In today’s episode of How We Got There, I talk with Mike Getchis, who was the VP of Sales at Zenkraft. They were acquired by Brinng earlier this year and he is now Partner Solutions Engineer. Mike was at the helm of Zenkraft’s sales organization which bootstrapped their way to a strategic exit but started his Salesforce journey with hands on keyboard.
Zenkraft’s top gtm strategies included working with SIs, Salesforce, and other ISVs. They found that their AppExchange listing was the starting point for the SI community, so focused on giving them partner-ready materials and a quick way to get them in touch with technical resources. The access to technical resources is an important component to any SI partner program that is often overlooked and mirrors my experience at Conga.
Mike shares his experience participating in Salesforce Accelerate and how it improved their positioning and execution of aligning with SEs and AEs. Their SDO page is a high water mark for the ecosystem in terms of enabling the Salesforce SEs to demo their solution. And when they close a deal, they are intentional about a bottoms up strategy to share the win with their peers in a lean way. Zenkraft’s app is horizontal so they have a challenge of focus which I hear from a lot of ISVs.
In regards to their AppExchange listing, he speaks to the value from an Account Management perspective of knowing when customers refresh their sandbox and how Test Drive can help drive leads. His secret sauce to having over 300 5-star reviews? Asking them. After a successful implementation or great support experience, their whole team asks them to write a review.
Here’s a closer look at the episode:
Resources:
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