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Partner Exchange Countdown: Know Before You Go

Driving Extension to Public Cloud: 4 Factors

With cloud adoption predicted to continue its significant growth curve through 2021,^[1] you know the question is not “if” customers will make the leap, but when, how and who will lead their journey to the cloud. Fortunately, VMware partners are uniquely positioned with innovative software and service offerings to support customers along this trajectory.

Here’s a look at four factors driving explosive growth, including points to consider when guiding your customers to, through and beyond, their cloud transformations:

1. Business Agility and Flexibility Drive Cloud Adoption and Modernization

Business agility is an organization’s “ability to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment.”^[²^]Today, agility equals faster time-to-market via reduced IT complexity, quicker deployments, pay-as-you-go pricing, and scalability; all of which map to private and public cloud adoption. In fact, 41% of companies embracing cloud computing say that agility is their primary business driver.^[³^]

What’s more, many customers are looking to hybrid cloud capabilities with a mix of on and off-premises resources to achieve business agility and flexibility. But still, most of their data centers aren’t adequately modernized to extend to the public cloud. This is where partners can step in and support modernization through implementation of fully virtualized, automated, software-defined data centers (SDDC).

2. Cloud Drives a Shifting Economic Model

The public cloud has long promised cost savings and a shifting economic model; however, there are compelling arguments for both the private and public cloud. In a recent Accenture report, organizations saved upwards of $28M after migrating 70% of their application portfolio to the public cloud.^[⁴^] While it seems this staggering metric paints a compelling picture; 41% of IT decision-makers say that private cloud can be less expensive than public cloud for some businesses. Legacy applications, privacy and security regulations, and SLAs play a part in cost savings as well as viability, and there are several other aspects to explore when choosing private, public or hybrid cloud.

Regardless, help your customer make smart decisions by considering these cost saving factors that result from extending to the public cloud:

Reduced Data Center costs: With increased storage and server density, organizations can lower costs associated with physically housing servers. Add to this, cloud service providers charge less for electrical and cooling as compared to in-house data center maintenance fees.
Increased Personnel Efficiency: On-premises technologies managed by IT resources are one of the largest operating expenses. As workloads move to the cloud, customers can utilize IT staff in more strategic areas in their businesses.
Shifting CapEx costs: Upfront investments (CapEx) for servers is eliminated and shifted to IT OpEx, which helps maintain a lean balance sheet and may be more palatable for smaller businesses.
Lower Downtime costs: Cloud Service Providers monitor and maintain availability, which results in fewer business interruptions for customers.

3. Cloud Computing = Predictable Revenue + New Revenue Streams

As we already know, customers and VMware partners alike can reap the benefits of cloud computing through subscription pricing models. But beyond the predictable, steady earnings that these services deliver, partners can create new revenue streams that develop as an offshoot of extending to the public cloud, such as:

Consulting
Implementation
On-going support
Auditing
Analytics and continuous improvement
VM provisioning and decommissioning
Backup and recovery

What’s more, continuous revenue is a direct result of sustaining customer relationships. Guiding migration strategies that align customer goals with yours sets customers on a course to success. Likewise, working with your customers to leverage their existing investment in technologies, people and skill sets adds value to your relationships.

4. Customer Experience is King

Customer Experience (CX) is “the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and, thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.”^[⁵^] In cloud computing, CX plays a central role due to a larger emphasis on services and also fierce competition.

You might be surprised to find that CX is a hidden opportunity for channel partners to set themselves apart from the competition. As you focus on a customer-centric approach, you will build long-term relationships and grow your reputation as a trusted advisor.

Of course, great CX begins with creating a strategy for the future and it’s impossible to improve if you don’t know where you stand. To get started with measuring the health of your brand, utilize Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is a powerful tool for gauging loyalty and relationships.

What’s Next?

Be sure to participate at this year’s Partner Exchange to learn more on how you can help your customers transition to the cloud, while solidifying your role as a trusted advisor.

______________________________________________________________________________________

Sources:

[1] Gartner, Gartner says by 2020, a Corporate “No-Cloud” Policy will be as Rare as a “No-Internet” Policy is Today, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3354117

[2] McKinsey&Company, The Keys to Organizational Agility, http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-keys-to-organizational-agility

[3] CIO.com, Business Agility Drives Cloud Adoption, http://www.cio.com/article/2455960/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-business-agility-drives-cloud-adoption.html

[4] Accenture, CIOs: Exemplify cloud value with C-suite business case, https://www.accenture.com/us-en/blogs/blogs-cloud-migration-value

[5] Gartner, Customer Experience Management, http://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/customer-experience-management-cem

Driving Security Transformation: the Virtual Network Assessment

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“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” – Lao Tzu

As a trusted partner, helping our customers to modernize their IT security infrastructure can feel like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles. Most traditional IT security architectures are ill equipped to handle the persistent and creative nature of today’s cyber security threats. The dynamic and very public nature of these threats have created a booming industry of new entrants into the security market. The result has been an expansion of opportunity for security-minded partners, but also a challenge in determining how to lead customers down a trusted path for security solutions. Some estimates have customers using an average of 70 or more security solutions in their current IT environments. At the same time, there is a growing need for a transformation in how we build, manage, and secure IT infrastructure. Traditional perimeter-based security models are ineffective, as proven by a steady stream of newsworthy hacks and data breaches.

In this expanding and complex cybersecurity landscape, where do we start? It can be overwhelming to keep up with the rapid pace of change in cybersecurity threats, and even more so in staying educated about the innovative solutions available to protect our customers. As Lao Tzu noted its starts with a single step. At VMware, we believe the first step is gaining visibility to the current state of traffic moving across our customers’ virtual and physical infrastructure. Today, an average of 80% of security budgets are spent on data center perimeter security and monitoring tools such as firewalls. At the same time, 80% of network traffic actually takes place within the four walls of our customers’ data centers. Fundamentally, this means our customers have visibility to 20% of what is taking place in their network at a given time. Before suggesting point products to patch against the latest threat, let us take time to gain visibility into our customers’ networks, and make informed architectural recommendations.

Enter the Virtual Network Assessment (VNA) with VMware. A VNA utilizing a VMware tool called vRealize Network Insight helps our partners to provide their customers a holistic view of the traffic in their data center across the virtual and physical domains. Help your customers define how much traffic exists between VM’s, applications, VLANs, and VXLANs. Identify threat planes across physical networks, virtual domains, cloud, and mobile environments. Ultimately, a VNA will provide the intelligence and visibility necessary to map an executable journey to a more secure IT infrastructure. A VNA takes about one week, and installs remotely in under an hour.

The thousand-mile journey of transforming IT security architectures to combat the ever-expanding nature of cyber security threats can be daunting. Whether considering a mobile security strategy, securing next-generation cloud applications, or a micro-segmentation project, let VMware help you and your customers with a simple first step. Check out the Partner Virtual Network Assessment today and do not miss exciting sessions at Partner Exchange in Las Vegas including:

Also make sure to stop by the SDDC Assessment Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel to learn how VMware assessments can help you win more business. The lounge is located in the Desert Willow Room on Sunday, August 27, 1PM – 5PM, and Monday and Tuesday, August 28 and 29, 11AM – 5PM.

Transforming Security: Addressing Customer Challenges

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Your customers face security threats everywhere, every day. What can you do as a partner to help address the challenges customers face with transforming IT security?

Penton media recently sat down with Chris Campbell, Director of Product Marketing at VMware to talk about just this topic.

Listen to the FastChat and find out how you can help customers drive security transformation as Chris expands on:

The biggest customer challenges around security today
Why security interactions among silos is increasingly complex for customers
Simplifying security
What customers can expect by implementing a VMware security portfolio

VMware Partners – review our latest Transform Security campaign available via Partner Demand Center.

VMware is excited to further our partner’s success in driving security transformation for customers.

Partner Exchange: US Schedule Builder Live

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The biggest VMware event of the year is fast approaching so as a valued VMware Partner, prepare yourself to make the most of it.

Partner Exchange takes place this year on Sunday, August 27 in Las Vegas with partner boot camps happening on Saturday, August 26. Pass holders can attend a wide range of technical and sales boot camps, a partner general session presented by top VMware executives, solution keynotes, partner breakout sessions, route-to-market discussions and more.

Now that the US schedule builder is live, create your schedule to ensure that you do not miss out. Hot topics this year tailored for every partner type include:

Examples of partner boot camps include:

VMware Sales Professional – Network Virtualization (VSP-NV)
VMware’s Cloud Management Platform – Eyes Across the Hybrid Cloud
VMware Technical Solutions Professional – Network Virtualization
VMware Technical Solutions Professional – Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
VMware Technical Solutions Professional – Desktop Virtualization (VTSP-DV)

In addition to quality partner focused content, all Partner Exchange pass holders receive exclusive access to the Partner Exchange Lounge open all week and an exclusive invitation to the Partner Exchange reception at 5pm on August 27 at the Mandalay Bay.

There is still time to be a part of the biggest VMware partner event of the year so register now to attend Partner Exchange @ VMworld 2017.

Ultimate Guide to Nurturing Leads with Content

Map the buyer’s journey to the sales funnel

In an earlier post, we discussed the stages of the buyer’s journey, which is the research process that prospects follow before making a purchase. On the flip side, the sales funnel is the buying process that converts prospects from leads to customers.

When buyers enter the sales funnel, it’s critical to qualify and nurture them along the way. Understanding their buyer’s journey and how it maps to your sales funnel helps you make decisions around your nurturing strategy, and ultimately when to hand off leads to sales reps. For example, typically the stages map as follows:

Awareness Stage = Top of the Funnel
Consideration Stage = Middle of the Funnel
Purchase Stage = Bottom of the Funnel

First things first, understand customer characteristics

Before marketers can adequately nurture prospects, it is essential to understand and define their characteristics. A common framework designed to flesh out customer definitions is personas, which are fictional depictions of existing and ideal customers. This blog from Hubspot provides detailed instructions.

For example, if your business depends on building network and security services with the VMware platform, you may develop customer personas for various decision makers and influencers in Enterprise IT.

Build a nurturing strategy foundation with content

Content is an integral part of any nurturing strategy. However, before you publish content you must first develop relevant content for your audience. With a firm understanding of customers through personas, marketers can tailor content delivered to prospects matching each audience’s wants, needs, budget and pain points. Coupling this knowledge with the buyer’s journey gives you the ability to deliver the right content – at the right time.

Understand content types that generate Top of Funnel leads

Many of us spend a lot of time and energy generating top of funnel leads, but struggle to build relationships with prospects over time with nurturing. It is important to differentiate the types of content that build awareness for cloud computing, virtualization and IT solutions, which are defined below:

Social Media
Blog Posts
Web Content Optimized for Search Engines
Product Videos and Podcasts
Infographics and Other Highly Visual Content

The above content is the cornerstone of inbound marketing efforts. It should be highly educational, position your company as a trusted thought leader and set the stage for ongoing lead nurturing.

Utilize premium content

For buyers who are building their knowledge and entering the mid funnel stage, offer premium content, which is placed behind a registration form (gated). This content must offer enough value that the prospect is willing to “pay for it” with their contact information.

Examples of premium content in the consideration stage include:

Webinars
White Papers
eBooks
Newsletters
Research Papers

Nurture through email marketing and sales activities

Premium content opens the door for collecting email addresses and applicable data such as titles, which gives VMware Channel Partners the tools to progress through the mid-funnel nurturing process and advance to the bottom of the funnel.

We recommend deployment of email nurturing programs through marketing and/or sales, which are highly effective communication tools. Place prospects into nurturing drip campaigns on different tracks that depend on where they are in the funnel, their persona, title and other relevant customer data. Distribute the following types of content through each track, which align to their cloud computing or virtualization wants and needs:

Middle of Funnel content

Case Studies
Testimonials and Reviews
Comparison Guides
Newsletters

Bottom of Funnel content

Free Consultations
Personal Product Demos
Free Trials and Assessments

Decide when to hand leads to sales

Finally, Marketing and Sales must agree on when Marketing should discontinue their nurturing efforts and hand leads over to sales reps. Working together on the definition of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) support this alignment.

Typically, SQLs are nurtured through Marketing, and are at the decision stage in their journey; while MQLs are established as meeting the qualifications of a typical buyer. Those identified as SQLs are prepared to be handed over to sales. To identify the right timing, research past performance and define the optimal parameters for this lead handoff.

Next steps

We invite you to take advantage of the VMware enablement tools in the Partner Demand Center designed specifically to help you build effective nurturing programs and content to ensure our mutual success:

Enablement Tools: Social media posts, partner tested collateral and other marketing programs
Program Overview: Guide to Channel marketing programs

Feel free to email us with any questions -we are here to help.

-Sources:

[1] The Complex Sale: Lead scoring effort increases conversion 79% https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/lead-scoring-effort-increases-conversion

[2] Why it Takes 7 to 13+ Touches to Deliver a Qualified Sales Lead (Part 1)

https://www.onlinemarketinginstitute.org/blog/2013/10/why-it-takes-7-to-13-touches-to-deliver-a-qualified-sales-lead-part1/

Using Social Media to Boost Demand

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Our second article in the marketing best practices blog series will focus on the power of social media to boost demand.

Today, 76% of technology marketers use social media in their marketing strategy, which means your competitors, and buyers are likely there. To bolster that thought, a recent IDC study revealed that 75% of B2B buyers utilize social media to make buying decisions – but that’s not all. It also showed that the greater the influence over purchasing decisions, the more likely they are to be using social during the buying process; and thanks to how easy it is to ask for opinions online, social platforms are now considered instrumental in closing deals.

Fortunately, using social media as a strategy to drive demand doesn’t have to be an enormous time commitment for VMware partners. The following tips will help you get started quickly:

Build Out Profiles

Think of social profiles as online first impressions. What image are you portraying; friendly and knowledgeable or disheveled – building trust or intimidating? If you are not sure, ask peers for honest feedback.

Images: For business pages use logos images, and on personal but professional profiles invest in a headshot. Hint: be consistent to build recognition.
Language: Include keywords used to find your solutions in profiles and keep descriptions focused on the buyer and your expertise in solving their business challenges.
Complete all sections: Customers want information that builds trust and signals potential for a positive experience. The more complete your social media profiles are, the more customers will take you seriously. Hint: LinkedIn recommendations from satisfied customers are particularly helpful.
Update regularly: Profiles are not “set-it-and-forget-it.” They change over time. Set a calendar reminder and analyze them for accuracy every six months to a year.

Keys to Success

Engagement: Thanks to ever-changing social media algorithms, if you are not actively engaging (likes, shares, comments), there is a good chance your content will not be seen. Log into accounts daily and remember to:
- Follow back relevant accounts that followed you (Twitter)
- Respond to connection requests (LinkedIn)
- Make new connections (like and share relevant content from others)
- Respond to notifications and messages
- Find and comment on conversations where you can add value
Curate relevant articles: You likely come across industry relevant content regularly. Keep a list throughout the week to socialize later. Alternatively, if using a social post scheduler, most have applets for creating and scheduling while viewing the article’s URL. Hint: Do not be too self-promotional. Publish a mixture of your content plus industry relevant articles from other sources.
Hashtags: Posts with hashtags receive over twice the engagement, which translates to more visibility and connections. Concentrate on being specific and relevant to your prospects – think #Cloud, #IT, #DigitalTransformation coupled with product specific tags such as #HCI, #VMwareNSX or #SDDC. Hint: 1 – 3 hashtags per post is the sweet spot.

Social Media Syndication via the Partner Demand Center

Another time saver is social syndication available in the VMware Partner Demand Center. Utilize social media syndication to jump start your social media efforts in just three simple steps:

Connect social accounts
Approve or edit pre-made posts created by the VMware partner team
Schedule as you see fit

Creating a daily routine for social media is akin to a regular exercise regimen. The more you commit, the better the results. If you are not actively on social media now, start small, pick one platform, build your presence over time and remember – consistency is key.

Lead Generation in the Digital Era

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Lead generation in the digital era can be daunting. The good news is, there are resources that can immediately help you fill your sales pipeline. To help you stay on top of your customers’ needs our ongoing best practices blog series will focus on lead generation, social media strategies, nurturing programs and more.

Generating consistent and predictable sales leads is the lifeblood of B2B organizations. Unfortunately, in our digital era, successfully managing a sales funnel is easier said than done. Tried and true methods, like cold calling and shotgun email marketing techniques, now only produce lackluster results. This leaves many of us feeling as though we have exhausted our time, budgets and resources.
The primary reason for this change is the evolution of the buying process. Digital has forever altered how buyers make purchasing decisions. In fact, they often complete their own research online before reaching out to a Partner, which highlights the importance of being top of mind at every stage of the sales process.

Understanding the Modern Buyer’s Journey

There are three stages of the buyer’s journey. Each stage puts your customers firmly in the driver’s seat of the decision-making process, including:

Awareness: The buyer realizes they have a problem
Consideration: The buyer begins to research possible solutions
Decision: The buyer chooses a product or solution

Harnessing the Forgotten Power of Email Programs

As social media and content play an ever-expanding role in sales and marketing, email programs have fallen by the wayside. It is important to note that email marketing continues to deliver tremendous performance, consistently exceeding other methods. According to a survey conducted by the Direct Marketing Association and Demand Metric, “Email had a median ROI of 122% — more than four times higher than other marketing formats examined, including social media, direct mail and paid search.” ^[1]

Email marketing is unquestionably effective for building awareness and nurturing leads, but there are critical elements to consider:

Purchased email lists are rarely effective and may hurt your reputation. Instead, build an opt-in list with content marketing and other inbound marketing techniques in order to build brand recognition and customer loyalty.
Segment your lists to narrow your targeting focus (think verticals, previous email activity such as click-throughs and past purchases).
Use multi-touch programs to build your message over time.
Be consistent with your messaging to strengthen your brand.

To help you get started, VMware Partners can easily access multi-touch programs in the Partner Demand Center. These campaigns are ideal for driving awareness and include everything you need, from custom emails and landing pages to gated content.

Building Relationships with Lead Nurturing

Depending where your buyer is in their journey, they may not be ready to buy right now. However, it does not mean that you should concede and move on to the next lead. Take this opportunity to nurture the relationship, differentiate your business, build trust, educate your customers and finally move them closer to a decision.

According to the 2017 Benchmark survey by Demand Gen Report, marketers agree that the best types of lead nurturing programs are email newsletters, white papers and webinars.^[2] But, these are not the only tactics that work. Thought leadership articles, research-based content and blog posts are also highly effective. The key for all Partners is to map the right type of program and content to each stage or the buyer’s journey.

VMware knows it takes time to build lead nurturing programs and content from scratch. We offer resources at your fingertips to give you a fast pass to success. Our programs include everything from webinar and workshop planning guides to outbound calling programs – all tools available through the Partner Demand Center.

Accelerating Sales

When buyers reach the decision phase, they’re strategically narrowing down vendors by evaluating specific features and comparing prices. Seeing products in action helps prospects fully grasp the features and overall value of solutions. This is an ideal opportunity to offer testimonials, labs, evaluation checklists, product trials and demos.

VMware supplies the following fast passes to success to help you demonstrate the value of VMware products and move sales forward:

Hands-on Labs

VMware Hand-on Labs (HOLs) demonstrate the value of VMware solutions in real time. This program provides you with the tools you need to encourage prospects to try out VMware solutions.

Free Trials and Assessments

Free Trial and Assessment forms can be added to your website through VMware Content Syndication. This allows your prospects to download evaluation versions of products and install them in their own environment.

Refining Your Strategy

Once your programs are in place, it is important to continuously evaluate what’s working and refine your strategy based on data. If you’re not focusing on metrics, statistics show that you may be missing valuable leads. According to Demand Gen Report, “The less companies know about their Key Performance Indicators [or metrics], the less likely they are to meet their revenue goals.” To identify where leads are leaking out, it is recommended to regularly examine each stage of the sales funnel. This best practice will go a long way toward boosting your pipeline and improving your marketing and sales practices.

Next Steps for Partners to Boost Sales

Take advantage of enablement tools developed specifically for our Partners
Participate in a SPECIAL INCENTIVE PROGRAM for new activations. For a limited time, Partners can receive a $25 gift card* by activating a campaign or program and submitting this form.
Reference the Program Overviewor our Getting Started Guide.
Login to the Partner Demand Centerto activate a program or campaign.
Email us with any questions.

Please note that Terms and conditions apply.

——————————————————————————————————————————————Sources:

[1] Email Continues to Deliver Strong ROI and Value for Marketers, https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Email-Continues-Deliver-Strong-ROI-Value-Marketers

[2] 2016 Lead Nurturing Benchmark Study, https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/reports/2016-lead-nurturing-benchmark-study

[3] 2016 Content Preferences Study, https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/research/2016-content-preferences-survey-b2b-buyers-value-content-that-offers-data-and-analysis

Advantage+ Enhancements for 2017: What Partners Need to Know

VMware vRealize Updates Bring Opportunities

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VMware’s recent product updates make it easier to accelerate your customers’ digital transformation by modernizing their existing data center environment and simplifying management of heterogeneous, multi-vendor cloud environments. The updated VMware vRealize® Cloud Management Platform brings opportunity by enabling customers to manage and provision at scale – with compute, network, storage and application services across multi cloud environments.

What’s improved with vRealize Cloud Management for customers and partners?

Faster time-to-implementation and lower total cost of ownership of cloud
Partners are eligible for the front-end discounts up to 30%, plus a 5% back-end rebate

How can I engage my customers?

IDC predicts that by 2018, 98% of Enterprises will be operating both private and public clouds. This would accelerate an increasing need for a multi cloud management solution. Start the conversation around the following three common customer use cases and illustrating key updates:

Intelligent Operations

Automated, Proactive Performance Management for workload balancing across clusters and data stores based on business needs
360 Troubleshooting for faster root-cause analysis
Enhanced Insights to improve forecasting and accelerate cloud planning
Increased Support for VMware vSAN™ Operations, Ease of Use Enhancements, Improved Cross Cloud Networking and Security Management, and much more

Automate IT

Increased support for VMware NSX® Day Two Actions for load balancing, networking and security functions
Automated, Proactive Workload Placement to improve placement decision making for provisioning new virtual machines

DevOps-Ready IT

Container Management Enhancements including support for vSphere Integrated Containers^TMand Docker
Configuration Management Framework for integration with tools such as Puppet, Chef, Salt, and Ansible
DBaaS Enhancements to easily clone server databases and make them catalog items
Enhanced Microsoft Azure support to enable deployment and management of application and middleware services

For more details on what is new and improved with vRealize, listen to the “Learn about the new vRealize releases in Q2” vmLIVE session. You will hear from VMware Cloud Management leaders and subject matter experts on strategy updates, new releases, and to see demos of the new functionality.

Also, be sure to visit the Launch Resource Center for more information on product updates, partner benefits and incentives on growing your cloud management practice

The voice of the VMware Partner Network

1. Business Agility and Flexibility Drive Cloud Adoption and Modernization

2. Cloud Drives a Shifting Economic Model

3. Cloud Computing = Predictable Revenue + New Revenue Streams

4. Customer Experience is King

What’s Next?

Map the buyer’s journey to the sales funnel

First things first, understand customer characteristics

Build a nurturing strategy foundation with content

Understand content types that generate Top of Funnel leads

Utilize premium content

Nurture through email marketing and sales activities

Middle of Funnel content

Bottom of Funnel content

Decide when to hand leads to sales

Next steps