Mastering Technology and Mobility Expense Management with Jared Parker
In this engaging episode of 'The Wireless Way,' host Chris Whitaker welcomes Jared Parker from One Source. They delve into Technology Expense Management (TEM) and Managed Mobility solutions, detailing how these services can streamline operations and optimize costs. Jared highlights the importance of visibility into expenses, the integration of wireless management, and shares insightful strategies for partners to add value and trust in client relationships. Tune in for actionable advice on leveraging TEM and mobility to enhance business efficiency.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction
02:13 Jared Parker's Career Journey
03:32 The Science and Art of Marketing
10:33 Mentorship and Patience in Career Growth
18:52 The Evolution of the Channel
21:54 Embracing Change in Business Relationships
22:49 Challenges in Scaling Family-Owned Businesses
24:07 The Importance of Trust in the Industry
25:09 Shifting from Direct to Channel Sales
26:01 The Role of General Practitioners and Specialists
26:50 Encouraging Partners to Expand Their Offerings
29:41 Technology Expense Management (TEM) Trends
34:52 The Complexity of Mobility Management
42:26 BYOD and Corporate Device Management
45:05 Final Thoughts and Parting Words
Check out my website https://thewirelessway.net/ use the contact button to send request and feedback.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:00):
Hey, welcome to another episode of The Wireless Way.
I'm your host, Chris Whitaker,and I'm grateful that you're
here.
As always, I know you're busy.
There's a lot going on ineveryone's lives, so I'm
grateful for you.
And I'm also super grateful forJared Parker.
He is my guest today from OneSource.
A little bit about him as alwaysbefore we bring him on.
He is a marketing revenuestrategist.
(00:20):
Gotta have those.
An organization who believes themost effective work happens.
Love this where data meetsempathy.
He uses insights to guide straguide strategy, tell stories
that resonate and drivemeasurable growth, not just on
spreadsheets, but across thecustomer journey.
And and we've all seen companiesthat make decisions on
spreadsheets only.
(00:42):
Although that can work at times,I find it usually does not.
You have to, there's a lot moreto factor than just the
spreadsheet.
as a leader, he takes pride inbuilding high performing teams
and mentoring individuals increating cultures where people
feel empowered to do their bestwork.
And that's critical whereleading a strategic initiative
or coaching someone through achallenge, he believes good
(01:04):
leadership is rooted in clarity.
Trust genuine interest inpeople.
that's the difference between aleader and a manager.
Folks manager managesspreadsheets and processes.
A leader does those things.
Glad to see that.
Jared.
So outside of work, which isgreat to hear this include in
the bio, he is usually travelingwith his family, fly fishing.
(01:25):
Maybe on the golf course.
May I gotta clarify, does thatfly fishing on the golf course
or things,
Jared (01:31):
Could do.
Chris (01:31):
Yeah, it could do both, right?
Yeah.
I see people fishing on golfcourses all the time are chasing
fresh powder.
He says that he has found thebest ideas often come when you
are away from the desk.
And I do agree with that too.
Jared, welcome to the show.
How are you doing today?
I.
Jared (01:48):
Doing fantastic, Chris.
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Chris (01:52):
glad.
My favorite word as you, you mayknow.
Fantastic.
Powerful.
Word.
You say it enough, it doeschange the chemicals in your
brain, I feel like.
So yeah, keep using the word.
Fantastic.
I'm glad you're doing fantastic.
And as always, I love to, I lovetha thanks for, for the bio.
Thanks for being here.
But most importantly, what's notin the bio, how did you get to
where you are today?
Jared (02:13):
Yeah, it's an interesting comment'cause you mentioned I'm
a marketer.
Marketer and a revenuestrategist, and that is 100%
true.
I might be a reluctant marketer.
Whole career started off on thesales side, and even that was
probably reluctant as well.
Background always had meenvisioning something on the, in
the sciences, probably followingthe family footsteps down the
medical route.
(02:35):
Life happens, you end up down acompletely different path.
I found myself doing, majoringin computer science in college,
never programmed outside ofcollege.
First job was in sales atBellSouth late, a long time ago.
And that kind of led thisjourney.
That had me questioning more andmore, like the scientist in me
(02:58):
really wanted to understand howcompanies generate revenue and
align their strategies.
And I knew pretty quickly earlyon that I wanted to be involved
in revenue generatingactivities.
I just didn't wanna necessarilyalways be on the sales.
And as things happened and Ievolved.
Direct sales into channel sales,into a combination of both
(03:23):
leadership and then ended up onthe marketing side.
And it's always fascinating whenyou find a passion you didn't
know that you had.
And the rest is kind of historyfrom there.
Chris (03:32):
Yeah.
What's interesting about yourstory?
It took me back as you're, it.
A couple of things I feel likeare almost, I.
in a sense that, the scientificapproach and.
Having a genuine interest inpeople and
Jared (03:47):
yeah,
Chris (03:47):
they're almost opposite in a way, right?
Because science is really aboutthe process.
You always hear follow the
Jared (03:51):
correct.
Chris (03:52):
sometimes science doesn't make sense, whatever, but it's a
it's whatever the science says.
But then dealing with people,the human touch you gotta be
open-minded, you have to really,everybody's different.
You know what, just'causesomeone follows a process, two
people can follow the sameprocess, what I'm getting at,
and maybe have differentoutcomes, right?
Jared (04:08):
Correct.
Chris (04:09):
science would say, Hey, if you follow this process, you
get this outcome.
So that's interesting.
And also the other one that Ifind interesting and I share
with you'cause I like to thinkof myself as an organic
marketer.
Taken marketing classes andcourses in, in school, whatnot,
but do not have a marketingdegree.
But I know a lot of people thatdo, and oftentimes I find like
marketing and sales, sometimesthey butt heads,'cause you have
(04:30):
someone with a marketing degreethat stays in the office.
And if you're a marketer, youdon't have many friends
listening that are, take offenseto this.
'cause it's true.
You stay in the office.
You look at all your casestudies and all your, different,
campaigns and initiatives.
Never talk to a customer, neverbeen in the field, never stood
at the booth and talked topeople.
But yet you tell salespeople howto do the job that are actually
(04:52):
out there doing.
And I've always
Jared (04:53):
Right.
Chris (04:53):
that.
But I do appreciate, and it's agood friend, Amy Bailey.
I dunno if Amy, she,
Jared (04:59):
Don't.
Chris (05:00):
now she has her own company, unusual, unusually.
Marketing.
I always get that messed up.
Unusually unusual marketing.
Yeah.
She's also helps run the channelmarketing association.
I had a boss say what used thephrase to describe marketing is
the arts and craft department,because, that's another thing
again, forgive me marketingfriends, but it's true
marketing.
They'll come to me going, I needthe content.
(05:21):
I need all the stuff in thePowerPoint.
all they end up doing is gobehind me and check the fonts,
check the colors, and make surethe graphics are good.
I'm like, oh, that's arts and
Jared (05:30):
Yeah.
Chris (05:31):
my old boss, Kevin Ney at Comcast, he always used to
irritate the marketingdepartment by calling them arts
and crafts because that's whathe felt like.
That's all they did.
Jared (05:38):
Right.
Chris (05:39):
there's so much if, when you truly get into the science
of marketing.
Looking at what's working.
There's definitely an elementthere that is needed.
So as much as I love to give mymarketing friends a hard time it
is a necessary part of anyorganization,
Jared (05:52):
yeah, I think it's an interest.
It's an interesting comment too,because the process is
important, right?
How we do it, how we structureit, why we're doing it the way
we're doing it.
I think the key thing thateveryone, regardless of I.
If you're in the medicalprofession, if you're in,
manufacturing, if you're inmarketing, whatever it might be,
is at the end of everythingyou're doing is a person, right?
(06:16):
And every person has a differentway of interpreting value, has a
different way of processingdata, has a different way of
feeling, a different view on theworld.
That's where that, thatunderstanding of the human
component I think really comesin.
And what I'm really passionateabout is that you have to blend
the two.
Like data is important becausewe have to be able to make big
(06:38):
picture decisions, but then atthe same time, we have to be
cognizant that the execution isimpacting a diverse set of
people.
And, you do things likesegmentation to break it down so
that you're looking at a similarset of people.
That's similar based off a setof, criteria.
(07:00):
But the still, the individualperson that you're speaking to
has a very, their background hasshaped them.
The decisions have shaped them,the things that have happened in
life, their religious beliefs,their cultural beliefs.
Chris (07:12):
Yeah.
Jared (07:13):
That's the fun part is how do you communicate that
message, and you have tounderstand your audience and you
have to, and be genuine.
This is my phrase I always usewith my teams regardless, is be
genuinely curious.
Chris (07:27):
yep.
me of that episode of Ted Lasso.
Be curious, if you
Jared (07:31):
Yeah.
Chris (07:32):
if you just would've asked me, have you ever played
darts, Ted?
Jared (07:35):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Chris (07:36):
scene.
Jared (07:37):
I about that scene.
That is a great scene.
Yeah.
Chris (07:39):
agree with you.
I think that's something mywhole life I.
That I've even before I knew,even long before Ted Lasso.
Yeah.
It, like you said, it's, I'mjust curious and that's what
makes me a tech enthusiast.
I used come myself atechnologist, and today I met
some true tech technologists areactually computer scientist and,
have doctor's degrees,doctorate, degrees in different
studies.
I'm like, eh, maybe I'm not atechnologist.
I'm a tech enthusiast.
(08:00):
But I'm always curious just Hey,how does that work?
Why would you use that insteadof using this, that's fantastic.
And yeah, and you nailed it.
Everyone looks at life through adifferent lens.
Let's go back to marketingsometimes, now that I'm on
several years in the TSD world,the, technologies solution
distributor world, and I've seena lot of different
presentations, from my time in asupplier to working with other
(08:21):
suppliers in my current role.
sometimes, it's hey, you knowyou if you have a 15 minute
slot, but yeah, you spend fiveminutes going over the history
of the company.
and I can see why that'simportant.
From a marketing standpoint,it's about the messaging and the
branding.
But if you only have 15 minutesand you're talking to an
audience of people that makemoney off of residual
commission, it's like, Hey,let's talk about how we make
(08:42):
money first.
And if you wanna know more aboutthe company, I'll tell you that
in the follow up.
That's what I always advise Hey,because don't, most, I think
most, trust advisors, they theyexpect the TSD to vet out the
supplier.
So if you're in event.
already, the assumption isyou've already been vetted out.
I don't need to know whatcolleges CEO went to and I
don't, don't need to see thebrag slide yet.
(09:02):
Have it in there as theappendix, or we could send that
out in the follow up.
But let's get straight to thewin cases, the use cases.
Let's talk about how we makemoney here.
'cause ultimately that's what,we're all got bills to pay,
right?
It's I jokingly, not actuallyjokingly, I sincerely say.
We make a living, helping othersmake a living.
It almost sounds noble, right?
And But it's, we're fortunate tobe able to do that.
Jared (09:23):
I think that very point goes back to the know your
audience as well.
Is making sure that if you takeone source for instance, we have
a distinct value proposition ofwhat we offer and why we exist
and what we do.
And that doesn't change.
But what does change is theinterpretation of that value at
each level.
(09:44):
So it means something differentto a customer.
It means something different to.
It means something different tothe TSD even.
It also means somethingdifferent to a one source seller
or one of our other partners.
So it's just under taking thetime to step back again, be
genuinely curious, understandwhat is important to the
(10:05):
audience that you're talking to,and take, under and really hit
that value interpretation.
Chris (10:10):
Yeah.
Jared (10:11):
And that's where you, I see a lot of presentations from
other suppliers, other partnersthat are trying to sell one
source products and services,and that is the common miss,
right?
Is understanding who you'retalking to and how they're going
to interpret value.
Chris (10:29):
You mentioned in the bio too about mentoring others and
coaching others.
Jared (10:33):
Yeah.
Chris (10:33):
a common thread of, what's the most common area you
feel like you mentor that nextgeneration of channel
salespeople?
Is there a trend or is it kindalike all over the place and in
terms of different skillsets, indifferent components of business
life?
Jared (10:48):
Outside of the personal things I think I'd say the
biggest piece that comes intoplay is patience, is what I end
up, everyone wants the, whetherit's I want the quick buck or I
can think of someone internallythat I'm mentoring right now.
He's 23.
He is right outta college, veryambitious.
He feels like he is running outof time.
(11:10):
He's 23.
Chris (11:11):
Oh man.
Jared (11:12):
I'm like, you have so much time.
I was like, what you're doingright now, he wants to keep
moving up and so what you'redoing right now.
Take the time.
Enjoy it, learn new things.
It's not a matter of the actualjob you're doing.
You're learning how to processinformation, hit deadlines, look
at data differently, understandhow your leaders think, and it's
just take the time, be patient,right?
(11:34):
And I get that a lot withadvisors that I work with, that
I've become, friends with orthat they've asked me, how, how
business and some these largerpartners.
Million dollars a year incommission and they think they
should be able to get there inone or two years.
And it's, that's, it's, itdoesn't work that way.
(11:57):
And you have to be patient, butit will pay off if if you do the
work, you put it in, put in yourtime, plan it, trust your
process.
Ask for help.
Those are the things.
That's the other one I'd say ispretty common is people thinking
they have it figured out ontheir own.
I know people are like, oh,you've got, they come to me for
mentoring.
'cause they're like, oh youfigure it out.
And I'm, no, I have a great, Ihave a great team of mentors
(12:21):
just as just as well.
And when I have questions, I goto them.
Chris (12:26):
And back to your early points.
It's not like you, yeah.
You're, this ain't your firstrodeo either.
You've learned over time, ittook time to develop the
experience, base you haveversus, yeah.
Being 23, it's just starting offyour career.
I.
That's interesting.
I, I've seen that and I've heardthat as well.
That's great that you, that's agreat, that's actually a pretty
good darn answer, man, beingpatient trust, going back.
(12:46):
Yeah.
In this case you do need totrust the process, which is,
just takes time.
That's fantastic.
Jared (12:51):
So fun fact that's not listed in the bio is I coach
high school lacrosse and I getthe same thing from good
freshmen players that have comeinto our program.
And we're a good team.
We have a good program, and someof these guys come in and go, I
want I, they feel like they'renot succeeding because they're
not starting as a freshman.
(13:13):
On a top tier team that hasjuniors and seniors, and it's be
patient like your times.
You're not gonna get ascholarship offer in year one,
even if that's what you want,and take time to learn from
these guys.
Ask them what made themsuccessful in that jump from
year one to year four, year oneto year three, year one to year
two.
Chris (13:32):
in high school or in the past?
Jared (13:34):
I played in high school.
Chris (13:35):
So lemme ask you this.
When you started in high school,did you have the same mindset or
was it a different thoughtprocess?
Jared (13:41):
No, I would say a totally different thought process.
It was now granted, being in thenorth, in North Carolina and
playing lacrosse in the, early,mid nineties getting started
out.
I.
It was a fairly new sport downhere.
It was not you didn't havetravel teams, you didn't have
social media.
Actually, I think there was onetravel team for the entire state
(14:03):
pretty much.
And so only, you got, you didn'ttry out for that, you got picked
for that.
And everybody else just playedand we just worked hard and we
got better.
And, we went outside and threwoff the wall.
We went outside and threw withour friends.
That was just a different, Ithink just cultures changed in
general.
But yeah, I didn't struggle withthat same mentality.
And the idea of playing incollege at any level, division
(14:25):
one, two, or three that didn'texist.
That wasn't a thing.
Yeah.
Chris (14:29):
happened between then and now that, that you're seeing,
that this, current generationcoming getting into adulthood,
whether it be in, high school orcollegiate sports or new to
their career, that there's thisexpectation of immediate
success.
What where do you think it.
Trigger what
Jared (14:44):
Success in culture hustle that is so prevalent on social
media.
And it's not, this is not a bashon social media.
I use it, I like it.
But at the same time, it is a.
Kids at that age, even adults atthe younger age are constantly
bombarded with success stories.
(15:04):
No one posts their fails.
No one posts their mistakes.
They always talk about howthey're doing this and doing
that.
Most of the people are hacks andliars and everything else, and
but it does create this mindsetthat I'm not doing as much.
That I'm not as good.
And that puts that pressure onthem that they need to be going
(15:25):
faster, that they need to bedoing.
And then what they don't realizeis the people who are really
successful, they put in a lot ofwork And that doesn't get
posted,
Chris (15:34):
that's true.
Yeah.
It reminds me of the, I'm sureyou've heard the story.
A guy was at a a piano recitalof this famous pist.
And afterwards they go up andmeet the young lady and the
daughter says, Hey, I wanna playpiano like that one day I, that
sounds so amazing.
And she goes, really?
Do you?
Are you willing to give up,going out with your friends,
(15:54):
missing parties and graduationparties and practicing into your
hands are so sore, you gottasoak'em in ice water and it was
outlining the whole process ofbecoming a great panelist.
And that's when the the lightbulb was like, oh, may, maybe I
don't wanna become, maybe Idon't, because But, no, I think
you're right.
That's really interesting tothink.
When I look at today, I havefour adult kids and.
(16:15):
So much of it is that filterthat you at look at through
life.
What's really important?
Is it important what socialmedia thinks about you?
Or is it really important whatyou think about yourself?
Know thy
Jared (16:23):
Yeah.
Chris (16:24):
your own self-worth, know that we all have a different lot
in life, in a sense may not, i'dlove to be able to sing as good
as Tim McGraw and look like TimMcGraw, but I'm not willing.
I can't, I, it's just, I don'tthink that's ever gonna happen
and you have to be at peace withthat, I dunno, I'm not saying
don't chase your dreams.
I just think, I think some, tosome degree be realistic about
it and.
Know what you're willing tosacrifice.
(16:45):
If you don't wanna sacrifice tothat degree, then guess what?
Jared (16:48):
Correct.
That's the dream thing is thedream thing is fascinating
because I totally believe inchase your dreams, but what I
also ask is what really is thedream?
People say, oh, my dream is toplay in college if it's sports.
And I get that with some ofthese the kids on the team and
other kids that I've coached.
(17:09):
And the reality is it's likethat's an outcome.
Like you say, it's a dream, likethat's the outcome you want.
But what is the dream?
Like why are you pursuingplaying in college?
Is it love of the game?
Is it a free education?
Is it a hit to your ego to say,I did it.
Those are the questions you haveto ask because sometimes I, I
(17:30):
found myself, like inretrospect, always looking back,
going, like when talk aboutbeing the doctor, why did I
wanna be a doctor?
I'm curious and I like people,but then part of it was to tell
people I'm a doctor, right?
Was I really passionate aboutit?
Was that really the dream?
No.
The dream was wanting prestigeWhen you really get down to it.
(17:53):
So the dream is a biggerpicture.
It's not just the outcome thatyou're, you're looking for, it
is what's the fulfillment thatyou're gonna get?
What is the, is it passiondriving for whatever reasons.
And it's fine if that's, if theprestige is the outcome, and
that's the goal you're goingfor.
I'm not against that.
Chris (18:10):
Every different strokes for different folks.
Man, whatever floats your bow,
Jared (18:13):
yep,
Chris (18:13):
you're not hurting anybody in the process.
That's the
Jared (18:15):
exactly right.
Chris (18:17):
do you, I'll do me I'll root for you as long as you're,
just.
A board and,
Jared (18:21):
yeah.
Yeah.
Chris (18:23):
And ethics involved.
That's always good.
Oh man.
This, I tell you, I didn'tanticipate us spending nearly 20
minutes on this, but it's'causeI love this.
I, we could scrub the rest ofour discussion outline, but I do
wanna get to it and.
Whole another interview aroundjust lessons in life and career
and whatnot, because that's alot to talk about there.
(18:45):
Man I'm
Jared (18:46):
It is.
Chris (18:46):
about adding value to every situation, which is a big
reason why this podcast evenexists, Where do you see the
business and have you, your timein the channel, have you seen
any, anything change?
We hear a lot of people saythat, the channel's changing.
What say you.
Jared (19:02):
channel's changing, but that's not a bad thing.
Evolution is, and this is notpolitical, evolution is just a
part of life.
Everything evolves as theenvironment changes.
And with that just comes anatural maturity of things.
My, my being with, bell Southand the Know 2001, 2002
timeframe.
(19:24):
Look at the industry now.
Look at, I've been working withpartners, with advisors since
that period, like the beginningof the, almost the beginning of
that portion of our industry andthe focus was connectivity,
voice, and data.
And it evolved.
Now you moved into, it evolvedinto, IP services.
(19:44):
It evolved into voiceover IPservices, sd-wan, SAS E, and
then you start throwing on cloudon top of that.
Then you start throwing onsecurity on top of that.
Now we're throwing in ai, theindustry has changed because
it's supposed to change.
That is the nature oftechnology.
And so I think you end up inthis, and because it's not
(20:05):
stagnant, you end up with peoplewho were traditional players
that started off early on.
And then you've got new playersthat are coming into the market.
And so you've got individualsthat have built a consistent a
consistent business through thechannel.
They've done it, the tra youknow, with traditional products.
And they've evolved and they'vebuilt an amazing.
(20:29):
Some of these people are earningtremendous incomes and it's
really exciting to see.
And some of those individualsnow are looking to get outta it.
And that's, some people will saythat's part of the problem right
now is we've got this, influx ofpeople investing in the
industry.
It's part of the evolution.
They built a business.
Plan to get out of it.
What's that exit, what does thatlook like?
(20:51):
And then likewise, I know peoplewho are starting out and they
say, I don't want to touchvoicer data.
I only want to touch cloud.
I only want to touch ai.
I only wanna touch security.
And that is, that's part of thatevolution as well.
Those products market different,those products solve different
problems.
They talk to different personas.
(21:13):
Within the business.
And so I think the channel hasthis balance, especially if you
look at suppliers, you look atTSDs is how do we balance that
conversation?
We still have this core part ofour business, which is extremely
valuable, maybe less profitablethan it used to be, but it's
still extremely valuable becauseit's the core of what we did.
(21:34):
But I also want to evolve mybusiness to drive these more
profitable.
Large, more complextechnologies.
And so that's a huge transition.
So when people say it's changingand people typically say it's
changing, oh it's not the way itused to be.
That's natural and that's to beexpected.
(21:54):
And I think the ones that aresucceeding are the ones that are
embracing the fact that, thechannel days of the.
Two thousands, early 2000 tenshad even pre COVID, yeah.
Those days aren't the same asthey were, but the business is
vastly different now.
Now what hasn't changed is thevalue on relationships, and you
(22:15):
mentioned it in my profile, thisis the thing I'm probably most
passionate about in what all ofus sell, is trust those aspects.
Trust that is so key.
And so those po components of ithaven't changed.
People work with advisors thatthey trust, advisors work with
suppliers that they trust TSDs,engage with and support and
(22:39):
promote suppliers and partnersthat they trust.
So yeah, a lot has changed, butI see we're really setting
ourselves up for that nextgeneration.
One other thing that I'm seeingchanging, and this is something
that touches one source, andperhaps that's why I see it as
well, is individuals have built,a lot of their advisors have
(23:01):
built their businessesthemselves.
Usually family owned, individualdriven, and they can build their
business to a certain point.
And at that certain point, theability to scale gets diminished
because they spend so much timeon the functional components of
supporting their customers,which is important for trust
for.
(23:22):
Just doing the day to dayactivities and when they got
started, they didn't intend tobuild a business of, having
three or four employees.
Not everybody wants to do that.
Some have built, some of ourlarger partners that are out
there have built greatbusinesses that have employed
10, 2000, 200 employees.
Most don't.
That's where I'm seeing a shiftin the business, and we're
(23:44):
seeing this a lot in ourconversations is, can you help
us offload that type of work sothat I can focus on what I do
best, which is buildrelationships, build trust, and
sell and that's where they'retrying to get more towards.
And I think that benefitseverybody when we get there.
(24:04):
So there are trends, right?
That I'm seeing.
I think the industry is healthy.
I agree with the people who say,this is not a dying industry.
I think the advisor is going toincrease.
When I talk to my peers who areexecutives at other companies
they want advisors.
There is so much noise fromsellers selling them a product
(24:28):
that is the silver bullet.
And as they tell me, especiallyon the security side.
I don't have time.
If I listened to everybody whoreached out to me to sell me
their silver bullet product, Iwouldn't get any work done.
So the natural fit to that ishaving an advisor I trust with
the resources behind them tohelp me sift through the noise
(24:50):
and solve the businesschallenges that I'm trying to
solve.
And so that's why I'm so bullishon this channel's not going away
because people want that.
It's just a matter of us assuppliers, TSDs, to evolve with
that mentality.
Chris (25:07):
No, I agree with you there.
Again, even in my role talkingto several other suppliers, some
of'em Fortune 50 they're tellingme they're even getting away
from direct sales.
They're decreasing their directsales staff, increasing their
channel sales team.
Jared (25:20):
Yep.
Chris (25:20):
in, maybe ever, or, in every company
Jared (25:22):
Yep.
Chris (25:23):
phases, right?
Depending on who the EVP ofsales is, right?
There's different seasons for acompany, whether they're pro
channel or not, but it does seemalmost every company I'm talking
to is really leaning in'causethey're seeing the value.
They're realizing that theirdirect team has losing to
trusted advisors because theiradvisors been in there for 5,
10, 15 years.
And the direct sales team,they're just cold calling.
So who think has a better
Jared (25:43):
Correct.
Chris (25:43):
It's like a no brainer there.
Jared (25:45):
Yeah, I can speak for one source.
If you look at not just channel,but just our partnership
environment, so you call itindirect revenue generation that
generates a vast majority of ourrevenue.
I won't share exact numbers, butit's vast.
Chris (26:01):
As you were talking too, going back to your medical,
earlier aspirations, as you haveyour general practitioner,
right?
And, if that could be what a lotof partners are, if they're
expert generalist but then youhave the partners like I only
want to do cloud, or I only wantto do cybersecurity.
Those are the specialists,right?
But honestly.
In the medical world to get tothe specialist.
(26:21):
Your first stop always is thegeneral practitioner to get a
referral
Jared (26:24):
correct.
Chris (26:25):
So Lot of value to be that general practitioner in
this telecom IT tech.
Channel that we're in.
So you need to have, they allhave a working knowledge.
Those general practitioners havea working knowledge of the whole
human body as a whole.
And they know when, you knowwhat, I need to refer you to
someone that's a specialist inthat area, which could be, the
one sources of the world, right?
Whoever's the, whatever supplieris the specialist is who
(26:48):
partnered with work with
Jared (26:49):
correct.
Chris (26:50):
Are you, do you, are you seeing are there still people in
your in your world partners thatare hardcore, I'm staying in my
swim lane or,'cause again, weknow they're missing out on
revenue opportunities by beingthat way.
What's your thoughts on, seeingpartners either willing to pivot
and, learn other parts?
Like OneSource, you guys do alot more than just, cloud.
(27:10):
You got the cybersecurity andcontact center and manage
mobility, which we'll get to in.
But
Jared (27:14):
Yeah.
Chris (27:15):
I guess, is that a challenge for your channel
teams?
Like how do you get thesepartners to expand land and
expand?
Jared (27:21):
It is.
We don't force them again,everybody, again I'm a very much
a, you've built a business thatyou're comfortable with.
We've talked maybe, and you havemade a commitment that you still
want.
This is just what your businessis and where you wanna go, and
you're careful about who youbring in and what you wanna do.
That's fine.
We've never come into this withthe approach that we are the
(27:44):
right fit for everybody.
And I think the right fit alsogoes into the individual
advisors business.
Are we a good cultural fit for.
Are you trying to pivot yourbusiness or are you trying to A
word, it's not an industryphrase, but we call them back
when we still use the wordsagent, but agents and evolved
agents.
An agent is, was traditional.
(28:08):
They have their swim lane, asyou mentioned, that they wanna
stay in.
The evolved, said, Hey, theseswim lanes now are connected.
How can I, what are the things Ican do to start pulling in those
similar sales that pivot off ofwhat I built my business off of?
And those are the ones we wantto work with.
(28:28):
It's not that we don't want towork with the others, it's just
it's, they're not there.
I'm not gonna force'em.
I'll still be friends with them.
We'll still have greatconversations.
My team will have greatconversations.
So it's.
Chris (28:40):
some advisors, don't really have the ambition to, to
have 30 employees and make amillion, a year, whatever.
They're happy.
Jared (28:47):
Yeah,
Chris (28:47):
call'em lifestyle partners.
And again, that's,
Jared (28:50):
sure.
Chris (28:50):
wrong with that.
We need those folks too, thechannel has been built off that
approach.
Jared (28:54):
Hundred percent support.
It's.
Chris (28:56):
yeah.
And yeah.
And who are we to say that's notthe right thing to do?
That makes a lot of sense.
Going back to how much sacrificeyou wanna put in.
Some people say, Hey look, thisis what I know.
This is my background.
I'm sticking with what I know.
Hey, if that's working for you,Bravo.
Jared (29:10):
Yeah.
Chris (29:11):
Another pivot point here, as I mentioned, you even looking
at your website, if you haven'tbeen to onesource.net you wanna
check it out, from the expensemanagement, you got TEM we can
talk about managed mobilitylater.
Cloud optimization, the ITinfrastructure part from
connectivity, managed networks,data center a lot there.
Cybersecurity, another hottopic.
SOC as a service incidentresponse and remediation, there,
(29:33):
there's a lot there.
Then of
Jared (29:35):
Yep.
Chris (29:35):
contact center, AI and business process outsourcing, as
BPO there's a lot there.
So is there any trends you'reseeing where partners are
winning the most?
I.
Jared (29:46):
Yeah, there are some big trends there.
I think one of them is when welook at the TEM aspect of it,
and TEM and the OneSource worldis technology expense
management, not telecom expensemanagement.
The reason why they're winningus with us on that is it solves
two problems I mentionedearlier, knowing your audience,
(30:07):
knowing your customers, all ofus.
Invoices are everywhere.
Chasing down trouble tickets iscumbersome and timely.
Even something as easy as a MacD order can be a pain in the
customer's tail, right?
Like, how do I understand whatso our product there, which is a
(30:27):
fully managed Tim offering, somost, most started with software
and then now start adding inservices are started with people
and process, and the technologywas built and evolved.
Which we built and evolvedourselves.
So it's, we have a team ofdevelopers that are consistently
building on it.
We don't just sell the software.
(30:48):
There's no offering in our worldwhere we just sell the customer
software.
We're selling a fully managedoffering in, various flavors.
Obviously the value though, whenyou look at the partner, why
partners are winning with us,with that goes back to what I
said for those partners who wantto evolve their business.
Take a MACD order, wireless orwireline, you can do a lot of
(31:13):
work and spend a lot of hours tomake$7 extra commission.
If you take a customer from ahundred meg to maybe 500 meg or
a gig on a fiber circuit, you'regonna spend.
10 plus hours from order entrythrough implementation.
Oh, I didn't even start on thepricing and getting everything
together for the customer andgetting bought on, and you're
(31:35):
gonna make$7 more in commission.
That same amount of time couldhave been spent growing your
business or have it, engaging inlearning cloud, learning
something else that you could gogrow your business.
Partners are winning with usbecause they have to ask
themselves the question, do Iwant to go hire people to do
those things for me, which isoverhead?
(31:56):
Or do I want to take my biggestcustomers or the ones that are
causing me the most most, Iwon't say headache, but are
causing me the most of my timeinvested and find a way to get
them something else so that Inow free up that time to go grow
my business.
The other piece of that is onceyou have all of the invoices and
(32:18):
services for a customer,wireless or wireline or cloud or
whatever, it might be all in oneplace, whether I sold them or
not, I now as a partner havevisibility into my customer's
environment.
I can see what they have.
I can see when those contractsare expiring, and I can start to
build a growth funnel for my ownbusiness off this platform.
(32:40):
So that's where the partnersthat are winning with us right
now and the conversation thatwe're having is, I can solve a
big problem for my customer, butat the same time I can solve a
problem for myself.
And the way that we're set upand that we're structured is
that partner customer places amacd order through that
customer's not involved, but thepartner's getting paid.
(33:04):
We are profitable, our businessis profitable and runs without
the commission.
I don't need to do any of thatto for our product to be
beneficial.
So the partner is who wins inthat process.
Chris (33:16):
And going back to what we said earlier, it's all starts
with trust.
Jared (33:20):
Yeah.
Chris (33:20):
identifying, establishing yourself as a trustworthy
partner that can handledifferent parts of the business,
I like what you said, technologyexpense management, obviously
mobility is a part of that,right?
Do you Yeah.
And before we get into that,maybe just what, when you say
technology expense management,obviously like cloud
optimization is a part of thatas well.
(33:42):
What other part componentswould, does your temp solution
help manage?
Jared (33:47):
Yeah, so voice data connectivity.
I'll be careful on the cloudoptimization piece and the TEM
platform.
That's expenses.
Invoice in, invoice outinventory, archival bill pay,
things like that.
Cloud optimization is anengineering engagement.
That's a, that is a, that's abig project right there.
(34:09):
And yeah, it's very different.
So I think it's important thatwe separate the two.
So you've got the ability topull that in.
You can pull in CX billing, soyou have visibility into how
many seats that you have.
And man, we added, why did ourbill go up?
Oh, we added 10 seat.
Were those approved?
Are they actually being used orare we just paying a,$150 a seat
(34:29):
per month for no reason?
I thought we turned down some ofour contact center operations
and other places.
Why couldn't we just reuse thoseseats?
It just gives customersvisibility into all of it, and
that's the key is it's hard tomanage what you can't see.
Chris (34:44):
That's right.
Jared (34:45):
That's that.
That's a cliche, but it's ahundred percent true in this.
This case is it's really hard tomanage what you can't see.
The other piece is if you thinkof, and this starts to blend
into the wireless, especiallyinto the wireless, is if I have
a customer who has 50 locations,that is 50 invoices for
(35:07):
connectivity, maybe a backupcircuit, then their voice
services.
We could have some cloud inthere.
They could all be from 60different providers.
And every one of those has adifferent bill style, different
invoicing process, differentbill pay system.
It's complex and expensive tomanage it, not just from the
(35:28):
little pieces, but if you lookat a customer's business, takes
a lot of people to do that,right?
So it's an efficiency gain forthe customer.
Now, take that same customer, 50locations, but it's.
4,000 employees and they have3000 mobile devices.
What happens, Chris, if you dropyour cell phone and it breaks,
(35:50):
do you panic?
Does your world end?
Do you have to go get oneimmediately?
So now I've got those 50locations that I'm managing.
3000 and 3000 that when it goesdown.
It's a crisis, right?
So mobility management forcompanies is tough.
We call it internally, it'shand-to-hand combat.
It's, this person over here.
(36:12):
I remember back in my days, as asales rep, I had a Fortune 100
company and their CEO drops hisphone in a creek in Montana
while fly fishing, which I.
And of course, as a CEO needed areplacement immediately.
And so people are panicking overthe weekend trying to get this
(36:34):
guy, he's in the middle ofnowhere, Montana, and had to
helicopter into the closestVerizon store to pick up his
device.
Problem most of us don't haveis, access to a helicopter to,
go pick up my cell phone.
But it's important and it'spersonal and there's a lot of
'em.
(36:54):
Pile on top of that, you mighthave two, three carriers at one
place.
That's a lot.
Chris (37:00):
Advice do you have for partners that want to, leverage
or lean into mobility?
Do you see that as a foot, thedoor to the greater TEM
conversation, or is it separateor, any thoughts there on how to
pivot into that?
Jared (37:12):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think it's definitely a goodfoot in the door, right?
It can pivot into the greaterTEM conversation, but why it's
such a good foot in the door isevery customer struggles with
this.
And to be honest, I think it'san area that the channel has
danced around for a long time.
Partners know it's there, butthey also know, to my earlier
(37:34):
comment, it's hand to handcombat.
It's personal, it's engaged.
There's a lot of work that goesonto it and traditionally has
not been a commission boom forthem.
Chris (37:45):
Yep.
Jared (37:46):
And so this is a way leveraging.
Wireless expense management.
Mobility expense management is awonderful way to get involved in
and protect that entry pointthat a competitor could have in
their account and expand theirown, value and trust without
having to take on the brunt ofactually managing it.
(38:08):
And also solving a drama a, ahuge challenge for.
Which is, how do I controlexpenses?
I use this example a lot whenI'm talking to people about it,
but I worked for Blackberry andwe moved to where we live now.
In 2016, I found a box oftechnology stuff that I was
(38:30):
cleaning out and just had likeold phones, old things in there,
and I.
I hadn't worked at Blackberrysince 2014 and I powered it up.
I was just curious.
I was seeing if the devicesworked so I could sell'em or
whatever.
And not only did it power up, itconnected to the network.
Blackberry had been paying for aline for three years that had
(38:52):
been sitting in a box unplugged.
That is not uncommon.
We call those phantom devices.
Zombie devices is another name.
Very common, and if someone cango in and say, Hey, it.
Yes, you are gonna save money asa byproduct of this, but I'm,
what I'm really helping you dois optimize your IT spend
(39:13):
because go to a senior levelperson and tell them that you're
going to save them 30%.
That's great.
He's not thinking about 30% offthe budget, and I'm gonna go
back to the business.
He's thinking, I've got 30% ofthat budget that I can do now
support this project.
They're not looking at thesavings of, I need to get rid of
it.
Some of them are what they'reusually doing is I can reduce my
(39:36):
budget, but I can also invest inthe other things I need to do.
So maybe they've got a mandatefrom finance or from their other
executives to say, Hey, you needto cut 20% of your budget this
year.
Sometimes that happens, right?
Maybe you save him 30, so hesaves 20 on that, but now he's
got 10 to reinvest somewhereelse.
Chris (39:53):
right.
Jared (39:54):
So that's why wireless opens up a really good door to,
to really expand your business,in my opinion.
Chris (39:59):
How do you recommend partners can start that
conversation their clients?
Is there any easy button kind ofquestions or how do you seen the
best way to get thatconversation started?
Jared (40:12):
Yeah, it's a good question.
It's actually a really easyanswer.
Because if you find the personwho's responsible for managing
it, and you just ask them, Hey,how's the process going for
managing your mobility servicestoday?
And then my favorite part ofquestion asking that I was, I
taught years ago, the awkwardpause.
Just shut up.
Just let'em sit there andthey're gonna stew on it.
(40:34):
And I would guarantee that moretimes than not, they're just
gonna unload about how difficultit's.
And even if they're using, evenif they're using software or
they've built a wonderfulSmartsheet to manage it or
something like that, it's stillnot easy because the operational
components of managing.
(40:55):
Not just even domestic carrierslike you see, you take Verizon,
T-Mobile at and t you takethose, they all have different
processes.
They all have differentprocedures.
Their contracts are wordeddifferent, all of that.
Now, throw in Rogers Bell, andyou go into the Canadian
carriers or Telefonica or someof the others.
(41:16):
The problem is just continues togrow.
And we're not even talking IOTand OT yet.
We're just talking about cellphones and tablets, so now you
start talking about, okay, yeah,we have an initiative now to
roll out tablets for all of ourlocations and I need to roll out
(41:36):
backup for my ATM machines and Ineed it on a private network.
The complexity that the carriersaw for those technologies are
great.
Those are great conversationsfor partners to get into.
The big challenge though is howdo I manage it all?
That's what they're thinkingabout.
So when you start talking aboutthe prevalence, it's I dunno how
to manage all of this.
(41:56):
That's where the conversationcomes in.
At the business levelperspective, the, if you've got
a leader, how much of yourteam's time do you think, and
this goes for All town, is tiedto managing invoices, change
orders, like how much do you, isthat where you want them
(42:16):
spending their time?
That's the conversation to haveThat opens up the technology
expense management question orconversation.
Chris (42:23):
be remiss if I didn't at least ask you about this too.
BYOD does that, how does that
Jared (42:28):
Yeah.
Chris (42:29):
And do you have anything there for this BYOD
conversations when you seecustomers on that
Jared (42:36):
Yeah.
BYO D's.
Interesting.
Because the challenge thatcompanies have is they went that
way because it was cheaper tojust give them a.
To give them a stipend and itwasn't necessarily, it was
cheaper, it was just consistent.
I know if I give everyone a$50stipend, I'm not worrying about
overages, I'm not worrying aboutinternational fees.
I'm not worrying about anythinglike that.
(42:58):
I'm, I have a consistent coststill hard for us to manage
'cause I, it's not like I'mpulling in consumer invoices
from everywhere.
If it's have my, my we'resource.
Certain roles.
We have our own corporatedevices, and we do manage those
in our own system, by the way.
(43:18):
But I have my whole family onthis.
I've got eight, eight people'sworth of phones on my, on my
phone.
I'm not gonna send them myinvoice with everybody else's
stuff on there.
And so that's a challenge.
But what we can help with ispolicy creation, MDM management.
The extra components that go ontop of that.
(43:40):
And so I think that's where wehave the conversation.
We've even had some customerswhere we've been able to go in
and show them that if they wereto bring these in back in-house
and allow us to manage it,that's the reason they didn't
want to do it in-house before,that it actually is better for
the company to bring it back in.
And that's we.
Chris (44:01):
Yes.
Jared (44:02):
Not going the other direction.
They can think about$50 stipendper month that they're paying
out the customer.
The employee's not reallygetting 50, right?
They're it's not always in thebest interest of the customer,
but if you provide them a linewith a corporate line, and I can
get the total cost of ownershipfor that line down to say,$47 a
(44:25):
month, the company's actuallysaving money at that point.
When I say total cost ofownership, align our support
fee, the md, MDM, if they needit, whatever it might be.
It's cheaper than payingA-B-Y-O-D offload.
Chris (44:42):
That's right.
an end point.
It's, think about how much workis done on your mobile device.
It's especially if you're in thefield a lot, yeah, if you're an
office worker and you're at adesk eight hours a day.
Eh, you probably don't use itthat much, but if you're a
Jared (44:56):
Right.
Chris (44:56):
field services, traveling or your critical leadership
role, then you need to besomebody who's getting hold of,
you're out to lunch or, evenafter
Jared (45:04):
Yeah.
Chris (45:05):
Very interesting.
We've talked, we've touched on alot from, life lessons and
mentoring and lacrosse and flyfishing and a little bit of
golf.
Jared (45:12):
Yeah.
Chris (45:13):
Yeah.
Great.
We've we've covered a lot, soanything hot we didn't hit on
and any last words you wannaleave us with?
Jared (45:22):
Yeah, I, when I look at last words, I always think about
that.
It's always kinda fun.
It's Hey, what's the partingshot?
What's the gotcha from this?
And I'll just go, yeah.
It's what?
I'm gonna go be curious, and Isay, go be genuinely curious.
When to clarify that.
That's my last, my, my partingword there is, genuinely curious
means asking questions for thesake of asking the question, not
(45:45):
asking a question, and beingcurious because you're trying to
drive towards an outcome.
So if they say, greatsalespeople ask great questions.
That's where I think that it'sreally, what's the question,
right?
If you're asking questions thatgets you to, what's your buying
cycle?
What's your budget?
Yeah, those are good questionsYou need to ask them.
If you ask them, why are youdoing this project?
(46:08):
That's the big question.
And then the real parting wordhere, and this is what I always
tell people, this is something Ilearned from a leadership mentor
of mine, which is we all makeassumptions based off of the
data that we have and theexperiences that we've had,
knowing that it's a person onthe other side, the person that
(46:28):
you're selling to also is makingdecisions based off the
information that they have.
That you've given them and theexperiences that they've had.
And so when you're beinggenuinely curious in the sales
cycle, the question I alwaysask, and this also goes internal
leadership, you're trying to getan initiative across with your
bosses, et cetera, is what don'tI know?
(46:51):
What information don't I have?
Because the way I see it is, andyou can lay out your point of
view that says,'cause everyone'sit makes no it's a slam dunk
deal.
I don't understand everythingmakes sense?
I guarantee you there'sinformation you don't have.
Chris (47:06):
Correct.
Jared (47:06):
Ask them what, if this is the assumptions I'm making, this
seems like it's a slam dunk.
What don't I know?
Chris (47:13):
Spot on.
And I love that.
That's great parting words, begenuinely curious, which leads
into asking better questions.
And I have to give my friend,bill Stinnett, shout out at
Sales Excellence, a former guesthe actually teaches a whole
class on asking
Jared (47:26):
Big fan of Bill.
Chris (47:27):
are you a big friend, a fan?
Jared (47:28):
Big fan of Bill.
Yeah, I've known.
Known Bill long time.
Chris (47:32):
I love he, he talks about diagnostic questions and
interestingly enough, uses themedical analogy that, when you
go to the doctor they gotta taketests.
They ask a lot of questions.
They take blood samples.
They need a lot of information.
They just don't go how do youfeel today?
Here's a pill.
Have a nice, take it easy.
So it's very interesting that weended on that.
That's, that's really goodadvice for all things in life,
(47:52):
not only in business, but evenyour personal life and your, our
relationships with our friendsand families and our neighbors.
You being curious, even to thepoint of being concerned and,
caring for a fellow human being.
Man, what Jared, thanks so muchfor all of that.
Great conversation.
Definitely check the show notes.
There'll be some information andlinks on one source and how to
contact Jared and the team.
Thanks a lot Jared.
(48:12):
I'm grateful that we had thistime together today.
Jared (48:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it Chris.
Chris (48:18):
You bet.
And there you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
As always, if you heardanything, they hit home, made
you think about a client, madeyou think about a colleague or a
friend, please share thisepisode with them.
And as always, you can go to thewireless way.net.
Hit the contact this button ifyou have any feedback or input
or suggestions.
Love to hear from you.
And yeah, there you go.
(48:38):
Another episode, and we'll seeyou next time on the Wireless
Way.
Hey, welcome to another episode of The Wireless Way.
I'm your host, Chris Whitaker,and I'm grateful that you're
here.
As always, I know you're busy.
There's a lot going on ineveryone's lives, so I'm
grateful for you.
And I'm also super grateful forJared Parker.
He is my guest today from OneSource.
A little bit about him as alwaysbefore we bring him on.
He is a marketing revenuestrategist.
(00:20):
Gotta have those.
An organization who believes themost effective work happens.
Love this where data meetsempathy.
He uses insights to guide straguide strategy, tell stories
that resonate and drivemeasurable growth, not just on
spreadsheets, but across thecustomer journey.
And and we've all seen companiesthat make decisions on
spreadsheets only.
(00:42):
Although that can work at times,I find it usually does not.
You have to, there's a lot moreto factor than just the
spreadsheet.
as a leader, he takes pride inbuilding high performing teams
and mentoring individuals increating cultures where people
feel empowered to do their bestwork.
And that's critical whereleading a strategic initiative
or coaching someone through achallenge, he believes good
(01:04):
leadership is rooted in clarity.
Trust genuine interest inpeople.
that's the difference between aleader and a manager.
Folks manager managesspreadsheets and processes.
A leader does those things.
Glad to see that.
Jared.
So outside of work, which isgreat to hear this include in
the bio, he is usually travelingwith his family, fly fishing.
(01:25):
Maybe on the golf course.
May I gotta clarify, does thatfly fishing on the golf course
or things,
Jared (01:31):
Could do.
Chris (01:31):
Yeah, it could do both, right?
Yeah.
I see people fishing on golfcourses all the time are chasing
fresh powder.
He says that he has found thebest ideas often come when you
are away from the desk.
And I do agree with that too.
Jared, welcome to the show.
How are you doing today?
I.
Jared (01:48):
Doing fantastic, Chris.
Thanks for having me.
Appreciate it.
Chris (01:52):
glad.
My favorite word as you, you mayknow.
Fantastic.
Powerful.
Word.
You say it enough, it doeschange the chemicals in your
brain, I feel like.
So yeah, keep using the word.
Fantastic.
I'm glad you're doing fantastic.
And as always, I love to, I lovetha thanks for, for the bio.
Thanks for being here.
But most importantly, what's notin the bio, how did you get to
where you are today?
Jared (02:13):
Yeah, it's an interesting comment'cause you mentioned I'm
a marketer.
Marketer and a revenuestrategist, and that is 100%
true.
I might be a reluctant marketer.
Whole career started off on thesales side, and even that was
probably reluctant as well.
Background always had meenvisioning something on the, in
the sciences, probably followingthe family footsteps down the
medical route.
(02:35):
Life happens, you end up down acompletely different path.
I found myself doing, majoringin computer science in college,
never programmed outside ofcollege.
First job was in sales atBellSouth late, a long time ago.
And that kind of led thisjourney.
That had me questioning more andmore, like the scientist in me
(02:58):
really wanted to understand howcompanies generate revenue and
align their strategies.
And I knew pretty quickly earlyon that I wanted to be involved
in revenue generatingactivities.
I just didn't wanna necessarilyalways be on the sales.
And as things happened and Ievolved.
Direct sales into channel sales,into a combination of both
(03:23):
leadership and then ended up onthe marketing side.
And it's always fascinating whenyou find a passion you didn't
know that you had.
And the rest is kind of historyfrom there.
Chris (03:32):
Yeah.
What's interesting about yourstory?
It took me back as you're, it.
A couple of things I feel likeare almost, I.
in a sense that, the scientificapproach and.
Having a genuine interest inpeople and
Jared (03:47):
yeah,
Chris (03:47):
they're almost opposite in a way, right?
Because science is really aboutthe process.
You always hear follow the
Jared (03:51):
correct.
Chris (03:52):
sometimes science doesn't make sense, whatever, but it's a
it's whatever the science says.
But then dealing with people,the human touch you gotta be
open-minded, you have to really,everybody's different.
You know what, just'causesomeone follows a process, two
people can follow the sameprocess, what I'm getting at,
and maybe have differentoutcomes, right?
Jared (04:08):
Correct.
Chris (04:09):
science would say, Hey, if you follow this process, you
get this outcome.
So that's interesting.
And also the other one that Ifind interesting and I share
with you'cause I like to thinkof myself as an organic
marketer.
Taken marketing classes andcourses in, in school, whatnot,
but do not have a marketingdegree.
But I know a lot of people thatdo, and oftentimes I find like
marketing and sales, sometimesthey butt heads,'cause you have
(04:30):
someone with a marketing degreethat stays in the office.
And if you're a marketer, youdon't have many friends
listening that are, take offenseto this.
'cause it's true.
You stay in the office.
You look at all your casestudies and all your, different,
campaigns and initiatives.
Never talk to a customer, neverbeen in the field, never stood
at the booth and talked topeople.
But yet you tell salespeople howto do the job that are actually
(04:52):
out there doing.
And I've always
Jared (04:53):
Right.
Chris (04:53):
that.
But I do appreciate, and it's agood friend, Amy Bailey.
I dunno if Amy, she,
Jared (04:59):
Don't.
Chris (05:00):
now she has her own company, unusual, unusually.
Marketing.
I always get that messed up.
Unusually unusual marketing.
Yeah.
She's also helps run the channelmarketing association.
I had a boss say what used thephrase to describe marketing is
the arts and craft department,because, that's another thing
again, forgive me marketingfriends, but it's true
marketing.
They'll come to me going, I needthe content.
(05:21):
I need all the stuff in thePowerPoint.
all they end up doing is gobehind me and check the fonts,
check the colors, and make surethe graphics are good.
I'm like, oh, that's arts and
Jared (05:30):
Yeah.
Chris (05:31):
my old boss, Kevin Ney at Comcast, he always used to
irritate the marketingdepartment by calling them arts
and crafts because that's whathe felt like.
That's all they did.
Jared (05:38):
Right.
Chris (05:39):
there's so much if, when you truly get into the science
of marketing.
Looking at what's working.
There's definitely an elementthere that is needed.
So as much as I love to give mymarketing friends a hard time it
is a necessary part of anyorganization,
Jared (05:52):
yeah, I think it's an interest.
It's an interesting comment too,because the process is
important, right?
How we do it, how we structureit, why we're doing it the way
we're doing it.
I think the key thing thateveryone, regardless of I.
If you're in the medicalprofession, if you're in,
manufacturing, if you're inmarketing, whatever it might be,
is at the end of everythingyou're doing is a person, right?
(06:16):
And every person has a differentway of interpreting value, has a
different way of processingdata, has a different way of
feeling, a different view on theworld.
That's where that, thatunderstanding of the human
component I think really comesin.
And what I'm really passionateabout is that you have to blend
the two.
Like data is important becausewe have to be able to make big
(06:38):
picture decisions, but then atthe same time, we have to be
cognizant that the execution isimpacting a diverse set of
people.
And, you do things likesegmentation to break it down so
that you're looking at a similarset of people.
That's similar based off a setof, criteria.
(07:00):
But the still, the individualperson that you're speaking to
has a very, their background hasshaped them.
The decisions have shaped them,the things that have happened in
life, their religious beliefs,their cultural beliefs.
Chris (07:12):
Yeah.
Jared (07:13):
That's the fun part is how do you communicate that
message, and you have tounderstand your audience and you
have to, and be genuine.
This is my phrase I always usewith my teams regardless, is be
genuinely curious.
Chris (07:27):
yep.
me of that episode of Ted Lasso.
Be curious, if you
Jared (07:31):
Yeah.
Chris (07:32):
if you just would've asked me, have you ever played
darts, Ted?
Jared (07:35):
Yeah.
Yeah,
Chris (07:36):
scene.
Jared (07:37):
I about that scene.
That is a great scene.
Yeah.
Chris (07:39):
agree with you.
I think that's something mywhole life I.
That I've even before I knew,even long before Ted Lasso.
Yeah.
It, like you said, it's, I'mjust curious and that's what
makes me a tech enthusiast.
I used come myself atechnologist, and today I met
some true tech technologists areactually computer scientist and,
have doctor's degrees,doctorate, degrees in different
studies.
I'm like, eh, maybe I'm not atechnologist.
I'm a tech enthusiast.
(08:00):
But I'm always curious just Hey,how does that work?
Why would you use that insteadof using this, that's fantastic.
And yeah, and you nailed it.
Everyone looks at life through adifferent lens.
Let's go back to marketingsometimes, now that I'm on
several years in the TSD world,the, technologies solution
distributor world, and I've seena lot of different
presentations, from my time in asupplier to working with other
(08:21):
suppliers in my current role.
sometimes, it's hey, you knowyou if you have a 15 minute
slot, but yeah, you spend fiveminutes going over the history
of the company.
and I can see why that'simportant.
From a marketing standpoint,it's about the messaging and the
branding.
But if you only have 15 minutesand you're talking to an
audience of people that makemoney off of residual
commission, it's like, Hey,let's talk about how we make
(08:42):
money first.
And if you wanna know more aboutthe company, I'll tell you that
in the follow up.
That's what I always advise Hey,because don't, most, I think
most, trust advisors, they theyexpect the TSD to vet out the
supplier.
So if you're in event.
already, the assumption isyou've already been vetted out.
I don't need to know whatcolleges CEO went to and I
don't, don't need to see thebrag slide yet.
(09:02):
Have it in there as theappendix, or we could send that
out in the follow up.
But let's get straight to thewin cases, the use cases.
Let's talk about how we makemoney here.
'cause ultimately that's what,we're all got bills to pay,
right?
It's I jokingly, not actuallyjokingly, I sincerely say.
We make a living, helping othersmake a living.
It almost sounds noble, right?
And But it's, we're fortunate tobe able to do that.
Jared (09:23):
I think that very point goes back to the know your
audience as well.
Is making sure that if you takeone source for instance, we have
a distinct value proposition ofwhat we offer and why we exist
and what we do.
And that doesn't change.
But what does change is theinterpretation of that value at
each level.
(09:44):
So it means something differentto a customer.
It means something different to.
It means something different tothe TSD even.
It also means somethingdifferent to a one source seller
or one of our other partners.
So it's just under taking thetime to step back again, be
genuinely curious, understandwhat is important to the
(10:05):
audience that you're talking to,and take, under and really hit
that value interpretation.
Chris (10:10):
Yeah.
Jared (10:11):
And that's where you, I see a lot of presentations from
other suppliers, other partnersthat are trying to sell one
source products and services,and that is the common miss,
right?
Is understanding who you'retalking to and how they're going
to interpret value.
Chris (10:29):
You mentioned in the bio too about mentoring others and
coaching others.
Jared (10:33):
Yeah.
Chris (10:33):
a common thread of, what's the most common area you
feel like you mentor that nextgeneration of channel
salespeople?
Is there a trend or is it kindalike all over the place and in
terms of different skillsets, indifferent components of business
life?
Jared (10:48):
Outside of the personal things I think I'd say the
biggest piece that comes intoplay is patience, is what I end
up, everyone wants the, whetherit's I want the quick buck or I
can think of someone internallythat I'm mentoring right now.
He's 23.
He is right outta college, veryambitious.
He feels like he is running outof time.
(11:10):
He's 23.
Chris (11:11):
Oh man.
Jared (11:12):
I'm like, you have so much time.
I was like, what you're doingright now, he wants to keep
moving up and so what you'redoing right now.
Take the time.
Enjoy it, learn new things.
It's not a matter of the actualjob you're doing.
You're learning how to processinformation, hit deadlines, look
at data differently, understandhow your leaders think, and it's
just take the time, be patient,right?
(11:34):
And I get that a lot withadvisors that I work with, that
I've become, friends with orthat they've asked me, how, how
business and some these largerpartners.
Million dollars a year incommission and they think they
should be able to get there inone or two years.
And it's, that's, it's, itdoesn't work that way.
(11:57):
And you have to be patient, butit will pay off if if you do the
work, you put it in, put in yourtime, plan it, trust your
process.
Ask for help.
Those are the things.
That's the other one I'd say ispretty common is people thinking
they have it figured out ontheir own.
I know people are like, oh,you've got, they come to me for
mentoring.
'cause they're like, oh youfigure it out.
And I'm, no, I have a great, Ihave a great team of mentors
(12:21):
just as just as well.
And when I have questions, I goto them.
Chris (12:26):
And back to your early points.
It's not like you, yeah.
You're, this ain't your firstrodeo either.
You've learned over time, ittook time to develop the
experience, base you haveversus, yeah.
Being 23, it's just starting offyour career.
I.
That's interesting.
I, I've seen that and I've heardthat as well.
That's great that you, that's agreat, that's actually a pretty
good darn answer, man, beingpatient trust, going back.
(12:46):
Yeah.
In this case you do need totrust the process, which is,
just takes time.
That's fantastic.
Jared (12:51):
So fun fact that's not listed in the bio is I coach
high school lacrosse and I getthe same thing from good
freshmen players that have comeinto our program.
And we're a good team.
We have a good program, and someof these guys come in and go, I
want I, they feel like they'renot succeeding because they're
not starting as a freshman.
(13:13):
On a top tier team that hasjuniors and seniors, and it's be
patient like your times.
You're not gonna get ascholarship offer in year one,
even if that's what you want,and take time to learn from
these guys.
Ask them what made themsuccessful in that jump from
year one to year four, year oneto year three, year one to year
two.
Chris (13:32):
in high school or in the past?
Jared (13:34):
I played in high school.
Chris (13:35):
So lemme ask you this.
When you started in high school,did you have the same mindset or
was it a different thoughtprocess?
Jared (13:41):
No, I would say a totally different thought process.
It was now granted, being in thenorth, in North Carolina and
playing lacrosse in the, early,mid nineties getting started
out.
I.
It was a fairly new sport downhere.
It was not you didn't havetravel teams, you didn't have
social media.
Actually, I think there was onetravel team for the entire state
(14:03):
pretty much.
And so only, you got, you didn'ttry out for that, you got picked
for that.
And everybody else just playedand we just worked hard and we
got better.
And, we went outside and threwoff the wall.
We went outside and threw withour friends.
That was just a different, Ithink just cultures changed in
general.
But yeah, I didn't struggle withthat same mentality.
And the idea of playing incollege at any level, division
(14:25):
one, two, or three that didn'texist.
That wasn't a thing.
Yeah.
Chris (14:29):
happened between then and now that, that you're seeing,
that this, current generationcoming getting into adulthood,
whether it be in, high school orcollegiate sports or new to
their career, that there's thisexpectation of immediate
success.
What where do you think it.
Trigger what
Jared (14:44):
Success in culture hustle that is so prevalent on social
media.
And it's not, this is not a bashon social media.
I use it, I like it.
But at the same time, it is a.
Kids at that age, even adults atthe younger age are constantly
bombarded with success stories.
(15:04):
No one posts their fails.
No one posts their mistakes.
They always talk about howthey're doing this and doing
that.
Most of the people are hacks andliars and everything else, and
but it does create this mindsetthat I'm not doing as much.
That I'm not as good.
And that puts that pressure onthem that they need to be going
(15:25):
faster, that they need to bedoing.
And then what they don't realizeis the people who are really
successful, they put in a lot ofwork And that doesn't get
posted,
Chris (15:34):
that's true.
Yeah.
It reminds me of the, I'm sureyou've heard the story.
A guy was at a a piano recitalof this famous pist.
And afterwards they go up andmeet the young lady and the
daughter says, Hey, I wanna playpiano like that one day I, that
sounds so amazing.
And she goes, really?
Do you?
Are you willing to give up,going out with your friends,
(15:54):
missing parties and graduationparties and practicing into your
hands are so sore, you gottasoak'em in ice water and it was
outlining the whole process ofbecoming a great panelist.
And that's when the the lightbulb was like, oh, may, maybe I
don't wanna become, maybe Idon't, because But, no, I think
you're right.
That's really interesting tothink.
When I look at today, I havefour adult kids and.
(16:15):
So much of it is that filterthat you at look at through
life.
What's really important?
Is it important what socialmedia thinks about you?
Or is it really important whatyou think about yourself?
Know thy
Jared (16:23):
Yeah.
Chris (16:24):
your own self-worth, know that we all have a different lot
in life, in a sense may not, i'dlove to be able to sing as good
as Tim McGraw and look like TimMcGraw, but I'm not willing.
I can't, I, it's just, I don'tthink that's ever gonna happen
and you have to be at peace withthat, I dunno, I'm not saying
don't chase your dreams.
I just think, I think some, tosome degree be realistic about
it and.
Know what you're willing tosacrifice.
(16:45):
If you don't wanna sacrifice tothat degree, then guess what?
Jared (16:48):
Correct.
That's the dream thing is thedream thing is fascinating
because I totally believe inchase your dreams, but what I
also ask is what really is thedream?
People say, oh, my dream is toplay in college if it's sports.
And I get that with some ofthese the kids on the team and
other kids that I've coached.
(17:09):
And the reality is it's likethat's an outcome.
Like you say, it's a dream, likethat's the outcome you want.
But what is the dream?
Like why are you pursuingplaying in college?
Is it love of the game?
Is it a free education?
Is it a hit to your ego to say,I did it.
Those are the questions you haveto ask because sometimes I, I
(17:30):
found myself, like inretrospect, always looking back,
going, like when talk aboutbeing the doctor, why did I
wanna be a doctor?
I'm curious and I like people,but then part of it was to tell
people I'm a doctor, right?
Was I really passionate aboutit?
Was that really the dream?
No.
The dream was wanting prestigeWhen you really get down to it.
(17:53):
So the dream is a biggerpicture.
It's not just the outcome thatyou're, you're looking for, it
is what's the fulfillment thatyou're gonna get?
What is the, is it passiondriving for whatever reasons.
And it's fine if that's, if theprestige is the outcome, and
that's the goal you're goingfor.
I'm not against that.
Chris (18:10):
Every different strokes for different folks.
Man, whatever floats your bow,
Jared (18:13):
yep,
Chris (18:13):
you're not hurting anybody in the process.
That's the
Jared (18:15):
exactly right.
Chris (18:17):
do you, I'll do me I'll root for you as long as you're,
just.
A board and,
Jared (18:21):
yeah.
Yeah.
Chris (18:23):
And ethics involved.
That's always good.
Oh man.
This, I tell you, I didn'tanticipate us spending nearly 20
minutes on this, but it's'causeI love this.
I, we could scrub the rest ofour discussion outline, but I do
wanna get to it and.
Whole another interview aroundjust lessons in life and career
and whatnot, because that's alot to talk about there.
(18:45):
Man I'm
Jared (18:46):
It is.
Chris (18:46):
about adding value to every situation, which is a big
reason why this podcast evenexists, Where do you see the
business and have you, your timein the channel, have you seen
any, anything change?
We hear a lot of people saythat, the channel's changing.
What say you.
Jared (19:02):
channel's changing, but that's not a bad thing.
Evolution is, and this is notpolitical, evolution is just a
part of life.
Everything evolves as theenvironment changes.
And with that just comes anatural maturity of things.
My, my being with, bell Southand the Know 2001, 2002
timeframe.
(19:24):
Look at the industry now.
Look at, I've been working withpartners, with advisors since
that period, like the beginningof the, almost the beginning of
that portion of our industry andthe focus was connectivity,
voice, and data.
And it evolved.
Now you moved into, it evolvedinto, IP services.
(19:44):
It evolved into voiceover IPservices, sd-wan, SAS E, and
then you start throwing on cloudon top of that.
Then you start throwing onsecurity on top of that.
Now we're throwing in ai, theindustry has changed because
it's supposed to change.
That is the nature oftechnology.
And so I think you end up inthis, and because it's not
(20:05):
stagnant, you end up with peoplewho were traditional players
that started off early on.
And then you've got new playersthat are coming into the market.
And so you've got individualsthat have built a consistent a
consistent business through thechannel.
They've done it, the tra youknow, with traditional products.
And they've evolved and they'vebuilt an amazing.
(20:29):
Some of these people are earningtremendous incomes and it's
really exciting to see.
And some of those individualsnow are looking to get outta it.
And that's, some people will saythat's part of the problem right
now is we've got this, influx ofpeople investing in the
industry.
It's part of the evolution.
They built a business.
Plan to get out of it.
What's that exit, what does thatlook like?
(20:51):
And then likewise, I know peoplewho are starting out and they
say, I don't want to touchvoicer data.
I only want to touch cloud.
I only want to touch ai.
I only wanna touch security.
And that is, that's part of thatevolution as well.
Those products market different,those products solve different
problems.
They talk to different personas.
(21:13):
Within the business.
And so I think the channel hasthis balance, especially if you
look at suppliers, you look atTSDs is how do we balance that
conversation?
We still have this core part ofour business, which is extremely
valuable, maybe less profitablethan it used to be, but it's
still extremely valuable becauseit's the core of what we did.
(21:34):
But I also want to evolve mybusiness to drive these more
profitable.
Large, more complextechnologies.
And so that's a huge transition.
So when people say it's changingand people typically say it's
changing, oh it's not the way itused to be.
That's natural and that's to beexpected.
(21:54):
And I think the ones that aresucceeding are the ones that are
embracing the fact that, thechannel days of the.
Two thousands, early 2000 tenshad even pre COVID, yeah.
Those days aren't the same asthey were, but the business is
vastly different now.
Now what hasn't changed is thevalue on relationships, and you
(22:15):
mentioned it in my profile, thisis the thing I'm probably most
passionate about in what all ofus sell, is trust those aspects.
Trust that is so key.
And so those po components of ithaven't changed.
People work with advisors thatthey trust, advisors work with
suppliers that they trust TSDs,engage with and support and
(22:39):
promote suppliers and partnersthat they trust.
So yeah, a lot has changed, butI see we're really setting
ourselves up for that nextgeneration.
One other thing that I'm seeingchanging, and this is something
that touches one source, andperhaps that's why I see it as
well, is individuals have built,a lot of their advisors have
(23:01):
built their businessesthemselves.
Usually family owned, individualdriven, and they can build their
business to a certain point.
And at that certain point, theability to scale gets diminished
because they spend so much timeon the functional components of
supporting their customers,which is important for trust
for.
(23:22):
Just doing the day to dayactivities and when they got
started, they didn't intend tobuild a business of, having
three or four employees.
Not everybody wants to do that.
Some have built, some of ourlarger partners that are out
there have built greatbusinesses that have employed
10, 2000, 200 employees.
Most don't.
That's where I'm seeing a shiftin the business, and we're
(23:44):
seeing this a lot in ourconversations is, can you help
us offload that type of work sothat I can focus on what I do
best, which is buildrelationships, build trust, and
sell and that's where they'retrying to get more towards.
And I think that benefitseverybody when we get there.
(24:04):
So there are trends, right?
That I'm seeing.
I think the industry is healthy.
I agree with the people who say,this is not a dying industry.
I think the advisor is going toincrease.
When I talk to my peers who areexecutives at other companies
they want advisors.
There is so much noise fromsellers selling them a product
(24:28):
that is the silver bullet.
And as they tell me, especiallyon the security side.
I don't have time.
If I listened to everybody whoreached out to me to sell me
their silver bullet product, Iwouldn't get any work done.
So the natural fit to that ishaving an advisor I trust with
the resources behind them tohelp me sift through the noise
(24:50):
and solve the businesschallenges that I'm trying to
solve.
And so that's why I'm so bullishon this channel's not going away
because people want that.
It's just a matter of us assuppliers, TSDs, to evolve with
that mentality.
Chris (25:07):
No, I agree with you there.
Again, even in my role talkingto several other suppliers, some
of'em Fortune 50 they're tellingme they're even getting away
from direct sales.
They're decreasing their directsales staff, increasing their
channel sales team.
Jared (25:20):
Yep.
Chris (25:20):
in, maybe ever, or, in every company
Jared (25:22):
Yep.
Chris (25:23):
phases, right?
Depending on who the EVP ofsales is, right?
There's different seasons for acompany, whether they're pro
channel or not, but it does seemalmost every company I'm talking
to is really leaning in'causethey're seeing the value.
They're realizing that theirdirect team has losing to
trusted advisors because theiradvisors been in there for 5,
10, 15 years.
And the direct sales team,they're just cold calling.
So who think has a better
Jared (25:43):
Correct.
Chris (25:43):
It's like a no brainer there.
Jared (25:45):
Yeah, I can speak for one source.
If you look at not just channel,but just our partnership
environment, so you call itindirect revenue generation that
generates a vast majority of ourrevenue.
I won't share exact numbers, butit's vast.
Chris (26:01):
As you were talking too, going back to your medical,
earlier aspirations, as you haveyour general practitioner,
right?
And, if that could be what a lotof partners are, if they're
expert generalist but then youhave the partners like I only
want to do cloud, or I only wantto do cybersecurity.
Those are the specialists,right?
But honestly.
In the medical world to get tothe specialist.
(26:21):
Your first stop always is thegeneral practitioner to get a
referral
Jared (26:24):
correct.
Chris (26:25):
So Lot of value to be that general practitioner in
this telecom IT tech.
Channel that we're in.
So you need to have, they allhave a working knowledge.
Those general practitioners havea working knowledge of the whole
human body as a whole.
And they know when, you knowwhat, I need to refer you to
someone that's a specialist inthat area, which could be, the
one sources of the world, right?
Whoever's the, whatever supplieris the specialist is who
(26:48):
partnered with work with
Jared (26:49):
correct.
Chris (26:50):
Are you, do you, are you seeing are there still people in
your in your world partners thatare hardcore, I'm staying in my
swim lane or,'cause again, weknow they're missing out on
revenue opportunities by beingthat way.
What's your thoughts on, seeingpartners either willing to pivot
and, learn other parts?
Like OneSource, you guys do alot more than just, cloud.
(27:10):
You got the cybersecurity andcontact center and manage
mobility, which we'll get to in.
But
Jared (27:14):
Yeah.
Chris (27:15):
I guess, is that a challenge for your channel
teams?
Like how do you get thesepartners to expand land and
expand?
Jared (27:21):
It is.
We don't force them again,everybody, again I'm a very much
a, you've built a business thatyou're comfortable with.
We've talked maybe, and you havemade a commitment that you still
want.
This is just what your businessis and where you wanna go, and
you're careful about who youbring in and what you wanna do.
That's fine.
We've never come into this withthe approach that we are the
(27:44):
right fit for everybody.
And I think the right fit alsogoes into the individual
advisors business.
Are we a good cultural fit for.
Are you trying to pivot yourbusiness or are you trying to A
word, it's not an industryphrase, but we call them back
when we still use the wordsagent, but agents and evolved
agents.
An agent is, was traditional.
(28:08):
They have their swim lane, asyou mentioned, that they wanna
stay in.
The evolved, said, Hey, theseswim lanes now are connected.
How can I, what are the things Ican do to start pulling in those
similar sales that pivot off ofwhat I built my business off of?
And those are the ones we wantto work with.
(28:28):
It's not that we don't want towork with the others, it's just
it's, they're not there.
I'm not gonna force'em.
I'll still be friends with them.
We'll still have greatconversations.
My team will have greatconversations.
So it's.
Chris (28:40):
some advisors, don't really have the ambition to, to
have 30 employees and make amillion, a year, whatever.
They're happy.
Jared (28:47):
Yeah,
Chris (28:47):
call'em lifestyle partners.
And again, that's,
Jared (28:50):
sure.
Chris (28:50):
wrong with that.
We need those folks too, thechannel has been built off that
approach.
Jared (28:54):
Hundred percent support.
It's.
Chris (28:56):
yeah.
And yeah.
And who are we to say that's notthe right thing to do?
That makes a lot of sense.
Going back to how much sacrificeyou wanna put in.
Some people say, Hey look, thisis what I know.
This is my background.
I'm sticking with what I know.
Hey, if that's working for you,Bravo.
Jared (29:10):
Yeah.
Chris (29:11):
Another pivot point here, as I mentioned, you even looking
at your website, if you haven'tbeen to onesource.net you wanna
check it out, from the expensemanagement, you got TEM we can
talk about managed mobilitylater.
Cloud optimization, the ITinfrastructure part from
connectivity, managed networks,data center a lot there.
Cybersecurity, another hottopic.
SOC as a service incidentresponse and remediation, there,
(29:33):
there's a lot there.
Then of
Jared (29:35):
Yep.
Chris (29:35):
contact center, AI and business process outsourcing, as
BPO there's a lot there.
So is there any trends you'reseeing where partners are
winning the most?
I.
Jared (29:46):
Yeah, there are some big trends there.
I think one of them is when welook at the TEM aspect of it,
and TEM and the OneSource worldis technology expense
management, not telecom expensemanagement.
The reason why they're winningus with us on that is it solves
two problems I mentionedearlier, knowing your audience,
(30:07):
knowing your customers, all ofus.
Invoices are everywhere.
Chasing down trouble tickets iscumbersome and timely.
Even something as easy as a MacD order can be a pain in the
customer's tail, right?
Like, how do I understand whatso our product there, which is a
(30:27):
fully managed Tim offering, somost, most started with software
and then now start adding inservices are started with people
and process, and the technologywas built and evolved.
Which we built and evolvedourselves.
So it's, we have a team ofdevelopers that are consistently
building on it.
We don't just sell the software.
(30:48):
There's no offering in our worldwhere we just sell the customer
software.
We're selling a fully managedoffering in, various flavors.
Obviously the value though, whenyou look at the partner, why
partners are winning with us,with that goes back to what I
said for those partners who wantto evolve their business.
Take a MACD order, wireless orwireline, you can do a lot of
(31:13):
work and spend a lot of hours tomake$7 extra commission.
If you take a customer from ahundred meg to maybe 500 meg or
a gig on a fiber circuit, you'regonna spend.
10 plus hours from order entrythrough implementation.
Oh, I didn't even start on thepricing and getting everything
together for the customer andgetting bought on, and you're
(31:35):
gonna make$7 more in commission.
That same amount of time couldhave been spent growing your
business or have it, engaging inlearning cloud, learning
something else that you could gogrow your business.
Partners are winning with usbecause they have to ask
themselves the question, do Iwant to go hire people to do
those things for me, which isoverhead?
(31:56):
Or do I want to take my biggestcustomers or the ones that are
causing me the most most, Iwon't say headache, but are
causing me the most of my timeinvested and find a way to get
them something else so that Inow free up that time to go grow
my business.
The other piece of that is onceyou have all of the invoices and
(32:18):
services for a customer,wireless or wireline or cloud or
whatever, it might be all in oneplace, whether I sold them or
not, I now as a partner havevisibility into my customer's
environment.
I can see what they have.
I can see when those contractsare expiring, and I can start to
build a growth funnel for my ownbusiness off this platform.
(32:40):
So that's where the partnersthat are winning with us right
now and the conversation thatwe're having is, I can solve a
big problem for my customer, butat the same time I can solve a
problem for myself.
And the way that we're set upand that we're structured is
that partner customer places amacd order through that
customer's not involved, but thepartner's getting paid.
(33:04):
We are profitable, our businessis profitable and runs without
the commission.
I don't need to do any of thatto for our product to be
beneficial.
So the partner is who wins inthat process.
Chris (33:16):
And going back to what we said earlier, it's all starts
with trust.
Jared (33:20):
Yeah.
Chris (33:20):
identifying, establishing yourself as a trustworthy
partner that can handledifferent parts of the business,
I like what you said, technologyexpense management, obviously
mobility is a part of that,right?
Do you Yeah.
And before we get into that,maybe just what, when you say
technology expense management,obviously like cloud
optimization is a part of thatas well.
(33:42):
What other part componentswould, does your temp solution
help manage?
Jared (33:47):
Yeah, so voice data connectivity.
I'll be careful on the cloudoptimization piece and the TEM
platform.
That's expenses.
Invoice in, invoice outinventory, archival bill pay,
things like that.
Cloud optimization is anengineering engagement.
That's a, that is a, that's abig project right there.
(34:09):
And yeah, it's very different.
So I think it's important thatwe separate the two.
So you've got the ability topull that in.
You can pull in CX billing, soyou have visibility into how
many seats that you have.
And man, we added, why did ourbill go up?
Oh, we added 10 seat.
Were those approved?
Are they actually being used orare we just paying a,$150 a seat
(34:29):
per month for no reason?
I thought we turned down some ofour contact center operations
and other places.
Why couldn't we just reuse thoseseats?
It just gives customersvisibility into all of it, and
that's the key is it's hard tomanage what you can't see.
Chris (34:44):
That's right.
Jared (34:45):
That's that.
That's a cliche, but it's ahundred percent true in this.
This case is it's really hard tomanage what you can't see.
The other piece is if you thinkof, and this starts to blend
into the wireless, especiallyinto the wireless, is if I have
a customer who has 50 locations,that is 50 invoices for
(35:07):
connectivity, maybe a backupcircuit, then their voice
services.
We could have some cloud inthere.
They could all be from 60different providers.
And every one of those has adifferent bill style, different
invoicing process, differentbill pay system.
It's complex and expensive tomanage it, not just from the
(35:28):
little pieces, but if you lookat a customer's business, takes
a lot of people to do that,right?
So it's an efficiency gain forthe customer.
Now, take that same customer, 50locations, but it's.
4,000 employees and they have3000 mobile devices.
What happens, Chris, if you dropyour cell phone and it breaks,
(35:50):
do you panic?
Does your world end?
Do you have to go get oneimmediately?
So now I've got those 50locations that I'm managing.
3000 and 3000 that when it goesdown.
It's a crisis, right?
So mobility management forcompanies is tough.
We call it internally, it'shand-to-hand combat.
It's, this person over here.
(36:12):
I remember back in my days, as asales rep, I had a Fortune 100
company and their CEO drops hisphone in a creek in Montana
while fly fishing, which I.
And of course, as a CEO needed areplacement immediately.
And so people are panicking overthe weekend trying to get this
(36:34):
guy, he's in the middle ofnowhere, Montana, and had to
helicopter into the closestVerizon store to pick up his
device.
Problem most of us don't haveis, access to a helicopter to,
go pick up my cell phone.
But it's important and it'spersonal and there's a lot of
'em.
(36:54):
Pile on top of that, you mighthave two, three carriers at one
place.
That's a lot.
Chris (37:00):
Advice do you have for partners that want to, leverage
or lean into mobility?
Do you see that as a foot, thedoor to the greater TEM
conversation, or is it separateor, any thoughts there on how to
pivot into that?
Jared (37:12):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think it's definitely a goodfoot in the door, right?
It can pivot into the greaterTEM conversation, but why it's
such a good foot in the door isevery customer struggles with
this.
And to be honest, I think it'san area that the channel has
danced around for a long time.
Partners know it's there, butthey also know, to my earlier
(37:34):
comment, it's hand to handcombat.
It's personal, it's engaged.
There's a lot of work that goesonto it and traditionally has
not been a commission boom forthem.
Chris (37:45):
Yep.
Jared (37:46):
And so this is a way leveraging.
Wireless expense management.
Mobility expense management is awonderful way to get involved in
and protect that entry pointthat a competitor could have in
their account and expand theirown, value and trust without
having to take on the brunt ofactually managing it.
(38:08):
And also solving a drama a, ahuge challenge for.
Which is, how do I controlexpenses?
I use this example a lot whenI'm talking to people about it,
but I worked for Blackberry andwe moved to where we live now.
In 2016, I found a box oftechnology stuff that I was
(38:30):
cleaning out and just had likeold phones, old things in there,
and I.
I hadn't worked at Blackberrysince 2014 and I powered it up.
I was just curious.
I was seeing if the devicesworked so I could sell'em or
whatever.
And not only did it power up, itconnected to the network.
Blackberry had been paying for aline for three years that had
(38:52):
been sitting in a box unplugged.
That is not uncommon.
We call those phantom devices.
Zombie devices is another name.
Very common, and if someone cango in and say, Hey, it.
Yes, you are gonna save money asa byproduct of this, but I'm,
what I'm really helping you dois optimize your IT spend
(39:13):
because go to a senior levelperson and tell them that you're
going to save them 30%.
That's great.
He's not thinking about 30% offthe budget, and I'm gonna go
back to the business.
He's thinking, I've got 30% ofthat budget that I can do now
support this project.
They're not looking at thesavings of, I need to get rid of
it.
Some of them are what they'reusually doing is I can reduce my
(39:36):
budget, but I can also invest inthe other things I need to do.
So maybe they've got a mandatefrom finance or from their other
executives to say, Hey, you needto cut 20% of your budget this
year.
Sometimes that happens, right?
Maybe you save him 30, so hesaves 20 on that, but now he's
got 10 to reinvest somewhereelse.
Chris (39:53):
right.
Jared (39:54):
So that's why wireless opens up a really good door to,
to really expand your business,in my opinion.
Chris (39:59):
How do you recommend partners can start that
conversation their clients?
Is there any easy button kind ofquestions or how do you seen the
best way to get thatconversation started?
Jared (40:12):
Yeah, it's a good question.
It's actually a really easyanswer.
Because if you find the personwho's responsible for managing
it, and you just ask them, Hey,how's the process going for
managing your mobility servicestoday?
And then my favorite part ofquestion asking that I was, I
taught years ago, the awkwardpause.
Just shut up.
Just let'em sit there andthey're gonna stew on it.
(40:34):
And I would guarantee that moretimes than not, they're just
gonna unload about how difficultit's.
And even if they're using, evenif they're using software or
they've built a wonderfulSmartsheet to manage it or
something like that, it's stillnot easy because the operational
components of managing.
(40:55):
Not just even domestic carrierslike you see, you take Verizon,
T-Mobile at and t you takethose, they all have different
processes.
They all have differentprocedures.
Their contracts are wordeddifferent, all of that.
Now, throw in Rogers Bell, andyou go into the Canadian
carriers or Telefonica or someof the others.
(41:16):
The problem is just continues togrow.
And we're not even talking IOTand OT yet.
We're just talking about cellphones and tablets, so now you
start talking about, okay, yeah,we have an initiative now to
roll out tablets for all of ourlocations and I need to roll out
(41:36):
backup for my ATM machines and Ineed it on a private network.
The complexity that the carriersaw for those technologies are
great.
Those are great conversationsfor partners to get into.
The big challenge though is howdo I manage it all?
That's what they're thinkingabout.
So when you start talking aboutthe prevalence, it's I dunno how
to manage all of this.
(41:56):
That's where the conversationcomes in.
At the business levelperspective, the, if you've got
a leader, how much of yourteam's time do you think, and
this goes for All town, is tiedto managing invoices, change
orders, like how much do you, isthat where you want them
(42:16):
spending their time?
That's the conversation to haveThat opens up the technology
expense management question orconversation.
Chris (42:23):
be remiss if I didn't at least ask you about this too.
BYOD does that, how does that
Jared (42:28):
Yeah.
Chris (42:29):
And do you have anything there for this BYOD
conversations when you seecustomers on that
Jared (42:36):
Yeah.
BYO D's.
Interesting.
Because the challenge thatcompanies have is they went that
way because it was cheaper tojust give them a.
To give them a stipend and itwasn't necessarily, it was
cheaper, it was just consistent.
I know if I give everyone a$50stipend, I'm not worrying about
overages, I'm not worrying aboutinternational fees.
I'm not worrying about anythinglike that.
(42:58):
I'm, I have a consistent coststill hard for us to manage
'cause I, it's not like I'mpulling in consumer invoices
from everywhere.
If it's have my, my we'resource.
Certain roles.
We have our own corporatedevices, and we do manage those
in our own system, by the way.
(43:18):
But I have my whole family onthis.
I've got eight, eight people'sworth of phones on my, on my
phone.
I'm not gonna send them myinvoice with everybody else's
stuff on there.
And so that's a challenge.
But what we can help with ispolicy creation, MDM management.
The extra components that go ontop of that.
(43:40):
And so I think that's where wehave the conversation.
We've even had some customerswhere we've been able to go in
and show them that if they wereto bring these in back in-house
and allow us to manage it,that's the reason they didn't
want to do it in-house before,that it actually is better for
the company to bring it back in.
And that's we.
Chris (44:01):
Yes.
Jared (44:02):
Not going the other direction.
They can think about$50 stipendper month that they're paying
out the customer.
The employee's not reallygetting 50, right?
They're it's not always in thebest interest of the customer,
but if you provide them a linewith a corporate line, and I can
get the total cost of ownershipfor that line down to say,$47 a
(44:25):
month, the company's actuallysaving money at that point.
When I say total cost ofownership, align our support
fee, the md, MDM, if they needit, whatever it might be.
It's cheaper than payingA-B-Y-O-D offload.
Chris (44:42):
That's right.
an end point.
It's, think about how much workis done on your mobile device.
It's especially if you're in thefield a lot, yeah, if you're an
office worker and you're at adesk eight hours a day.
Eh, you probably don't use itthat much, but if you're a
Jared (44:56):
Right.
Chris (44:56):
field services, traveling or your critical leadership
role, then you need to besomebody who's getting hold of,
you're out to lunch or, evenafter
Jared (45:04):
Yeah.
Chris (45:05):
Very interesting.
We've talked, we've touched on alot from, life lessons and
mentoring and lacrosse and flyfishing and a little bit of
golf.
Jared (45:12):
Yeah.
Chris (45:13):
Yeah.
Great.
We've we've covered a lot, soanything hot we didn't hit on
and any last words you wannaleave us with?
Jared (45:22):
Yeah, I, when I look at last words, I always think about
that.
It's always kinda fun.
It's Hey, what's the partingshot?
What's the gotcha from this?
And I'll just go, yeah.
It's what?
I'm gonna go be curious, and Isay, go be genuinely curious.
When to clarify that.
That's my last, my, my partingword there is, genuinely curious
means asking questions for thesake of asking the question, not
(45:45):
asking a question, and beingcurious because you're trying to
drive towards an outcome.
So if they say, greatsalespeople ask great questions.
That's where I think that it'sreally, what's the question,
right?
If you're asking questions thatgets you to, what's your buying
cycle?
What's your budget?
Yeah, those are good questionsYou need to ask them.
If you ask them, why are youdoing this project?
(46:08):
That's the big question.
And then the real parting wordhere, and this is what I always
tell people, this is something Ilearned from a leadership mentor
of mine, which is we all makeassumptions based off of the
data that we have and theexperiences that we've had,
knowing that it's a person onthe other side, the person that
(46:28):
you're selling to also is makingdecisions based off the
information that they have.
That you've given them and theexperiences that they've had.
And so when you're beinggenuinely curious in the sales
cycle, the question I alwaysask, and this also goes internal
leadership, you're trying to getan initiative across with your
bosses, et cetera, is what don'tI know?
(46:51):
What information don't I have?
Because the way I see it is, andyou can lay out your point of
view that says,'cause everyone'sit makes no it's a slam dunk
deal.
I don't understand everythingmakes sense?
I guarantee you there'sinformation you don't have.
Chris (47:06):
Correct.
Jared (47:06):
Ask them what, if this is the assumptions I'm making, this
seems like it's a slam dunk.
What don't I know?
Chris (47:13):
Spot on.
And I love that.
That's great parting words, begenuinely curious, which leads
into asking better questions.
And I have to give my friend,bill Stinnett, shout out at
Sales Excellence, a former guesthe actually teaches a whole
class on asking
Jared (47:26):
Big fan of Bill.
Chris (47:27):
are you a big friend, a fan?
Jared (47:28):
Big fan of Bill.
Yeah, I've known.
Known Bill long time.
Chris (47:32):
I love he, he talks about diagnostic questions and
interestingly enough, uses themedical analogy that, when you
go to the doctor they gotta taketests.
They ask a lot of questions.
They take blood samples.
They need a lot of information.
They just don't go how do youfeel today?
Here's a pill.
Have a nice, take it easy.
So it's very interesting that weended on that.
That's, that's really goodadvice for all things in life,
(47:52):
not only in business, but evenyour personal life and your, our
relationships with our friendsand families and our neighbors.
You being curious, even to thepoint of being concerned and,
caring for a fellow human being.
Man, what Jared, thanks so muchfor all of that.
Great conversation.
Definitely check the show notes.
There'll be some information andlinks on one source and how to
contact Jared and the team.
Thanks a lot Jared.
(48:12):
I'm grateful that we had thistime together today.
Jared (48:15):
Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it Chris.
Chris (48:18):
You bet.
And there you go folks.
Another episode of The WirelessWay.
As always, if you heardanything, they hit home, made
you think about a client, madeyou think about a colleague or a
friend, please share thisepisode with them.
And as always, you can go to thewireless way.net.
Hit the contact this button ifyou have any feedback or input
or suggestions.
Love to hear from you.
And yeah, there you go.
(48:38):
Another episode, and we'll seeyou next time on the Wireless
Way.
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