Recap: Identify Best Fit Partners that Actually Drive ROI with You

Ariana Shannon,

Director of Marketing, Brand at SalesIntel

Ariana started her career in the tech space as a video marketer at Cirrus Insight and hasn’t slowed down since. Over the last five years, she has been on the fast track, taking her to her current role as the Marketing Director at SalesIntel. Her unique perspectives on sales, marketing, and operations have been forged by a career spent entirely with start-ups. This gives her a leg up as she knows what is needed for not only her team but for her organization to succeed.

Jessie Shipman,

CEO at Fluincy

I am a teacher. This isn’t a designation of title, but rather a statement of my very self. It’s my default. When I consider new information, I process it in a way that can be taught. For me, this is inserting information into a context of action and consequence.

When I was a high school history teacher, I wasn’t so much concerned with whether my students could identify all of the major players in the civil war, but whether they could identify a current societal situation and trace that back to the civil war itself. I wanted them to be able to understand that the decisions that they make have long lasting consequences and that we can see evidence of that all throughout our history.

When I moved into systems administration, I didn’t stop being a teacher. I didn’t stop inserting information into my action/consequence paradigm. But now, I was a teacher of teachers. When I became a Mac systems administrator, I had to teach them that if they were provided with the right tools, the right enablement, and the right motivation that they could unlock their creativity and innovation, and help their students to learn in new and powerful ways.

Later, when I moved to work in the MDM space I became a teacher of systems administrators. I was given an opportunity to help them to understand that the actions that they take behind an MDM console empower and enable their users to do their life’s best work.

The next chapter of my career story involves being a teacher to customers and to partners at Apple. I spent 3 years teaching K12 Systems Administrators how Apple devices can unlock their teachers creativity and passion, and how to accomplish that with the Apple Ecosystem. I shifted into Strategic Partner Enablement, and there I found my passion, MY life’s best work. I learned how to find the right relationships within an organization, I learned how to ask the right questions, I learned how to establish a symbiotic relationship. I learned how to leverage internal resources in order to make good on that relationship. I learned how to listen, to strategize around my partner’s needs, and then to build a plan to execute on how best to enable our partners to go to market together. I became a teacher of partners.

Next I’m looking to expand this passion. To build a team and a program and teach others how to execute on partner enablement strategy. I want to be a leader that builds diverse teams and empowers them to be the next generation of tech leaders.

Adam Pasch,

Head of Marketing and Partnerships at UNCOMM

Business is NOT a zero-sum game

Partnerships unlock growth that companies can not achieve on their own

More importantly, we create new opportunities for mutual customers

Why?

– Partners know your customers from a different and sometimes broader view.

– Partners push your product past it limits and drive innovation.

– Partners use your product in new ways, opening new markets.

– Partners add value for customers and more revenue for all.

– Partners ask different questions.

Sam Yarborough,

Chief Growth Officer at Invisory

Sam is a seasoned partnership leader with experience in building and managing strategic alliances with top technology and service companies. She is currently the Chief Growth Officer, Salesforce at Invisory where she helps partners tactically succeed in building and growing their partnership with Salesforce and the surrounding SI network.

Sam leverages her former background as a marketer, designer, and strategist to creatively solve problems, approach technologies, and use cases with new perspectives, and deliver mutually beneficial results for both partners and customers. She is passionate about fostering strong relationships, building alignment across the organization, and growing revenue for both companies. She is also co-hosts with her husband the business podcast, Friends with Benefits discussing the importance of purpose built relationships.