Seattle-based Mozy, which EMC Corp. acquired in 2007 and operates as part of Decho Corp., an EMC company, is making a push to please current partners and attract new ones. The online, remote, and data backup solutions and software provider has significantly upgraded its Mozy Reseller Program, offering a new partner portal dubbed Mozy Reseller Portal 2.0, co-branded marketing and sales materials, and lead management features such as opportunity registration and lead sharing to reward committed resellers.
“This is the first time we’ve had this set of tools for our resellers,” says Darrell Gamble, director of channel sales at Mozy. “We want to drive our resellers, their sales reps, and others in their organization to use the portal, because of the tools it offers.” These tools include training on not only how to implement a Mozy solution, but the best ways to package and sell it. “A lot of people who try [to sell] an individual type of solution are not as successful as those who bundle a solution with other services they’re already providing,” notes Gamble.
The new portal also gives qualifying resellers access to a co-branded marketing tool so they can create their own branded sales collateral. The company has engaged a third-party firm that offers special pricing on marketing plans as well, to help platinum partners run an email campaign, for example, or a telesales program. Market development funds (MDF) make such marketing efforts even more affordable for top-tier platinum partners.
Supporting the Reseller
“The thing we’re excited about is our ability to support the reseller channel with our MDF and our lead share,” says Gamble. “We qualify leads on our end, and if the reseller meets [certain] criteria and is interested in working with a partner in their area, we’ll flip [those leads] over.” The lead-share program is integrated with Salesforce.com, notes Gamble, so Mozy can see if a reseller has accepted the leads and how the company is updating them in the pipeline. “We have complete visibility into how the reseller is doing and how we can help,” he explains.
Via the portal, partners can also register opportunities and engage the Mozy sales team for support in closing deals; they can study documents about Mozy competitors to help on sales calls; or even review white papers from analyst firm IDC that may be useful for competing in the market.
“We’re trying to take a more proactive approach to helping our resellers grow,” says Gamble. “That’s good for both of us.” Mozy has almost 5,000 partners, notes Gamble, who feels the company has historically done a good job recruiting resellers. “But we’ve done a horrible job of helping and creating that partnership with our resellers. That’s our focus now—to make Mozy an integral part of their business.”
Gamble says Mozy’s goal is to at least double its number of platinum partners. To do so, the company increased internal resources in sales, account management, and marketing last year. This past January, it added additional personnel. “Internally,” says Gamble, “we have a sound operational model to help our resellers get to that platinum level.”
Three years ago, about 10 percent of Mozy sales were through the channel. Today, the company is at 30 percent. “But if you were to ask about new business—what we pull in [each] month with the subscription model—our channel outpaces our direct model now,” says Gamble. “It’s more than 50 percent.” And growing.
For complete information about the Mozy Reseller Program, go to http://partners.mozy.com.
