E130 Part 1 - What's Next for the Channel: Insights from Frank Rausch, Global Channel Chief at Cato Networks

06/30/23 • 18 min

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Randy welcomes Frank Rauch, Global Channel Chief at Cato Networks, to discuss the future of the channel. Frank shares insights on leadership, go-to-market strategies, and his extensive experience in the technology industry.

The episode is sponsored by trender.ai, a sales intelligence company that helps accelerate ABM initiatives through targeted social media monitoring. The Trusted Tester Program by trender.ai is introduced, offering a white-glove onboarding experience for a year. The episode also highlights salescommunity.com, a platform with valuable sales content for professionals.

Frank's personal interests, including golf and owning a rock and roll bar, are mentioned, along with his passion for Philadelphia sports and recent milestone of becoming a grandfather. Quotes from industry leaders commend Frank's integrity, leadership, and strong relationships within the channel community.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

The Importance of Personal Relationships and Support in Channel Success - Frank Rauch: “I think it's a lot more than building your LinkedIn. It really is. I mean, that's part of it, but, you know, I think when I look at Joe and when I look at Dave, I can literally cite the day, the year, the month, where those relationships were strengthened and oftentimes they're strengthened in bad times. Rather than in good times, oftentimes the sky's falling and basically if you're there and you're willing to stand with the partner, absolutely. That helps.”

Find out more about Frank Rauch in the link below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrauch/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by:

Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
Sandler: https://www.sandler.com/

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

Find out more about Frank Rauch in the link below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankrauch/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by:

Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
Sandler: https://www.sandler.com/

Previous Episode

E129 Part 3 - The Sales Ops Revolution: Patience, Predictive Analytics, and Closing Success with Steve Hershkowitz

On this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Steve Hershkowitz, the CRO of Virtana Corp., discuss various aspects of sales and operations. Steve reflects on his younger self and advises on the importance of patience and thorough research before closing deals. They also touch upon the value of one-call closes and the need to ask for the order. The conversation shifts to the evolution of sales ops and the growing significance of RevenueOps, using AI and predictive analytics for business insights. Steve mentions their recent investment in a RevOps platform and how it helps identify gaps in deals, enabling coaching and improving closing opportunities. The guest highlights the role of Gong, a tool relied upon by the sales operations team. They also talk about enabling sellers with the OpsCruise offering, which provides insights and alerts on complex data types. Steve explains their lead generation strategies, which include outbound cold calling, strategic partnerships, LinkedIn campaigns, business intelligence tools, and participation in industry events. They discuss the importance of expanding the company's footprint within existing accounts and their partnership with CloudGenera for analytics and workload placement recommendations. The conversation concludes with a focus on sales methodology, particularly MedPIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision Criteria, Paper Process, Implicate Pain, Competitors). Steve shares their adoption of MedPIC and its benefits in deal qualification, understanding customer decision-making, and creating a sense of urgency.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

Navigating Time Constraints Without Losing Business - Steve: "I've learned over the years that you got to sit back and while we all have to want to close business and operate under our company's time constraints, you can't do that at the expense of losing business that you might otherwise have won."

Leveraging MedPIC to Drive Customer Action and Success - Steve: “I think the most important part about MedPIC that I like, in addition to understanding the competitors, is being able to implicate the pain. On a customer, right? So being able to help the customer understand that if they, if it's business as usual and they don't take action, there is a compelling event or a compelling pain that they're going to experience that won't go away unless they take action with us or someone else.”

Find out more about Steve Hershkowitz in the link below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-hersh/

This episode of Tech Sales Insights is brought to you by:

Sales Community: https://www.salescommunity.com/
Sandler: https://www.sandler.com/

Next Episode

E130 Part 2 - Recruitment, Culture, and the Future of the Channel with Frank Rauch

In this episode of Tech Sales Insights, Randy Seidl and Frank Rauch, Global Channel Chief at Cato Networks, discuss various topics related to recruitment, culture, and the channel. Frank mentions that their company is always recruiting and highlights the engineering, direct sales, channel, and SDR openings they have. He also emphasizes the unbeatable culture at Kato, where high-performing individuals are the norm. They talk about the flexibility of remote work and the importance of being present in a territory for sales roles. Frank also mentions the support they receive from investors like Lightspeed and Greylock.

Randy and Frank discuss the recruitment strategy at Frank's company, highlighting the various job openings available. They also emphasize the importance of company culture and the value of having high-performing individuals on the team. The conversation touches on the flexibility of remote work and the significance of being present in a territory for sales roles. They mention the support received from investors and the challenges faced by startups in securing funding. Frank shares some advice for individuals interested in a career in the channel and the qualities that he looks for when promoting people.

INSIGHTS OF THE DAY

The Importance of Channel Partnerships - Frank Rauch: “Because, you know, oftentimes it's just too late and basically, hey, here's pricing, here's product, here's the strategy, how do we fit it into the channel? It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way... You need to be able to give partners services opportunities... We want to give the partners the opportunity to be able to be trained on a product, but trained in a way, not just to operate the product, but to be able to make the customer environment better... You need to be able to give the partner the opportunity to be able to upsell along with that too. It's really the multiplier effect.”

Find out more about Frank Rauch in the link below: