The full version of this article was first published at: The Allbound Podcast: Building a Quality Partner Program from the Ground Up
Joe Barnes, Head of Channels at Cohesity, joins guest host Matt Hensler, Vice President of Customer Success at Allbound who is filling in for Jen Spencer, on The Allbound Podcast to discuss how to build and maintain a successful partner program from scratch. What’s been the experience for you to try and recruit and sign on partners who already have a lot of technology on their line cards, new technology in a slightly different value proposition then they’re used to? What has your experience been in convincing these overwhelmed partners that they should add another technology to their mix? That’s a great question and very relevant to what we are doing and what we face. Every solution provider that’s a part of our channel today sells multiple products from multiple vendors, and keeping up with that is no easy task for a vendor. Some partners sell 400-500 different vendors’ products, some are more focused or specialized and sell maybe 30-40 different vendors products; either way we’re competing with the status quo and the encumbrance with over half our relationships with those partners, and it’s a heavy lift on our shoulders. We’ve got to show those partners they can make money selling Cohesity and we’ve got to show them there’s a big opportunity and a reason to do it, but it’s on our shoulders to do the heavy lifting and to help prove that concept. It’s really not until we help a partner win two, or three, or sometimes even four…
Read More: The Allbound Podcast: Building a Quality Partner Program from the Ground Up