LogMeIn’s Rick Ribas

In an unexpected move, channel vet Rick Ribas has left Intelisys after nearly 11 years to become LogMeIn‘s vice president for global channel sales.

As vice president for global channel sales, Ribas will lead the company’s growth strategy for channel sales. He will create new channel business partners and bring new sales opportunities to LogMeIn partners globally.

This is a newly created role.

Ribas previously was Intelisys’ senior vice president of national partner sales. He played a critical role in Intelisys‘ record growth in the United States.

Ribas has more than 30 years of channel and master agent experience. He began in the telecom industry in 1987 when he created Online Communications, which was acquired by OneStar Communications.

“Rick has extensive leadership experience in channel and partner sales, and has achieved significant success globally as a leader and advocate for channel support and resources within the companies where he has worked,” said Chris Manton-Jones, LogMeIn’s senior vice president of worldwide sales. “We believe his business acumen and leadership abilities will contribute significantly to the success of our partner and channel sales programs for our unified communications and collaboration, identity and access management and customer engagement and support businesses.”

Recruiting someone of Ribas’ experience and ability to LogMeIn’s vice president for global channel sales is a “great endorsement of our strategy and ambition,” Manton-Jones said.

In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Ribas talks about why he wanted to take this role as vice president for global channel sales and what partners can expect from him in the months ahead.

Channel Partners: Why did you want to take this role with LogMeIn?

Rick Ribas: I’ve been doing this a little over 30 years and I knew of LogMeIn, but I didn’t know the details. And once I finally became aware of exactly the breadth of the company and the culture of the company — and most importantly the product set and the direction of the company, — I don’t know if I had this feeling or sense of hey, I wanted to be part of this at anytime in the prior 30 years [but] things just seemed to work out.

CP: Was it about LogMeIn, or were you in general looking for a new opportunity and then LogMeIn came along?

RR: I was not actively looking. I had my eyes open as we as we were coming to the end of the earn out. But that didn’t mean that there was an end, but it was a good time for me to start looking at other opportunities in the industry and it was just good timing. This seemed to fall into place as far as me attending the sales kickoff and becoming aware of what the company was really all about, and then realizing there was a position open.

CP: How will this role differ from your previous role with Intelisys?

RR: Obviously Intelisys was more on the master agent side where we’re dealing with 150-160 suppliers, and in this role we really get to focus a lot, which I’m kind of excited about. So I really like the idea of focusing. I like the idea that it’s cutting-edge products. It’s totally different from … most of the 30 years it was a lot of bandwidth, just a lot of basic UC and MPLS, and SD-WAN, and this product set is really exciting to me. And the international side is exciting to me as well.

CP: How will your previous experience come into play in this new role?

RR: For one thing, I’ve gotten to learn best practices that have been successful and those practices that haven’t been successful. So hopefully using that knowledge to apply to the current program [will] not only expedite our growth, but just make it much more efficient.

CP: What’s your take on LogMeIn’s channel strategy? Are any changes needed?

RR: The channel strategy is amazing and that was another thing. It’s a sell-with strategy which I’m really excited about, so there there’s no channel conflict between the channel and the direct side. There is a slew of products and divisions that were just merging together so the channel can offer more of the product that we have. And there’s…

…an amazing team out there that I’m just getting to know that really follows a lot of the the ideas and structures that I’m a believer in. So there’s always going to be tweaking, everyone’s always going to want to put their own little flavor and taste on it. But the foundation is extremely strong.

CP: Are you going to be building or expanding any partner programs?

RR: I would imagine so, yes. I would hope I can be a pretty substantial contributor just based on ideas and growth and building different programs. As I learn more I can share more, but I think the short answer is yes.

CP: Have you spoken to any partners yet? If so, what are they telling you?

RR: I’ve spoken to many partners and the feedback has been tremendous. They’re very excited. I would say over the last four or five days, especially when I updated my LinkedIn page, I’ve had well over 1,500, texts, emails and LinkedIn comments, and everyone has been positive. I seriously have not had one person say anything negative about the program or about the product set or the people. They’re just looking forward to us really just expanding and taking everything we have now and getting more of it. So it’s truly been amazing.

To me, one of the biggest things we need to do is just take the product set and shout it from the rooftop. My initial view of the company is that it’s extremely successful and the culture is amazing. It’s also an extremely modest company, and thus there’s a lot of great things going on that just need to be shared more.

CP: What are the biggest issues facing LogMeIn’s partners and what will be your role in addressing those?

RR: I haven’t dove in that deep yet. A lot of the partners that are reaching out are just relationships that I’ve had over my career that also do business with LogMeIn. I really don’t know what the issues are yet. It’ll take me a little bit of time to be able to dive in, and I’m sure there’s going to be things they want done differently or better. What I’ve learned in the channel is there are so many different personalities out there and you have to be kind of a chameleon in trying to adapt to all of them, so time will tell.

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

RR: At the top of my list is to really learn and understand the company goals, priorities and objectives. I’ve met a lot of the leadership team already and I know I’ll be able to learn a lot from them. I’ve met a lot of the sales team already and the channel team. And once we get through this unique place the world is in, I just want to really get out there and get in front of the partners worldwide and the teams worldwide, and again, listen. Listening is important before you make changes.

CP: Does starting this new role in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic create additional challenges and roadblocks from not being to travel and working from home?

RR: I like to use the term it’s different and different isn’t always good or bad, it’s what you make of it. We have this really cool software and it’s fun. I’ve never done so many video calls in my life ever. I don’t want to say it’s the new normal, but it’s going to be used much more often and you know companies are going to be able to utilize this for like what I just did. It was a pretty extensive interviewing process and it was all done virtually. I’m meeting the team virtually.

I have a little phrase I use, to learn the color of their kitchen. In this case I’m actually seeing many living rooms and bedrooms, and kitchens and basements, and attics. And it’s kind of cool. It’s not the same as flying around, but it’s definitely an efficient way to get the ball rolling. I think it’s great for me right now because I get to do this…

…and really get myself situated. And then depending on the time frame, once I get acclimated already, I’m ready to hit the road, which would be nice.

CP: What do you hope to have accomplished a year from now in this role?

RR: I think we can easily double business. The only thing getting in our way would be a desire and I think we have the desire. If we didn’t, it would be an issue. The whole pandemic is accelerating to where we would expect things to be maybe in 2022 an it’s brought them front and center now so a lot of the targets that are down the street we’re actually realizing are going to happen much sooner than later. And once we get the message out about some of these products … no one else in our channel even has offers like our LastPass and Rescue, and things like that. So once word gets out that partners can start offering some of these products, it’s just going to explode on us.

CP: Does that accelerated pace and demand create additional challenges in terms of keeping up?

RR: That would be a good problem. Fortunately we had actually some great calls this morning already … and some of our product usage right now is 10 times faster than a month or two ago. Usage is high and so far we’re keeping up with it pretty well. Again, I don’t know what the back office looks like yet, but I know that the leadership team is definitely preparing for what we see the future has to offer.

CP: Anything else you would like to add?

RR: In my 30-plus years — 33 to be exact — I have been channel only.  I’m a huge proponent of the channel, and I intend on being their champion as well as the champion for LogMeIn. I’m as excited as I’ve ever been, so I’m just looking forward to jumping in feet first and making it happen.