From Strategy to Scale: Emma Davidson on Helping Partners Win in the Marketplace Era

Speaker A: Welcome to Investable Partnerships where we talk to industry leaders about growing revenue generating partnerships. I'm your host, Des Russell and co founder of Partner Elevate. And the daily battle for partner success is forcing channel leaders to rethink how to maximize their relevance and value so they can be a driver of partner impact. So let's jump in and find out how. Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Investable Partnerships podcast. I'm your host, Des Russell and today I'm joined by someone who is doing so much in the channel distribution and vendor landscape, really, um, helping partners drive better impact, but more importantly, help partners take advantage of the opportunity that is in the cloud and marketplace era. Emma Davidson from, uh, NextGen, VP of Cloud. Emma, it's so good to have you here. Ah, and I'm so excited that we finally got to do this because we've been talking about it for a while.

Speaker B: We have indeed, Des. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited for the discussion today.

Speaker A: Excellent. So today is really talking about this opportunity around Marketplace. There's no one that I can think of in our, uh, industry who is advocating for this marketplace motion better than you.

Speaker B: And that's a lot of pressure there.

Speaker A: Yeah, it's a lot of pressure. We work with a lot of people across the industry, across distribution, and I would have to say that the passion that you have, the energy you have around this is really good. And I really hope from our audience's point of view that they get to hear that today. But really we're talking about this fundamental shift that's really impacting vendors, distributors and partners. So I'm really excited to take this and unpack this, uh, with you. But before we start there, take us back a little because, you know, you've gone from this agency life to westcon, then you went to Tech Data, uh, also Optus, then Tech Data. And you've been at NextGen for a good couple of years now. So it's a pretty diverse path. Um, so talk to us about like between everything here, what actually connected, what's connected everything here for you?

Speaker B: Good question. I haven't really unpacked that before, but yeah, as you mentioned, I started off in agency land, um, really passionate about marketing and really understanding how brands connect to customers. And then from there I kind of fell into technology and found it really, really interesting. So my first role in technology was at westcon where I had a number of different roles, but really learned about sales and channel and distribution and really enjoyed it. I think learning about technology and really Challenging myself around different technologies as well was really, really interesting. And then from there I moved on to Optus where I wanted um, to get more experience around how partners work in the ecosystem and had a number of roles there. And that's where I sort of really started to build my cloud skills. Leading the cloud strategy for Optus business and then was fortunate to lead the cloud practice at Tech Data. So I ran both the Microsoft and AWS practice and did a number of years there. I had a really amazing team that ordered my development and growth around cloud and leading leading teams and where I am today at NextGen. So I was fortunate to start that business from scratch, the AWS practice just on five years ago and I had tremendous support and guidance from our leadership team to really drive that and be, you know, where we are today, which is really successful distribution business across Anz for our AWS business.

Speaker A: Love it. And I think, you know, you've mentioned before that you're passionate about distribution.

Speaker B: I am indeed. Distribution girl through and through.

Speaker A: Now let's be honest, it's really hard in our industry to kind of. I don't think distribution gets the spotlight that it actually deserves. So for you, what about distribution today really excites you?

Speaker B: A lot of things. It's such a fast paced environment. You know, if I think about my time, time in agency land, I love that fast paced environment, you know, looking after our clients and delivering on expectations and driving the outcomes. And distribution is quite similar to that but in technology. So we get to engage with our uh, C level partner ecosystem but also in vendorland as well. So I love the fast paced environment. I love that versatility between working with channel partners and vendors. And then I think it's a really wonderful breeding ground for talent as well. And so I get to work with a tremendous amount of great talent across the business. So that's the type of things that excite me and get me up every day out of bed.

Speaker A: Love it. And I think what's interesting around distribution is actually the role of distribution has really evolved massively and it's created a massive shift and I uh, absolutely want to sort of. Let's talk about that particular shift because at front and center of that shift, yes, the first transition was SaaS, you know, from box moving to SaaS and then the cloud and now we've got Marketplace which is really fundamentally changing the way vendors, partners and distributors actually go to market. And what makes this such a big moment? So I suppose from your side, what really makes this such a big moment for partners Distributors and vendors. When you think about Marketplace and its role in actually helping grow not only the channel, but grow these vendors businesses.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean there's so many different elements to that, but I think the first is we're changing the way that we do business. You know, we're moving from, you know, that what I call traditional channel motion to digital motion. So with that, our go to market needs to change our capabilities and our services need to adapt and so do our channel partners. They need to adapt as well. They need to operationalize how they do business and then change how they go to market. But it's a really exciting time. It enables our, uh, channel partners to reach new customer markets and to reach and scale better.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And um, besides the customer driving the shift in terms of consumer behavior and everything like that, you work really closely with AWS as your core tier one vendor. So what's driving vendors to think about Marketplace and its. Why is it so important to them in terms of their go to market today?

Speaker B: I think it accelerates the deal cycle. Absolutely. I think that again it captures new audiences. Vendors can now be global through that marketplace platform. So there's so many different factors that to why marketplaces are important. But ultimately we all want sales and to be able to reach into other markets and GEOs and new customer bases is, is really exciting.

Speaker A: I think so Emma, when you think about the challenge that partners have, the challenge that distribution has in the shift and how this translates down back to channel channel partners. When you think about it, uh, what is that one or two challenges that you see partners are really struggling with to adopt Marketplace today?

Speaker B: Firstly, it's the knowledge and understanding of Marketplace and really understanding what marketplace can do for their business and then that ability, ability to sort of work through how they're going to go to market. You know, there needs to be a really clear strategy around that. It's just not a, uh, tick in the box. Yeah, we're going to put something onto Marketplace. It really is a clear strategy around what we're going to do and how we're going to drive marketplace growth. So I think it's that alignment of a really clear strategy and that willingness to give something a go as well, that's different to how they do business today because the opportunity is huge. There are so many customers on the marketplace today consuming and buying technology through the marketplace and it's a missed opportunity.

Speaker A: Absolutely. So we so many people day to day. I hear Marketplace is going to mean the end of distribution. It's going to mean the end of having partners involved in the sales cycle or partners involved in actually helping customers. What do you say to that?

Speaker B: I say absolutely not. Um, I think there's this common misconception to your point that, you know, distribution is going to become irrelevant and that's absolutely not the case. Um, I'm very optimistic about distribution's future and the role that it plays there. I think at the, the very minimum is we provide that digital enablement layer, you know, where we're out there in the field supporting partners, getting them CPPO enabled, getting them marketplace ready, um, helping them to operationalize their operations and really helping them identify new customers and taking them to market. So, no, I think it's a really exciting time for distribution and I think we'll continue to evolve and to build out new capabilities and services that really help drive Marketplace adoption and growth.

Speaker A: So let's make that a little bit practical now. And if a partner comes to you today and says you're meeting a new partner, or one of your, uh, partners comes to you and says, we want to start selling through Marketplace, Yeah. What may the first two or three things that you would go and tell them to do?

Speaker B: Well, back to, uh, what I mentioned earlier, align on a strategy. That's the first step. We really need to be clear that the business is aligned on that strategy and how you're going to take that solution to market. Another challenge that we see a lot of partners face is that, yeah, we're just going to create this listing on Marketplace and we're going to get all these sales. That is not the case. We really do need to do a lot of work around building a listing that's going to really resonate with the customer, attract that customer. We need to think about how we're search optimizing that listing. So that's really important to really drive that traffic to the listing. And then it's really training and enablement for your sellers. How are they going out and identifying the right customers and account mapping and really working through how you can bring on new customers through the marketplace, or really identifying those customers who might have private pricing agreements or EDPs with their AWS, um, accounts to really maximize on those opportunities too.

Speaker A: Yeah. So I think, you know, for me, with, in terms of what I'm sort of learning as we help partners transition from traditional, uh, transactional resale, uh, motions to Marketplace motions, is this concept that there are some fundamental capabilities that partners need to have invested in over time to really take advantage of that Marketplace motion. Particularly when you think about the strategy.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So is your strategy clear? Do you have a strategy and what is that particular strategy? Looking at your customers and understanding do they actually have access to marketplace today through edp, uh, type agreements, et cetera.

Speaker B: As well, it might just be a good opportunity just for the listeners to really understand that piece because it is a big opportunity. So just to explain that customers who have a relationship with AWS and AWS customer might be in a private pricing agreement so they commit to a certain spend directly with AWS over a course of one to three years and as part of that they can retire up to 25% of uh, their committed spend with AWS through third party technology procured via the marketplace. Now that's a huge opportunity for customers, partners, sorry. So we need to support those partners to go and identify those opportunities and to win. Like together we can really, really harness that opportunity to start winning with those types of customers in the market.

Speaker A: You talk about operationalizing this motion, you know, operationalize operation, which is really core to. When you think about distribution's role in the gap between go to market and the vendors, what does operationalizing actually mean? Or partners?

Speaker B: Yeah, it's a number of things. The way that we've sort of built our marketplace team is really taking that, that heavy lift from the partner around having to build out a marketing resource, uh, team within their business. We take care of all of that for them. So that's everything from quoting CPPO authorization and then uh, sending that CPPO offer to the partner. We take care of that whole process for them. So even if there is an opportunity where there is a multiple solutions, we can go to each of those key vendors, get the quotes for them, consolidate that and then put that through into the marketplace. So simply the, the partner then just needs to review the solution on Marketplace and then push that link out to their, their customer. So really supporting with that. And then in the back end we're taking care of that whole process, placing the PO back onto the vendors, managing, um, all the license to disbursement and so forth.

Speaker A: So that's the uh, side of okay, I've now got an opportunity that I can transact, let me go and transact it. How are you helping partners before that? Like the go to market side? So based on how are they going to market, what are you helping partners

Speaker B: do around that marketplace can feel really overwhelming. So just that ability to give the right information at the right time to the partner, help qualify that partner and really understand where they are on their journey and then we sort of work them through a Series of motions where we get them into the marketplace and enabled into the marketplace. And then we work really closely with partner Elevate to really help scale our go to market efforts with our partner community. So I mean, you're probably the best person to talk to this, this is your strength here. But we sort of identify those right fit partners that we push through the partner elevate part program to help them get go to market ready. That's been a really wonderful journey for our partners to step through your program. We've seen a lot of success with that. It ultimately, once they've gone through that program, they, uh, CPPO badged, which means they're able to transact on the marketplace. They have some opportunities, they've transacted and you know, they're up and running all within. What is it, nine weeks?

Speaker A: Yeah, nine weeks. Yeah, yeah. No, appreciate the plug there. Yeah, it's, it's really been interesting because for partner elevator as well, it's been interesting in this journey because we've taken your, we've had to understand when you think about enablement and you think about what are those, what are those signals that partners actually have around best fit for marketplace, and then what does that journey actually look like? We've learned heaps around it as well. But you know, this marketplace motion is really not a, it's not a transactional play. No, really, it's not a transactional play. And that's probably the message you want to get through. It's really an ecosystem play. You know, it's, it's vendors, it's partners, it's customers, it's multiple vendors or multiple ISVs that are all coming part of that as well.

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I do like to always say, and people will hear me say it is just a procurement mechanism, but what you do around that and all the additional activity and making sure your strategy is right and getting that go to market readiness piece makes it really successful. So it's super important. It's just not a checkbox.

Speaker A: So as you've said, you've helped your team from a leadership point of view, guide them through this particular massive shift that's happened. So what are the skills and traits that you feel are, uh, sort of critical for other leaders out there in your position? What are those skills that you think they should be investing in, uh, to make marketplace work for them and their team?

Speaker B: Oh, big question. Look, I think it's really important to firstly really understand the cloud economics because, uh, yeah, there's a lot of misconceptions out there. That, you know, the marketplace is more expensive or there's fees involved and not necessarily the expensive piece, but there is fees involved. But importantly, we've got to think about, well, we've reduced the sales cycle quite considerably. We're identifying that there's a whole raft of customers that are now at your reach. You're able to go global. So really important to sort of understand the mechanics around that and the cost of doing business. I think cross collaboration is super important as a leader. You know, we're working across multiple different teams and everyone needs to be on the same journey and alignment around that. And I think just being adaptable, you know, it's, it's moving so quickly and it's shifting. You know, we're learning stuff every other week with Marketplace and things are changing and developing and enhancing and you know, if you think about AWS and how quickly they move with their innovation, this is really a place where we're seeing quite a significant shift in innovation. So just been adaptable to that kind uh, of.

Speaker A: Just summarize those three points. The first key sort of maybe I'll just bring them all together in terms of maybe talking about it from a. I think you've got to be a good change agent really for you and your team and understand what is possibly, uh, going to impact the team as well from a skill point of view and a leadership point of view. Do you read more, do you go to more Gartner events? What are you doing to kind of make sure that you can be one of those change agents in your organization?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think there's a, uh, lot of information, especially around the AWS marketplace. There's a lot of blogs, there's a lot of white papers written. But it's really also just immersing yourself in the industry and the channel and whether that be at a Gartner event or spending time in a workshop with the AWS team. It's super important. Important to really get information from a number of different areas. And then, you know, I've really worked very hard on trying to be a subject matter expert. So a lot of that has come from my own learning and development and spending time with our vendors and understanding what they're doing around Marketplace and then understanding what our channel partners of how they're feeling around Marketplace. You know, I think we're, we're a maturing market when it comes to Marketplace. So, so there's so much to be learned.

Speaker A: Yeah, good. Uh, good point. So fast forward three years, uh, what does, what does success in Marketplace look like for you in distribution? How would you think about if you had to explain what Marketplace or the distribution business would look like in three years for you and it would be a success, what would that be?

Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, I think that in three years more than 70% of our technology will be going through Marketplace. I think that that's putting it out there. So we've, we've got to adapt and we're already on that journey. Absolutely. I think that where we're going to play a role is really around that digital orchestration, you know, bringing together the customer, the channel partner and those technology solutions together.

Speaker A: Definitely. And what do you think from a partner point of view? What will the top partners be doing differently in three years time in terms of their robos as how will they be going to market differently? Or if you had to kind of paint a picture for what a top partner will be doing in three years time, what would that be?

Speaker B: What do you think?

Speaker A: I think partners, top partners in three years time will be using Marketplace as part of their core GTM in terms of how they actually bring customers into their funnel, how they actually connect with customers through the marketplace. I don't think there's going to be a lot of partners who are actually making a marketplace sales motion as core or the only part of their business. So let's say they won't be shifting their entire business to Marketplace. I still think that they are going to be those partners, particularly in SMB, there's going to be those partners that actually have a marketplace motion, but they also have their current direct motion that they have with customers. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker B: I think that, you know, a lot of the technology that we sell today, you know, that enterprise software, it's quite technical and I still think that there needs to be a person involved in that and supporting that. But in saying that if we bring in a uh, generational lens, you know, a lot of younger generations may be younger than ours, they will do. They are doing all that research and really understanding that solution and what they want to procure. They want to be able to procure that technology themselves. And so, I don't know, it's a bit of a tricky one. I don't think I have the answer for it right now. Like, I think that there's so much change happening that there's going to be partners that are going to be successful because they are only sort of working through marketplaces, but there is always going to be a role for human element.

Speaker A: Yeah, I mean the other thing I'll uh, probably add there is that I think top partners in the future will be using a digital first strategy, though.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Like, absolutely.

Speaker A: That's got to be core to how they position themselves in the market as well. Probably be interesting to take, uh, a view of how many partners will just for failure of being able to actually make this shift. Might not be around either in that period of time as well. So, you know, I probably think it's, uh, got to watch the space, but at the same time, I think it's, uh, like you said earlier, there's a massive opportunity for partners, there's a massive opportunity for distribution, and I think for vendors, there's probably a better opportunity in the market as well. So we're really coming down to the nice part of the podcast, which is where we, we call this the Partnerships Fast five.

Speaker B: So we're almost done this before.

Speaker A: Almost done. Yes. You've seen this before. So it works really, really simply. I'm just going to start a couple of sentences for you five, obviously, and you can use one or two words to finish those sentences. So ready to go?

Speaker B: I am ready.

Speaker A: Okay, cool. Okay, first one. Partnerships thrive on trust.

Speaker B: Okay, cool. That's an easy one.

Speaker A: That's a common one.

Speaker B: Um, partnerships embody curiosity and shared values.

Speaker A: Oh, the curiosity piece I love. I haven't heard that one before. That's great.

Speaker B: Through partnerships you can grow faster, scale easier.

Speaker A: I, uh, love it. That's a tagline. Is that a tagline?

Speaker B: I think it could be for marketplace, uh, fourth one, Partnership Spark Innovation. Absolutely.

Speaker A: Love it. Chris Casey also uses the word innovation for that one. So you're quite aligned with Chris Casey.

Speaker B: I think for AWS brainwash, drinking the

Speaker A: Kool Aid, the last one.

Speaker B: Partnerships succeed through alignment and most importantly, execution.

Speaker A: Love it. Love it. So that was a strong finish, actually, Emma. Um, uh, I like that it's a really good finish there. But before we wrap up, what I'd love to ask you is what's one piece of advice that you could give to other partnership or cloud leaders who are really trying to make sense of what marketplace means for them?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I think research, definitely, uh, we touched on it earlier in the podcast, but really, just really doing your research and understanding how AWS works or any of the marketplaces work, and start to think about building out capability. There's lots of training you can do, there's lots of certifications you can do. Um, that all help sort of your learning and understanding of marketplaces. Because when you really understand, understand how the mechanics of the marketplaces and the opportunity. I think that's when we can really drive strong strategies and alignment around. Go to market.

Speaker A: Excellent. Absolutely fantastic, Emma. So for anyone who wants to connect with you, I'm assuming LinkedIn is a LinkedIn?

Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker A: And if you're going to reinvent in December. December, no doubt. Uh, Emma will be there. Next gen will be there. Are you, Are you doing anything? No. We're not sure you're doing this year.

Speaker B: No. But we will be around. So if anyone hasn't been to re invent before, I'm happy to give you the lowdown. It's a pretty great, intense week.

Speaker A: Emma, thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Speaker B: Thanks for having me.

Speaker A: Great to have you here. And for everyone else, if you like this, uh, podcast and you've got other, uh, cloud leaders or channel leaders or partnership leaders this you think might be interested, please share the link and we'll catch you next time. Thank you for listening to Investable Partnerships. Subscribe wherever you listen and visit investablepartnerships.com for the transcripts of today's show.