How to build your first channel program with Kimber Garrett

**Episode Summary:**

🤔 Are you struggling to introduce new technologies to satisfied clients? 📈 Want to simplify your channel program for sales reps? 💼 Curious about balancing partner revenue and innovation? Tune in to this episode of the Cybersecurity Startup Revenue Podcast.

👉 In this conversation, Kimber Garrett, a seasoned channel strategist, shares valuable insights on:
👉 Understanding client needs and pain points
👉 Building a simple and effective channel program
👉 Balancing partner revenue streams with innovation

**About Our Guest:**
Kimber Garrett is an experienced channel strategist with a successful track record of building channel programs. With a focus on consulting and advising clients, Kimber has observed both good and bad behavior from vendors and channel representatives. Kimber's expertise in navigating the complexities of the cybersecurity industry makes this episode a must-listen for founders, CEOs, leaders, and salespeople in the field.

**Summary:**
Join host Andrew Monaghan as he delves into the world of cybersecurity channel programs with guest Kimber Garrett. Discover the importance of understanding client needs, leveraging innovation, and simplifying channel programs to drive revenue growth. Don't miss out on valuable insights from Kimber's wealth of experience in building successful channel strategies. Tune in now and gain actionable takeaways for accelerating sales and revenue in the cybersecurity industry.

🔗 [Connect with Kimber Garrett on LinkedIn]
🌐 Visit J&K SOLUTIONS
📅 Interested in discussing your cybersecurity startup's revenue growth? Book a 30-minute meeting with Andrew Monaghan

Transcript

Andrew Monaghan [00:00:00]:

This is the second in the series of episodes about building partnerships for cybersecurity startups, and today Kimber Garrett joins us. Kimber is a longtime channel expert. She's been at vendors where she's built and run programs. She's a consultant to startups around building channel programs and also an advisor to cybersecurity vendor boards as well. We talk about how to become a viable partner to the channel, what a great channel program looks like as a startup, and how to deal with a common situation where a partner might have incumbent vendors and revenue streams that they're worried about disrupting or cannibalizing. Kimber brings the goods, as always in this episode, so don't go away. Welcome to the Cybersecurity Startup Revenue Podcast, where we help cybersecurity companies grow revenue faster. I'm your host, Andrew Monaghan. Our guest today is Kimber Garrett, founder of JNK Solutions. Kimber, welcome to the podcast.

 Kimber Garrett [00:01:10]:

Hey, thank you for having me. It's great. Good to see you.

Andrew Monaghan [00:01:13]:

Good to see you too. I'm looking forward to this episode. Kimber, we've known each other for a long time. You have been in the cybersecurity channel for years and years, it seems to me, both as a w two-employee at a bunch of vendors and also now laterally as JNK Solutions, where you're advising a bunch of companies about their channel strategy and channel programs. So our theme for September is all about how to help companies, cybersecurity companies, build programs to get the best and really partner with their channel partners. This is going to be a really valuable episode for the audience.

 Kimber Garrett [00:01:52]:

Excellent. Happy to be here.

Andrew Monaghan [00:01:53]:

Well, let's switch to the business side here, Kimber. As I said, you've got a long track record of building channel programs, both inside organizations, but also as part of the advisory and consulting work that you do. I feel like you've learned a lot over the years about how to do things and how to not do things. And you've probably seen every sort of good behavior and bad behavior on the part of vendors and channel reps and vendor reps and everyone. So I think this is going to be interesting as we kind of go through this. I want to tee up our conversation like this. I talked to Steve Kazan recently, and we invented a fake company. It was called cyber. Donut. And Cyber Donut has run about 20 customers. It's got five to ten people in the sales team. They've got a gut going with some traction. The pipeline is building. And the management team said, look, we think that the channel is going to be an important part of our growth. Let's go build something. So I guess the first thing is, I would imagine there are some vendors at that stage who probably aren't ready for even though they think they might be, aren't quite ready for a channel program. And those that are, so what would make this Cyber Donut company be a viable partner for some of the VARs out there in North America?

 Kimber Garrett [00:03:10]:

I think it's a great question. I think the number one thing is, is your product fully developed and is it ready for launch? Has it been through testing? Right. Our partner community here in North America and Canada sells a lot of different vendors in their portfolio. You want to make sure that when you start launching your channel program the product is worthy. And it definitely needs a want or an ask from the cybersecurity field. So it has to be a need in order for the partner communities to take a look at it.

Andrew Monaghan [00:03:45]:

So they're going to look at your 20 customers and probably a few of them are your friendlies, but hopefully by that point, you've got a number that which are not friendlies and therefore you can show, yes, there's a need. What else about the company are they going to look for to say, yeah, that's actually a company that might fit our profile?

 Kimber Garrett [00:04:03]:

Yeah. Number one thing is, are you 100% channel? Right. A lot of the partner community has desired to work with vendors or manufacturers who embrace the channel and want to go to market with the channel. Right. So you need to be able to design a channel program that is 100% channel.

Andrew Monaghan [00:04:23]:

Well, let's talk about that though, because that's a big step, right? I mean, you've fought hard for those 20 customers. You've got your reps you're paying for already. And now what we got to do is give up potentially, what, 25, 35 points of margin, what, on every deal at that point, it seems like a big stretch for the CEO or the board to kind of bite off on.

 Kimber Garrett [00:04:44]:

It is, but you have to think about the future growth of your business and the scalability. You can't scale your company without having the partner community embrace your solution and take it to their customers. Right. So one thing that the board has to remember is the company needs to scale and accelerate growth. In order to do that, you must have partners.

Andrew Monaghan [00:05:07]:

And if it's not 100% partners, what's the big problem with that?

 Kimber Garrett [00:05:13]:

I think the lack of trust that partners experience from vendors early on is concerning. So if you say that you're going to be 100% channel and you take a deal that it doesn't go through the channel, you lose credibility. Right. So if you're going to launch 100% channel organization, you need to stick with that. But if you let the partners know up front that, hey, look, we're coming out of stealth mode, we're launching, and we could utilize all the help we possibly can, but frankly, there might be some deals that we take direct. But our goal is to be channel first. Right. We think about the channel first and we make sure that we get a channel partner engaged in all the opportunities.

Andrew Monaghan [00:05:55]:

Yeah, it seems like they're probably going off past experiences where suddenly partners that say they were 100% didn't end up being 100%. And you lose a lot of trust very quickly when you start taking deals directly.

 Kimber Garrett [00:06:08]:

Absolutely. There's a lot of burn rate that.

Andrew Monaghan [00:06:11]:

Happens at that point there. The partner is probably just going to cut you off, right? They're just going to say, I don't trust these guys because you're putting work in the deals that we're not even sure we're going to get.

 Kimber Garrett [00:06:20]:

That's true. That can definitely happen. And what even more happens is that that word spreads throughout even the partner's competition, right? So that noise gets out there in the market that this company took a deal directly. So you got to be very careful. I think the most important thing is trust. You've got to trust each other in a partnership and you got to show that trust. You can't just talk, right? You've got to actually show some action behind that talk. And once you show that and you prove it to the partner community, I think that that's when you start to gain some traction and accelerate your pipeline.

Andrew Monaghan [00:06:55]:

I think I've experienced that myself in the past, where bad word spreads fast amongst channel partners. Even when you think they're in a competition, they talk, right? Reps move from partner to partner just like they move from vendor to vendor, and word spreads very quickly that those oh, yeah, let me tell you my experience with those guys. Let me tell you how I got screwed out of whatever. Let me tell you. Let me tell you, right? It happens a lot.

 Kimber Garrett [00:07:20]:

Yeah. Not only Andrew externally, but the virus of that can actually happen internally, right, within that same partner. So not just hitting one sales rep within a partner, but it's hitting all the sales reps and the engineers. And that's taken money out of their mouth. So I mean, that virus goes and spreads internally as well.

Andrew Monaghan [00:07:38]:

All right? So ideally, you want to create an environment where it's 100% committed to the channel. Whether you like it or not. You should be taking every deal indirectly rather than directly. And you can start, I guess, in that model, Kimber, you start taking deals to your partners, right? You're going to say, look, this has to go to the channel anyway. Let me build relationships with the right partners by saying, look, I've got a couple of deals here. I'm working. Why don't we work them together?

 Kimber Garrett [00:08:04]:

Right? And realistically, taking stuff 100% channel is very difficult. But if you gain that trust up front and you talk about channel first and you start bringing those inbound leads and dispersing them to the partner community, that noise, that action is going to be favorable amongst the partner community, and you start to build that trust all the way across. Right? Again, channel first is a much easier path to success than 100% channel. Because once you take one deal directly, it causes some concerns. Absolutely.

Andrew Monaghan [00:08:39]:

All right, well, let's say we figured out that we've got a viable business. We've made the commitment at a business level that the channel is going to be a key part of our strategy, and we've kind of gone that far. Well, let's talk about the channel program, right, the nuts and bolts. How should a vendor, how Cyber Donut be thinking that this channel program is actually going to function? How is it going to work?

 Kimber Garrett [00:09:01]:

Yeah, I think the first thing is to make a program that's very simple. It's easily recognizable, but it's not difficult for the sales reps to understand. So when you talk about creating a channel program that has multiple tiers, you're just going to compete with all the other ones that are out there, especially with Cyber Donut. If we're talking about that, it's your startup mentality, right? So you want to make it easy to do. You want the partners to be able to say, hey, you know what? I can recognize what your discount or your margin is and I don't have to go and look through the partner portal or any of that nonsense right now. All I know is, hey, they're going to give me this. And their program is simple. If I find an opportunity, I can deal right and we can go to bat together. Right. So there's no hard line certifications or multi-tier process early on when you launch a new organization out into the channel partner program or channel partner, because.

Andrew Monaghan [00:09:56]:

I guess at that stage, right, you're just looking for people that want to work with you. You're not fending them off. Right. And thinking, well, let's try and raise some barriers here so we get the ones that are, I don't know what super high quality or wherever you might think they are at that point, you're saying, let's just make it simple and do some business together and see how it goes.

 Kimber Garrett [00:10:15]:

Yeah, I mean, the goal is to create a pipeline when you're a startup organization. And in order to do that, you want to create a program that's simple and it's seamless. Right. And those are the programs that seem to resonate with the partners more often than not.

Andrew Monaghan [00:10:31]:

Let's get some detail on that then. So what should we be giving in terms of margin or discount or spiffs or marketing dollars or leads? What should it look like?

 Kimber Garrett [00:10:42]:

I think again, you follow that same principle of simplicity. You don't want to make all this complex. You want to make it attractive. Right. And you're there to build a pipeline and of course, you're there to make money. But if you take a look at the market right now, there are different ways that partners make their money gross profit margin. Some programs take an opportunity to make it even more simple and not deal with margins, but just overall discounts. So Andrew, let's take an example. $100,000 deal, right? Instead of figuring out margins and tier status. Just a very seamless, flat program where it says you get 20% of the $100,000. Right. Because you want to make sure that these partners understand your program, understand that you're simple to work with out of the gate and you continue to build that pipeline in favor of your competition.

Andrew Monaghan [00:11:37]:

So in that example, then, would you make it so simple that it doesn't really matter where the deal comes from? Whether they bring it or we bring it, they'll just get 20 points. And we'll probably do a lot of the work at this point because we got to sell our stuff and take ownership, right?

 Kimber Garrett [00:11:51]:

Absolutely. And I think for internal purposes you want to gather that data, right? How many partner-led opportunities are coming in? Where do we need a focus, where do we need to pivot our channel program? But when you are starting up, you want pipeline growth and you want to accelerate that sales cycle to close sooner than rather later, right? So my thoughts would be that the most attractive way is to give them that overall percentage, whether it's deal reg or not. Right. But for internal purposes, you definitely want to capture that data.

Andrew Monaghan [00:12:22]:

Yeah. You said deal reg right there. So just quickly, for those that are less familiar, what does deal reg mean and how does it work?

 Kimber Garrett [00:12:28]:

A deal registration terminology is very common in the cybersecurity industry. Basically, it is a partner-led opportunity that's brought to the manufacturer. They have opened up their doors and their relationships and found an opportunity where you might be able to fill the need or solve the problem that the customer is facing. So they bring you in and in bringing you in, you are rewarding them a higher percentage of discount or margin and basically allowing that partner to be the partner to go to market with.

Andrew Monaghan [00:13:04]:

Yeah. So it's the protection that is kind of key to that, right?

 Kimber Garrett [00:13:08]:

Yeah, I use that term loosely, protection. Because there are all different situations or variables that will come into play. And when there's a nonstandard pricing opportunity that falls into play, that's when margins or discounts get shorter and shorter or smaller and smaller. Right. And then, of course, there might be an opportunity for even playing fields amongst all partner communities, which I never want. Right. If a partner is going to go out of their way and find an opportunity for us, we're going to protect them, we're going to give them that discount structure. Right. And it's up to them what they do with that margin or that discount. But again, the program should read that we are here to incentivize those partners to bring the opportunities to the manufacturer.

Andrew Monaghan [00:13:53]:

So the partner rep is worried because they're putting the work in to go and introduce you to the accounts that they work with. And then if you've got more partners right, they are completely out of the control of the partner rep, the end user buyer might just shop it around and say, who else sells this stuff and can we get a better deal? Right? And then they'll get mad because they deal with the work, and suddenly they're down at cost plus a small number, right, because they're trying to keep the in the deal, but the deal rush protects them in a certain way, right, and that we're not going to let that happen. So they'll get the deal at a higher margin to reward them. And I guess from what you're saying, though, you might do that when they're a little bit more mature. When you get to 40, 50 and you're really kind of getting going with your partner program, you might layer in something like that or you might have it but not have the discount, or you might have more discount later on, it sounds like.

 Kimber Garrett [00:14:45]:

Yeah.

Andrew Monaghan [00:14:46]:

Other things I've heard, terms I've heard people use is market development funds and doing Spice with channel partners, things like that. Is it just too early for that sort of stuff or should that be part of thinking as well?

 Kimber Garrett [00:14:57]:

I mean, I think they can still put something in play and create a program for it, but most companies that are in that stage, and if we're talking startup that could be seed, that could be A, that could be B round, that they might not have those funds to do that with, right? So the way that they could market themselves is through platforms like LinkedIn that would be somewhat free of use and they need to figure out a way to be able to brand themselves and bring awareness to the partner community through those types of tools, right? And if they could utilize maybe some events in their area that would be low, low cost to bring awareness, I think that would be beneficial for them. But yes, marketing development funds might be a little early for startups because again, it's all about pipeline growth and winning right away, right? Because the next stage is to possibly get new investors, right? And you don't want to burn that money on a lot of the marketing development that typically happens.

Andrew Monaghan [00:15:55]:

What would you say is the number one factor of whether Cyber Donut goes and signs up a channel partner and the CEO goes, yeah, we're awesome, you're awesome, we're all going to do business together. What's the number one factor of success from that point onwards that determines whether this is even going to work or not?

 Kimber Garrett [00:16:12]:

There are a lot of variables that happen, right, because partners want to be able to vet out your technology. It doesn't matter if the C-suite executives or leadership are shaking hands and kissing the babies and all kinds of stuff, right? It's the engineers who need to make sure that that product is going to be viable in their portfolio. So, yes, that first stage is to make that connection with seed leadership to make sure that they understand that, hey, this is something that we could go to market with and then define how they should go to market. But that second step for sure, even in running in parallel, should be to meet with the engineering team executives to figure out whether or not this solution is something that they can take to market. A lot of the time in the past, there hasn't been a tool, Andrew, that most channel chiefs or companies could utilize to narrow their focus on the right partner profile. Right. They had no idea. They were just spraying and praying. Now there's this tool, Andrew, I have to tell you, it's absolutely amazing. And if I had this 20 years ago, I would have probably just been killing it even more so. But there is a tool out there called Partner Optimizer, and that tool actually helps you define the right partners to go to market-based on your industry and based on the solution. Right. So now when I talk to startup organizations, it's not spraying and praying, and let me just let's see if something sticks. It's really defining how you would actually talk to those executive leaders and getting those right partner executives on the calendar to talk and saying, hey, look, you specialize in this type of solution. You have clientele that specializes in this. And this is why we want to talk to you about it.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:00]:

Kimber. Let's learn a little bit more about you. I've got 35 questions here. I'm going to ask you to pick three numbers between one and 35. Give me the three numbers and I'll read out the questions.

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:10]:

22.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:10]:

22. Tricked out Jeep or German car with all the gadgets?

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:16]:

Jeep, for sure.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:18]:

Do you have a jeep?

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:19]:

We have a new Ford Bronco.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:21]:

Oh, God. My neighbor's got one of them. What do you think of it?

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:24]:

We love it. We had a 63 Ford Bronco, half Cab, three on the tree a long time ago, and we were waiting for the Ford to bring out the new Bronco, and when they did, we jumped on it. Took about a year and a half to get, but we love it.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:37]:

Yeah. The waitlist is long, right?

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:39]:

It is very long.

Andrew Monaghan [00:18:41]:

Looks good, though. So yeah, I'll be interested to see how that goes for you. Next number, team one in 30, 511. Eleven. What is one great hotel you've been to?

 Kimber Garrett [00:18:51]:

I would say the hotel that was in oh, my God. I've been to so many over the years. I don't know if I could just pick one. Maybe the one in Cabo, which was the one and only Pamelia. It was absolutely amazing. And they definitely catered to every bit of your it actually, our room looked over to the ocean, so it was beautiful.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:15]:

Now, you there on a personal trip, or was that part of a channel trip?

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:19]:

That was a channel trip. I was able to go do a President's club reaching revenue growth numbers that the company set forth for us. So it was an honor to be attending and enjoying and relaxing there on the company dime. It was wonderful.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:37]:

That's a good way to do it.

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:38]:

Yeah.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:39]:

Last number, team one in 35.

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:41]:

Seven.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:43]:

What is your favorite fall pastime?

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:46]:

S'mores.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:48]:

S'mores.

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:49]:

S'mores? Yes.

Andrew Monaghan [00:19:51]:

Okay. For those outside the US, what are S'mores?

 Kimber Garrett [00:19:54]:

S'mores. Okay. S'mores is this amazing little treat. It's very sweet. It's made with, typically in the United States, a Hershey chocolate bar, milk chocolate, not dark chocolate, and a marshmallow. And it's heated up over the campfire and smooshed in between. Yummy. Graham crackers. Whether it's cinnamon, graham crackers, or honey, I choose honey. And it's all melted. It's gooey, and it gets everywhere, all over your face, all your fingers. And it reminds me of my childhood.

Andrew Monaghan [00:20:26]:

And it's super healthy, the ones these days. Right.

 Kimber Garrett [00:20:29]:

Super healthy for you. If you're on a health kick, take some of that.

Andrew Monaghan [00:20:34]:

Yeah, we actually did some recently. My wife's cousin and his family visited and the got two young boys, so they were desperate to go and do the S'mores in the backyard with a friend. Fire pit.

 Kimber Garrett [00:20:45]:

Good stuff. Now, the marshmallows have changed different colors since I've been a kid, so that's even more fun.

Andrew Monaghan [00:20:54]:

I love that idea. Right. Because you don't have the bandwidth to go off and try and figure that out manually. Right. You go to look to modern technology. Sounds like this is a pretty new thing.

 Kimber Garrett [00:21:03]:

Absolutely. And it's key to you brought up.

Andrew Monaghan [00:21:06]:

Something interesting there, Kimber. So let's say partner Optimizer finds us some partners, and I'm sure there's lots of things that they look at, but one of the things you said was you're used to dealing with this type of technology that kind of gets into the world of incumbency and revenue streams that the partner has already. Now I'm thinking cyber donuts coming along. I'm sure once in a while there's a cyber donut that completely opens up a completely new revenue stream that partner has not even thought of before. But usually what happens is it's at least tangentially competitive to existing things they might have, right. So, for example, they might have been selling VPN concentrators for 20 years, and then suddenly some of the SASE companies and the ZTNA companies show up and say, well, no, that's the old way. Now there's a new way. I'm wondering how you navigate that to make sure you're not openly or maybe you are openly cannibalizing their existing revenue. How do you kind of thread that needle to make sure that you're seen under the right light by the partner?

 Kimber Garrett [00:22:08]:

So if I understand you correctly, there's a need of evolution right. And innovation. And there are partners who continually sell technologies that we would consider archaic, and they still kind of do the job. Right. But they can't keep up with the newer technologies that are in their environment.

Andrew Monaghan [00:22:27]:

But importantly, it's a revenue stream. Right. We get the renewal from these guys for the Paolo whatever every year for half a million dollars. Right. And now you guys are going to take that away from me.

 Kimber Garrett [00:22:37]:

Yeah. And that is a hard mountain to climb. Right. Basically, you have to be able to present the differentiators between yourself and the renewal. Right. These are key differentiators. Right. This solution could help the other solutions that are already in their infrastructure. Kind of like the better together story. The co selling of two technologies to help your client achieve what they're trying to achieve. Right. You're there to advise them and to consult with them on making sure that the scope of the work that they've defined for you is going to be successful. Right. And if you're renewing a product that is actually working, which is great, but there's other technologies that might be out there that can be more innovative. It could have that better together story. It could be more stickier in the environment. That's something that I would think that the partners would want to tell their clients. Right. So it's kind of like a hard balance to have that discussion with the partners because on one hand, they're expecting that and it's part of their revenue stream, and the other part is, okay, how do I bring my customer up to the new type of technologies that are out there? Right. And is it going to cut into my revenue stream? So it's a very scary balance in between having that discussion with the partners, I would have to admit.

Andrew Monaghan [00:24:03]:

Yeah. It sounds like a good old fashioned sales job. Right. You got to help them realize that the existing way is not going to last forever. And at some point in the next one month or five years, you pick when the market is going to be changing over to this new way. And at what point are you going to be ready to do that? I would imagine you get individuals who are completely comfortable with the idea of going early, and you have those that are like, no, I want to protect this as long as I can because I'm very suspicious of new stuff. Right. You got to navigate that whole world.

 Kimber Garrett [00:24:37]:

Yeah. I would agree with you. Change is inevitable. It's always going to happen. And the best thing I can tell the partner community is continue education. Right. Because you want to bring the best you possibly can to your clients. Right.

Andrew Monaghan [00:24:51]:

And this happened recently. Right. I'm just trying to think. So traditional AV to next gen AV to EDR kind of shift from, I don't know, McAfee semantic over to Cyland's credit Strike. That was a big shift. Right. Did you see anything to learn from that happening in the market?

 Kimber Garrett [00:25:09]:

I did, and a lot of it had to do with the channel program that Silence launched to beat out McAfee's renewal program. Right. What I saw personally was Silence coming out with an incredible marketing launch around and four partners where they were incentivized to go and knock out McAfee during that time. Right. And there were a lot of partner incentives, but one thing the partner community embraced, not necessarily the rewards or the spiffs or the incentives, but the product actually just worked. Right. It was considered the liquid gold. You just turn it on and it would just work. Right. And that's what partners want. They want simplicity, they want seamless. They want a product that is just going to turn on and absolutely work. And they embraced it. And McAfee had a little bit of an uphill battle during that time when Silence was launched.

Andrew Monaghan [00:26:11]:

Yeah, it sounds like what you're saying there is almost like a trifecta, right. There's going to be a shift in the market. Right. It's going to happen. That's number one. Number two is, look at our stuff. It just works out the concerns about getting into POVs or bake offs and the thing falling apart. Right. It's going to work. And then thirdly, here's a program you can make significant amounts of money using the two things I just talked about. Right. It's almost like the perfect trifecta. Right?

 Kimber Garrett [00:26:36]:

There definitely was.

Andrew Monaghan [00:26:37]:

And if someone's in that environment trying to think tactically, what you should advise your partner to do, should they be very narrow in their use cases? Should they just think about it? Now, we should apply this to all of our accounts out there, trying to think of what the advice would be about how they go to market with your stuff.

 Kimber Garrett [00:26:54]:

I think they really need to listen to the client. Their clients are important to them. They need to understand where their clients are and what their clients are doing and their pain that they're experiencing. Right. But it's also up to the partners as a consultant to bring new and innovative ideas or solutions to their clients. Right. So again, we go back to that very difficult, awkward conversation with the partners and the sales reps and the engineers, because the technology that the current client has is working, right. But there's other technologies out there that does the same thing, but has different types of additional add ons per se, that could help consolidate some of the products that they already currently have in their environment. Right. And as a channel leader, I want to advocate to our partner community is to embrace that concept and be able to go out there and talk to their clients and their customers about the new stuff that's happening. And Andrea, I was at a channel leadership meeting back in May in Las Vegas, and the new thing that was being talked about was within the partner community, maybe the partners should separate their sales force. There would be a sales force strictly for individuals who would take new emerging technologies out to the market space. And then a sales team that would continue to strengthen their revenue. Right. Almost kind of competitiveness between the two in the partner, where they continue to sell the technologies that they've been selling in their portfolio, but they should create a group of sales reps that understand new emerging technologies and go forth and bring those to the customer. So that was a big kind of decision that a lot of channel partners are starting to implement in their salesforce right now.

Andrew Monaghan [00:28:59]:

That makes at face value to me. That makes a ton of sense, right. Without disparaging any one channel rep out there, there's some people who are very good at managing existing relationships, bringing in the Palo guy because there's some new version of whatever they bought from Paolo, right. Let's talk about the new stuff. And that's interesting. And then there's some people that just revel in the world of let's go and advocate and evangelize for this whole different new approach over here. And I would imagine those two people naturally would be very different people if you want to maximize them both. But it's interesting. The other thing I thought you were saying that, Kimberly, was that in my experience, and tell me if I got this wrong, is that the way that partners assign business is based on accounts. So you'll be the rep at local reseller and you'll have 20 accounts assigned to you and you just own those accounts. This seems to kind of go against that whole principle.

 Kimber Garrett [00:29:57]:

Yes, I think that's what they're trying to work out. Right, so it would be net new logo team, right. So opportunities or accounts that they don't currently have in their portfolio, in their client portfolio. So it'd be net new logo and new innovative new emerging technology sales reps. So that's how they're deciphering it. Now, whether or not that's truly going to work, I don't know. I think they're going to try it and see. But I think as the world changes and transforms, so does technology and so does environments. And it's the partner communities, I think, responsibility to go out to their clients and let them know what's out there and what to follow. And most of them definitely do that.

Andrew Monaghan [00:30:43]:

The other question I have about that is I'm wondering if there are partners who naturally like and are able to work with early stage companies and there's going to be partners that just say, that's not our thing for whatever reason. Is that the case? Or does every partner at some level want to work with early stage?

 Kimber Garrett [00:31:02]:

I think every partner wants to understand what the startups have and willing to work with them. But again, they only have so many minutes during a day and they have so many partners in their portfolio already. Some partners have over 200 vendors in their portfolio and they just can't keep track of it. All right, it's mind boggling. There's so much noise out there, right? So the ones that I see embracing startups, the sales reps and the engineers are the ones who like to tinker the engineers who like to tinker around and try to manipulate and break and then try to figure out a new path to saving the world per se. Right. The sales reps are the ones that are extremely passionate, high energy, are very hungry, and love the thrill of the chase. Right. It's typically the sales reps that I see embrace new emerging technologies.

Andrew Monaghan [00:31:59]:

Yeah, I could see that for sure. And different types of partners as well. So I remember back in previous lives we've talked about VARs and Lars and I don't know all different things. I've go all the acronyms and now there's even more like agents out there. People who been selling recently I got laid off or as part of the big resignation went up and did their own thing and now they're out there saying, look, I'm just a one man band, but I know 20 companies inside and out, I can get you in there. It seems like a lot of different levels of partners to try and decipher. Any tips about how to think about that?

 Kimber Garrett [00:32:32]:

Yeah, absolutely. You're spot on right there. In fact, I've had sales reps who have been laid off contact me and say, hey, how are you doing? J and K solutions and what does that look like? Because I have, just like you said, Andrew, I have 20 or 30 accounts that I can go and just have sit down and have dinner with or lunch or just have fun with my clients. Right. So what do you think is the best way to start off, Kimber? And I say don't worry about the legacy products. Find the early stage startups, find the new emerging technologies. Right. Embrace those, bring those to your clients because that's where the opportunity is going to be right now. That might be a short window of time. Absolutely. But it's a window and that's why you can get in there and get your business started and really help those clients and separate yourself as a differentiator in the market.

Andrew Monaghan [00:33:23]:

Yeah, I think that's just looking at how outbound is going right now for vendors, I think relationships are key. And if you're sitting there as an agent and you can truly as you can just walk into 20 accounts and the owners and the CEO and everyone down knows you and wants to work with you, that's such a huge asset these days.

 Kimber Garrett [00:33:42]:

Trust is huge. Right. And relationships are big right now. Like I said earlier, Andrew, there's so much noise, there's so many technologies out there, right, that these end users need to understand who they can trust and who they can build a long term relationship with. And if there are sales reps out there that have been laid off and the want to be a sales agent, that's the advice that I would give them is to go and embrace those new emerging technologies and start bringing them to your trusted relationships.

Andrew Monaghan [00:34:15]:

Yeah. All right. Any final bits of advice before we wrap up?

 Kimber Garrett [00:34:19]:

Final bits of advice? I would say when you're thinking about developing or launching a channel strategy for whether it's seed, whether it's A, B or C, think about first. Do you have feet on the street? Right. Do you have sales reps? If you have sales reps and they've been out there and they've started to create their pipeline, that would be the time to start bringing in some of the channel discussions. Right. Because the channel partners want to see the sales reps. They want to know you have sales reps out there. They want to know that you're in there for the long haul. Right. They don't want to go in and bring you in and two months later you're gone. Right. That ruins their credibility with the end user. So I would say, first and foremost, if you have some feet on the street and you have some customers that are already in your portfolio, that would be the time to think about hiring a channel strategist or a channel leader to help build that and the launch it for you and execute.

Andrew Monaghan [00:35:15]:

Feels like, to me, the right way to approach is to say, this will amplify what you're already doing, as opposed to recreating or starting from scratch just through partners. Right. Is that fair?

 Kimber Garrett [00:35:30]:

Absolutely.

Andrew Monaghan [00:35:31]:

Yeah. I feel like if you're trying to create a market, a category, or trying to get going, you need to have that ownership and commitment from inside before you start looking for help outside. But when that's ready, though, to our discussion, right. When we're ready for that, that can make a big, big difference in your ability to go scale and own the market.

 Kimber Garrett [00:35:52]:

I would absolutely agree. Make sure that everybody's on board that they want to embrace the channel, and when you're ready, that would be the go to way of doing it.

Andrew Monaghan [00:36:01]:

Well, Kimber, as always, loved the conversation and catching up again today. If someone wants to get hold of you and continue the conversation or talk about their own channel strategy, what's the best way to do that?

 Kimber Garrett [00:36:12]:

Yeah, they can reach out to Kimber at J K Solutions or just find me on LinkedIn. That would probably be the easiest way. Absolutely. And thank you so much, Andrew. It's always great to see you. And thank you for the opportunity to chat with you today. It was wonderful. Thank you.

Andrew Monaghan [00:36:24]:

Absolutely. I'll put your email and the link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes so anyone can find them easily right there. Love chatting. All the best, kimber, thank you so much.

 Kimber Garrett [00:36:34]:

You too. Appreciate you close.