As SpyCloud launches its new partner program in North America to extend service provider’s ability to protect more clients from critical cyberattacks, we sat down with Stacy Hutchings, VP of North America Channel, to discuss the program, its benefits, and what partners can expect from working with SpyCloud.
You joined SpyCloud specifically to enhance and promote the partner program in North America. What made you decide to work for SpyCloud and take on this initiative?
Stacy Hutchings: My experience comes mostly from the partner side, but what I found so intriguing about this opportunity was the SpyCloud story. When I was on the other side of the desk, I had so many vendors vying for mindshare to prioritize resell and the pitches were so similar – the partner teams struggled to minimize the noise and differentiate between vendors. When I heard the SpyCloud story about the massive amounts of recaptured data from the darknet we use to prevent account takeover, ransomware, and online fraud, it really is a unique value proposition that partners need and that their customers are asking for.
I’m excited to be a part of building the program out – getting in on the ground floor and shaping it to meet the needs of our partners and their customers. One of my experiences as a partner was the tendency for vendors to lump all partners into the same channel bucket and treat us all the same for training and enablement. At SpyCloud, we will set a standard for understanding the uniqueness of our partners’ value and adapt that to how we interact with each one.
Let’s talk more about that – what does the SpyCloud Partner Program entail?
SH: The SpyCloud Partner Program features a tiered structure where we have bronze-, silver-, and gold-level partners based on joint goals. What will be unique is that we recognize each partner has its own strategy, vision, and go-to-market, and differentiate themselves depending on their specialties. We’re focused on determining how we’re going to build team engagements and strategy specific to each individual partner to ensure they’re getting value out of the relationship with SpyCloud.
Why should companies partner with SpyCloud and what value do we bring to our partners?
SH: Partners are trying to present a total solution for their customers. They’re not looking for point solutions; they’re looking to offer robust protection for the entire enterprise, and SpyCloud helps close those gaps. We absolutely have something different to offer them that they’re not talking to their clients about today. For example, if partners are having a zero trust conversation and they’re only addressing endpoints and network but not talking about identity, then they’re not giving their customers the entire picture of threat vectors. That is where SpyCloud offers a distinctive value add. While there may be other organizations or vendors in a similar space as we are, they don’t go to the depth of how we recapture and analyze our data, and how our solutions disrupt cybercrime – and that is extremely valuable to partners.
What makes working with SpyCloud easy, seamless, and mutually beneficial for our partners?
SH: We are very focused on finding, selecting, and recruiting the right partner mix so we can build relationships and really enable them. We know that partners have multiple choices when it comes to the vendors they do business with, so it’s critical that we are easy to work with.
To help build relationships with partners, we’ve launched a portal to centralize communication and provide valuable assets and information at their fingertips. Partners like predictability, so we’ve empowered our sales reps to provide consistent experiences on how we sell, position and price our products for partners. Our goal is to always be top of mind for every one of our partners. And that’s not just a plan or a structure, that’s an individual behavior.
Since we’re all about making this mutually beneficial, we are willing to adapt to the needs of our partners to help them better understand what SpyCloud does and how we do it. So if one partner prefers digging into datasheets and documentation, that is available on the portal. But if another partner prefers more one-on-one conversations to understand our products and solutions, we’ll make ourselves available to accommodate that as well.
What makes you most excited about the SpyCloud Partner Program?
SH: I’m excited to start seeing some success through our renewed commitment to the channel. Partners don’t want to hear that you’re “channel neutral” – they want to know that we’re committed to their interests and that we want the channel to win and succeed. So we look forward to the opportunity to grow and expand SpyCloud through our channel partner relationships. We want to get to the point with our SpyCloud sales reps where the channel is top of mind on every transaction, not just when it’s convenient.
What will success look like for partners in the SpyCloud Partner Program?
SH: We Our goal is to be relevant, strategic partners for their business. We want partners to look to SpyCloud as a valuable tool that helps their customers protect against cyberattacks using darknet data. Partners can work with us in a variety of ways: by reselling SpyCloud, using SpyCloud internally as a part of their toolset, and also using SpyCloud in their SOC or NOC for managed services for their clients. Since no other vendor can do what we do, we aspire to be a strategic partner of choice by bringing our differentiated value to their business.
