I spend most of my time educating channel partners, most of them Value-Added Resellers (VARs) on how Cisco CloudCenter can help them help their customers with a hybrid cloud strategy. What I’ve noticed in my first year at Cisco after being part of the CliQr acquisition is that selling cloud services is very different than the traditional VAR box sale.
Instead of a large influx of capital funds that a salesperson can use to retire quarterly quota, cloud selling is much more about planting seeds in multiple accounts, some of which will grow exponentially and continue to feed revenue streams in perpetuity. That lets a VAR build relationships with lots of different people within their accounts and there’s plenty of opportunity for hardware drag and services revenue in the short term, but it’s that long term relationship a VAR is really trying to build.
Instead of a large influx of capital funds that a salesperson can use to retire quarterly quota, cloud selling is much more about planting seeds in multiple accounts, some of which will grow exponentially and continue to feed revenue streams in perpetuity. That lets a VAR build relationships with lots of different people within their accounts and there’s plenty of opportunity for hardware drag and services revenue in the short term, but it’s that long term relationship a VAR is really trying to build.
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