What's New at XO

This week the executive management and the indirect sales team for XO Business Services met in Tempe, Ariz., for its 2007 kick-off. In all, more than 50 people were in attendance. Since Tempe is only a stone's throw from the PHONE+ offices in downtown Phoenix, I went over to the Radisson hotel with our Group Publisher Mike Saxby to find out what XO has in store for the channel.

We met with Tom Gorey, who is the national director of the Business Partner Program.

XO's Tom Gorey with PHONE+ Group Publisher Mike Saxby at the Radisson hotel in Tempe, Ariz.

The primary change, which took place in fourth quarter 2006, was a restructuring of the indirect channel marketing and support with an eye toward moving support closer to the partners, Gorey said.

About one-third of the indirect sales team is at headquarters while the rest have been deployed to local markets. Gorey is quick to point out that this is not a teaming approach wherein direct sales reps or managers are paired with agents to sell. Instead, these local support folks are devoted to the channel.

Gorey said many of the people in the indirect channel simply have been redeployed, but there have been a number of new hires to fill in the gaps.

For the agents, the material change is that their channel manager will no longer be the "be everything person." Instead, they will have responsibility for business planning and management with the agent while the support for customer engagements will be localized. So, if a master agent is in California and a subagent is in New Jersey, the support for the subagent will be in New Jersey. The same goes for account help. If the customer is based in Atlanta, the local channel support will be avaialble in Atlanta.

In the three months since the reorg, Gorey says the change has been well received.

As for XO's priorities for this week's meeting, Gorey said: "We know we are not the biggest company. but we want to build the best channel program. Our focus is on how to do that."

With the whole executive team in attendance, he noted, "channel support extends through the CEO."

Delivering the best support and local decision-making is part of that, he added. "This is opposite of some of the big guys with centralized program and a focus on big enteprise accounts," he said.

In 2007, he said, the company will be focused on getting closer to the partners and understanding their businesses better so that the company can tailor its support.

He promised some "unconventional" approaches to this in the coming year, but would not tip his hand.

If you are an XO agent and have comments about the changes at the company, post a comment here or email me at khenderson@vpico.com.