Jon White & AT&T | Episode 005

In Episode 005 of Inside the Channel, host Terra Bastolich sits down live at Channel Partners with Jon White, AT&T’s leader for the Value-Added Reseller channel, for a conversation about transformation, partnership, and the evolving role of carriers in the channel ecosystem.

Jon reflects on his nearly 30-year journey at AT&T, sharing lessons from a career that has spanned multiple eras of technology, connectivity, and channel evolution. From witnessing the industry’s biggest shifts firsthand to helping shape AT&T’s indirect strategy today, he offers a unique perspective on what has changed, what hasn’t, and why relationships remain at the center of long-term success.

The conversation explores AT&T’s growing investment in channel partnerships, the evolution of its VAR program, and the cultural shifts taking place inside one of the industry’s largest carriers. From fixed wireless and public sector opportunities to co-selling, partner enablement, and ecosystem collaboration, Jon provides a candid look at how AT&T is working alongside distributors, OEMs, and resellers to create better outcomes for customers and partners alike.

Enjoy the episode. 🎙️

Transcript

Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You're listening to Inside the Channel, presented by Get Wireless, a platform built to showcase the voices, stories, and insights shaping the future of the channel. Through conversations with partners, vendors, carriers, and industry leaders, we aim to bring you meaningful perspectives on the trends, challenges, and opportunities driving our ecosystem forward. And now to your host, the chief marketing officer of Get Wireless, Tara Bastilich.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hey guys, welcome back to Inside the Channel. This is Tara here, and we're joining you live from Channel Partners, our first um podcast and platform filming on the road. So we're taking Inside Channel on the Road. I've got two great guests with me today. I will let them introduce themselves. Sean, you want to start?

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Sure. Sean Cooper, get wireless. Been here about six or seven years working on the connectivity team. It's been on it's been an awesome ride. I mean, really, I was telling somebody earlier, like when we first kind of started this program. And since then, we've probably grown 50 to 100 times, right? Uh we've got a great team of people that support us internally. We kind of touch all aspects of the organization. It's been really great. Got a lot of great momentum with ATT. So we're super excited about that, which is one of our one of my carrier partners that I work with super closely. So, John, I'll pass it on and let you do an intro. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Uh John White, uh, ATT, have been uh fortunate enough to be part of ATT's indirect channel for longer than I probably care to admit or care to remember or care to talk about, but maybe we'll get into that. Uh currently I am part of our value-added reseller channel and working with distributors like Git Wireless and our uh our reseller partners and Sean's team as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Well, we're excited to have you. We've been waiting to get um to get you guys on this on this podcast and talk with each of our, you know, kind of carrier partners. We're seeing a lot of momentum and a lot of shift that's happening. We just did a little segment on kind of what are the trends that we're seeing in the channel, and one of them is this large investment that we're seeing from the carriers coming in. So we want to talk a lot about that. I think channel partners is gonna is a big part of that too. It's a good example. It's some of the, we'll call it the receipts of what you guys are putting in. But first and foremost, when we bring people into this, one of the key um core principles of inside the channel is getting to know the people that are inside the channel because we love a lot of the people, majority of the people in this industry. We've met a lot of great people. You have been a huge proponent for us in the program. You've been a huge advocate for Get Wireless, you've been a great human. I think we call you a friend as well. Like it's just been great. So

Jon's Journey at AT&T

SPEAKER_00 2:46

we want to learn a little bit about your journey. And again, you've been in this industry a long time and you have a lot of stories, you've moved around and done a lot of different things, but why don't you tell us how you started and you know, any interest, interesting like challenges, things, uh you know, modifications that you've had to make through your journey.

SPEAKER_03 3:06

Right. So uh my journey started back in the mid-90s. So I I joined ATT in in 1996, came over from Sprint at the time I was uh in an inside technical sales role in Sprint, came over to ATT, and this will date it a little bit. My first role with ATT was supporting our enterprise sales team selling frame relay because it was too complicated for them to sell on their own, right? It was relatively new at the time. So I did that for a year or two, and then uh ATT decided that our sales teams can sell frame relay on their own. They don't need our help. But there were these hardware vendors in the market who were also willing to sell ATT's frame relay, and they did need inside technical sales help. So our our technical sales center was kind of repurposed to be an inside sales and support center for hardware vendors selling ATT uh frame relay service. And that was my my first step into the indirect channel, and I've been fortunate enough to be part of uh ATT's indirect channel ever since.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

That's I mean, quite a journey. I assume that starts in a small cubicle with a lot of other people around you, right? A little different than what you're doing today and the meetings that you're hosting here this week, probably.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

You you kind of hinted, right? This this ATT journey, and you said started what year? 96. 96, right? I think we've said before, you've spent almost half your life with ATT, right? Right. It's been a long, long time. So in this industry, right, you see a lot of people changing logos and you know, kind of coming and going, which is why it's really important to create those relationships. But you're somebody who's been with the carrier for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Right. Yeah. Absolutely. From the beginning. Yeah. From the beginning. Yeah. I was, you know, dating myself. I forget who I was telling this story to, but I still remember when we coming to the office five days a week was normal, right? We think about back to the office. We we've got no quarter zip uniform on today, but it used to be kind of a shirt and tie, whether you were seeing customers or not, had big phones on our desks with multiple lines where you left voicemail, fax contracts back and forth to each other versus uh, you know, electronic. It was very different. It's been a fun journey, but uh been fortunate enough to one, stay with ATT this entire time, but two, really be part of the indirect channel and the indirect ecosystem. I always tell people I get to work for a Fortune 100 company, but I get to work with every day entrepreneurs, small, medium, and large entrepreneurs who've started their own business and I kind of get the best of both worlds.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yeah, that's

Learning & Evolution

SPEAKER_00 5:40

awesome. Is there something that you're learning now that you feel like, you know, has like you've evolved at this stage of your career? Like something again, we're not dating anybody, but you got a few miles on you, right? Like you've been able to get through um, you know, some some evolution in your career. Are there something that you're learning now that you never thought you would?

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Um, from a role perspective, you know, I talked about I spent all these years in the channel and certainly understanding different types of channel partners, different ecosystems, et cetera. And then I'd say over the last few years, ATT has really evolved and throughout the entire company embraced the channel. And that the impact that's had on my role has been more, I spend a lot more time now educating other parts of ATT on the different types of channel partners, how and when to engage, how to leverage their different capabilities. Because there are different types. We have even inside of the ATT indirect ecosystem, we have a number of different types of indirect programs, different types of partners within those programs. So it's great. It's just different educating my colleagues, for example, on the direct sales side, as far as the difference between this program and this program and this partner and that partner.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Yeah. I mean, it's definitely a different evolution. Like if we have to educate our company on something, it takes a lot less yelling and a lot less things that have to happen because you mean you've got such a large organization that you're trying to change. Yep. I think that's what we want to talk the most about is

AT&T's Channel Journey

SPEAKER_00 7:08

we we were talking in a recent podcast about the we're seeing the evolution of the carriers leaning in. We are seeing it, I think everybody could attribute that this event has gone to the next level. And I think it's because the carriers are here and there's more investment in the channel and they're building programs. And I would say that I think um AT ⁇ T is actually probably one of the most evolved, I would say, out of all of them. I mean, over at least our experience of working with you guys over the last couple of years. And I know that it took time and we started as a pilot. And I know I poked you hard on that word, and you'll never forgive me for that one. Um, but you know, tell us a little bit about like that journey because I do think that it's been a journey and it's a difference that we're we've been able to break down some of the stigma around what people thought ATT was the channel.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

You know, I think I'll go back to your initial comments and even the panel that you hosted today. I think certainly all the carriers agree that indirect and channel is needs to be a huge part of their distribution strategy, right? We can't, we can't get to all of the customers. We can't cover the market with a direct sales team alone. But more importantly, customers want to work with and buy from channel partners. They're the consistent thing in a customer life cycle. From an from a carrier perspective, account teams evolve and change and move on. Channel partners stay, right? So I think all the carriers get that. From an ATT perspective, what I really like is we understand channel partners are different, and we've tried to create programs that allow partners to work with us in the way they want to. So if you're a managed service provider and you want to take ATT connectivity, bundle it with your managed services, resell that. We have a program for that, right? Partner exchange. If you're a telecom agent and you want to actually sell our connectivity, our fiber service, our mobile service, our IoT, we have a program for that, our Alliance channel. If you want to work through a TSD, like uh Telaris, IntelliSis, Avant, one of those, we have a TSD program. And then we have, you know, the program I'm part of that we work with uh with Get Wireless in our value-added resale program, reseller program, right? Where we focus on firms who sell connected devices. They can work with us in a co-sell or referral motion. Um, and that journey with this program has been a good one, right? I still I still remember the the meeting. I think it was here, right? At uh three or four or five years ago, maybe, um, when we launched the tiny pilot. And you, you two were appropriately skeptical. Or is ATC gonna stick with this? Are we gonna be consistent? Are we gonna change our mind? And uh, you know, appropriately so carriers do. I think we're all consistent in the fact that we're inconsistent. We do change our mind frequently. But I'm I'm really proud that that we have stuck with this, right? We we started the program, I think we talked about crawl, walk, run approach. And we were very, very deliberate at first. We knew that we didn't know much. We needed to learn and establish credibility, kind of build that foundation. You guys were super helpful.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And we appreciate a great deal, by the way, to have that opportunity to be kind of voice of VAD and voice of partners.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Well, you educated us a lot. Then we a year or two later, we took another step, made some hires, made some investments. That paid off. And then uh we started walking. And uh really middle to late last year, and again, you were instrumental. I remember we brought you into Dallas a couple times to really speak with our leadership team around if you're gonna invest, this is how. We knew we wanted to invest, we just weren't sure what that would look like. So you really helped shape those investments. We made a number of investments, grew the team, we're building automation, changed the comp plan, uh, educated our direct sales force. We've come out with a number of uh incentives for resellers and offers for customers, right? And the expectation is we're gonna scale the program significantly and really start running together. Right. So now it's time for the now it's time for the right. Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's it's been a it's been an exciting journey. You have been there from the beginning, and you know, we attribute a lot of the success and the learnings to this relationship and and to your future.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

So like if you think about again that kind of crawl, walk, run, where do you say you're at now? Like we're drawing light job. Okay, we're drawing. And then so for you to go back even just a couple of years ago, right? When it was a pilot program, and it was kind of like this is this is the philosophy, right? We really want to work with value-added resellers. We think we have stickier customers. We think it's a better end customer experience. Okay, but you were kind of flying it a little bit under the radar, right? So now you've, you know, what are we, three and a half, probably four years since we met, right? You're at the light jog stage. What is what does that mean now? So the benefits are there's been a ton of investment, ton of growth. There's new commission structure, which is is fantastic. There's a lot of things that you've done to, again, move in that direction. What's the what's the counter of all those things in terms of like goals, targets? Where does it kind of put put pressure on John and team?

SPEAKER_03 12:27

Well, certainly there's high expectations, right? And I think that um, you know, we're thrilled, given the choice, I'd much rather have in the investment and visibility that we have and the lofty expectations than kind of the under the radar redheaded stepchild. So absolutely, I welcome it. And I I will tell you, and and I think you know this from the the discussions you've had with the ATT leadership team, it's it's constantly, what do we need? What do we need to do? Right. And so with that approach comes an expectation, right? And and again, I believe in it though. I believe that we're better together. I believe that when the ATT sales teams work with our reseller partners and our distributor partners, we can deliver better solutions to customers and we can provide a better customer experience. It's a real differentiator in the market, right? Mobility itself has become too price focused. It's a race to the floor, it's about price, price, price. This partnership really makes it more about solution and experience. And I think that's better for certainly ATT. I think it's better for our reseller partners. And most importantly, I really think it's better for our customers rather than just looking for what is the cheapest solution. It's what is the best solution. And again, I don't think AT ⁇ T can deliver that by ourselves. And I don't think your reseller partners can deliver it by ourselves. But when we work together, we often talk about pieces of a puzzle. It's a puzzle coming together that kind of naturally fits, right? Your partners really know software, application, devices, managed services. All of the solutions that they're creating also require connectivity. That's what we know. And when we work together, I really think it's better for both of us. We it's a unique partnership where each of us, ATT and our reseller and distributor partners, we get to do what we do best. It's complementary, right? We just do it together and the customer benefits. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

When

Myth Busting

SPEAKER_01 14:31

you launched this program too, and I don't want to put you on the spot, but um, did you feel like you had to do a little bit of myth busting about what it's been like for VARS to work with ATT in the past, right? Were there Yeah, just as you as you kind of launched this program and moved into this kind of collaborative co-cell model where you again focus on what you're good at? Do you feel like you had to mend any fences or talk about past programs?

SPEAKER_03 14:56

Yeah, we did. I I think certainly, I think most stereotypes and myths have at least a foundation of truth. Right? They're usually it's an exaggerated truth, right? So I think the the stereotype that we had to kind of change was AT ⁇ T is a direct sales-centric culture that prefers to do everything internally. Right. And historically, if we go back quite a ways, I think there's certainly some truth to that. Right. But that's been evolving and changing over time and has certainly accelerated dramatically the last few years, where we've become indirect is absolutely key across every segment of our business. Every segment has their own indirect strategy. And we have made conscious decisions that let's really what we do really well is connectivity. Right? Fiber and mobile connectivity. That's our core competency. So we've kind of backed off a little bit of let's try to do everything a customer needs. And that everything really competed in in many cases with what the reseller community does, whether it was devices or services or things like that. Now, it's a ATT is a big ship, right? It's it's it's an ocean liner. It doesn't turn on a dime. But you guys have seen this gradual turn over the last two, three, four years, which has really been accelerated over probably the last 12 to 18 months, where you know, there there's now uh how can we leverage resellers for this? How can we leverage resellers for that? How can we do this differently? How can we develop uh an indirect strategy in the federal government segment, which historically was direct only, right? How can we leverage resellers here? So it's it's as a kind of a legacy indirect guy, it's so exciting to be part of the.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

I mean, those are big steps, right? When you acknowledge as a carrier that there's a maybe that we've gotten away from our core competency, right? And some other some things that we've done that maybe have been distractions to the main thing. But also when you start to open up e-rate, federal, right, to let partners play in that space with AT ⁇ T, those are some pretty big steps,

Acceleration

SPEAKER_01 17:18

right? What do you feel like when you talk about again this kind of three, four-year path that you've been on, but maybe things have really started to turn and accelerate 12 to 18 months ago, was there something that was the jumping off point or really the impetus behind that kind of again, rapid acceleration and um adoption through the ATT indirect channel with leadership?

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Yeah, I think a lot of it was really good fortune relative to timing, right? So if we think about our value-added reseller program and our path, right? We were kind of going from that crawl block run and building on it and really establishing momentum and success at every stage. And in parallel to that, I think the bigger, broader ATT was making a couple shifts. One, where we narrow our focus on connectivity, and two, where we really make the entire indirect ecosystem a big part of our distribution strategy. So it was kind of the coming together of a lot of things and great timing for us. Certainly, the our value-added reseller program picked up on a lot of the momentum, just just darrowing focus on connectivity. That's perfect. Now we stop competing with resellers for devices, we start leveraging their capabilities. The bigger, broader shift to indirect allowed us to get a lot of investment in the way of people and tools and things like that to make us easier to work with from a reseller perspective. So um sometimes it's a little bit of luck and good fortune combined with uh a lot of the right strategy at the right time.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

You stay the course, right? Like it takes time. You've you've got to you've gotta have the runway to build it. They've got to, your leadership had to allow you to crawl around for a while before you got to a place where you've they could, you know, start to say, like, we think this is success, right? Or we're we're leaning towards success.

Partners

SPEAKER_00 19:08

Um, I guess as far as partners that you're you obviously have partners in the program today. Um, a lot of them work with us, but are there partners that you're specifically looking for out there? Are there partners that you kind of need in the ecosystem? I guess talk to anybody that's out there that doesn't have that relationship now and what that can mean to them.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

You know, certainly I think for for partners that aren't working with us today, right? There's generally a reason. A lot of times it was a bad experience historically or something like that. So for those types of partners, I would certainly encourage them to check out kind of the the new ATT. We are a lot different than than we were a few years ago. We'd love to work with them. You know, our approach with new partners is always let's understand each other and really find out what that partner does really well, right? Whether it's uh a specific solution, a specific vertical, a specific geography. Let's go have some success together in a very targeted way and then build on that. Right. But as far as the types of partners, um, you know, I don't think we're we're not being specific or picky. I mean, certainly we love router focused partners. Fixed wireless is a huge uh part of our business and what we're doing. But um you know, we're we're open to, you know, whether you're focused in healthcare or transportation or public safety. You know, we've got a a big ecosystem that we're looking to fill with lots of partners.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

If you're kind of thinking about the partners that you work with today, right? And so this again has been we're we're in light jog status and we've got some great partners that work with Git Wireless and some other partners in your program. And again, just like you can kind of one of the great things about this, right, is again, you really get to focus on what you're expert in, whether that's hardware, services, um, implementation, whatever it may be, right? Different verticals, there's all sorts of opportunities. But when you kind of think about your partner community today that's working in your program, right? Supported by your team, working with your sellers, if you think forward 12 to 18 months, are there like where do you where do you see that going? I guess is what I'm trying to say. Like, how would you like to see partners focused? And are there are there things in your like from solutions that are non-stock hardware around cellular? Do you feel like you're missing somebody today, or maybe you're not uh you're not gaining as much traction in a specific vertical?

SPEAKER_03 21:34

I I don't know that we're we're missing anybody or a specific vertical. I think what we'd like to see is really more coordination between OEM, reseller, and distributor. It's an ecosystem, and I think when we and carrier, when we all come together intentionally, it's much more powerful. I feel in many cases we're working together in an unintentional way. Right. But when we we all get together and say, let's go do this, that very specific thing, whether it's in public safety or healthcare or transportation or or whatever. And it's often we can't do it. One of us can't do it. In many cases, two of us. In many cases it needs all of us. Right. Right? The OEM's got to be on board. We get wireless has got to be on board. The reseller community's got to be on board and the carriers got to be on board. But when we when we get input from everyone and come up with offers and strategies and things like that. Again, the customer's the one that benefits, which allows all of us to benefit. So uh I think that's where and we're starting to do it. Right. I think that's kind of our next step as we talk about that crawl walk run is we've done a really nice job of listening to the distributors I get wireless and the resellers. We've got a we sort of a lot to learn on our OEM relationships and how we fold those in and really unleash the full power of this ecosystem. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah is there when you when you kind of talk about that I I first of all I completely agree. Right. I think like for me when I hear you say something like that too, I I think about FWA, right? I think about what are some of the things you're doing from a parity perspective to create parity in the channel. I think about some of the things that you're doing from a commission and subsidy perspective. What I think maybe we haven't done well from the DISTI, VAR and OEM side is create some of those bundles so that we can go and sell them. And so it's something that's really easy to digest for your sales organization too, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:38

And then a couple of wins and now you've got something that you can build off of I think the

All Parties Involved

SPEAKER_03 23:43

most powerful bundle is is really conceived and created with all parties involved. It's where we what we miss is when we think we know everything. So we're going to do this and everybody's going to like it.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Right. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:57

In instead it's going to the reseller and the distributor and the OEM and to really say what can we do together and then as importantly great ideas but doesn't work right how do we operationalize it? Right. Right. Really from the beginning.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

That's a huge value even beyond the commission dollars. I mean the commission dollars incentives they're meaningful if anybody doesn't know what those are today you're you're leaving some money on the table. But there's also a bigger there's a big picture too where we unlock opportunities opportunities with the carriage close at 40% or greater in our in our statistics it's that's insane. You can't I can't buy a marketing program of any sort that will close at that level. So when you when you work it will help you grow your business hands down.

SPEAKER_03 24:49

And I think that's one of the big learnings for me in this part of the kind of the the reseller distributor ecosystem was commission dollars are important, but what's most important is how can this relationship help me be more successful in my core business.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Right? How can it generate more opportunities for me? How can it help me close more of what I what I what's important to me. Right. And I think that's the power of this relationship is certainly just as you said as as the reseller starts working with the carrier all of a sudden that's going to lead to more router opportunities for the reseller. For the carrier it's going to lead to better customer experience more sales.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah more this win-win yeah more renewals I mean right all of the pieces that kind of come with that so there's there's always this like okay well we know they're not going to sell against us now but am I going to let them sell with me? And that's exactly it. And it should be a sell with model. That's the idea and as people start to embrace it they're seeing and we're building trust and I think that's what we said from the very beginning

Building Trust & Momentum

SPEAKER_00 25:59

is we need to help build that trust inside of the community. And Sean and his team is always willing to be right in that middle and make sure everybody's trusting each other and for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I don't want to put you on the spot again I already said that but um I I will say I'm seeing hearing like we have so many meetings this week with ATT uh teams and our value added resellers right I really think like for the channel partners we have turned a massive corner. They want to work with ATT they see the value the the program is working with our VAR community when you think about that from your side of the fence do you have a success story or just kind of your thoughts around that same thing internally are ATT sellers now kind of looking at this going man that this is great. These guys are experts it's bilateral lead share you know they they keep me off that the day one technical sales call like I I should have had a VAR strategy years ago. What have I been doing?

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Are you feeling that on your side of the field it we are and it's it's fantastic right whether it's you know in our in our small business space um where again they're selling fixed wireless and they were sourcing routers internally and there was a high level of cancel or disconnect or breakage.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

A drop ship is not maybe what you exactly want to do with that scenario.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

And all of a sudden they've been able to find a reseller in their market that's really focused in this space and will help them. And they're seeing there's not only are they more successful, but they don't have the headaches on the back end. They don't have customers canceling etc. We're seeing that through public sector where I know you're feeling a little bit of as well where these teams are really fully embracing channel partners and and how to go whether it's going to events or seminars or running bundles or different things like that. Even in our our federal government space which honestly I was a little skeptical in just how much success we'd see here we've seen a lot of success where resellers are positioned within certain agencies and we were there too we weren't working together right and now that we've come together projects are moving faster projects are moving better and we're having more success um our enterprise space right where these these are the top 1000 accounts inside of ATT. These account teams have a very small group of customers that honestly they smother right but as we've exposed our reseller capabilities to our enterprise team and these companies are able to come in and help them solve problems and they may or may not be directly related to connectivity but as we as we start working together it unlocks more and more opportunity. So we've seen success up and down our our segment stack from a customer perspective and and it's really starting to spread right if you that momentum people start telling hey have you have you worked with this reseller they can do this right and it's it's it's exciting the word of mouth is growing and it is working.

SPEAKER_01 29:04

Right. And we're we really are we're we're we're feeling the momentum so that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

Yeah I think this event is a very good example of feeling that momentum. There's a lot of that happening and um I think everybody has a the drink in the Kool-Aid this week everybody's got a lot of you know a lot of good plans coming out of it. So I guess I'll ask you one last thing John to say is there anything else that you know channel community ecosystem partners anybody that's listening

Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 29:30

to this would want to know as we kind of roll out of channel partners and roll out of your this period of time and what to expect or as you guys kind of keep on your journey and start running marathons.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Yeah so I I would say if if a partner's not working with us today for for whatever reason I would I would have them I'd encourage them to to give us a try right we've certainly changed ATT just as a as an entire company is very very indirect focused very very partner friendly. And you know Terry you said something earlier it is so easy right the co-seller referral model there's not a learning curve right the ATT team within get wireless makes everything super easy from a reseller perspective. And then when we're working opportunities together we're really just asking the reseller to do their thing right do what they do best right just do it with us. Let us work together we'll do what we do best reseller does what they do best customer benefits. That's kind of kind of our motto and again the get wireless teams is fantastic and can help uh help them get on board it and start working with us.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

Well listen I want to say thank you first of all thanks for being here you've been a great partner we really appreciate the opportunity to give feedback right feedback which by the way was uh requested by you which takes some humility as when you're the carrier to come to a VAD or a reseller and say hey tell us how this should be and how we should build this so we really appreciate that. Maybe just last thing to touch on I don't know if we've really had an opportunity so far, but I want you to get a chance to just mention you talk high level investments, but there's been so much growth on your team there's new commission structures there's all these sorts of things so I just wanted to give you the opportunity to just kind of plug some of the things that have happened so recently including like the commission change I mentioned earlier.

SPEAKER_03 31:22

You know I think kind of tactically a lot of things we've done, we've simplified and enhanced our compensation right we've come out with really customer focused, I'll call them incentives for our customers to buy devices from resellers something that we've we've never done before. Certainly we've got a lot of incentives in place for our our reseller community as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

We've grown our team significantly right the the one one thing that made me think of this is a few minutes ago when you mentioned public sector, which is one of the spots that we do really well, right? We've got a great portfolio we've got a ton of capable value added resellers but you've also got people on your team that are focused around escalating those VARs in the public sector space. Right.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

So we're starting to feel some of that on our team and those dedicated public sector they're doing a great job right so

Embracing & Engaging Resellers

SPEAKER_03 32:11

a lot of things but I think really the most important thing we've done and and Tara touched on a number of times is we've changed the culture right with our direct sales team really looking to embrace and engage resellers. And I think that's the biggest thing that we've done is is really looking for how can I engage a reseller here to help? Is there a reseller in this account that I can work with right and that if we would have done all the and you guys were great telling us this you can do all of these things but if you don't change this culture they're not really going to matter.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

So we have worked hard changing and educating our direct sales teams and doing all these other things to try to enable that reseller success. So we're certainly excited about it. I always tell you guys the worst thing we can do right ATT certainly wants to invest and grow this program. If we do all these things and then I come back six months 12 months from now and I'm patting myself on the back saying look at all the things we've done and you and the resellers say well that's interesting but that's not really what we wanted.

unknown 33:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

You didn't do any of the things we wanted right so we're in big trouble. It's important I'm in big trouble. It's important that if we're making investments we're doing them in a meaningful way that are going to be meaningful to this community. And that's really that's the listening part that we've we've tried to do. Honestly it's selfish that says if if we're going to go spend money and do this, we'd like a return. So we want to spend it how it will matter you guys know better than us. How will this matter? What's what's meaningful?

SPEAKER_01 33:44

Well I appreciate it. You guys have so far have done a great job and again we appreciate the the opportunity to have the seat at the table.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Yeah absolutely thank you for making this a part of the journey listening to us I think that's the most important piece in any relationship and in the channel community it's super important that you listen and you treat partners like customers because that's what they are. And I think you guys have done a great job so far and we're excited to to stay on that journey and we'll continue to give you feedback unsolicited or solicited we will give you that feedback we're gonna do we if if I don't say it's usually written on my face. So it's we but we we appreciate that relationship and that's this up because we trust you we really have built this great relationship too with you everybody on the team just great people to do business with great people to have in the channel community and that's really what this is about. So thanks again for joining us