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100 - Stacy Betts - Power of Alignment · Partnerships Unraveled

• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we unravel the mysteries about partnerships, and channel on a weekly basis.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: My name is Alex Whitford, I'm the VP of Revenue here at Chanix and this week I'm very excited to welcome our special guest, stacey.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How are you doing?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Doing great.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me Excited to be here, stacey.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: How are you doing, stacey Lewis?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Founder Uninitiated.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Doing great.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having me Excited to be here.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, Well, you work for one hell of a brand in Cisco, but maybe for the Uninitiated.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: You can walk us a bit about what you do at Cisco and who you are.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I've been at Cisco for a number of years, working the channel organization for the Americas team and my main job.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Every day I wake up to work with our 12 largest partners in the U?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: S and helping them be successful with Cisco and our partnerships have an amazing team work with some amazing people, and it's been a fun ride.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: In my old gig and in the prep call we were discussing this term, but in my old gig we used to call those partners the King makers.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: They are quite literally the biggest and the best partners in the world.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Right, they?
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: They control a huge amount of revenue.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: There are thousands at least of salespeople, maybe tens of thousands of salespeople across those organizations.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Talk to me about some key strategies you use to influence such a large group of salespeople, to sort of impact your revenue.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's a really good perspective that, as over the years, you watch how this evolves.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: We have thousands of salespeople at Cisco, thousands of salespeople at our partners, and the key is how you get them working together every day.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: And then, on top of that, things change.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: People leave, people exit the business, enter the business.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So we're constantly waking up every day trying to figure out how do we get them connected better.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So we started to put in some practical things at Cisco, some very specific process things early in the pre-sales process that encourage engagement with our partners and our sales teams on both sides, and what that means for our partners is the ability to position services, their value add, earlier in the sales cycle, which is going to be very important because that's your profitability.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So we've worked really hard at that, but I will tell you, we're not perfect and we're learning every day, and I think our sales teams are growing in their knowledge of how partners make money, which is a really important component, and it's our job as a channels team to really get in the middle of that and help it be successful.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: When I first started out sales and I started out in the channel that was quite literally my first introduction, which is the best place to start sales?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: of course, but I was under the impressions that small partners dealt with small businesses and medium partners, medium businesses and large partners, large businesses.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: That's not particularly true.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Actually, In the UK I think CDW is one of the largest agnostic of Cisco but just one of the largest SMB partners, ie they service more SMBs than almost any other business in the UK, but they also service some of the largest UK customers in the US.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: In your America's organization.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: How do you blend a volume versus high value approach with a partner that seemingly does both incredibly well?
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, here's the thing.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes people will determine volume as just pick, pack and ship.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: But what we've learned with digital technology and how we can use agile technology to help customers, there's a lot of value in volume, making it simple, making it easy for our customers Really important.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: And then what we want to be able to do at that point is how do you take those customers and nurture those customers to where you can provide a lot of the higher value in services.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: So our partners that have found a way to blend both and they've been able to retain customers for the long term.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: And the examples where you may sell a few few computers to a customer today, 10 years from now, they're a Fortune 500 company and you want to be with them on the journey company and you want to be with them on the journey, and so I think it's a really delicate balance being able to provide both and know exactly what the customer needs and help them on that journey as they look at digital transformation for the business and their outcomes you're looking for.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I love that long view approach right, because to me, there's actually two reasons why you care about velocity business.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: The first is your CFO will love you.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: It's one thing closing that massive deal that's 40% of the entire number but the problem is that makes finance people scared.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Is it coming, Is it slipping?
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: When is it landing?
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: And so having run rate business that gets you to 80%, that's the dream, right.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: That's where we want to be.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: But the second bit is what I love to call the HubSpot play, because HubSpot have done this really well as a business, where they go, hey, free users will capture the low end, will capture the small business, and then some of those business turn into some of the largest companies in the world and they caught them for nothing, right.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: And so you're playing the long game both ways keeping your CFO happy and seeding out value and supporting partners to capture those businesses that ultimately can become the biggest companies in the world, which think is is a a great long-term vision, especially with cisco right, which is, as far as I'm concerned, the one of the strongest enterprise technology companies that exist.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: So how you migrate from smb to enterprise is fantastic yeah, and I would just say to your point you said it right it's the catch and then the keep and if how you do that.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Over the years and it's been really neat to watch our partners have evolved their business models to really keep those customers long term.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And, of course, we're selling a lot more software, a lot more subscriptions and things where it requires more of a lifecycle approach.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: So it's fascinating and we're learning together on this journey for sure.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that I find particularly interesting about channels is the similarities and differences between typically where channels are born the Americas for most of our American-led organizations and then how they grow right.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: How do you support in tackling customers who are global and then finding partners who are global, and maybe they're global in different ways?
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: I'd love to find out how you access a certain market or support that market from the Americas.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so the 12 partners we've got responsibility for they're based here in the US, and so we have a lot of conversations about expansion right into different markets, and I look at it in two ways.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: They're expanding either for a customer or they're truly expanding for market opportunity.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Either for a customer or they're truly expanding for market opportunity and we've got to figure out, as an OEM and as their primary partner, how do we help them do this in a way that meets what they need for a customer, but also, if they were really expanding to a new market, how do they get there and get there fast and do it profitably?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So a couple of things we'll do.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: One we've got programs and process things that partners have to meet, as you can imagine, that are consistent, so the value add that they bring is consistent in the US as well as it would be in any other market.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So that's one.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Number two is working with our local channel teams from Cisco in those markets that know the sellers, know the customers really well and bringing them into the equation really early and then working as one team so that what we do is we help the partner achieve their objectives of getting into that market, be it a customer or market expansion, but doing it in such a way they can do it with speed, with excellence, operationally and, again, we'll talk about this a lot, I'm sure, today the profitability model they need to sustain that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think, having that clear vision on what a partner's strategy, I always find that the best brands, the best salespeople, that's where they start right.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: What's the big win for the partner?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: But you're absolutely correct.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: If we're just trying to service, you know and customer why and they've just opened up an office in the Nordics that's slightly different than, hey, we're landing and we're expanding, expanding and we're going for domination and I've seen some of those American-led, either through M&A or through real on-the-feet-on-the-street building and you being able to support that.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Not only does that build value locally in the newer regions, but that's got to be winning you so much.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: What's the right word?
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Cachet right.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: So much good favor locally.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Because that was a great word, cache.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I've not said that in years Sounds better when you say it than when I say it.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: But that's got to build so much goodwill locally right that you're thinking outside of your remit.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: How do you coordinate with the sort of local Cisco teams to help drive that sort of continuity of program, continuity of relationship?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: How do you sort of see those pieces working together?
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Well, honestly, some of it is just relationship.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Do I know someone in the market or does someone know someone that may help us there?
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Two, we've got some internal tools that will help us determine who are some of our channel peers in that market.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And then also, just over the years, you begin to build relationships with other individuals that have had success.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: And so I also will go to peers and say, hey, how have you done this?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: When you did this, who did you work with?
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And you just start to put the puzzle together.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It's like laying a puzzle on the table and you put the pieces together and that's you know.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know that there's a secret sauce, as much as it's trial and error, and then you figure it out along the way and you figure out what works for that partner in that situation and if you can replicate it, great, but other times it's very unique to that situation.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Now you're talking there about experimentation, right, which to me is a philosophy, especially in the channel because it's such a complicated environment, right.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: We've got partner priorities, disty priorities, brand priorities, customers, and blending that all together is wild.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: One of the things that I've seen some businesses but really more importantly, some leaders instill is that philosophy around experimentation let's fail forward, let's fail fast, fail cheap, find the winning formula.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: How do you embed that into an organization, into your partners, into your salespeople?
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: How do you see that philosophy?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Well, there are a few things I think about.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Number one in some cases we'll help partners.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: In other words, if we're asking you to invest in an emerging area, some new technology, some new go-to-market strategy or business model, in some cases we'll come alongside and we'll co-invest with you.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: We'll help you get started, we'll jumpstart that with you getting headcount resources, building practices and that's common for us where we think there's a big opportunity.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: In other cases, I tell my team a lot.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: When we wake up every day, there's three things we focus on and it's the growth of our partners, it's the profitability of our partners and it's their loyalty to Cisco.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Now, we know that not every partner is going to sell 100% Cisco.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: We recognize that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: But we want to win and we want to win, mind sure, we want to keep it.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: And the way we do it help them grow.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Merging markets, new technologies, help them be profitable and if we can help them be profitable, then a chance of winning mindshare and keeping loyalty.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: When we come to them with the next thing, as well as mainstreaming what we just brought them, all that begins to come together.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: So for us, when we're coming to partners about building something new, it's helping them understand the ROI in that.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And then, most importantly, if Cisco is going to ask you to do it, we need to be in it with you, and there's different ways we do it programmatically, but also with our sales teams.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: I love the point in there, in particular, about profitability.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Right, I think in the vendor world it's so easy to start thinking in revenue numbers, why?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Because that's what's on my comp target, so that's what relieves my quota.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: But they don't care, right, especially business owners.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Right, they're all about the margin game.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: They're all about the profitability, the rebate, potentially on the back end and coming to them in their language, which makes that relationship so much stronger because we're putting them as the priority right, which, at the end of the day, that's how you build strong relationships, awesome.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that I find interesting about the ecosystem is uh, cisco has an amazing products and amazing solutions, but it's not an end-to-end solution, right?
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: You don't just have one company.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: They buy cisco end-to-end has to integrate, it has to build together, and part of that is partners get involved, they spec solutions, they design solutions.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: But I can imagine that there are instances where you will encourage a technology alliance or whether, or where you'll sort of delegate responsibility and leave a partner to make that decision.
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: How do you sort of think through that challenge, both from a technical perspective but also a go-to-market perspective?
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for us it is a foundational way we go to market.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I mean we truly believe in being open, having an ecosystem that works together and in that sense there are times when we're going to validate things.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Cisco will, we'll get with a partner, an ecosystem partner.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Together We'll come up with some sort of design and we'll tell customers it is validated and it'll work together.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: In other cases we're going to go to our partners and say listen, you do this really well.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: You figure out how this is going to be validated in your systems, in your process, and what you want to bring to market going to be validated in your systems and your process and what you want to bring to market.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: And what we want to do is encourage and foster an environment where our partners want to work together.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Now, sometimes it can be competitive, that friendly coopetition you certainly will have.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: But in many cases we'll have partners that maybe there's an emerging area they're working on and they don't have the capabilities.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: So one of the things we have to do is bring in another partner who has that capability and help, mentor, shadow, help them with implementation so they can get off and running and build a successful practice on their own.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: So we're constantly looking at where those partnerships make sense for Cisco, where they make sense for the partner, but most importantly, let's don't forget, where they make sense for the customer right.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: So at the middle of all this for us is customer success.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: So how do we wrap all those things around?
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So, at the end of the day, our customers should be successful in what they want to achieve.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: What I find amazing is, earlier in the podcast you referenced hey, how do we take the learnings from other regions and embed that into our go-to-market right?
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: What I think is so interesting about product innovation, and especially ecosystem product innovation, is the best people to do that are the partners, right.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: So do you ever see examples where a partner's gone, hey, we should put this solution in this solution together for this use case in this vertical.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: And are you ever seeing that and going, huh, we've never actually thought of that idea.
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: And how do I feed that back into my organization?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: How do we blueprint it?
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: How do we case study it?
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Because to me, having all of those engineers and design people who speak to customers all the time and think wider than Cisco, that's got to be a real power to how you go to market, because you can take their learnings and cannibalize them internally.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, and here's the fun part.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: What I love is when you sit with a partner who's really leaning in in some area that's new in technology be it a business model or some technology area and they tell Cisco about someone we maybe didn't know about and we haven't worked with, and then you start investigating.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh yeah, we should do that.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: And I've seen that happen a number of times where the partner has brought those ecosystem partners to us and said you should be working with them, cisco, because it'll make your product that much better.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: And so we're always open to that feedback and I never want to come to a partner saying that we have it all figured out.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: We certainly think we've got some value add, that we can help our partners in a big, big way, but we're also humble enough to say you know, you know this thing really well too, so why don't we put our heads together and figure out really what makes sense for both of us and, again, help our customers be successful with the outcomes we're looking for?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: So we're absolutely open to those things where we can, particularly in the vertical markets and industries where there's some niche players that could really help amplify our solutions together.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: We're very open to talking about those and figuring out how we can make that work together.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: So broad brush through this podcast.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: There's one sort of theme which is alignment.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Right, it's alignment between the partners, the customers, the product, the ecosystems, the alliances.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: Alignment, I think, drives success because if we can set people in a direction, get them to understand why it's important and keep people in line, that's really how we drive progression.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: One of the things that can be quite complicated is we spoke about there's thousands of potential sellers selling Cisco within your 12 partners.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: There's also thousands of AEs at Cisco and there's some partner reps who have slightly different priorities than both those sets of people.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: How do you drive that alignment to be as successful as possible?
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I know to your point we touched on a little bit earlier and this is something that we work at every day and we tell our partners right, we know we can always get better in terms of how we work together as teams and we often say, hey, one plus one equals three, but in my opinion, if we do this really really well, one plus one could equal five, because we are so much aligned with the customer and it all starts in the pre-sales process.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: So at Cisco we've done some things that are formal activities where our account teams and our partners work together in the pre-sales capacity.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Think of it as a roles and responsibility matrix where they get aligned and they go through and they determine here's what I'm doing, here's what you're doing as a partner, here's what the customer is doing and, by the way, if we can get the customer at the table in this pre-sales process to have this conversation, we're all better from it and here's what's resulting and this is the big part that I love when we do this aligned process and again, it's a formal process we're seeing services go up for Cisco.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Service meaning kind of maintenance, premium service type things go up for Cisco.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: We're seeing partner services go up.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: We're seeing deal registrations go up, deals are getting larger, and here's the thing and for both of them they're making more money as sellers because there's more margin and opportunity, and our sellers are getting more bookings credited at Cisco for the deal.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So it's a very good equation for us.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: And then what it guarantees is that we have everyone aligned to ensure that the outcome the customer is looking for.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: We have that top of mind for all of us.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: So that is something for us that we know we've got to continue to get better at, and particularly as people move in and out of the business, maybe understand partners or don't understand the business models, this helps secure that, and it's something we've got to get to where we're doing more consistently as a company and in partnership.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: And what you're.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: I think strategically that makes so much sense and it's great that the data is bearing out the sorts of fruits of that labor.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: However, you're talking about reps that don't report into you and reps that don't even work at the same company as the one that pays you.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: How do you influence them to do that activity right, Because it sounds like it's, I imagine, that account planning, mapping exercise with new stakeholders.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: It's not an easy process, right, it takes, I imagine, salespeople.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: We like the easiest route to the win, right, so we can maybe avoid some of the admin that needs to be done or avoid some of the networking that needs to be done.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: How do you ensure that that activity is happening at the right cadence to the right quality?
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: What's?
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: your thought process.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's where, as a channels team, we can't get into every situation, every opportunity, because there are thousands of opportunities.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: But we certainly want to create behaviors and those behaviors start early because if we can get in some of those larger opportunities, show the teams the value of this process and basically show the benefit to them.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Like, as a Cisco seller, here's the benefit for you doing this and as a Cisco partner, here's the benefit for you doing this.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: And if we can show that and show it consistently, then the behavior begins to repeat itself and we can begin to pull away because they understand.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: This is kind of DNA.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: This is how we should be partnering.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: It shouldn't be an exception, it should be more of the norm.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: And so when we get to that point and we've got sellers now that are seeing the value of this and the big selling point in terms of Cisco right now that we've been telling our account managers and we've got the data to show it, that is, if you do this formal process up front with your partner, no-transcript.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: So when you hear, retire quota faster, they're like, okay, tell me how.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: And then in that process I'm going back and telling the partner hey, by the way, when we do this process, you make more money, profit, gross margin, gross profit.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden they're like, okay, tell me, and I want to do this more often.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And one of the things that I found because we're talking about a cultural change right, it's not just a process change, it's a different philosophy.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: It's a.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: It's a.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: It's a different philosophy, it's a different feedback loop.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: One of the things that I have found it takes a lot of work to to build the momentum, but to keep the momentum.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: It's all about celebrating the wins.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: Right, it's the reminder, not on.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Hey, you need to do this, but hey, look at stacy, he's a genius, he just, he's, just, he's.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: He's seven days into the quarter and he's already hit target.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Here's how, how do you go about celebrating those wins internally in the partners to really galvanize and drive that continuous momentum?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so for us, certainly, you want to call out the unique case studies, right, the success stories, and you want to highlight those wind wires, right?
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Some will call it.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: So we certainly do that.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I think it's also the acknowledgement we try to be very intentional about recognizing when a seller at Cisco and a partner seller worked well in an opportunity, and really calling that out, putting a spotlight on that who's really good with a partner, and put them together and say, listen, learn from this person who was where you were four years ago but now understands how to maximize channel partnerships and work with partners in a way that helps us all benefit the customer for what they're trying to achieve.
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: Awesome Now, as we sort of opened with you work with the Kingmakers.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Now we have a lot of partners who listen to the podcast and try and understand how they can go to market more effectively.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: What are the key things that you see those 12 players do that got them to climb the mountain?
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: Why are those guys at the top?
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: What do they do that's special, different and that the rest of our listeners can learn from?
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think it's anything that probably is going to shock you, but here's what I would tell you.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: They were persistent in some core things, and so here's what I mean Persistent in making sure they are very visible with our account teams.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Persistent in making sure there were quarterly type reviews of the business where we are what we're doing, what we're driving.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Persistent in alignment with our sales leaders and executives where it makes sense, because actually we all know the magic is not at the executive level.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: The magic is in the field.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: That's where it really happens.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: So we have to be careful we don't over-rotate and want to meet with all the senior leaders.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Really, where it's happening is what's the planning and activity.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: That's at a field level.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: That's what's going to create success.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: That's what's going to create growth for us.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: But the persistence of making sure you're doing the small things along the way, those are going to build and then the brand gets built.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: And as a brand gets built, people want to understand how did they do this?
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Who do I engage with?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: And from there it begins to grow and I've seen that time and time again from partners who were smaller to medium size to get large.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: They found a way to be persistent in some of those core areas.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: I love that, stacey.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I think sometimes we always want to put the praise at the top, right, the genius that came up with the strategy, and let's go out for the lovely Michelin-style dinner because, hey, that's nice.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: But we talk a lot internally at Chanix that great outcomes come from basic activities done for a great amount of time.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: Usually, the detail is they just picked up the phone more, they did more quotes, they pushed harder, they did it consistently, they did it for 12 years and not for three years, right.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: And so that is the huge outsized return.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: And, by the way, that's the real power of the channel, because it's not just me and you doing it Right, if we get it right, the influence of thousands of people doing it.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: That's where that's why the king makers exist.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Right, because they've managed to get those basic repetitions done for an extraordinary amount of volume.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: And then that's where the great outcomes come from.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and one thing I think about there, alex, from where you're saying this, is you know the beauty of our partners bring so much to the table in so many ways be it vertical verticals, industries, technology, business models, financial options to our customers.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: There's so much that they offer.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: And when our AMs at Cisco really begin to grab hold of all those different things, it is fun to watch.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: It's fun to watch the relationships blossom.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: It's fun to watch how excited our teams get to work together relationships blossom.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: It's fun to watch how excited our teams get to work together and then to rinse and repeat that, get back to that.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: As they begin to see and understand what the partner can bring, that value add becomes even more critical in that partnership.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: So I love it.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: That's why I do what I do.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: That's the fun part of this job being in the channels.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: You get to see this happen every day and it wakes me up with a smile on my face really thankful this happened every day and it makes it wakes me up right with a smile on my face really thankful, blessed what I get to do.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Awesome.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Now one little lesson for any rep within a partner is if you're going to sit down with a vendor, you should always finish the meeting by cheekily asking for a lead.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: We're no different at Chanix.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: We like to ask our current guest who they think we should bring on next.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Stacey, who did you have in mind?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: I actually have two people and I know we've talked about some.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I might change up a little bit from our initial conversation, but I thought about this last night.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: One is Carl DeMarco.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Carl is a peer of mine here at Cisco, great friend, great leader.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: One of the things he does is he works in a channel organization as well at Cisco, but one area that he has is S&B and I just think there's a fascinating story that he can tell you around what he's seeing in terms of trends.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: And I got a friend of mine who actually was a neighbor years ago.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: His name is Joe Penix, he's at Lenovo and Joe's a senior channel leader and I was actually in a meeting with him virtually this week where I was on a panel discussion and I think he would be fascinated, given the Lenovo experience.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: He's been there almost 30 years and I think he could bring a wealth of knowledge here and expertise.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to challenge him to be on this and I know he'll accept.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Excellent, stacey.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Look, carl, I'm looking forward to it.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: I'm assuming you are also going to agree in terms of the value that volume provides.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: But, stacey, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much much and to our listeners, I'll see you next week.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: All right, take care.