Cybersecurity Startup ID Agent Doubles Down On Partner Sales Support
ID Agent said its new Goal Assist program is designed to help solution providers prepare for sales and boardroom meetings and overcoming common objections.
ID Agent is expanding its partner success organization to provide assistance around everything from sales meetings and training to supporting events and webinars.
The Bowie, Md.-based cybersecurity startup said its new Goal Assist program is designed to help solution providers prepare for sales and boardroom meetings and overcoming common objections, according to Dan Tomaszewski, ID Agent's vice president of channel success and training.
"If partners are struggling to figure out how to do sales and marketing for their MSP or MSSP offering, we can help," Tomaszewski told CRN. "We're there to assist."
[Related: ID Agent's Dark Web Scanning Is ‘An Incredible Differentiator’ For MSPs]
Many MSPs lack confidence in their sales process, Tomaszewski said, particularly as it relates to explaining concepts to executives when they're in the room. At the same time, Tomaszewski said channel partners can sometimes be too technical in their explanations, meaning that ID Agent can come in and simplify the process for the end users.
In preparing to launch Goal Assist, Tomaszewski said ID Agent's partner success team has workshopped day-to-day scenarios in a multitude of verticals such as legal and manufacturing. The trainings have been focusing on helping ID Agent's staff understand what they need to have in place to go down a particular path with an MSP, according to Tomaszewski.
ID Agent today has six partner success managers who serve as the primary contact for channel partners and are the go-to people for sales presentations and live events, Tomaszewski said.
But the company has recently grown its channel organization to include partner success associates, who sit under the manager and can help with everything from bulk domain scans for a live event to preparing marketing materials for a webinar or Chamber of Commerce event. ID Agent currently has two partner success associates, and plans to have six people in this role supporting different geographies.
ID Agent has been beta testing different components of Goal Assist for the past six months, beginning with the sales training piece, which is focused around messaging, overcoming objections, and practice role playing sessions.
More recent Goal Assist efforts have been focused on the sales meetings piece, where the company can virtually attend the partner's sales meetings by web conference or phone to help sell Dark Web ID Monitoring. The primary aim of Goal Assist is helping solution providers land new customers and grow existing accounts, Tomaszewski said, with a strong focus on partner feedback and deal close rates.
Goal Assist is included for partners in every package at no additional cost, according to Tomaszewski. The company's Dark Web monitoring and identity theft protection offering is available to solution provider starting at $300 per month, which includes 10 domains to monitor and 50 live searches.
ID Agent has grown its partner base from 465 solution providers a year ago to more than 1,200 today, Tomaszewski said. The company hopes to at least double its partner base in the year ahead, and would love to end the year with more than 3,000 solution providers, according to Tomaszewski.
LAN Infotech includes ID Agent's Dark Web searches as part of its welcome package for new Chamber of Commerce members, and would love to have the company speak on webinars or come out and talk with customers, according to Michael Goldstein, president and CEO of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based solution provider.
Goldstein praised ID Agent for sending out a newsletter that examines Dark Web trends such as breaches, saying it puts issues on the customer's radar. LAN Infotech primarily uses the data provided by ID Agent's Dark Web searches for prospecting, Goldstein said, but has also signed up a couple of paying customers.
"There's nothing better than having the vendor in front of you," Goldstein told CRN. "They've given us some great content, and it's great to see that they're putting more marketing around it."