New head of international sales interviewed on prospects for European business ConnectWise, maker of the the business management platform designed for technology companies, has named Gregg Lalle (below) as Channel and International Sales Director. He has worked at ConnectWise for the last five years, most recently as Director in charge of EMEA & Distribution.
"Having been at ConnectWise for the past five years, I am really excited by the prospect of expanding on what we have to offer in Europe," said Gregg Lalle. His appointment comes on the heels of ConnectWise's recent announcement that they are opening a new London office. “I bring extensive industry knowledge as well as a track record of successful leadership to the position. I have been asked to speak at industry events as well as peer groups across the globe. More pertinently, I have a consistent passion towards customer-focused growth that has already substantially contributed to ConnectWise’s success in both the US and Europe.”
“In terms of targets, I am aiming at more than 100% growth rate in Europe year over year for the next three years. That growth will be fuelled not only by ConnectWise, but by our partner community and distribution network. Our hiring targets are to have 35-50 colleagues full time in the next 24 months. This will include additional staff to the resources already committed, i.e. technical, consultant and sales staff, as well as other core departments such as marketing, support and account management,” he told IT Europa.
On about the prospects for European sales:“The most important lesson we have learned for Europe is that no markets are created equal. In order to effectively educate and provide software to the ITSP space in any region, it is imperative that we relate to where that region is on the maturity model; what types of thought leadership and solutions already exist; and precisely how both we fit into the regional culture and vice versa.”
“It is very difficult to make a general characterization of Europe as a whole. There are certainly regions that are more mature, i.e. they are already subscribing to a Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) model and utilising our tools. There are others that are actively in a conversion stage, where some organisations are using the MRR model and some are still taking a Break-Fix approach. Then there are those that are predominantly reactive and use little to no tools to assist them in their daily business. Our priority is therefore educating those regions and ensuring that they begin realising the benefits of using tools to assist them.
With a new UK office, this is obviously a target market, so where else does he see as important? “Currently we have technical, sales and consulting expertise represented in the UK office and ready to offer our partners. Nordics and Germany are very close, and Benelux isn’t far behind. Outside the continent, we are also seeing rapid growth in Australia, South Africa, and the Middle East.”
And the channel partners in these areas? “Our core message to partners is simple: our single-minded purpose is to make our partners as profitable and efficient as possible, using our position as the leader in the space and our domain experience to do that.
“We get this message across through a number of methods, such as educational webinars; producing meaningful content; working with our channel partners and our incredible user groups that are held quarterly; our forums that we host regionally; and of course IT Nation which is the industry leading gathering of ITSP’s. Our primary differentiator is simply that, with the development of our open platform for over four years now, we offer the best and most robust solutions to our partners – giving them the best possible opportunity to maximize the return to their businesses.”
Does ConnectWise find the understanding of business process automation is good enough in European channels, is it bringing on a lot of business and vertical market experts to form a new channel?
“Again, while there is a fair amount of BPA knowledge in Europe, it varies from region to region. The real value ConnectWise can bring to Europe is thanks to our history as a company that was founded and continues to build on the sharing of our collective knowledge. Both we and our collective community have created the workflows, blueprints and other content needed to understand BPA; all of which available at no cost through our University and Marketplace. I honestly don’t know of any similar organisation that has such an active and robust community that helps to shape its vision.”