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Who joined us in Vegas this March? And what did they think? Access the post-show report >>
Craig: “All right, hey again, everyone, Channel Future's editorial director Craig Galbraith here, looking ahead to the Channel Partners Conference and Expo and MSP Summit coming up really soon, March 11th through the 14th at the Venetian in Las Vegas.”
“Chance today to talk with David McNally. David is head of Channel Sales for the Americas at Dropbox. Dropbox is set up inside the Ingram Micro Cloud Village in the Channel Partners Expo Hall this year. David, how are you?”
David: “I'm great. Thanks for the time today and we're really excited to participate in the event here in Vegas in a few weeks.”
Craig: “Yeah, we're getting really close. So David, talking about being a Dropbox partner; why is this an exciting time to be one?”
David: “Sure. So first off, I want to say a big thank you to our existing channel partners and channel team for phenomenal 2023. The America channel business was the best performing organization across all of Dropbox.”
“And this is delivered because Dropbox is seeing an increased value in our partners and investing more in the partner program. Our channel sales teams do a phenomenal job developing go-to-market strategies with our partners and aligning our partners more with our direct sellers to deliver a greater impact for our customers.”
“We've also delivered significant improvements to our partner program making it easier and more profitable to transact Dropbox products, which everybody likes. Dropbox is an easy product to sell because people are familiar with it and they love the product.”
“Because of this, chances are, employees are using Dropbox as our customers today, although there may be individual skews, but our partners have and can work with their customers to easily convert these users to manage users helping the department deliver better security and compliance on improving company productivity at the same time.”
“But we're not satisfied where we're at. So we continue to invest in our partner programs and products even more in 2024.”
“For example, on April 1st, we're going to be launching an enhanced partner program and partner portal. Some of these enhancements include deal registrations will now be uncapped and open to all tiers providing significant earnings potential and qualified opportunities.”
“We want to provide partners with an easy way to digest all the new enhancements to our 2024 programs who created a ‘one stop shop’ for everything they want to know about the program and our new partner program toolkit.”
“Additionally, on the partner portal, we recently launched a new AI knowledge center. This is a cool new feature designed to help our partners find answers for information asked through our AI search bar where they can answer some questions like, ‘where can I find a partner webinar recording?,’ or ‘who is my PSL?’.
“Then finally, we're continuing to develop heavily in our R&D Dropbox, developing new exciting products to drive further productivity for our customers.”
Craig: “Yeah, alright, so the good stuff about the partner program there. I'm curious if you can expand on that a little bit. What are we looking at in terms of new products that you just mentioned?”
David: “Yeah, I'd be happy to. So we recently announced new ways to simplify customer workflows, so customers can find what they need faster and get more out of Dropbox. Both our Dropbox business and Dropbox Business Plus, offers more than just file storage; integrating files, sync and share, eSignature, document analytics, video capabilities, and PDF editing into one product with one subscription. So a very valuable skew that our customers and partners are using.”
“Also, as you know, we've seen a huge increase in the use of video, not only from media companies, but from all corporate marketing, leveraging social media. I love this product. Customers are raving about it, but our Dropbox replay allows our customers to fast track video, imaging, and audio review, and approval, reducing production timelines, managing costs flexibly, and centralizing feedback process for efficiency. Replay runs within the Dropbox ecosystem so you can be assured of fast uploads and seamless sharing.”
“And finally, we're excited to be launching Dropbox Dash, which is an AI universal search that allows customers to search all their apps, all their tabs, all in one place. Through our existing integrations we have with Dropbox today, we're uniquely qualified to provide the most comprehensive and productive universal search tool on the market. This is a product I use many, many times a day and literally saves me hours and hours a week, so exciting for our customers and partners to get their hands on it.”
Craig: “Yeah lots of cool stuff, and probably some things our audience weren’t aware of there for sure. So David, let’s talk a little bit about how you work with partners. What are you doing to make it easier to sell Dropbox?”
David: “Yeah, sure. It’s always great when partners want to spend more time with us, so we’re listening to our partners and they’re wanting more training bootcamps.
“So in 2024, we'll be conducting multiple in person and virtual boot camps across the Americas. Chances are we'll be in a city close to where our partner is at. So hopefully they can attend in person. If not, we'll have a virtual experience for them and a better learning experience for our partners.”
“Also, all of our new products, some of which I just mentioned, are available as a trial version. So similar to Dropbox individual SKUs, they can experience the value themselves, which makes them fall in love with it. And if they're loving the product they're using and it's adding a lot of value, it's a lot easier to convert that customer to a paid customer.”
“Now, finally, we're increasing our marketing awareness to drive greater brand awareness globally. And one thing we're doing, which I'm excited to share, is our new partnership with McLaren F1 Racing. So they are a great technology partner, both on and off the track.”
“And we're looking forward to a very exciting 2024 season and seeing some of our partners out on the track with us. Also, as I said at the beginning, we’re looking forward to connecting with all of our partners at the channel partner conference in Vegas in a few weeks.”
Craig: “I will look forward to seeing you there, David. Thanks for your time today on Channel Futures TV and for Dropbox's sponsorship of the Channel Partners Conference and Expo.”
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