LiveVox Gets Nextiva Vet, Partners Get All-New Partner Program

LiveVox partners will get a new partner program as the company pursues its aggressive channel strategy.

LiveVox’s MeiLee Langley

So says MeiLee Langley, who has joined LiveVox as its senior director of channel marketing. Since going public earlier this year, LiveVox has been expanding its channel team and partner network. This summer, it hired Dan DeLozier as area vice president of channels and alliances. It also announced partnerships with Intelisys and Telarus.

Before joining LiveVox, Langley was senior director of channel and field marketing at Nextiva. There, she built and managed her teams and supported the company’s rapid channel growth. Moreover, she helped found Nextiva’s first employee resource group (ERG), Women of Nextiva (WON).

In addition, Langley has held senior channel positions at 8×8 and RingCentral.

“LiveVox has laid out an aggressive and scalable channel strategy this year — and we’re making fast progress,” DeLozier said. “MeiLee will greatly benefit both our channel team and the company overall with her proven track record and leadership qualities.”

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Langley talks about her plans in this new role.

Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this role with LiveVox?

MeiLee Langley: As many already know, I made the difficult decision earlier this year to prioritize my mental and physical health and step away from work with a multi-month sabbatical. As my health began to rebound, I realized it was time to get back on the horse. I found myself weighing a few options.

Stepping away from the corporate world granted me the confidence to define what I wanted in my next role:

LiveVox checked all those boxes. Despite being over 20 years old and publicly traded, LiveVox is just now making the decision to dive headfirst into the channel.

CF: Will you be working with LiveVox’s partners? What do you want them to know about you?

ML: LiveVox partners will be the entire center point for everything I will be building with the team at LiveVox. Partners that have worked with me in previous roles can attest that I am truly partner-first. And partner feedback has always been key for me. Unlike many of my counterparts in the space, I love listening to the partners and getting their candid feedback on the programs, tools, trainings and campaigns we are providing them. I want to know what is working, and more importantly, what isn’t. My end goal is to make it easy, quick and affordable for partners to get enabled, drive demand and ultimately close deals. If something is hindering any of that, I am never afraid to course correct. That’s how we, as a provider, get better, and how we and our partners grow business together.

Also, if a partner has an idea, bring it to me. My team and I love finding ways to bring ideas to life. It doesn’t matter how off the wall the idea may seem at first.

CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?

ML: Build, build, build. One of my favorite aspects of this opportunity with LiveVox is that …

… I (along with the team) get to build our partner program from the ground up with the knowledge of what has and hasn’t work in our past lives based on partner feedback. We have the opportunity to make the LiveVox program truly partner-centric, and fill it with benefits and tools that partners have told us that they need and want.

CF: What’s your take on the current contact center market? Can LiveVox increase its market share? If so, how?

ME: The current contact center market is full of opportunity. We are seeing an influx of companies (from midmarket to enterprise) ready to move elements of or their entire call and contact center operations to the cloud. If you’re a telecom or IT partner that has yet to make the move to selling CCaaS, take the leap now so you don’t miss out on this huge market opportunity. If you are already selling CCaaS, LiveVox has a great deal to offer because our platform is differentiated and powerful.

Partners can sell the entire suite for a true end-to-end omnichannel CCaaS experience, or they can land with any of the offerings individually, allow their customer to get to know and trust both them and LiveVox, and then expand with added functionality and products as the customer needs them.

CF: Who are LiveVox’s biggest competitors? What will be your role in giving LiveVox and its partners a competitive advantage?

ME: There are many viable options in the contact center space. And I truly believe the market is large and unpenetrated enough for us all to find success. That said, I believe that LiveVox’s combination of a 20-plus year old proven, yet next-generation platform, along with the unique land-and-expand approach for partners to sell contact center offerings is a game-changer.

Partners are asking for digestible, on-demand and live training to ensure that they not only understand our innovative platform and many product differentiators, but also how to effectively leverage this new land-and-expand approach to uncovering and selling CCaaS opportunities. Partners don’t need to boil the ocean and learn all LiveVox offerings. We train them on how to land our top three, the ones where we beat the competition almost every time. Then we equip the partners with the campaigns and tools to show the value of LiveVox’s additional offerings when their customers are ready to expand. This is an entirely new approach to selling CCaaS. And I can’t wait to share it with more of our partners.