Despite their size, the impact small businesses have on the economy cannot be underestimated. Small businesses create about half of the world’s GDP while employing two-thirds of the world’s workforce. With few exceptions, a small business, according to the Small Business Administration, has 500 or fewer employees and averages less than $7.5 million in sales for a year. To help TD SYNNEX partners best serve this lucrative market, the SMB Accelerator program was created to align partners with a multitude of businesses’ needs from training to partner enablement with a large focus on business outcome selling methodologies. To better understand the program, how it’s helping, and those who are heading it, EDGE360 recently interviewed the program’s leaders, Nick Rees and Jeff Bueg, Cisco Vendor Development Managers at TD SYNNEX.
What is SMB Accelerator?
TD SYNNEX created the SMB Accelerator program to support partners with gaps in their SMB business models. The three main objectives of the program, according to Rees, are “to align our Cisco DAP partners with the Cisco SMB Business Development and Accounts team in their target GEOs, net new Cisco customer acquisition in the Cisco SMB account space, and current Cisco customer wallet expansion via Cisco X-Arch (cross architecture) Solutions.” Each of the objectives is supported through various sales and marketing resources.
For end-to-end partner enablement, SMB Accelerator is built on seven different modules. Business Analyst and Growth Planning as well as Training Enablement focus on helping differentiate partners and increase profitability. In addition, partners have access to modules revolving around Marketing Support, Partner Engagement, Net New Acquisition, Sales Execution and Outcomes, and Lifecycle. The flexible framework allows partners to choose where to focus and when to begin their journey.
Who is Leading the Program?
SMB Accelerator is led by Cisco Vendor Development Managers Nick Rees and Jeff Bueg. As avid Tampa Bay sports fans living in the Tampa Bay area, they understand how to find success with winning strategies. With their experience, knowledge, and passion, they relish working with and helping partners grow.
A married father of three, Rees was with Legacy Tech Data for seven years before transitioning to the Cisco team prior to the merger. He led the Cisco SLED Accelerator program before moving over to manage SMB Accelerator. For Rees, the challenge of constantly providing value to his partners and the Cisco SMB team is what keeps him motivated. “Each partner is on a unique Cisco journey depending on his or her business model, and I enjoy being prescriptive in identifying areas where we, as the Disty partner, can be the most helpful,” he said.
Bueg, who lives with his fiancé and a German Shepard named Luca, also spent seven years at Legacy Tech Data before transitioning to TD SYNNEX. Coming in to help lead the SMB Accelerator program was a natural progression for Bueg as he worked primarily with Cisco partners in his previous role. Bueg, an avid guitar player when he’s not helping partners manage the SMB space, appreciates the work he’s able to do with partners from the entire TD SYNNEX organization. “We help partners with refreshing their perspective on their business model when it comes to Cisco, specifically with the SMB focus, and it feels great to help them move the needle from that perspective,” he shared.
How does SMB Accelerator Help Partners?
The SMB Accelerator “assists TD SYNNEX DAP aligned partners with a multitude of business needs focused on the sole purpose of growing their pipeline and competency in the SMB space with Cisco,” Bueg described. SMB Accelerator helps partners acquire net new customers through whitespace reporting and lead gen programs. Data is also used with current customers to help determine a customer’s potential spend to help partners with possible cross-sell, up-sell, or product migration opportunities.
“Leveraging the power of data, we can efficiently navigate thousands of ends users’ prospect accounts and identify true whitespace opportunities,” Rees explained. “Once identified, our partners can leverage Cisco promotional opportunities trials and demos as a part of their sales prospecting-to-build pipeline.” For example, Cisco is currently offering a 5 percent SMB promotion through January 28, 2023, on DUO, Umbrella, Cisco headsets, and WebEx desk cameras for new and existing customers. Those in the SMB Accelerator program are provided target reports to identify eligible end users, showing what Cisco products they’ve purchased in the past three years. It can provide partners with a roadmap that can guide sales and allow the partners to ingest relevant information during the sale, potentially increasing the partner’s Cisco Wallet share within that end user.
How can Partners get Involved?
Partners who are interested in getting involved or learning more should reach out to their dedicated Cisco rep (whether BDR, IPAM, or FAE). After reaching out, partners can expect to receive an overview of the entire program to confirm it’s a good fit for all parties. From there, partners will fill out an onboarding questionnaire to “give a good breakdown of their business and core competencies,” explained Bueg. Once complete, Rees and Bueg will meet with the partners to identify portions of the programs in which the partner would find the most value and assign action items to get started. The partner will also enroll in the TD SYNNEX EDGE Focus Tool to track progress throughout the program.
For more information, partners can also email Jeff Bueg at Jeffrey.Bueg@tdsynnex.com or Nick Rees at Nicholas.Rees@tdsynnex.com.
