Maintaining Relationships with TSDs

DeStefano emphasized that Amplix will maintain close relationships with its tech services distributor (TSD) partners. Fellow super agency Upstack earlier this year announced multiple direct agreements with vendors, the largest being Lumen. That move drew the ire of the TSD community, which historically has intermediated those relationships between vendor and agent.

DeStefano pointed to the value TSDs have brought to his firm. That includes pre-sales tools as well as mentorship from leaders at those distributors.

“We’re embracing that ecosystem. We’re not interested in disintermediating things. We see a tremendous amount of value in all of the large [TSDs],” he said. “They provide that large scope of vendors in  their ecosystem so we don’t have to go out and contract with every single vendor that’s going to be a good fit for our customer.”