279 – Why Microsoft Sellers Are Ignoring Your Solution (And How to Fix It) — Ultimate Partner®

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AI agents are your next customers.

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In this insightful session, Vince Menzione is joined by Erika Irby of Veeam and Pat Primavera of Microsoft to discuss the evolution of their strategic partnership. They unpack Veeam’s transition from a “drinking company with a software problem” to a $2 billion enterprise aiming for $5 billion, revealing the tactical shifts in engineering alignment, sales play development, and co-sell activation that led to their landmark five-year agreement. Pat shares his framework for precision execution within the Microsoft ecosystem, while Erika details how Veeam leveraged “customer zero” strategies and internal alignment to drive success.

Key Takeaways

Engineering alignment is the critical first pillar before attempting to execute go-to-market strategies.
Successful co-selling requires specific packaged plays tailored to distinct seller roles like security specialists or ATSs.
Alliance leaders and cloud sales leaders must be in the same room to create joint plans rather than doing internal selling later.
Veeam’s commitment to Azure and aligning with Microsoft seller compensation was vital for their five-year agreement.
Partners should act as “Customer Zero” by using tools like the Data Resilience Maturity Model on themselves first to prove value.
The next major growth opportunity lies in Partner-to-Partner (P2P) collaboration to bundle solutions for the marketplace.

If you’re ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins.

Key Tags:

Veeam, Microsoft partnership, co-sell activation, ISV strategy, engineering alignment, precision execution, Veeam Data Cloud, Data Resilience Maturity Model, Azure commitment, partner-to-partner, P2P collaboration, channel marketing, sales plays, crossing the chasm, cyber resilience, agentic AI, customer zero, marketplace growth, alliance strategy, ecosystem transformation.

Ultimate Partner is the independent community for technology leaders navigating the tectonic shifts in cloud, AI, marketplaces, and co-selling. Through live events, UPX membership, advisory, and the Ultimate Partner® podcast, we help organizations align with hyperscalers, accelerate growth, and achieve their greatest results through successful partnering.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Erika Irby: Kinda what you were talking about earlier about the, the idea of the channel is non-existent anymore, right? Like we’re, we’re all in this kind of universe of different entities and we all, you know, work together and orbit each other and compliment even, you know, frenemies. I mean, we look at them like, how can we learn?

[00:00:15] Erika Irby: How can we grow? You know, how can we be better?

[00:00:19] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ultimate Partner. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. We just came off Ultimate Partner, live at Carahsoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia.

[00:00:35] Vince Menzione: Over two days, we gather top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. We have another incredible group of another organization here, and this is a really great conversation point too. Maybe I kind of alluded to it.

[00:00:57] Vince Menzione: Um, you know, those who know me, when I started the podcast, I was actually doing individual consulting work, uh, before we got to do these events and really started to get front and center with the community in a big way. Uh, and Veeam was actually a client of mine back for several years. Um, so this is gonna be a really interesting conversation.

[00:01:17] Vince Menzione: Uh, so we have two incredible leaders gonna be joining me up on stage here. Uh, Eric, I guess I’m gonna introduce ’em, right. S