Hosted by Adrian Davis, CEO, Whetstone Inc.

SIIA Channels Webinars:

“Developing the Channel for the SaaS/Cloud Vendor”
Moderator:

Adrian Davis, President & CEO, Whetstone, Inc.

Panelists:

Matt McConnell, CEO, Knowlagent

Louis Chappuie, Vice President, Partner Programs, Boomi
 SIIA Channels Webinar Series

Selecting the Appropriate Channel

Price for All: Free
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm EDT

Avoiding Channel Conflict

Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm EDT

Building a Sales Compensation that Works

Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm EDT

How to Communicate with and Train Channel Sales Personnel

Price for SIIA Members: Free, Non SIIA Members: $89
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm EDT

http://bit.ly/siiachannels
 Content Nomination Deadline:
Sept 30, 2009
Software & Education Nomination Deadline:
Oct 16, 2009

www.siia.net/codies
*For more information contact Lisa Mitchell-Brooks,
lmitchell@siia.net
 Keynotes:
Lars Dalgaard
CEO, SuccessFactors
Zach Nelson
President and Chief Executive Officer,
NetSuite, Inc.

http://www.siia.net/ondemand
SIIA Channels Webinar Host
Adrian Davis
President & CEO
Whetstone Inc.
161 Bay Street
Suite 2700
Toronto, Ontario M5J 2S1

P: 416-410-1456
W: www.whetstoneinc.ca
E: adavis@whetstoneinc.ca
Skype: adrian.davis1

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/salesscientist

Find me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adriandavis
 Building and Maintaining Great Partnerships

September 9th, 2009

Lou Chappuie, VP of Partner Programs

SAAS
CLOUD
WEB
SERVICES
DATABASES
ON-PREMISE
 The Channel Dilemma
I’ve Got a Great Product and Good
Company……

• Why Aren’t My Partners Producing

More?

• Is it Really This Difficult?

• Why Does It Take So Long?

……Any Frustrated Channel Manager/Sales Manager,
August 2009

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Focus on the Right Partners

Boomi Overview: Why a Channel Strategy

Channels: A Complex Endeavor
Right Partners
Measuring Partner Performance
Ranking Partners
A Balanced Strategy

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Boomi: Why Channels? AWARD WINNING TECHNOLOGY

• Middleware in the Cloud

• Strong Linkage with our

Partners’ Products/Services

• 45+ Partners, OEM,

Reseller, and Referral
— SYS-CON “Top 100
Cloud Players”
• 70% Channel and Growing

• 500+ Clients, 11 Countries

• SaaS Integration Ecosystem

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Purpose Built for Partners

• Free developer
SDK
• Build your own
connector
• Self-service on-
boarding
• Connect to
100’s of Apps
and 1000’s of
potential clients

Connect Once – Integrate Everywhere™

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Successful Partnership: Complex Endeavor

Executive

Sales

Operational

Buyer/Product

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Pick the Right Partners = Qualify Out
Alignment Question(s)
Executive • Is the partner willing to invest in your product/service?
• Will your partner jointly author a business plan?
• Do you have regular access to the executive team?
• Is the executive team forward thinking or reactionary?
Sales • Does your product increase deal size, margin, commissions?
• Does your product reduce/extend sales cycle?
• Does your product/service increase close rate?
• Is your partner willing to provide reliable forecasts to you?
Operational • How does your pricing stack-up to your partner’s model?
• What is the technical capacity of your partner’s staff?
• How are your products delivered to market, add-on, COGS?
Buyer • What pain does your solution resolve for the customer?
• Does your message resonate with your partner’s customer?
• Does your product create stickiness for your partner’s customer?

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Ongoing: Measure Partner Performance
Partner Strategy – GTM
High

Post
• Partner
High Acquisition
Rev/ Low Margin • High Rev/ High Margin
• Not As Scalable • Very Scalable
• High Services/Support • Low Services/Support
Volume to Company

GTM: Preferred mkt activities

How important is your product?
GTM: pair with SI/or build comp

How important is your product?

• Low Rev/Low Margin • Low Rev/ High Margin

• Not Scalable • Scalable
• Drain Services/Support • Low Services/Support

How important is your product?

Low

Boomi Inc.Terminate/referral
GTM: Confidential only GTM: marketing or support only

Low Self Sufficiency High

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Force Rank: Where to Invest Limited $
High Profit Quadrant

Revenue Quadrant
• Rock Star Partner 1

• Solid Performer Partner 1 • Rock Star Partner 2

• Solid Performer Partner 2

Volume to Company

• Solid Performer Partner 3

• Life Support 1 • Independent Partner 1

• Life Support 2
• Life Support 3 • Independent Partner 2
• Life Support 4

• Life Support 5 • Independent Partner 3

• Life Support 6
• Life Support 7
Low

Low Self Sufficiency High

Boomi Inc. Confidential

 In Summary: A Balanced Strategy
• Executing a channel strategy is complex and takes time to build

• Don’t assume that your partner(s) want to sell your product

• Align your organization for success – no window dressing

• Be brutally honest – identify/measure performance

• Invest limited resources wisely and prune partnerships

• Keep some early stage companies that have the right mix/potential

• Embrace the 80/20 rule - focus on making the top 20% of your
partners ultra-successful

Boomi Inc. Confidential

 Thank You
Lou Chappuie
VP, Partner Programs
E: lou@boomi.com
T: 415.391.9012
M: 916.425.4151

Boomi, Inc.
West Coast Office
473 Jackson St. 3rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111

Boomi Inc. Confidential

Knowlagent
About Knowlagent
SaaS Talent Management suite for call
centers.
• Hiring, Training, Coaching
250,000 users in 10 countries
Started as a perpetual software company
Switched to 100% SaaS model in 2007
40% of 2009 revenue from channel
50% of sales force devoted to partners
61% recurring revenue growth in 2009

Matt McConnell, President

Knowlagent Call Center Talent Management

Call centers staff

for calls AND for
talent
management
activities.

100

90
Yet, there are
periods of call
80

volume downtime 70

when on-phone 60

staff is idle. 50

0
10 0

12 0
0

11 0

1: 0
:0

:3
:3

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:0
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1:
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Knowlagent Call Center Talent Management

Call centers staff

for calls AND for
talent
management
activities.

100

90
Yet, there are
periods of call
80

volume downtime 70

when on-phone 60
Training Coaching
staff is idle. 50

0
10 0

12 0
0

11 0

1: 0
:0

:3
:3

00

00
:0
30

30

00
00

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Staying on The Channel Sales Force’s Radar
Magnify the partner’s differentiators
Integration, reporting
Increases frequency of inclusion

Make sure it is worthwhile for the rep

% commission as good as other products
Time to cash is critical for everyone

Fill their pipeline

Joint marketing programs
Target partner’s existing customers

Make it the easy/ fast sale

Eliminate features
Eliminate inter-partner price hassles
Staying on The Channel Sales Force’s Radar
Make it work, fast
Salesforce lore makes or breaks a channel
Train, train, train
Babysit first few deliveries
Shadow model

Support, the key to retention

Retention means (more) commission
Provide online support tools for partner’s team
Always be happy to step in and support
SaaS Partnering Don’ts
Don’t try to compete with a perpetual license
compensation plan.
Methadone is habit-forming and expensive

Don’t assume that perpetual (“relationship”)

sales teams can easily adjust to SaaS.
May not be motivated for “at-bats model”

Don’t expect partners to sell something

indirect that you haven’t figured out how to
sell, deliver and retain direct.
Few willing to be first partner, even fewer willing to
prove your business model works
 Q&A
Adrian Davis Matt McConnell
President & CEO President
Whetstone Inc. Knowlagent
adavis@whetstoneinc.ca mmcconnell@knowlagent.com
P: 416-410-1456 Twitter: @Knowlagent
Skype: adrian.davis LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mattmcconnell
Twitter: @salesscientist
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adriandavis
Lou Chappuie
VP, Partner Programs
Boomi
lou@boomi.com
P: 415.391.9012
M: 916.425.4151