Intelliverse: Job Cuts Part of Sales Reorg, Agent Program Intact
Intelliverse confirmed today it cut one-fourth of its 20-person sales team. The company said its vice president of channel sales and four other staff members were let go as part of a reorganization of the sales department, but the reductions including the entire three-person agent sales team do not mean the company is shutting down its agent program.
Frank Paterno, the companys vice president of marketing, said there are no plans to change any of Intelliverses channels, which also include wholesale and direct sales in addition to the partner program. Since its inception in January, Intelliverses agent program has recruited about 50 partners and Paterno said the company is still accepting new partners.
He added the company will change the focus of the partner program and the personnel changes reflect that strategy. Because we were able to get so many good agents and so much activity, we are going to concentrate on the agents that we were able to recruit and start making them drive revenue, Paterno said. That was our plan anyway at this point in the year — to switch from partner recruitment to cultivation if you will.
Stacy Conrad, vice president of agent sales, and two of her reports were let go Aug. 1. Two other people one in wholesale and one in sales support were also laid off. Paterno said the cuts were strictly part of a reorganization plan and not due to performance.
Susan Hancock, who was a sales engineer supporting the channel, now will be in charge of the agent program. Her official title has not been decided. Paterno said all partners are being notified of their new channel manager.
Intelliverses channel program originally was designed for agents to sell its callEverywhere turnkey hosted VoIP product. When the program launched, the company said it would rely on indirect reps to sell the VoIP platform, which targets SMBs.
Paterno said sales performance problems were not behind the staff cuts, but the company is shifting the focus from recruiting agents to helping agents sell to end users. The agents know the agent business, said Paterno. What they are looking for, in our opinion, from us is some experience and expertise in how an end user is going to look at this product set and how they are going to evaluate it from an ROI and technical standpoint.
He said the company also is re-evaluating the product and looking to add some components to it that can help agents to sell by adding some stepping stones to a fully hosted VoIP solution. The company is planning to make an announcement to this effect at the upcoming Channel Partners Conference & Expo, the indirect sales event sponsored by PHONE+ Sept. 26-28 in Secaucus, N.J.
Intelliverse www.intelliverse.com
Channel Partners Conference & Expo http://www.channelpartners.phoneplusmag.com
