Cisco’s Vice President of Americas Marketing and Communications, Michelle Chiantera, leads a team of marketers who are in lockstep with sales to capture market share and accelerate growth in the Americas. Michelle and her team strive to deliver amazing customer experience through marketing innovation and cutting-edge technology.  

Michelle has been a leader at Cisco for over 18 years. She spent many years as a leader in partner marketing, where she was laser-focused on helping partners grow and evolving marketing into a core business engine.

Interviewed by Swastika Singh

/ / How has the PRM function evolved in your company over the past few years?

Partners represent 85% of Cisco’s business, which makes our partner ecosystem critical to our overall success. As Cisco evolves its business model, we need to enable our partners to do the same. With marketing playing a major role in driving growth, we have invested in enabling our partners to be modern marketers. This is where our Marketing Velocity platform comes into play. Marketing Velocity is designed to accelerate partners’ marketing practices by providing them the marketing training and education they need to stay up-to-date and have the right skills to match where they are on their journeys.

/ / How do you recruit your partners? What parameters do you consider while choosing a partner?

From a marketing perspective, we meet our partners where they are in their marketing journey. Some partners will be recruited into our Marketing Velocity program to build the skills needed to be a modern marketer. Other partners, who are more sophisticated in their marketing practice, could be recruited into one of our brand campaigns to showcase their partnership and success. For example, a few years ago, we showcased Dimension Data’s and our joint work in saving the Rhinos in Africa through our joint-technology solution. This was a very successful marketing campaign and highlighted how Cisco + Partners technology has the ability to make a great impact in the world.

/ / What are the challenges that you face while managing your partners?

The difficulty Cisco has in managing partners is that all partners are different. It’s challenging to have one program to meet all of their needs. This is where personalization comes into play. We know that partners have different business models and are in various stages of their transformations, so our goal is to provide the most relevant support for each partner. For marketing, we also understand that every partner has a different level of marketing maturity. This is why we have invested in our programs, platforms and tools – to try to be digital-first and personalized in the content and services we deliver.

/ / Is partner onboarding a critical function in partner management? Should companies create different onboarding programs for different partners?

Absolutely. Every partner is at a different stage of their journey, and their needs will vary greatly based on this. Getting to know the partner through onboarding is critical, and will dictate how you support them through your PRM. For marketing, we also onboard in different ways based on the partner’s current marketing practice and needs. This is where our platforms, like Marketing Velocity and Partner Marketing Central, have been hugely successful. They are very customized and offer a wide variety of content to fit different needs and help marketers along their journeys.

/ / What are the different partner performance metrics you track?

The end goal is for our partners to evolve their marketing practices to be more modern. We index our partners based on four quadrants. On one end of the spectrum would be those having limited to no marketing expertise, and on the other end, those highly skilled in marketing. We track the performance of the partners as they move through their journey.

/ / What are the different content assets that you create for your partners? What role do they play in enabling your partners?

This all depends on the type of partner they are, and how they fall into our support model. Some partners have Partner Marketing Managers, while others have Business Development Managers. Based on their coverage, they may receive help building joint-marketing plans, GTM plans, etc. Also, all of our registered Cisco Partners have access to a tool called SalesConnect, through which they can access a wide variety of enablement and sales tools. From the marketing standpoint, we offer Cisco Partner Marketing Central. Partner Marketing Central is our activation solution, which gives partners the tools they need to connect with the right audience at the right time, with the right content through targeted services and campaigns.

/ / What are the different types of training that you conduct for your partners?

Depending on the role the partner plays, we have a range of partner programs and enablement opportunities available for all Cisco Partners. We recognize that training and enablement is critical for our partners to succeed and stay relevant in the market. One of Cisco’s unique offerings to partner marketers is the Marketing Velocity program, which is our education platform. Its purpose is to keep our partners’ marketing practices current. Partners can leverage many types of training and stay current on all the marketing trends and tools.

/ / Do you create co-branded marketing content for your partners? What are the other partner activities that you undertake?

Another unique offering we have for partner marketers is Cisco Partner Marketing Central. This is our activation platform, which gives partners what they need to execute their marketing practices. As far as content is concerned, there are many preloaded assets available for campaigns, launches, etc. that partners can personalize and execute.

/ / Do you think companies are investing enough in PRM?

While we can’t speak for other companies, from a Cisco perspective, we know the value that partner relationship management holds. We will continue to invest in the right resources so that our partners can be successful.

/ / What are the tools you use in PRM?

As it relates to marketing, Partner Marketing Central is one of the main tools we use to stay connected to our partners and help them activate with their marketing practices. The tool can be used to customize campaigns and content or to stay up-to-date on marketing funds, demand-generation services or analytics. We have designed this tool to help us meet partners where they are and provide them with what they need to be successful in their various stages of evolution.

/ / How is the evolution of technologies like LMS (Learning Management System) and lead distribution through marketing automation changing the PRM function?

Our goal is to digitize and automate our processes to reduce the administrative burden in areas such as lead management, as well as to make learning available in real time.

/ / What are the trends/technologies that you think will drive PRM in the future? How should businesses gear up for this?

Getting partners the right content at the right time through the right channel, based on their journey, is what this comes down to. Helping our partners grow profitably and differentiate themselves in the market is top of mind.