Nina Smith, Sage Software’s former chief marketing officer and newly appointed president, business management division, told CDN while in Richmond, B.C. for the unveiling of a R&D facility, that under her watch solution providers will be treated differently.In the past, Sage’s channel network, which ranged between 4,500 to 5,000 partners in North America, were treated all the same whether they brought in $20 million in revenue or they managed to sell just $5,000 worth of products.
Smith decided this approach needed to change after completing a 10-city, 10-day tour called the Fresh Talk Tour where she engaged with many of the company’s reseller partners.
The Fresh Talk Tour will lead to a new channel program, Smith said. The new program will be officially launched during its Insights Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. on May 12.
Smith discussed her new channel program along with her vision for Sage’s channel. The following is an edited transcript.
CDN: The Fresh Talk Tour with Canadian partners what did you get out of that and will there be any changes to Sage’s partner programs based on that feedback?
Nina Smith: It was phenomenal. The tour was a good opportunity to get close and talk to them about our commitment in the channel and our focus on collectively growing our business. And, I just wanted to listen to them. They are our feet on the street and to truly have a partnership you have to forge forward together. As a result we have to start treating the solution providers differently. We treat them all the same now whether you bring in $20 million of business or you bring in $5,000 of business. There is no differentiation. We are going to treat them differently and I just say they do not treat us different also. I plan to introduce a new partner program that will advocate that bigger partners get a relationship inside Sage where we can navigate for them on their behalf. The other thing is with our products. We want them to carry all they can, but they go to many different places to get information and we will get a portal in place for them where they will have one place instead of many. We have an award winning program and need to put more clarity in it. We’ll put more structure around the program so if I am a partner I’ll know which programs apply to me. Partners bring their own solution along side ours and we want to understand that position. They will say this is wonderful, but how are you going to back it up. We are going to back it up and I have a vision. We will have this talk tour once a year. They are our face to the customer and if we are going to service our customers and make sure they have the great experience then we have to make sure we have great partnerships.
CDN: Late last year you said that Sage had a long way to go before it could meet customer needs. Why did you say that and did it have anything to do with the efforts of your channel partners?
N.S.: There are two things. No. 1, we have to get our heads down and work on getting companies integrated. Now we have to think; how do we get closer to our customers with the channel. Sometimes I need to step back and understand that it’s the channel’s customer as well. So I say lets say it’s our customers and how can we do it together. It is a matter of a common strategy and road map that will help us get closer to the customer. In marketing you can’t say the customer this and that because we have the relationship. In the last 30 days, I have helped to implement a independent customer champion role inside all of the businesses. In Canada there will be one person that will be focused on customer loyalty. That person will report to Laurie Schultz (the Canadian GM of Sage) and that person will also be a part of a much bigger group inside all the units. I really hate to over use the word journey, but we have to be on the same page and work with our business partners on that. This is a huge opportunity in the division. We have 1.2 million customers and the bulk of those we have a direct relationship. As those (accounts) grow up they go to the business partners so it is a huge opportunity for us in the channel.
We learn from them and you have to understand that when customers grow up we turn them to the channel. When a customer was ready to move from migration centre with ACT, PeachTree or Simply Accounting we hold there hand through that and then we want them to know they will be put in place for the channel. We do not want to lose them, but we’ll put them in play.
CDN: Sage has been in this market for a while. You compete with Microsoft, who is sort of new to this market. However, their worldwide channel is enormous. How do you compete with that?
N.S.: We think with the basics. We are No. 1 and the customers know us. We have great products and we’ll continue to do that. We do take care of each and every one of our customers. It is difficult to come in and just throw money at it. It will be still hard to move people because our products are extremely sticky even for Microsoft. It will be hard for people to move out of their accounting products. We are going to maintain our position and do everything we can to be competitive so that they retreat.
CDN: You were previously the Chief Marketing Officer at Sage. How can you get the channel to market itself better?
N.S.: We do that in partnership and clearly they can. Many businesses start on the sales piece and forget they need marketing and strong marketing and promotion, which is critical. You need to build awareness and we have to help them make sure the Sage name is there.
