefine cloud distribution
What is the role of distributors in this age of Cloud and SaaS? That’s the question we answer in this episode with Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer and co-founder of Pax8. Ryan and his fellow co-founders took a different approach in building Pax8 to support every piece of the partner journey in buying and selling Cloud products.
We talk about the role of the channel, channel incentive models, and the unique challenges of Cloud distribution that Pax8 is solving. Ryan shares what he looks for in a cloud vendor and the profile of the most successful managed service providers (MSPs).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
What makes Cloud distribution so different?
Cloud partners need a cloud marketplace with automated provisioning and integration with their PSA (Professional Services Automation) system. They also need marketing, pre and post-sales, and billing support, solution stack guidance, and other tools to help them grow their cloud service business.
Many MSPs (Managed Service Providers) don’t have the ability to support monthly subscription billing. Their cloud distributor’s billing system should be able to handle it for them.
Vendors need help supporting the billing motion of thousands of partners getting monthly invoices. Using a cloud distributor allows the vendor to just send one invoice per month.
Ryan and his co-founders launched Pax8 as a born-in-the-cloud distributor to find a better way to aggregate and offer cloud offerings to MSPs. They now serve over 6500 MSPs through their cloud marketplace.
Most Successful Partners
The most successful MSPs are shedding their old model and have gone all-in on cloud-based products. Those with more than 50% of their revenue from cloud offerings are growing faster and are more profitable.
What Pax8 looks for in a Vendor
Commitment to the channel
A high-quality proven solution with great support
Great margin for the partners (in the 20% to 30% range)
Automated provisioning and an API to billing data
A commitment to the Pax8 mission to redefine how distribution works in the cloud.
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Saying Pax8’s cloud marketplace is the same as all the others is like saying Uber is the same as Yellow Cab. @walshrr
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The MSPs that are killing it are the ones that have gone all in on cloud-based products. @walshrr
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LINKS & RESOURCES
Follow Ryan on Twitter and LinkedIn
Learn more about Value-Added Distribution from Matt Reaves
The post Ryan Walsh: What’s so different about Cloud Distribution? first appeared on Channel Journeys.
47 min
May 28, 2019 Ryan Walsh: What's so different about Cloud Distribution? – CJ22
What is the role of distributors in this age of Cloud and SaaS? That's the question we answer in this episode with Ryan Walsh, Chief Channel Officer and co-founder of Pax8. Ryan and his fellow co-founders took a different approach in building Pax8 to support every piece of the partner journey in buying and selling Cloud products. We talk about the role of the channel, channel incentive models, and the unique challenges of Cloud distribution that Pax8 is solving.
47 min