It’s not easy to do business-as-usual now, when business is anything-but-usual.
That’s why we’re glad that lead generation on Quest.com is busier than ever in the middle of this #WorkFromHome era.
- Web traffic to Quest.com has been up on the order of 10% YoY.
- 75% of recent web traffic has been new visitors.
- Marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) have been up 20% year over year.
That’s also why we were glad so many of you turned out for our April FY21 Partner Webinar. We’ve posted an on-demand version of the webinar with slides and audio for you to review and share. I’ll cover some of the main points in this post.
3 Guidelines for tough times: Empathy, video and pipeline basics
Todd Werner described some of the guidelines and techniques Quest is following as we all adjust to lockdowns and try to keep customers happy while sheltering in place.
First, most people’s Number-Two focus lately (Number One is the health of family and friends) has been the health of the business. Whether they run a hair salon or a multinational, they’re thinking about business continuity and what it takes to keep the concern going. We recommend showing empathy for the difficulties that customers are going through now.
Then, we’re doubling down on video. If it takes two face-to-face meetings to, say, get a purchase order signed, it probably takes 10 phone calls to accomplish the same thing. Over video, it’s about five meetings. Video conferences are stickier and better for building relationships. Plus, on purely audio calls, you never know whether people are surfing the web, checking email, watching a movie, eating lunch or having a nap. If you’re not taking advantage of video, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Finally, stick to the fundamentals of sales pipeline management. For instance, don’t say, “COVID-19 is fouling up the deal.” Nobody can do anything about that. But if the real sticking point is that your transaction is delayed while the purchasing manager gets her VPN software upgraded, somebody can do something about that.
New offering for partners: Remote Workforce Campaigns in a Box
“Help your newly mobile and remote workforce thrive.”
That’s a big part of our theme right now. Our products are designed to support working from home (or from anywhere), so we’ve pulled together campaigns in a box for channel partners.
The campaigns are sales resources your reps can use in video conferences with prospects. Use them to position Quest as a trusted solution provider for the remote workforce. They include playbooks, call scripts, white papers and materials around managing, securing and protecting infrastructure remotely.
To access these Campaigns in a Box, go to the Quest Partner Circle and look in the menu under Marketing.
Co-selling Quest and Microsoft
Where else can you apply the theme of helping the newly mobile and remote workforce thrive? How about in co-selling Quest and Microsoft?
Leigh Ann Campbell explained that Microsoft has seen how strongly ISVs and partners drive consumption of Azure, Office 365 and Teams. They’ve also seen that Quest is one of their top 5 co-selling partners in the world. As a Quest partner, you’re in a great place right now.
Quest and One Identity have specified more than two dozen priority co-sell solutions, depending on what your customer is trying to accomplish. In this #WorkFromHome era, for example, if they want to configure and migrate SharePoint, you can co-sell Metalogix Content Matrix. If they want easy recovery of Azure AD/Office 365 users and groups, then co-sell On Demand Recovery. The priorities now are in Teams migration, Teams management and Azure AD recovery.
Like our Campaigns in a Box, Microsoft has created Plays in a Box like “Office 365 Adoption and Security” and “Workload Migration and Optimization for Azure.”
We’ve made them available from the Quest Partner Circle
One Identity update
Andrew Clarke revealed that the market for identity access management is projected to grow at 11% CAGR on average over the next few years. It’s a good time to have identity products to sell.
We’ve made it easy for you to create your own campaigns around One Identity products with a collection of call-to-action email content. From our partner portal you can use these campaigns-in-a-box to direct your customers to assets like white papers and customer success stories. You’ll find a Quick Start guide outlining the steps of a solid email campaign. You’ll also find video for both you and your customers.
We’re launching identity management campaigns for the newly mobile and remote workforce. Quest is offering free access to One Identity Defender, designed for multi-factor authentication (MFA), and One Identity Safeguard for Privileged Sessions, which protects the accounts of users like IT administrators.
Partner program updates
Then, yours truly described the unity and simplicity of Quest’s Partner Circle and program, despite the large number of products moving through it.
We’ve simplified the path to Platinum partner status by lowering the number of required accreditations from two to one. Plus, we’ve added accreditations for One Identity, Foglight for Databases, and Services Certifications. That means more ways to train on presenting and demonstrating products you can sell sooner.
We’ve made it easier for you to earn rebates, but don’t forget that you still need to access the rebate portal from the Quest Partner Circle to trigger them. Do that by April 30, or your rebate disappears!
To give you more flexibility and breathing room, any existing opportunity with a deal registration expiring in H1 — that is, before July 31, 2020 — will automatically receive a 60-day extension. (Consider that part of the empathy that Todd mentioned above.)
Q&A
Lastly, some of you submitted questions on a variety of topics.
- Besides the video tutorials you find on the Quest Partner Portal, we’ve published videos oncom/oneidentity and shorter use-case demo videos on www.quest.com/TV. Filter by the product you are looking for.
- Syslog-NG is on the road to being a co-sell product. Currently, Microsoft is reviewing it for approval.
- We saw too little uptake of Quest literature you can co-brand with your contact information, so we create less of it now. Let your channel account manager (CAM) and your Quest Marketing Manager know of any unique needs you may have.
- The main benefit of becoming a Platinum partner lies in unlocking additional rebates and incentives. Second, you also become eligible for additional market development funds (MDF) to drive more demand-gen activities with a Quest Marketing Manager supporting you. Third, we pass leads over to Platinum partners more often.
- For InTrust, technical video is available under Support for InTrust, with additional video at the top of the InTrust product page.
Next step
Share the 58-minute on-demand webcast with any co-workers who were unable to attend. It goes into more detail than the highlights I’ve given in this blog post.
Meanwhile:
- Visit our Partner Circle to learn more about our Campaigns in a Box.
- Use any downtime you have now to complete your accreditations and training.
- Contact your CAM with any opportunities on which you want our help.
Stay safe and stay in touch!
