Lumen Channel Leaders: Activation Incentives 'Resonating' with Partner Community
Sara Seegers and her team have been "building maturity at the high end of the channel," Dave Young told Channel Futures.
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Channel Futures: How is the Lumen channel changing?
Lumen’s Sara Seegers: I would say that we have a strong tradition of being partner-friendly. And I would say we are now partner-focused. If you look at [CEO] Kate Johnson and [chief financial officer] Chris Stansbury, they came from tech companies that relied on a channel and a partner motion to grow the way they needed to. And I think that investment has resonated.
I think ecosystem is a commonly used word in the partner community now, and I’ll be honest: I think we’re ahead of it. Dave is an ecosystem chief, and that means getting everybody within Lumen rallied around the channel. [It’s also] the power and the synergies that exist, meaning our product teams are very forward-thinking, bringing partners in sooner than later on a go-to market and seeing the synergies with our partners on a product level, on a service delivery. Partners have many options. It’s our job to make sure they get the best return on investment when they invest in Lumen, and I think that’s what our ecosystem’s rallying around and our senior leadership is supporting. And that’s the power and the elevation that we’re seeing in the channel for Lumen.
Lumen’s Dave Young: Sara and I came from different parts of the company. I was very much involved with our public sector business. Sara was running a very large direct enterprise business. And we had built these motions inside the company in those previous businesses. When we got together in the channel business, we realized that we needed to build some strength to different parts of our ecosystem. Delivery is a good example. Product is another good example. We were able to have very successful lives in our previous roles because of this togetherness with the company. And I think both she and I saw an area where we needed to bring some of our strengths to the channel and begin to build those relationships.
And it happens at our peer level, but it happens in SLT. In the last nine months, we’ve had our new CFO, we’ve had our new CEO, we’ve had our new president of sales, we’ve had our head of product all with the channel for the first time in a very long time. At the very top there’s a big commitment, but there are also the strengths that we have as leaders inside the company, that we’re building the bridges to our ecosystem and strengthening the things that we think work really well for the company.
CF: Could you share an example from the product side?
SS: It’s really where the power of technology intersects. When we have siloed conversations, we can go sell a lot of IP, but when you look at our history of Black Lotus Labs and the companies that have become part of our platform, that’s when there are multipliers and “aha” moments with our partners in driving customer outcomes. Because it becomes a SASE conversation versus just an IP conversation. And that’s where our partners are realizing the multiplier on the dollar in the conversation with their clients. And what’s the one thing none of us have enough of? That’s personnel and resources. When we can bring those conversations together, we have the “aha” moment and the growth agenda, and I think that’s where our partners are seeing the power of our solutions, versus single, siloed products.
DY: We’ve been really, really good in the channel working at volume. The partners are beginning to move in different places in the market, and they’re beginning to move up-market. They’re beginning to have more and more relationships at the Fortune 500 level. That’s the complex sale Sara’s talking about — the complex relationship. I’ve seen Sara build a large deal team in the channel — a team of people solely dedicated to working on those complex environments. We’ve also gotten technologists around some the complexity of those sales to be dedicated to the channel. That’s a lot of what Sara has been doing to build the maturity at the high end of the channel versus the midmarket side of the channel.
CF: Is that specific to the TSD channel?
SS: Where there is a client need, we’re going to bring that kind of an approach and ecosystem to it. Gone are the days that you think you need a direct team. However, we’re doing an outward-looking-in. [CEO] Kate [Johnson] would say we’re customer-obsessed. I’d say we’re partner-obsessed as well. We’ve created a model based on what the customer needs. We’re going to bring that type of resource, and sometimes that might be channel-integrated. And sometimes it might be that the channel has the resources and we don’t need the direct folks in the market to support it. We’re going to go to market with customers the way they want us to, versus us telling them how.
DY: In the model that Sara’s building, it’s really the customer who decides what type of motion that they want to have with us and the partner. And sometimes that’s non-channel integrated. And sometimes that’s channel-integrated. But it shouldn’t be because of availability of resource. Sara has brought level of complex thinking about technology and about customer motions to her team, so those things can be supported directly to the channel and not borrowed.
CF: What are different customer-size segments demanding, especially in this macroeconomic downturn?
SS: It has created opportunity for new next-gen partners that are talking about augmented reality, virtual reality, cloud public/private cloud strategy. That whole conversation has now elevated as companies are digitizing and driving more efficiencies. We always say, “Follow the dollar.” And that doesn’t always mean reducing the dollar. But how are these companies using technology to increase revenue as well. And that is changing the agenda with our partners and with our clients. So that’s bringing it all together. I feel the marketplace and the opportunity are growing.
Let me give you another example. We’re seeing a lot of unfortunate messages out there of reductions in workforce. That is just the opposite in the channel. We are opening in 24 marketplaces and higher demand areas, where we felt putting a channel manager would not only help the TSB and the selling entities within, but also just supply client demand. We can’t go after that motion with solely a direct sales force.
This is not just adding headcount in selling. This is support. This is evangelists who are talking about the growth agenda and where this all intersects. Not only are we focused, but I think our actions are really showing it. The demand for these conversations by the customers is our rationale and business justification. It’s easy to pay back. We’re meeting the demand of the marketplace, and we feel it’s growing.
CF: Dave, your title recently changed from senior vice president of enterprise, East, financials and indirect channel, to senior vice president of midmarkets and indirect channel. Are there any implications to this update?
DY: Last fall, we began a movement to put a couple of things together and create a national midmarkets organization that was different than how we treated midmarkets in the past. As that begin to develop, there was a tie-in with our direct midmarkets motion and our channel motion. They had a lot of similarities. So there were some decisions to put that together. When our new SLT arrived, they overemphasized the desire to operate in the midmarkets, and they’ve provided a variety of resources in a couple of different places where in previous Lumen life, there wasn’t as much focus around it. It was handled in our general management model. It was natural to pull the midmarkets direct team up to a national sales unit and marry it together with me and Sara. Her role has a similar customer base to it, so it was natural to put all that together. And the new leadership team is 100% behind what had been started. They’ve re-emphasized it and added resources, like with what Sara is doing. We’ve got some new things, but it’s been a little bit of a gradual process, and they fit together so nicely. It doesn’t feel like it’s new.
CF: The sale of Lumen’s ILEC business in 20 states officially completed a few months ago. Is there a trend in winning with more digital types of technology?
SS: When we say digital, we think holistically from a partner in customer experience. Call it quote-to-cash. So once that first interaction they have, can they go quote it themselves? Could they go contract it themselves? Can we give them digital updates on the service delivery, the full life cycle of what that relationship looks like?
We feel our marketplace will continue to enhance as we roll out new products, SASE being one of them, where digital experience is obviously top of mind and our ecosystem is behind that. We’re continuing to get customer feedback in those areas. While we might have divested our ILEC assets, we did not divest our CLEC assets. So we still have a place in the marketplace, and we feel there are probably synergies to be gained with those assets from wholesale, but then also leveraging the assets that we continue to invest in from a fiber perspective. And that’s why we can offer edge. You don’t do five milliseconds of latency without having strong, proprietary gifts. That is our network.
DY: What I’ve learned is, there are so many different business models that comprise the channel. One of the things that we did last year was begin to leverage the sharing of information. That was done through APIs. About 18 months ago, Lumen probably had a very customizable heavy-human ability to put an API in place. Over the last year, we’ve created a portfolio of APIs for different parts of the business, so that TSBs can connect to get information flow from us on different parts of the business, depending on what they want to represent to the broader marketplace. We’ve got some standard APIs now that make it easy to connect with Lumen digitally and share information.
Then there’s also the play with a digital marketplace and customer access to us. We’re really on the cusp having a more robust digital marketplace to operate in. It’s going to be a digital marketplace that’s not just customer-based. It’s seller-based. It’s partner-based. It is a single place that the community of people who are interested in Lumen can come to with a different flow.
CF: Director of marketing Sam Sundstrom and other Lumen folks were at the Intelisys Marketing Summit, sharing some of the marketing resources they have to offer partners. How is Lumen working to resource its TSD and agent partners?
SS: Probably the No. 1 thing I’m hearing from [TSDs] is partner activation. Our investment in geographies was also based on where the TSDs have partners that they feel should be selling Lumen. We’re fresh off our partner advisory council and gaining their feedback. We have executives for the first time in many years attending that, which I think resonates with the partners. And that’s not just a sales motion. It’s the life cycle. It’s the service delivery. It’s arming them with data that becomes very powerful in itself. I think Sam would ask, “How do we look at market development funds in different areas where partners know they need to grow as well?” I keep saying “the multiplier.” When we look at not having a single siloed approach and looking at customer outcomes they’re driving, that becomes a multi-tiered solution. And $1 becomes $10. I think that’s the “aha” moment our partners are having. And that only happens when we have our TSBs advocating and evangelizing the power of what Lumen can bring together from a technology standpoint.
DY: We’ve also put some money around this in our incentives. We have a Lumen agent activator incentive that supports the motion Sara is driving. So we’ve got some accelerators that work in a compensation factor too. So it not just MDF, but also coming back and putting money in agents’ pockets for doing those first transactions with us.
SS: When we talked about resources, it’s about making sure that day-one experience earns the next day-one experience. That’s really been resonating with our partners. It’s really easy to go have the first sale. But what are we doing for the relationship from the life cycle? The activator in those programs Sam created are absolute door-openers, and that resonated very well with the selling entities in the field.
CF: How long has this activator been around?
SS: That was a Q1 program. We’ve extended it to a Q2 program. I’ll be honest– it’s been highly successful, so I don’t see that one having a short life cycle with us. I don’t mean to speak for Sam, but it’s been very, very well received. It has allowed us to get new partners and plus-one sales. I would say plus-one sales have increased over 30%. We’re very pleased with the results and what we’re seeing with new partners.
CF: When we talked last time, Sara had mentioned that the goal of the senior leadership team was one-third direct, one-third indirect, one-third digital. Does that fit into the ecosystem approach you’re describing?
SS: Those stats are sort of an industry statement of what companies are looking at. I think there’s an opportunity to go even heavier in the channel in certain market spaces. And that’s not Sara just rooting for channel. I see where partners really can be a multiplier. And we’re looking at next-gen partners as well. We added a team of eight recruiters because we know there is more demand from VARs, MSPs and MSSPs. The companies that we can go co-market, co-innovate and co-sell with is growing as well outside a traditional model.
CF: How do you identify a next-gen partner?
SS: I think VAR has been an overused word, so they don’t want to necessarily be called VARs. But what are the technologies they’re driving that we can co-innovate, co-market and co-sell? MSPs and MSSPs are on the list that don’t want to operate in a wholesale model, that see value in a channel and partner model.
CF: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
SS: It sounds cliche, but I think our partners are realizing the vision of the possible. Where we’re growing, how we’re growing the agenda and driving our customer outcomes, and the programs we’re putting together that show the support. That’s the fun and exciting part.
CF: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
SS: It sounds cliche, but I think our partners are realizing the vision of the possible. Where we’re growing, how we’re growing the agenda and driving our customer outcomes, and the programs we’re putting together that show the support. That’s the fun and exciting part.
Lumen Technologies partner leaders say they are expanding headcount and resources to drive more channel-integrated deals.
Lumen has posted job openings in 24 areas it has identified as high-growth areas for its channel. For example, the company has built a team focused on helping partners sell complex solutions to large enterprise accounts.
Lumen’s Dave Young
“The partners are beginning to move up-market. They’re beginning to have more and more relationships at the Fortune 500 level,” said Dave Young, who recently started in a new role as senior vice president of midmarkets and indirect channel.
Lumen’s Sara Seegers
Young said his role reflects a growing focus of the service provider on the midmarket. Lumen has evolved its midmarkets direct team into a national sales team and brought it closer to Lumen’s channel team, driven in part by the vision of newly appointed C-suite members.
Sara Seegers, regional vice president of indirect channel sales and opportunity management, said the company is emphasizing customer opportunities that weave together both IP and SASE offerings. She also said Lumen’s recently implemented agent activator incentive has is opening doors with partners.
“Our partners are realizing the multiplier on the dollar in the conversation with their clients,” Seegers told Channel Futures.
Seegers and Young also said Lumen has built more APIs that enable information sharing with their tech services distributor partners. Moreover, they said Lumen is developing a digital marketplace that caters to customers, Lumen sellers and channel partners.
Seegers and Young shared updates on the Lumen channel partner program in an interview with Channel Futures. Scroll through the 11 slides above to read an edited transcript of the conversation.
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