“It’s not about the technology itself. It’s about what the SMB customer is going to get out of it"

welcome to a special partner edition of the small business big Solutions podcast that's right we're shaking things up and Diving deep into a series tailor made for our partners and Distributors a key component of Cisco's success as always I'm your host Ian Thompson join me as I sit down with some of the brightest Minds on The Cisco SMB team where we'll dish out Insider knowledge and resources guaranteed to ignite growth in the SMB space Gra have a cup of coffee put on your thinking cap let's jump in welcome to another edition of the small business big Solutions podcast as always I'm your host Ian Thompson today I'm joined by Craig slinsky the global SMB sales leader at Cisco and Roy mlan the chief technology officer of global SMB sales here at Cisco guys today's podcast a little bit special uh a little bit different than our usual conversations we are in person for the first time in the 2-year history of this show we're also doing a little bit Cisco talking Cisco which is uh what I usually try to stray away from on this show but I want to talk to you guys today about how our partners can deliver the best experience outcomes for our SMB customers Craig I'm starting with you starting at the top what are we seeing in the market today wellan first of all thank you again for allowing us to spend time with you today we're excited um for sure you know nervous that I think we're the first ones that are being video recorded and doing it live bonus yeah I think it is to couldn't have two better guys for it you know the SNB Market or the small medium business market for us is it's an exciting time for sure you know uh a lot of the companies coming out of covid right post pandemic now they're getting back into that growth um mindset right uh it's all about growth for them they're looking at how they competitively move their businesses forward uh and they're looking at a a multi-year growth trajectory now that we see in the market um you know and that's in contrast to what we've seen just recently years past and I think that sets up the market really nicely for our partners specifically and for for uh companies like ourselves like Cisco to really deliver an outcome for the customer is what they need which is really the growth uh set so so what are we seeing out there well we're seeing um the estimations from the analysts out there are you know uh growth rates of 68% over the next few years which is exciting uh in the market size that we have um you're also looking at at uh scenarios where customers really are getting to understand that technology uh is really going to fuel their growth business right they're seeing that it drives Innovation and transformation and success for them right uh one of the recent polls that we saw from many of our customers is that 90% of them feel that the technology and The Innovation is integral for their success going forward in the growth and they can't do it alone so they've got to rely on our partners to be able to do this holistically for sure we are here in Phoenix uh for our small and medium business Advisory Board we just got out of a session talking about cloud is that where a lot of we're seeing a lot of the growth well you know Cloud was an area that uh it's exciting for the the customers because it allows them to transform and Roy's going to talk a lot about this but we see now that a lot of our customers have done the adoption of cloud now it's about the refinement and it's about how they're building off of that how are they going to transform and innovate leveraging what they've done in relation to moving a lot of their Cloud application and a lot of their infrastructure to the cloud so it sets us up for a nice stage to where they're going to need all the elements that come around Cloud to be able to support their business going forward and we'll talk about that I think today a little bit yeah for sure Roy coming to you you're my investments guy all about the data all about the numbers where are you seeing smbs today put their money well they're putting it in applications for number one right so as Craig mentioned the Cloud's given them access to applications that they didn't have access to before so whether it's you know things like work or Salesforce now any business can access those things through a cloud subscription so they' become available to them second on that list though of course is security because they're all concerned about the security um posture if you will they're learning from others they're seeing things in the headlines of businesses getting hacked and and those types of activities occurring so they're very concerned about both of those things but their desire to innovate um to act like the large Enterprise customers is no different than it's ever been but now they have access to those tools the cloud has given them that in a flexible way with subscription SCS so now they're looking to take those things make investments try them for a period of time if they work out great if they don't they're happy to cancel those subscriptions so it's on both vendors and partners to deliver value uh when they deploy those things and they're also being very conscious about their spend so when they're spending money they want to see a return and they they're not patient with that they want to see that return in a reasonable time frame so if I going deploy something and I'm going to pay X dollars x amount of dollars per month to to have it I need to see what's that going to do to my bottom line next month the month after and if it's not returning for me I'm gonna move on to the next thing um so that sort of sample trbe use an application then move on to the next one um super common but I think the neat part of what we're seeing is that those smbs can now access those applications so they're acting much more like an Enterprise and they're delivering Innovation to their customers they're delighting their customers in different ways that they couldn't do before that's awesome you dropped a stat yesterday that I I'm getting you on camera here recorded on the record is it true that smbs are spending more on applications than Enterprises yeah yeah very interesting right so the first time in history they're actually spending a lot more to the tune of about $50 billion that's compared to the Enterprise right and Enterprise of course is you know a big machine spending lots of money on large applications and and lots of very intricate and detailed um sophisticated installations but smbs there's lots of them right and so as they inch their way up with applications that they can buy through a subscription yeah they're taking over so now they're spending a little bit more by about $2 billion unpacking something else you just said smbs are starting to have access to and leverage applications that enterprises are using like workday and Salesforce are we seeing that sales model start to be similar or is it still hey it's it's a differentiated sales model because of company size it is so they have access to those applications but they do need help to integrate them into their business so Partnerships are super important uh to SM s they you know are looking for a trusted adviser within their partner because while they know that that's the application they want implementing it and using it and and making it part of the process of their business is not simple and so they still need a partner to do that and more and more they're looking for that holistic relationship with a partner that can help them not only procure the infrastructure deploy the infrastructure but also understand their business processes and how those applications will impact those processes so they need the whole the whole match right they need that partnership um and so we're seeing end user customers become more selective in their Partners even though they're doing a lot of shopping online prior to making a purchase um they're doing so with a trusted advisor someone who can help them through the whole way and the most successful Partners will have those deep relationships with those customers they're tied into their business processes tied into the applications that they're going to use and that's actually a really good thing for partners because that you have a deeper relationship so you're going to be more involved with the business process it does come with one requirement and that is that the partner has to understand the business outcomes that that end user is looking for and if they don't understand that they're not going to be talking the same language so it's really important for our partners to spend enough time with that end user customer to understand what's important to that what are their business priorities and how can they apply the technology to do that and they'll be more successful in positioning offers when they understand exactly how those offers are going to turn into an outcome uh for that end user customer then they're talking the same language Partners can't um they can't walk in the door and start talking about zero trust or Wi-Fi 7 or whatever it might be um if the customers thinking about how do I improve the you know performance of my manufacturing facility how do I keep my customers happy how do I track and retain the best talent those are the things they're thinking about so we have to talk in their terms yeah we're going to come back to this I think and I again don't want this to be an ad for Cisco we have a lot more to talk about but that's why I love what we've done with the experience outcomes we've simplified the language people like me and marketing can figure out hey I have issues with remote work great we now have a solution set with hero products built for you to kind of dumb that down and kind of streamline that conversation for our partners with customers Craig Roy just teed this up perfectly for me you and I work together in distribution for years I love the way that you look at the partner business model where are the biggest opportunities today in the SMB space for partners in that space right now you know as Roy talked about and as those applications are become more prevalent with the with the the customers themselves and as they layer more of them on the layer complexity for them from a security standpoint from a resiliency standpoint of all those performance and accessibility is critical right and that's really where I think there's a significant opportunity for our partners right really being able to be that trusted uh partner for that customer to create that outcome right it's not about the technology itself it's about what that customer is going to get out of it and how do they feel in relation to the security of their businesses and how do their their employees feel about um how their business is being run right there's an expectation by many companies and their employees specifically that those companies should run very similar to the way we run our daily lives in a lot of cases and uh you know there's a there's a requirement there that I think a lot of our partners can take advantage of both in security space there's infrastructure adjustments that have to be made I was talking to a partner today at the event that we're at about how they've got to set a road map and a platform and a strategy for their their customer to move along the infrastructure Innovation sets so that they can take optimal advantage of not only the applications and the cloud elements that they're doing but also a lot of questions around AI coming into this right which really plays an interesting PL piece into how that how that fits so there's a lot there for our partners to unpack for the customers it is all about solving the business need and the business challenge that the customer has and it's going to be wrapped around security it's going to be wrapped around infrastructure it's going to be wrapped around being able to to provide the best experience not only for their employees but their customers that they Serv serving yeah facilitating the business side for business owners and kind of offloading that technology side and I would say giving Peace of Mind especially on the security side we're seeing many of those customers now just handing the keys over yeah to the partner saying listen can you do it all for us can you do Hardware as a service can you do everything for me and how much is it going to cost me per month per employee to be able to do it because I've got to run my business I don't want to have to run my my network I don't have to worry about the security elements of it I need you to do that for me and that's back to Roy's point where if you as a partner can be a consultant and not a route to Market it's a differentiator for you today I mean for the end user customer right they want to be the best they can be at the at the business they're in so if they're baking breakfast you baking rolls or they're making bicycles or whatever it is they want to do that the best they can possibly do and it distracts them from that activity when they have to worry about all these other things that they're not experts in and so creating that partnership with a partner who they can trust who's delivering those things typically as a as a service or a managed service we can talk more about that but that lets them focus on the thing they really want to go do right and that's what technology should should do for you right it should allow you to be the expert go focus on the thing that you really want to do and let the the network run itself or let your partner run it for you so you don't have to worry about that piece of it let it be the Tool uh but not something that drags you down every day that you got to go and manage right that shouldn't be the uh shouldn't be the goal for sure let's stay right there outout to Market I think Common Sense would say that the you know uh Opex as a service model is probably a little bit more popular in the SMB space is that true and will it continue to grow in popularity I yes for sure I mean yeah absolutely enough of a softball it is it definitely is I mean the the reality is again back to you know they don't want to manage their Network they want to manage their business right and the best way to do that is to have an expert um so if you can't afford to have experts lined up running your network and your security and all in your applications the best way to do that is to Outsource it to someone who is an expert right and that's that's our partners um they have that capability that's what they do every day they have socks and knocks and places to that manage all those things and they're experts at making that hum every single day um and so yeah partnership's fantastic Outsourcing it to someone else who can manage it and not having to make that giant Capital outlay right to put in a bunch of equipment and you know either or hire Specialists and all those types of things makes a huge difference so again it makes it accessible uh to any size business it gives them such a flexibility level right that they didn't have before right so that allows them to be much more flexible in the way that they're going to adjust their businesses going forward and that the partners got to be right right there with them along the way for sure I think there's obviously uh on the partner side maybe it maybe it is maybe it isn't to me it would feel a little bit daunting obviously adopting a new business model there might be people in the space that are already closer to that manag Services model what does that Journey look like maybe for traditional reseller to transition to the managed Services model well it's a lot about the software that they're leveraging right so especially in managed Services it's a lot about software certainly there's Hardware components that have to be managed and and can be put on a a manage manage service plan but a lot of it has to do with monitoring and insurance and so forth right I mean um good enough isn't good enough right I need the products to not only do what they're supposed to do but excel in what they're doing and provide value as well right so for that migration from a typical partner type into a managed service which I think is Just Happening by default right because of the way that software is set up because of the way software um is sold through subscriptions the way people are consuming it now there's not really choice right so if you're if you're deploying a whole bunch of software someone needs to manage it someone needs to operate it um you're not going to do that on Prem so that means you're doing it remotely which means you're going to build a a either a center of excellence or a knock or sock to to manage those things all of a sudden you're a man service provider and you might as well package those things into packages that make sense um for the end user customer so an offering of of multiple items all packaged together at a single monthly price right that's um that that makes sense for them but also something that you can support so you've got the right Engineers the right capabilities to support that package um and you're not building 70 different packages you're probably building a handful of them um I think the stat is you know most msps center around 7 to 12 products right that they they focus on because they can become experts at them they can get great relationships with the suppliers or the vendors that make those products and build build that ecosystem around it so I think it's a natural progression I think um you know the day of uh the day of just moving boxes um is kind of over everyone's looking for more than that right and and I said this at the beginning right the good enough isn't good enough yeah right you need more than just having it do the basic functionality you want to squeeze more out of that investment whe no matter what it is whether it's an access point or firewall or an application you want everything out of it the the complexity level that comes in with everything now especially is is pushing the customer to find that expert that can do it for him right you know especially in the smv space they don't have the technical capabilities to do it right they don't want to focus in those areas and those layers of complexities have to be taken out of the picture and and a and a partner is the way to do it and you know that's where their bread and butter is from a from a profitability standpoint is that they can bring all these pieces together collectively to solve that problem that the customer wants solved right to move their business forward holistically so you know that's we see it going contining to go in that direction we're seeing the vendors being integrated into those offers and those services but in a lot of cases it's the partner's offer that's being displayed to the customer holistically right sometimes we are seen inside of it or showcased in some cases but a lot of times it really is that partner's um service that's being sold a lot of cases which is awesome I mean that's creating value for them and obviously helping Foster that relationship as a consultant I think vendors tend to end up being ingredients into that you know that package right that is sold to the End customer because it's more than just the individual products it's the the management of those products it's the skill and capabilities of the the MSP to deliver those things and put it all together so you know it's more than just the box it's it's all the stuff that wraps around it one of the things really interesting too about smbs is that because the world has become so subscription based and everyone can have access to things um the the competitive pressure amongst small businesses to innovate Beyond what the standard package is right um I often give the the the example if you if you're searching for a product and you uh go and Google that and you find five um suppliers in your local town that have that product or say they have that product and then only two of them have real-time online inventory so you can tell that they actually have the product in stock the other three are out of the game yep right right away they've just they're out right so that Innovation is is a big competitive Advantage uh for smbs uh I'm in marketing I think for a long time Cisco hasn't been necessarily a top of- mind manufacturer in the SMB space that's obviously changing but what in your opinion I'm coming to both of you on this is the most pivotal thing we're doing today tomorrow to change that perception with Partners you know I think the biggest thing that we're doing is we've got a focused targeted customer set that our Solutions fit right and we're putting it into a package and and displaying it to our partners specifically so that um it's solving the customers need we're tying that together that we haven't done in the past it's always been about this widget this switch these ports this router this Wireless this you know throughput Etc we're getting away from that we've gotten away from that a lot and Ro can talk a little bit more about that with the experiences but we've gotten down into exactly what our Technologies can do to solve the need of the customer and if we can do that for our partners and package it in the right manner it changes the way that their salespeople have discussions with their customers right and it changes that whole whole mindset um and we're we're here to make it easier for our partners right holistically in the way we do this whether it's our programs whether it's our Technologies and the way we package it and I think that's something that we've seen us evolve over the last 18 months or so that we haven't had in place before yeah I mean I I I agree strangely enough it's it is about the outcome right and talking about the outcome which I think in for for some sellers is is a little bit daunting because they don't know necessarily about the end user you know their business business and and what are the hot buttons for them so they got to learn a little bit about it so that can sometimes be a little intimidating I think from a marketing perspective we're putting great assets out there that allow them to be to start positioning let's talk about an outcome um whether that be the experiences or any of the other content that we're putting out around SMB it is about what is the value this thing delivers and go talk about that so we're giving them some ammunition to be able to go have those conversations that are more solution oriented more business oriented um so they're not walking in the door and talking about speeds and feeds cuz that's just not going to fly in the SMB space right so I think from a Content perspective we're doing quite well with that I think obviously the experiences really align themselves to that but it provides a dialogue or a context for a dialogue um that sellers are not perhaps used to because they're very much in the past have been very box oriented about speeds and feeds and so forth and this gives them the opportunity to break that model look different than the rest um and I think smbs really appreciate that they really don't want someone to walk in the door and talk about some technology that they don't understand right they want the output of that but they would much rather have someone walk in the door is concerned about their business their outcomes what they want to achieve and work together to get that done I mean that just sounds I'm saying those words and it sounds better right because that's what I'm really after as as an SB owner yeah I mean my first job at a college was selling payroll door too do you want to know what business owners don't want to talk about employee size how often they'd run payroll and the chall but can I make that process easier can I solve a business issue for them now that's a conversation they want to have I was a great payroll salesman I can see why now um we've talked about a lot of things we've touched on the experiences a little bit uh for me that is the differentiator here though right is we've taken this what could be complex to a business owner who isn't in the tech Spas solution boiled it down to human language boil it down to business outcomes for that business owner so when they go to a partner they can say hey this is the challenge I'm facing what can you to help me and we've essentially built built out that solution set for the partner today so we're coming up on time if this is of interest to our audience what can they do from here what's the action they can take well for our partners I'd love for them to go look at the SMB uh experiences on the website I'd love for them to go and look at the SMB specialization because it has all the content about the four experiences um the conversations to have and so forth with their customers so I think for sellers great stuff great content for them to go and look at and I understand that many of our partners have different specializations and so forth this one is about your sellers this is giving them something new and a new way to go talk to customers that customers will resonate with and it's broken into four simple categories it's pretty easy to sort of wrap your head around in the materials um you know all online all all in black belt um available at no cost perfect is there I li I have one more question for you before I go to Craig is there a differentiator for that specialization that uh partner with a lot of specializations or certifications today would say hey I still need to go get that SMB one yeah it is about that dialogue right it's about having that business outcome dialogue right so while most of the specializations focus on Solutions or architectures which is you know products right speeds and Fe so forth which you got to know about I mean there's no there's no uh discounting that there's a core security specialization as well I recommend all Partners go and do that because it gives them the basis uh what they should know about security but for sellers in this space and especially for uh selling engineers in this space the content within the SB specialization gives them that dialogue that as again it it'll differentiate them from everyone else about what they're going to do when they walk in the door at that end customer it's going to have a conversation about an outcome and immediately that's going to change um change the Viewpoint from that Customer because there's someone who's concerned about my business and making me successful that just naturally is a is a better um dialogue to have than I think you've got old access points you should get new ones no one wants to hear that no no one's signing up for I want more Blinky lights in the closet you know that's not it right they want the outcomes that we generate yeah Craig well I'll tell you you know you arm yourself the partners arm themselves with that um the market opportunity is incredible for us in the S&B space right you know in in the in the US market and Canada Market alone it's about $5.5 billion of addressable Market we have in front of us and over around 800,000 small medium business out there wow that we can go after right so there's substantial opportunity that we have in front of us with our with our partners specifically and you know Cisco is invested in this market we're investing heavily in marketing not only doing paid media marketing and positioning things to the customer specifically around the experiences around those outcomes that they're looking to find and have uh implemented within their companies but then also we're doing it with our partners holistically right we have to we have to work with our partners to be able to Market their services and their offers in Market also so that's an ample opportunity for partners to work with us so that we can take your services to Market collectively right yeah uh it's just an incredible opportunity we have for it that Market's growing dramatically and I think we've got the right solution set uh to to meet those business needs holistically I agree Craig Roy thank you guys pleasure fun do it again let's do it again absolutely sounds great thanks Ian

2024-06-25 02:37

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