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Are Your Sales Reps “Coachable”?

From interviewing and managing 1000s of salespeople over 20 years I have interviewed for activity levels, self-starter, integrity, confidence, charisma, determination, thick skin, a positive attitude – all great qualities, but one thing I have found to be vital is “coachability”.

I see a direct correlation between athletic performance coaching and sales performance coaching from observing many years of sports coaching as my son progressed as a quarterback in junior high and high school to obtaining over 40 offers to play quarterback in college. I purchased a fast twitch training program that is one of five in the country that can increase speed and agility performance in significant measurable results in six weeks. The measurable results displayed that all the talent in the world doesn’t matter if the athlete is not coachable. I have found the same experience in interviewing, training and managing sales guys.

Coachability should be an integral part of the screening process to ensure that you are recruiting a solid sales force.

A small percentage of athletes are the exception – the ‘naturals’ – who will succeed on the playing field no matter what. In the sales arena, those ‘naturals’ are your self-reliant, driven, persevering, top-performers. While some may want coaching, a greater percentage of these guys may already recognize the importance of being flexible and trying different strategies, so they may not need additional coaching.

However, I have found that, just like athletes, the vast majority of sales reps need coaching. So, how do you determine just how ‘coachable’ your potential sales reps are? I typically ask probing questions in the interview such as What proactive measures do you take on a regular basis to sharpen your sales skills? I also want to know about the candidate’s biggest sale, and what he did to win the customer’s business.

I am especially interested in the candidate’s description of a time when he lost a sale and what he learned from the experience.

Additionally, I want to know what this sales guy has learned, and implemented, from sales seminars. If he can explain to me the impact that has had on his sales, then I know he is able to evaluate his own performance and that he is ultimately ‘coachable’.

Whether independently, or through coaching, you need sales guys that are always working toward sharpening their selling skills. This doesn’t mean that all of your reps will always need to be “coachable”, as there will always be that small percentage of ‘gifted’ individuals who will already possess the experience needed, and they will be able to make the magic happen almost effortlessly.

As for the rest of the sales team, coachability is vital to their success. I specialize in training sales teams, speaking at conferences as well as utilizing Reverse Engineering to procure top performers. We prefer to partner with our clients and take responsibility for the quality of our candidates by offering a Lifetime Warranty Program that can be customized to assist you in meeting your challenges and goals and oh yes to facilitate your hitting your annual bonuses!

Contact The Oxford Group, to book speaking engagements on a variety of topics that range from Sales, Hiring, Training, Executive Recruitment, Growing Startups, Turnarounds, M&A, International Growth, Technology Growth, The Cloud, Telecommunications, and Offshore Outsourcing.

For booking information contact us by phone at 214 360 4000, by email at: TheOxfordGroup@att.net, or schedule an appointment at https://theoxfordgroup.youcanbook.me/.

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Dell Appoints New Channel Chief, Restructures U.S. Sales Organization

It didn’t take Dell long after closing its $24.8 billion private equity buyout to shake things up. On Nov. 18, the vendor appointed a new global channel chief, restructured its sales operation and named a new head of its North American organization.

In an emailed letter to channel partners, Greg Davis, Dell partner program founder and channel chief since the program’s formal inception in 2007, said Cheryl Cook, formerly Dell’s Enterprise Solutions vice president, will assume the channel leadership role as Global Channels and Alliances vice president.

Davis will move to Software and Peripherals as vice president.

“Cheryl brings a wealth of experience in Enterprise Technology sales, both direct and Channel sales to the role,” Davis wrote in his note to partners. In addition to leading Dell’s enterprise go-to-market strategy and sales coverage, Cook’s background includes a stint as Americas sales senior vice president at Sun Microsystems, where she headed Sun’s Americas channel organization.

In her new role, Cook is responsible for defining and delivering innovative channel programs, training and certification, global marketing programs and supplying a steady hand to the vendor’s channel, alliances, strategic ISVs and OEMs.

Sales Restructuring

Dell also has restructured how channel sales fits into its overall sales operation, placing direct and indirect sales under one umbrella in effort to improve sales engagements in the field and set a stronger foundation for channel sales.

“We’ve heard from you that there was room to improve engagement with Dell’s core sales teams,” wrote Davis, “So, as the next step in our growth together we are moving our channel sales organization deeper into Dell’s regional organizational structure.”

Here’s what’s changing with the channels reorganization:

Regional channel leaders now will report to regional Dell sales leadership. In North America, Channels Vice President Frank Vitagliano and Global Commercial Channel Sales and Programs Vice President Jim DeFoe now report to Dell’s head of North American sales.
Similarly, Laurent Binetti in EMEA and Richard Lee in Asia Pacific/Japan will report to regional sales leads.

Staying the same:

Channel strategy of focusing on the data center, investing in training, ease of doing business and partnership stays as it was.
PartnerDirect will stay as the umbrella program for end-to-end and point solutions.

Davis said that by directing Dell’s regional channel heads to report to regional sales, “they will be able to integrate more closely with our sales and product teams, which will allow for faster feedback between partners and business unit leaders.” Translated: Dell is trying to shore up its field engagement to reduce channel conflict and strengthen channel sales.

According to a CRN report, Dell also named Bill Rodrigues, formerly its Global Business vice president and general manager and a 14-year company veteran, as president of Dell North America, a business unit that accounted for some $24 billion in revenue in 2012. Vitagliano and DeFoe will report to Rodrigues, according to the account. Rodrigues replaces Paul Henri Ferrand, who held the post for the past 16 months, the report said.

“It’s been a privilege to work with you all to build Dell’s channel program from the ground up,” wrote Davis. “Your input has played a vital role in bringing us to this point today where the PartnerDirect program is strong and stable enough to push further into Dell’s go-to-market strategy.”

HP’s Barsamian: New Fiscal Year, New Partner Opportunities

Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) fiscal 2014 starts today. Sue Barsamian, senior VP, worldwide indirect sales, and her team are working overtime to ensure channel engagements get off to a strong start. But what exactly does that mean? Barsamian discussed HP’s fiscal 2014 channel strategy and priorities. Here’s a recap.

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When did you first learn about the new opportunity (senior VP, worldwide indirect sales) and what was your initial reaction?

Barsamian: My initial reaction was super-excited. Bill [Veghte] came onboard [as EVP and GM, Enterprise Group] about nine weeks ago. He spent about three weeks assembling the structure of the team. Our discussions were all about how HP goes to market more effectively with partners.

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How have you personally engaged with channel partners in recent weeks and what have been the takeaways in your mind?

Barsamian: I’ve personally met with more than 40 partners, and our team has been at conferences like BoB to really engage in the partner dialog.

There are two takeaways and they are consistent across the Americas, Europe and elsewhere.

First, partners continue to be excited about the HP portfolio. We’re helping partners to push beyond hardware to software and services. We’ve got the portfolio; here at HP, partners have a one-stop shop for a lot of the assets they need. Whether it’s cloud, security, mobility, big data — HP has assets across that spectrum for partners.

The second consistent thing we’ve heard involves simplicity. Quite frankly we had some work to do in terms of simplicity and ease of business. We’ve always heard from partners that the money from HP can be good. It’s too hard to figure out how to get the money, though. You shouldn’t need a Ph.D. in calculus to figure it out.

We’re looking at every process — from configuring a quote to getting a price and using our website… it all has to be easier.

We made big commitments to the channel at Global Partner Conference 2013 in February. We have a platform, called HP Unison, to deliver that simplicity. In the period between February 2013 and March 2014 — our next global partner conference — there are a significant number of milestones that we’re deploying and completing to improve simplicity.

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HP’s new fiscal year starts Nov. 1. What are your top priorities with partners?

Barsamian: We’re super-focused on our portfolio and growth plans, whether it’s marketing or demand generation flow or making sure our business units have a channel lens on everything.

How much of your focus will involve traditional hardware and infrastructure (converged data center, servers, storage, network) vs. pure cloud offerings (HP Cloud, Autonomy, etc.)?

Barsamian: We’re doing both. Part of the answer depends on the segment the partner sells into. Within the traditional partner base, you have siloed vs. converged opportunities. About 20 percent of the transactions will close as converged — but the conversations about converged exceed that figure. Customers want to understand how to make their IT data centers more converged. We already have converged solutions, and you’ll see more in the first six months of our fiscal year. Virtualization and Big Data are also at the top of our list. They will be, for all intents and purposes, channel-exclusive.

Within large enterprises we’re seeing a growing move toward private cloud while bursting out to do some IaaS and PaaS. And in the SMB, clearly at the low end you have a very different dynamic. They are jumping to the SaaS-based offerings at a faster clip.

There are several flavors to our cloud partner program. For partners who are building private cloud infrastructure, we have the HP CloudSystem. We also have our OpenStack cloud operating system and our HP Cloud Builder program is very good. For partners that are CSPs (cloud services providers), they can leverage our Cloud Agile program.

Let’s shift to new innovations. CEO Meg Whitman has spoken a lot about next-generation opportunities — HP Moonshot servers, 3D printers, Software-defined Networking (SDN). How are those next-generation opportunities shaping up for the channel?

Barsamian: SDN and Moonshot are here today and in the partner portfolio. When it comes to OpenFlow-compatible switches, we have a huge number from which to choose. We have the SDN controller. We announced the federated support with Nicira (from VMware). We have a lot going on in SDN. For partners that carry our networking portfolio, the SDN future with HP is here today.

Moonshot is a bit newer. There’s tremendous interest in Moonshot. The ARM version to complement Atom has been announced.

As a partner, you want to know you’re working with a vendor that can evolve your business into the future. That’s exciting for partners. My job is to balance that enthusiasm. There’s a ramp associated with Moonshot. We’re excited about it.

HP now sells Chromebooks and Google Apps. Is that an opportunity that stretches into enterprise or more for SMB partners?

Barsamian: It’s on my radar. I don’t have a summary for you yet on how it will integrated with the Enterprise Group. But think of it this way: Our Just Right IT offers storage, servers and networking in SMB right-sized offerings. Next, we need to determine the ideal touch point between Just Right IT and the things we’re doing in our Printing and Personal Systems (PPS) group.

Are you seeing an evolution beyond traditional “resellers” — where do VARs, MSPs and CSPs (cloud services providers) fit in the HP mix?

Barsamian: Our current partner mix is becoming more multifaceted on two dimensions. First is their business model. Whether a distributor or a traditional reseller, everyone is increasing their mix of software and services. We’re helping them to do that. We’re increasing the number of portfolio partners we have. Partners of ours that sell servers, storage and networking likely started out with us on servers. But we’re increasing the mix.

In the cloud market, we’re seeing distributors like Ingram and Synnex become cloud aggregators. In terms of CSPs, in some cases they are building and hosting; in other cases they are aggregating. And that’s an opportunity for HP’s public cloud.

What steps is HP taking right now and throughout the new fiscal year to ensure channel relationships become long-term, deep engagements rather than purely “transactional” PC and server sales?

Barsamian: It’s an “and” — not an “or.” The transactional business, and the fact that the sales ticker ticks very fast, is an impressive number for HP. It’s a competitive advantage we don’t want to move away from. But it has to be augmented with software, services and solutions sales. The key thing I want to get across: HP’s differentiation is the breadth of our portfolio. Partners can’t find that elsewhere.

New Microsoft Channel Chief Phil Sorgen: Exclusive Interview

Microsoft (MSFT) Channel Chief Phil Sorgen has been leading the software, device, and cloud giant’s partner program for 60 days. But what are Sorgen’s management traits — and how does he expect to accelerate Microsoft’s services plus devices strategy? We got the answers. Here’s an exclusive interview.

Question: Let’s start with the big picture. What do partners need to know about your near-term and longer-term focus?

Sorgen: I’m an 18-year Microsoft veteran. My entire experience has been that last mile of execution side-by-side with our partners in front of our customers. I think I bring a pragmatic point of view to understand how we get things done for our partners, working with customers.

(Side note: Sorgen also mentioned he has extensive North America experience, and is ramping up fast on the international front, meeting with Microsoft leaders and partners across the globe.-TVG)

During my 60 days on the job my beliefs have only been reinforced. The devil is in the details, but there’s no question everything we’re doing — the bold ambitions — are achievable. We have an achievable plan to become a devices and services company. I have to focus on ensuring our partners and Microsoft succeed for our customers.

But I also realize every company that’s a great company works hard every day to be an easier company to do business with. The market is moving faster and fast, so we have to be agile

Am I coming in with an immediate mission or charter? We’re a month into Q2. Now’s the time for execution and we need to keep driving continuity. We have a lot of things in motion. As we execute our plan, we’ll take a thoughtful approach to the things we’ll do next.

Question: Tell our resident blogger a bit about yourself. How would peers describe your management style?

Sorgen: I think there are three ways I’d be described…

First, they would refer to me as a principle-based leader who is transparent in terms of sharing the reasoning for decisions. You may not have everyone in agreement, but they will understand the basis for your decisions more clearly.
Second, I’m a stickler for operational discipline and the value in change management both big and small. In addition to thinking through your ideas, you need to really think through how you communicate those ideas and changes. From executives to sales and marketing leaders, we need to make sure all groups understand the communications.
Third, I’ve been a sales and marketing leader the entire 25 years of my career, and all 18 at Microsoft. I believe customers are your North Star — your guiding light on decisions. That has to be true for us and our partners. If we focus on that together… wow, the power of partnership couldn’t be stronger.

Question: Rewind 15 years ago and Microsoft always seemed to launch products that were backed by associated partner program initiatives. But we have dinged Microsoft on two of the more recent launches — Office 365 and Surface. In both cases, it seemed more like Microsoft went to market first then reached back and finally pulled partners along into the conversation. Going forward, can you — as channel chief — make sure all new services and devices launch with clear partner programs from day one?

Sorgen: The ones you’ve dinged us on [Surface and Office 365] are the things we’re newest at. Even at that, Office 365 at least came out with an element of channel but not as rich and as complete as it is today. Surface… it’s a fair statement [that the partner program wasn’t there at launch.] It’s my responsibility to be at the table with our product groups [for future launches].

Question: Did former Channel Chief Jon Roskill offer any advice when you succeeded him?

Sorgen: We worked together many years at various times. I have great respect for the team I was inheriting. There is continuity. We worked through the plan and the dialog he had at WPC [Worldwide Partner Conference 2013]. We made sure we transitioned his important relationships and we’re giving partners that continuity I mentioned.

Question: Do you have your channel team in place? Are you making any specific hires or team updates?

Sorgen: We just made an important hire. Erez Wohl will be our new GM for channel incentives, effective Nov. 6. That completes our staffing right now.

Question: Can you share your views on how Microsoft will work with partners to scale from SMBs to the enterprise? What are your thoughts on each segment?

Sorgen: I’ve spent a lot of time in small and midsize market and also focused all the way up to our largest customers. I think the cloud opportunity — pick the product, say Office 365 — is clear. It democratizes IT. It gives SMBs access to capabilities and infrastructure they couldn’t have built for themselves. For a large business customer, it’s about services like email — which is mission critical but doesn’t differentiate you as a business. When we give that enterprise customer the right SLAs and cloud services to work more efficiently, they can focus IT resources to help grow the business.

Question: And once you provide the tactical services — say, cloud email — Microsoft and the partner can return to the customer table recommend strategic, innovative services?

Sorgen: Yes. The customer gains the ability to manage innovation across the enterprise, both on-premises and in the cloud, at the application layer and the physical layer. That’s powerful.

Question: During your first 60 days, what themes have you heard from partners?

Sorgen: We hosted our partner advisory council about three weeks ago. Among the things I heard:

More and more companies that are recognizing ways to drive increased profitability in the cloud.
Second, when repeatable IP is powerful. Sometimes it can be monetized in a different way. Some partners are starting to enable their own IP. We see VARs becoming ISVs and more.
Third, we see partners and customers focusing on managed services. When a technology is not a differentiator, the customer has the propensity to seek out an MSP for those services.

Question: Closing question. For partners who don’t know you yet… what should they know about Phil Sorgen?

Sorgen: In the IT industry, some people are asked to become channel chief and then they really need to study what the partner community is capable of. That’s not the case with me. I’ve lived partner success first-hand. All my success has been in partnership with this great ecosystem. I’ve seen the value of partnering. That first-hand knowledge will fuel all of my energy and focus.

Now, combine that with the fact that the technology marketplace is evolving rapidly. We participate and sometimes we lead, and sometimes we need to respond to changing conditions. Either way we need to be agile and we need to be even better in change management. I’ll think about the role of the partner at every turn and during every decision we make.

CA Ups Former Cloud GM to Channel Chief Slot

CA (CA) has promoted Adam Famularo, formerly a top executive in its cloud computing business, to head its North America partner sales, a move it believes will strengthen its channel network’s delivery of cloud-centric IT management solutions.

Famularo, a 15-year company veteran whose reputation as a channel specialist is backed by a successful initiative to tilt CA’s storage business toward partners, is now tasked with leading CA’s go-to-market activities in North America with distributors, resellers, systems integrators and service providers. He will report to George Fischer, CA Worldwide Sales and Services executive vice president and group executive.

In his prior roles, Famularo service as senior vice president and general manager of CA’s AppLogic cloud platform business after a two-year stint overseeing the company’s overall cloud computing strategy. CA suggested that Famularo’s understanding of channel dynamics, his partner contacts and cloud computing background made him the right fit for the job.

“With his impressive track record and longstanding relationships with C-level partner executives across our markets, Adam has the ideal mix of experience to help our partners grow their businesses and provide customers with effective IT management solutions,” said Fischer.

“The partner community is critical to helping CA’s business grow and we are committed to their success,” he added. “We have an outstanding portfolio of products and solutions that our partners love, and we’ve built a strong framework for collaboration and joint investment. I am confident that Adam is going to take it to the next level to bring in new customers and drive even more successful results for our many new and existing partners.”

As a testimonial to his strong channel relationships, CA trotted out supporting statements from partners CDW, Future Tech and SHI. Here’s one from CDW product and partner management senior vice president Matt Troka: “We have enjoyed a strong partnership with CA Technologies and Adam for more than a decade and we are confident that his extensive knowledge, leadership and vision will contribute to our ability to deliver innovative cloud and software solutions to customers.”

ARCserve Promotion Extended

CA also extended its competitive replacement offer for its ARCserve data protection platform of extra discounts and locked-in pricing to customers who switch from CommVault (CVLT), Veeam or Dell installations. The extension runs through March 31, 2014.

Under the promotion, eligible businesses can buy an unlimited-use managed capacity license for their business for the next three years at a set price regardless of any organic growth in their storage requirements. At the end of the third year, customers can renew for the amount of data being protected at that time. CA also is offering its partners a 25 percent discount off the current standard ARCserve list price both for new and existing customers upgrading to ARCserve Managed Capacity licensing.

VMware Canada Nabs Former Cisco Exec for Channel Chief Post

VWware’s (VMW) operation in Canada has hired a former Cisco Systems (CSCO) top channel executive as its channel chief to head both partner and commercial sales.

Donna Wittmann, formerly a Cisco Partner Led Sales vice president and Canadian Partner Organization vice president, will take the helm of VMware Canada’s channel sales at the director level in the next week or two, according to a report in Computer Dealer News. VMware Canada’s channel chief position has been vacant since February, when Jas Sahota left the company.

Wittmann left Cisco early in 2012 after three years to take a position as chief marketing officer for Tennis Canada but after 18 months she elected to return to IT to take the VMware position. The CDN report said Wittmann initially was interested in an open channel chief position at Microsoft (MSFT) Canada but the company instead tapped Rob Stevens, its Office 365 sales head, to fill the position.

Eric Gales, VMware Canada country manager, has reformatted the channel chief position to focus on growing the channel organization and recruiting more partners. Earlier this year, Gales elevated Bruce Trotman to Distribution national account manager, removing that responsibility from the channel chief’s duties.

At Cisco, Wittmann worked with Dave O’Callaghan, now VMware’s Global Channels and Alliances senior vice president (channel chief), but at the time Cisco’s worldwide commercial sales vice president, on the Partner Led initiative. As Cisco’s Canadian partner operation vice president, Wittmann was responsible for managing more than 2,000 partners in Canada and had sole revenue accountability for Cisco’s small and medium business segment.

Before joining Cisco Canada, Wittmann served as Dell Global Software vice president, Dell Canada’s Software and Peripherals vice president and also held a Sales and Marketing vice president position at Xerox, according to her LinkedIn profile.

While at Tennis Canada, a non-profit, national sport association responsible for leading the growth, promotion and showcasing of tennis in Canada, Wittmann was credited with growing corporate sponsorships for major in-country tournaments.

McAfee Gains SMB SaaS Momentum Amid Upsell, Cross-Sell Push

McAfee Channel Chief Gavin Struthers hosted a partner webcast this morning, offering security VARs an update on opportunities and trends for Q4 2013. Apparently we muscled our way into the virtual room today and then stuck around for a chat with Struthers. Here’s the recap.

As you may recall, Intel (INTC) owns McAfee. In a prepared statement, Intel President Renee James said the Intel/McAfee partnership is “on the verge of enabling a new era of hardware-based security.” Struthers said in Q3, McAfee’s commercial growth continued, deal registration surged and SMB SaaS momentum continued.

In fact, deal registration nearly doubled in Q3 2013 vs. Q3 2012. Plus, Security as a Service is generating strong double-digit growth. McAfee partners also are winning business as customers seek alternatives amid Google’s transition from Postini to Google Apps, Struthers said.

Some other key themes from the webcast:

Execution Rigor: It takes a plan, commitment and cadence to succeed with the channel. McAfee’s partner support organization now manages 40,000 support activities per quarter.
Fierce Engagement: It’s about being honest and listening to drive profits, optimization and enablement.
Disruptive Growth: The idea is to innovate, upsell and displace rivals. Struthers pointed to McAfee’s growing influence in the firewall market. “Innovation is alive and well at McAfee,” said Struthers.

Partners that are growing 20 percent or more are working with fewer vendors, he added. “We’re doubling down. We’re going to go fast and we’re going to go hard. We don’t want to do this alone. We want to do it with our partners.”

Partner Program Enhancements

Next up was Lisa Matherly, VP of worldwide partner programs and marketing. She recapped McAfee messages from the company’s recent partner summit and offered additional updates:

No Cap: McAfee is removing a cap on its volume incentive rebates. This will be effective April 1, 2014.
Displacing Rivals: McAfee is crediting $200 to McAfee partners that register deals involving rival swap-outs. There are also $2, $4 and $6 per node rewards as part of the swap-out wins.
Enablement: New demand generation kits and sales tools for partners have surfaced.
SMB Suite: McAfee SaaS Total Protection is now McAfee Security for Business.
New Partner 360 Dashboard: Displays deals registered by partners, status and more.

Then, McAfee’s Charles Ross described McAfee’s approach to advanced threat defense

The big focus involves find, freeze and fix.
Find: Quickly and accurately detect sophisticated threats.
Freeze: Tightly-integrated McAfee security products will stop infiltration attempts and contain infected endpoints.
Fix: Easily initiate remediation actions across endpoints.

Two-Year Channel Journey Continues

Struthers is an 11-year McAfee veteran, and has been channel chief for 21 months. From the partner growth to the program adoptions, Struthers sounds pleased with McAfee’s progress. He also believes McAfee’s hardware-based security innovations will differentiate the company for years to come. “When you start looking at the Internet of Things and embedding security into purpose-built appliances, Intel will be at the heart of things there as well.”

So, too, will McAfee’s partners, Struthers asserted.

SaaS Companies: When to Say Yes or No to Merger & Acquisition Offers

Mergers and acquisition (M & A) offers can be tempting, but how do you know when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’? Accepting the wrong offer at the wrong time can be a costly mistake.

I have talked with numerous CEOs and Presidents who are considering a merger or acquisition offer.

A common question that comes up is the over valuing of the company’s worth. Just because you are growing at 10% per month doesn’t mean your value grows at the same rate. Acquisition offers can vary based on where your company is in its growth cycle. Considering the stage of your company’s growth is very important if you are going to accept the right offer at the right time.

Startup – You haven’t yet earned revenue. You aren’t yet on the radar unless your team is solid and proven. Prior to the first $1m in annual recurring revenue (ARR), those who are potentially interested are monitoring your minimum sellable product (MSP). This will be considered your initial purchase offer Maximum.

Initial Traction – You are at $1-1.5m ARR. You are now on the radar for big tech companies since they may be looking for acquisitions to fill gaps or expedite their product launches. We have worked many deals in this sector. If you have a hot product, and have the ideal equation, you may be able to score an offer of $20-100m. With proven initial traction, a solid customer base, and a product priced just right to hold a top spot in the market, you could essentially find yourself looking at a great offer even if your revenue isn’t quite as great as your competitor.

Initial Scale – You are very possibly growing at a high rate with an M & A opportunity between 5-10x ARR. At this point, you may not find an offer all that tempting, because offers at this stage can actually be lower than you may have had at the previous stage.

Up and Coming Scale – Once your ARR hits $10-15m, you’re a proven business. Projections look great and you are seen as a $100-200m product line for them – right where you are. Acquirers see the potential in your product, customer base, and marketing strategies. This can lead you to a nine-figure offer at your new purchase offer Maximum.

Cruising level Scale – Your company has hit $10m ARR, you are growing 100% but those M & A opportunities you once had are dwindling. Once you are interested in selling at $300m or above, you are far more limited in the number of acquirers.

Maturation Scale– You are at, or above, the $400m rate. Of course, it’s not unheard of to sell at $1.2B at a low ARR, but unless you are approached by giants in the industry, there probably isn’t a public company willing to take on the venture. Your chances of an attractive acquisition are slim, and you may find yourself facing an offer for much less than you had hoped.

The ideal situation seems to be to say ‘Yes’ to a good lower offer Maximum – or realize that if you pass it up, you may feel desperate to ‘settle’ later for a purchase offer Minimum. For the past two years, several entrepreneurs from rapidly-growing companies have turned down attractive acquisition offers preparing for a bigger payoff. I have assisted clients in walking through this M & A process. What I have found unique from other firms is that my clients can use The Oxford Group’s Hypergrowth Strategy to increase the sales while pursuing the best offer for a sale or acquisition.

Contact us at: TheOxfordGroup@att.net, by phone at 214 360 4000, or schedule an appointment at https://theoxfordgroup.youcanbook.me/.

Dell: The Most Consistent Channel Leadership?

How’s this for ironic: Cisco Systems (CSCO), IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL) have each undergone channel leadership evolutions over the past year or so. Meanwhile, Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis has quietly led the “direct” company’s channel strategy since 2007. And if you check his track record, Davis has consistently pushed Dell’s partner program forward while some “channel-friendly” rivals have wavered on their partner commitments. Here’s the scorecard.

1. Cisco: Bruce Klein succeeded Keith Goodwin back in August 2012. Cisco remains a very channel-friendly company. It’s hard to argue with the networking company’s overall channel track record, but Cisco in recent years has chased some “hot” opportunities (Flip video camera, Cius tablet, etc.) that wound up burning the company.

2. IBM: CEO Virginia Rometty shifted Mark Hennessy into the Channel Chief slot in early 2012. IBM remains very strong in such areas as business analytics. And the company’s recent SoftLayer acquisition looks very promising, especially for partners that want Amazon alternatives. But IBM has also tried to sell off its x86 server business, according to multiple trade reports. That chatter has made some infrastructure partners nervous.

3. HP: CEO Meg Whitman has stabilized the company, but there have been multiple executive defections. Earlier this week, Oracle hired HP veteran Rich Geraffo as its new global channel chief. HP partners over the past year have also complained about enterprise channel conflict. Whitman took the complaints seriously, and shifted Sue Barsamian into the new post of senior VP, worldwide indirect sales.

4. Microsoft: Phil Sorgen succeeded John Roskill as channel chief, effective Sept. 1, 2013. Roskill was a strong channel chief who pushed hard for Microsoft to introduce channel-friendly cloud and mobile partner programs. But exiting CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t move fast enough with partners multiple times. Now, it’s up to Sorgen and Ballmer’s eventual successor to show a channel-first commitment for Office 365, Windows Azure, Surface tablets and more.

5. Oracle: The company’s engineered systems and Oracle Cloud have caught on with many partners. But former Channel Chief Judson Althoff jumped to Microsoft in early 2013. Earlier this week, Oracle hired HP veteran Rich Geraffo as Althoff’s global successor. President Mark Hurd has been channel-focused at Oracle OpenWorld and during private partner gatherings. Next up: It would be great to see CEO Larry Ellison show the channel some more love as well.

6. Dell: No doubt, 2013 has been a difficult year for Dell. The company battled some shareholders in a bid to take Dell private. That bid has finally succeeded. Dell has also suffered as the PC market shifted to tablets and smart phones, and the company’s data center strategy (involving networking, storage, servers and management software) hasn’t set the world on fire.

Read the Fine Print

But here’s the twist: Dell Channel Chief Greg Davis has shown consistent leadership and delivered consistent messaging to partners since 2007. Even Michael Dell has gotten into the act, calling on partners to hear what else they need from Dell’s data center push.

Dell has also hired some key channel lieutenants — including Juniper and IBM veteran Frank Vitagliano.

The overall result: Dell’s channel business has consistently grown faster than the overall channel market.

Dell ain’t perfect. But the company’s partner program always seems to be improving through consistent leadership…

New Oracle Channel Chief: HP’s Rich Geraffo

Oracle (ORCL) has named Rich Geraffo as senior VP, worldwide alliances and channels. Geraffo most recently was senior VP and managing director at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). He now reports directly to Oracle President Mark Hurd — another HP veteran. Here’s the spin from us.

Geraffo has extensive enterprise sales experience — most recently leading HP’s enterprise business in the Americas. He’s also held key executive slots at VMware, IBM, BEA Systems and more. Geraffo joins a lengthy list of executives and channel leaders who have jumped from HP to other enterprise-focused technology companies — including Oracle, Cisco, and VMware.

Oracle’s global channel chief post had been vacant ever since Judson Althoff jumped to Microsoft in March 2013. The recent Oracle OpenWorld 2013 conference was filled with channel partner news — for VARs and cloud integrators, in particular. But the lack of a designated channel chief was clear to us.

Now, Oracle has filled that void.

HP, meanwhile, must face the reality of continued executive changes. Over the past three years, Hewlett-Packard has watched numerous executives exit.

But more recently, CEO Meg Whitman has assured investors, customers and employees that the company is stabilizing. Moreover, Whitman has taken steps to mitigate potential sales conflicts between HP’s enterprise sales team and channel partners. Among the most recent moves: Promoting Sue Barsamian to the newly created position of senior VP, worldwide indirect sales.