Channel Development Managers in the field are the local "feet on the street" resources to take partners to the next level of productivity. Joshua and Sam each describe here what they do to maximize their partners' success.

Joshua Brooks, Channel Development Manager, California, Utah and Colorado

I have a general plan I use as I work with new partners to keep them engaged and to help find joint new business.

Training: First I encourage them to take the training courses that lead to certification, beginning with sales certifications. This is important to lay the foundation of knowledge needed to be successful with the newest Citrix solutions. This identifies the sales champions and technical resources that are invested and ready to focus on the partnership. I arrange for partners to shadow our SEs during evaluation installations so partners learn first hand.

Account Planning: Working with the partner and other Citrix regional resources such as territory managers, we spend time sharing accounts and leads and work on initial customers – some provided by Citrix, some provided by the partner. Together, we plan visits to the customer sites.

Marketing: Building a pipeline and generation of leads is an ongoing effort so we arrange for some activities such as calling blitzes with spifs, end user seminars and customer appreciation events.

Development: Last but not least, I plan consistent visits with each member of the Citrix team – territory managers, regional vice president, SEs, district managers – channel management as well of course. This is critical to solidify the partnership and continue to develop mind share.

Sam Boone, Channel Development Manager, Central Region

The great part about being a Channel Development Manager for Citrix is the breadth of solutions that we get to offer our partners. So many of our solutions can be considered "Best of Breed" that it gives you confidence that what you are bringing to the channel is the right solution for their customers. The ANG products (NetScaler, WANScaler and Access Gateway) are no exception. When I meet with a partner, either one who is a current CSA, or one who is considering joining our program, I like to lay out a strategy of what it is going to take to get them enabled to be successful and making money offering the ANG solutions.

Depending on the level of expertise that partner has with these types of solutions, the track can be different. The important piece is that we offer up our resources to identify this process and help them through the steps.

Citrix offers such a variety of choices to the channel for training, that it makes it easy to get the partner the right information at the right time. Some of those choices include onsite training with our channel SE team, Hands-On Workshops through Citrix University, training with our field SEs and Sales team, and a myriad of essential information from Citrix StreetSmarts. For the partner sales team, we have a great training in our CCSP (Citrix Certified Sales Professional) 2008 program.

Once a channel partner has made the commitment to go through this enablement track, our next step is to work closely with them to help them find opportunities for the solutions both to the current customers and targets in their geography. This is when we engage with the local field teams. It is critical for Citrix to bring our partners in early into these opportunities and vice versa, so we can establish credibility between ourselves, the partner, and the prospect.

We expect the partner to shadow our team on the first one or two Proof of Concepts, but then to be able to eventually handle those on their own. Once the channel is enabled on the product, has engaged in sales activity with our team, and can help in the sales process, we feel that we have the partnership needed to move forward and be successful. Our goal is to offer up as much help, time, and resources so they are not only resellers, but true partners.

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