The rate of change over the last two years has been breathtaking. Hybrid work models have accelerated everyone’s digital transformation projects. The new expectations of IT have created opportunities for technology and service providers that have made the right investments.
Citrix Partner Marketing Kickoff 2022 was a concise 2.5 hours of valuable information to help Citrix Partners make the most of these opportunities. An annual virtual event, the Kickoff is designed to give Citrix Partners the inside scoop on Citrix news and strategy, branding and marketing, plus the latest industry trends and best practices.
Missed some of the talks? We’ve created a quick recap of each session to help get you up to speed.
Citrix Strategy Update for 2022
Tim Minahan, EVP of Business Strategy and CMO at Citrix, discussed the new digital wave and the new ways of working. He shared that 95 percent of knowledge workers surveyed by Citrix want to continue with flexible work models. This means companies are now looking to adopt new technologies to keep up with the new distributed work and IT environment such as:
- Cloud delivered Desktop as a Service (Daas)
- Zero trust security access and app security models
- Content, signature and collaboration tools
Bottom Line: All of this is good news for Citrix and partners, as the market is demanding that organizations accelerate their IT modernization efforts. We are very well positioned to support this transformation and Tim shared the slide below on how partnering on marketing initiatives will get us there. Watch Tim’s full session here.
How Partner Value Is Evolving in a Digitally Dynamic World
Larry Walsh, Founder and CEO of Channelnomics, gave us a macro view of these changes and the new needs and expectations of buyers. The results are that today’s channel partners have to do more than sell — they must speak directly to the needs of their customers.
Larry shared the slide below explaining some of the specifics of today’s customer expectations and expressed that they assign value on what you do and how you do it, not just what you sell them.
Bottom Line: A path to success is to engage in meaningful communications with your customers and bring those insights to your joint marketing plans with Citrix.
Citrix Is All-in on DaaS (Desktop-as-a-Service) + Strategic Alliances
Carisa Stringer, VP Product Marketing at Citrix, provided some context on the strategic alliances with Microsoft and Google and offered ways for partners to take engage.
She also discussed some of the new strategies to reach new DaaS buyers such as unlocking critical use cases. She also provided detail on the new Citrix DaaS packages that are now available.
Bottom line: The benefits of DaaS in 2022 are clear. It offers flexibility, faster time to value and significant IT cost savings. The opportunities are abundant and Citrix partners are well positioned to take advantage. Watch Larry’s full session here.
Capturing Attention in a Customer-First World
Jenny Magic, Founder of Better Way to Say It, is a familiar face to our Citrix Partner Marketing community, returning for another Partner Marketing Kickoff and acting as co-host of the Citrix Partner Marketing Masterclass series.
All marketers face ample competition in getting the attention of our audience. Jenny suggests that capturing our audience’s selective attention by using their words and phrases to describe their perception of their problem is a good step towards aligning yourself as an ally who can help.
In her discussion on customer expectations, good results are table stakes. If you can’t deliver, you’re not even part of the consideration set. To become a long-term trusted partner, your customers are typically looking for the “other value.” This other value is often tied to your unique story or value proposition. Jenny provides some frameworks and exercises to help you arrive at your company’s unique story.
Bottom Line: The slide below shows that if you’re able to combine her ideas of understanding their language and having your own unique story, you’re sitting on a marketing gold mine. Watch Jenny’s full session here.
Thanks for joining us for this year’s Citrix Partner Marketing Kickoff. Be sure to catch the full sessions on-demand via the Partner Marketing Enablement page on SalesIQ. You can also continue learning with us throughout the year with our Citrix Partner Marketing Masterclass series. Here’s to your successful 2022!
