Meet GreenPages’ Newest Hire: Channel Titan Terry Richardson

‘The technical team is really, really strong at GreenPages,’ says new GreenPages Chief Revenue Officer Terry Richardson. ‘I’ve known for many years that’s the key to success in a lot of customer situations. That is what really separates some of the really, really strong and proficient solution providers from others.’

Terry Richardson, a channel sales superstar who has powered partner growth for 30-plus years for the likes of AMD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and EMC, is taking his talents to the solution provider stage as the new chief revenue officer for national cloud and cybersecurity kingpin GreenPages.

The blockbuster hire by GreenPages, No. 142 on the CRN 2022 Fast Growth list and No. 169 on CRN SP500, brings GreenPages one of the most respected channel leaders in the business as its moves to continue to drive robust cybersecurity, cloud and managed services sales growth.

Richardson, who stepped down as AMD North America Channel Chief just two weeks ago, said he finds it “very motivating and exciting” to be working on the solution provider side of the business for the first time in his career. He credited the channel with leading the charge for customers to make every major big technology transformation over the last four decades. “I continue to see the most successful vendors really embracing the channel,” he said.

[Related: North America Channel Chief Terry Richardson Is Leaving AMD]

Richardson said one of the things that attracted him to the GreenPages’ top sales job was the solution provider’s exceptional technical talent. “The technical team is really, really strong at GreenPages,” he said. “I’ve known for many years that’s the key to success in a lot of customer situations. That is what really separates some of the really, really strong and proficient solution providers from others.”

Richardson said he was also impressed by the progress GreenPages has made in pivoting to a cybersecurity, cloud and managed services model with robust recurring revenue. “GreenPages is ahead of many with the type of pivot that they wanted to make to be increasingly relevant for their customers and meeting the needs of today and tomorrow,” he said.

Richardson said he see the opportunity to have a profound impact to drive both top and bottom line growth at GreenPages. “That’s important to me,” he said. “I think the company values my experience and perspectives and has given me an opportunity to come in with a fresh set of eyes and look at things that could be optimized to help accelerate the performance.”

Richardson’s appointment comes with GreenPages on a roll, delivering a three-year compound annual growth rate of 401 percent for cybersecurity, 62 percent for cloud subscription services and 17 percent for managed services. That strong performance led to the promotion of former Chief Revenue Officer Joshua Dinneen to the president’s job earlier this year.

Richardson- who will report to Dinneen- will oversee all revenue-generating activities at GreenPages, partner relationship management and business development.

Richardson said he is first and foremost looking forward to getting to know the GreenPages team. “I want to understand the people who are a big part of this company’s success,” he said. “I want to really understand what is making GreenPages perform so well.”

Richardson said he is also looking forward to meeting GreenPages’ customers. “GreenPages enjoys a lot of loyal and long-tenured customer relationships and continues to add new customers,” he said. “I want to understand customer motivations and how they perceive GreenPages – not only for projects that have been completed but those they are contemplating for the future.”

As for GreenPages’ vendor relationships, Richardson said his aim is to ensure there are “well-defined go-to-market” plans to make sure both parties are developing maximum benefit out of the partnership.

After reviewing internal processes to maximize sales productivity, Richardson said he will focus on “defining” the company’s growth strategy with an eye toward driving not only top line growth, but “more importantly EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax and depreciation) growth to continue to increase the value of the company. “

To that point, Richardson said he sees “significant opportunity” to drive GreenPages sales growth. “Customers are going to have core needs, regardless of the of the macro environment,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re listening carefully to those needs and working to address them better than other alternatives they have. That is going to be the key to success.”

Dinneen, for his part, said the hiring of Richardson will go a long way towards helping GreenPages continue on its fast growth path. “The big message here is that we are continuing to invest in our business in really big ways by bringing on someone of Terry’s caliber,” he said. “I have had the pleasure of working with Terry for many years. His reputation is well deserved. He’s an unbelievable leader. He’s got tremendous acumen around driving market share and has certainly done it at scale. The goal here for us is to create scale in our business, to really start to accelerate that scale.”

Richardson brings a “tremendous level of maturity” to the GreenPages sales organization, said Dinneen. “We’ve done a lot of great things in the last four years to really modernize our sales force and really drive our sales organization to a level that is world class,” he said. “This is really an entrée’ into that world class level with Terry being at the helm.”

Dinneen said he sees the top sales role as a “blend of art and science” which all comes together under Richardson. “I think Terry brings a good balance between both (art and science),” he said. “Terry is data driven, but also understands the nuances of what it takes to be a successful sales person and the fact that we are a relationship based organization with our customers. For me that is a real excitement.”

Richardson’s impressive track record on the vendor side of the business is going to have a big impact on GreenPages’ vendor relationships, said Dineen “Terry has been on the OEM side of the business for a long time,” he said. “He has got a great understanding of how it works, how to manage deal flow and how to partner at the right level to drive better outcomes for both GreenPages and our customers.”

With GreenPages looking to make additional acquisitions, Dinneen said Richardson will also play a critical role in identifying potential M&A targets. “Terry has a great outlook on the market and understands where there will be opportunities to pursue certain companies he might know and has intimate knowledge of,” said Dinneen. “He certainly has relationships with a lot of companies that look and feel like GreenPages.”

Richardson’s addition to the team has brought a “high level of excitement” from the GreenPages team, said Dinneen. “Everyone is really looking forward to Terry coming into the company,” he said. “It’s really going to help us scale!”