Geoff Greenlaw, Andrew Fisher, Pure Storage
Geoff Greenlaw is the VP, channel, EMEA & LatAm at Pure Storage. Geoff is a hands-on leader who builds robust relationships with partners and distributors all across the EMEA and LatAm regions. He is driven by helping partners bring exciting solutions to solve customer challenges. His passion is building strong teams, people development, and cross-functional collaboration. Geoff has 25 years of extensive IT industry experience. Before Pure Storage, he spent 18 years at Veritas and worked in several roles in sales and channel leadership.
Number of years in current role:
1.8
Number of years in current company:
1.8
Number of years involved in indirect sales:
26
Reporting to:
Wendy Stusrud, VP, global partner sales
What percentage of your sales come through the channel?
100 per cent
Describe your personal channel philosophy.
My philosophy is to be a true partner in the relationship. I am loyal and committed to partners, I expect my team to have a growth mindset and to deliver outcomes. This can be encapsulated in four 'P's' which are foundational for our success: Partnership: building scale and reach across our partner ecosystem Programme: Driving profitable, consistent and long term growth Process: Ensure our programme is as easy to navigate as possible People: arguably the most important - to ensure our community is active and engaged
What were your biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?
My biggest accomplishment has been strengthening our relationships with all organisations within our GTM including partners, distributors and service providers. This means I've increased participation in the programme and built more recurring revenue for partners. Additionally I've continued to drive awareness of Pure Storage's ESG focused initiatives and technology.
What were your organisation's biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?
In the last year, we have made Pure Storage's robust partner programme even more focused on our partner community. We're proud of how these elements are supporting the whole ecosystem and look forward to delivering further value for them.
We've worked closely with partners to support their increased use of our subscription portfolio. This includes developing services wrapped around Pure Storage Evergreen//One storage as-a-service offering;
More tools to put the power of data into our partners' hands so they can support their customers, including new partner intelligence capabilities; working with key partners to solve subscription compensation barriers;
Continued to expand programmes to support service specialisation partners: Pure Storage's Service Specialisation Program enables partner-branded professional and support services around Pure Storage technology. Consistent innovation in both the partner programme and Pure's technology portfolio, which has expanded significantly this year; Further establishing key design principles to work closely with partners to deliver the best outcomes to customers, including profitable, predictable, and tiered rewards for capability and solution specialisation. Independent partner configuration and quoting tools; and tools for backend EDI (electronic data interchange) integration with partners
How is your company working to build equity and inclusion in the channel?
At Pure, we are focused on hiring people with the right skills and appetite to learn. We believe that having diverse perspectives and opinions makes us stronger. When we hire new staff, our goal is to tease out applicants' potential for problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration.
How is your organisation's market development strategy (MDF) changing this year?
Market Development Funds will become a differentiator for our elite partners. We will continue to strategically and heavily invest in the partners that want to build a practice with us. Elite partners will have top priority for MDF investment.
What are your top channel goals for 2024?
Increase the amount of recurring revenue going through partners.
Increase the amount of net new accounts coming through partners
Encourage partners to sell a broader part of our portfolio.
What were the key partner investments made over the past year?
The key channel partner investments made over the past year include:
- Customer segmentation: We refocused our resources and partner initiatives for different customer market segments.
- Rewards/incentives: We continued to evolve rewards and incentives for our top tier Elite partners, as well as product specific partner rebate incentives around our offerings to further promote portfolio adoption.
- Managed services: We continued to make significant investments in managed services as a route-to-market, empowering partners to find new business opportunities and make great margins.
- Subscription services: We doubled down on building subscription services that our partners can deliver to optimise their end customer experience.