Intelisys Channel Connect: Master Agent Rolls Out Ambitious Cloud Training Agenda, New Tools For Partners

Intelisys, a ScanSource company, believes it has a proven track record of helping partners sell more cloud. As such, the master agent is expanding its successful cloud training program and is rolling out new tools to help partners close more deals.

During its annual Channel Connect event, being held in Monterey, Calif., the master agent revealed impressive results from its exclusive cloud selling and training program, Super9, and its extensive plans to commit to more cloud trainings in 2018. Intelisys also unveiled new sales tools for its growing partner community.

More than 200 Intelisys telecom agency partners and ScanSource VAR organizations have completed a Super9 training session since its inception in late 2016. During that time, there have been more than 1,050 cloud orders placed, totaling north of $1 million in monthly recurring revenue for partners, Andrew Pryfogle, senior vice president of cloud transformation for Intelisys, told CRN.

[Related: Intelisys Expands Exclusive Training Program To Partners Looking To Close Big Cloud Deals]

"Super9 is really a commitment to training that is really moving the needle with tangible results," Pryfogle said. "Six months after the training, we've seen partners closing between 35 percent to 75 percent more cloud deals over what they were closing previously."

In 2018, Intelisys will be offering three new Super9 program options.

Super9 Convergence, which will be held in New Orleans in March 2018, is the first three-day education conference for Super9 graduates and their teams. Designed to bring together both Intelisys and ScanSource partners, Convergence will offer partners more education, technology deep dives, peer meetings and networking.

Networking and peer meeting are an important part of Super9's value proposition to partners, as working in nine-member peer groups helps to keep partners accountable by sharing best practices and setting goals together, Pryfogle said.

"Peer meetings are continued after the training every month for 12 months. Those are monthly calls to follow up and learn from each other. We have some peer groups that are still constantly talking to each other," he added.

Super9 peer groups average a bump of 69 percent in cloud revenue. For some partners, that growth has happened within less than two months following the training, Intelisys said.

Super9 Intensive, another spinoff program, will include "deep dives" into two hot areas -- Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) and security. Both sessions are aimed at helping partners identify and close big CCaaS and security deals and are intended for graduates of the original Super9 training program. The CCaaS session will take place in February in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and security in Greenville, S.C., in November.

The new Super9 Sales Bootcamp is being held in Intelisys' hometown in Petaluma, Calif., in July. Bootcamp is a two-week sales training course that partners can put their new hires through to build out their sales teams.

Intelisys will also offer two of its foundational Super9 sessions, with dates in May and September in Austin, Texas, and in Boston.

Perhaps the most attractive part of the Super9 program is that partners walk away from the training with immediate cloud opportunities, Pryfogle said.

"It's immediate pipeline growth, and immediate closings in short order," he said. "We've now proven that model and are doubling down on that training strategy in 2018."

In addition to furthering its Super9 agenda, Intelisys is unveiling its Simple Guide to Selling for its partner base.

The Simple Guide to Selling is a tool available to sales partners that includes information all in one place on the more than 150 suppliers in the Intelisys portfolio today, said Brian Leonard, director of marketing for Intelisys.

"Partners want to know, what are the features and the benefits of each supplier, and what are the differences between working with one vendor, as opposed to a competitor?" Leonard said.

Aside from the vendor-provided content, the guide will include information on what makes the provider "special or unique," and what questions they should be asking their customers to see if they qualify for a deal with a specific supplier, he said.

The guide, Leonard said, will be especially useful for ScanSource VARs interested in starting telecom practices and taking a look at the Intelisys portfolio.

"Those questions are different for every technology and provider," he said. "VARs don't know this world like the traditional agent partner, and even some of our agents are overwhelmed with some of the newer technology, like SD-WAN. Now partners can go into meetings [with their clients] with all the information on the providers and a list of questions to ask that will give them a lot of confidence in front of their clients."