Intelisys Expands Exclusive Training Program To Partners Looking To Close Big Cloud Deals
Master agent Intelisys formally introduced Super9, its exclusive cloud training program launched in April to an audience of interested partners at its Channel Connect event in Napa, California, on Thursday.
The original Super9 is a group of hand-selected Intelisys solution provider partners who were seeing success with cloud sales. Now, Super9 members are closing large deals, and Intelisys is ready to share the wealth with more partners – 162 additional partners, to be exact.
Andrew Pryfogle, senior vice president of cloud transformation for Intelisys, urged partners to apply for the program.
"We know this can be transformative for your business," Pryfogle told partners.
Super9 is a three-day cloud training program, as well as an ongoing monthly peer group featuring regular communication and mentoring with the Intelisys Cloud and Complex Bids team. The program promises cloud business development skills, coaching and resources, according to the Petaluma, California-based master agent.
Intelisys today opened registration to its community of sales partners, as well as to ScanSource resellers, who have gone through the Intelisys Cloud Services training.
"Get there first and go apply, because this is going to be very popular," Tricia Ward, founder and managing director of Onward Communications, a Portland, Oregon-based telecom and cloud consulting firm and an Intelisys Platinum Partner, told CRN.
Ward, an original Super9 member, said that the combination of the three-day training, coupled with the continued communication with the group through monthly calls help keep each group member accountable. She believes that the training helped Onward Communications secure cloud deals that it wouldn’t have won before Super9.
"It's very focused – you feel like you're eating and sleeping cloud during those three days. And then through the [monthly] calls, you bond with the other members and that communication really breeds you to be your best self. Because we are all really competitive, we all come with our A-game."
The Super9 training included fictional customer examples and members had to work with each other to solve the business problem while being graded by Intelisys and nine suppliers that were also a part of the training.
"That was probably, for me, the most impactful part," Ward said. "To see something laid out from beginning to end was really helpful. It's as close to being out there and delivering a presentation to a customer as it gets."
Super9 members have already realized a 95 percent increase in cloud revenues since 2015, Pryfogle said.
Since joining Super9 five months ago, Symplicity Communications, a Grand Rapids, Michigan-based telecom solution provider, was able to close a 450-seat call center deal, resulting in an additional $75,000 monthly recurring revenue opportunity thanks to the Super9 training, said Catherine Lazarock, founder and president of Symplicity Communications.
The program -- including the initial three-day long meeting -- will be offered at four locations next year for groups of nine partners at a time, including Austin, Texas, Phoenix, Tampa, Fla. and London. Partners can apply on Intelisys' Cloud Services University website. The initial event lasts three days and is followed by monthly peer group calls and ongoing mentoring.
Intelisys previously leveraged footage from its Super9 meetings to create a new Cloud Services University track CRN learned about exclusively in August. The Advanced Cloud Methodology Expert certification track combines online training and edited footage of in-person meetings between the original Super9 partners.