GitLab global and regional channel and alliances sales teams, global and local field sales teams, regional field marketing teams, channel account managers, the global alliances team and product marketing team.
Global Channel and Alliances Marketing is a team of seasoned professionals supporting global channel and alliances sales objectives and providing support to the GitLab channel partner community and customers. This small but mighty team is responsible for the development of channel and alliances marketing campaigns that leverage GitLab’s Go to Market Campaigns and value plays. We work with partners to help them understand what the campaigns are, how to use them to help drive partner sourced opportunities, how to leverage upcoming GitLab webinars/webcasts to drive conversion and how to generate trials for GitLab that they can nurture with prospects. Channel partners are ultimately responsible for the execution of these campaigns.
The Global Channel marketing team provides support to partners by creating different campaign assets into leverageable go-to-market programs called Instant Campaigns that partners can easily pick up and run with their customer or prospect lists. GitLab channel marketing is also responsible for the development, rollout and management of trial enablement programs by which partners can generate trials of GitLab directly from their website, and passing or providing trial leads generated from GitLab’s own website to be worked and converted by partners.
Channel marketing also enables channel go to market efforts through MDF funding and management, by identifying upcoming field marketing events and activities that channel partners can participate in, and by identifying opportunities for channel partners to participate with Alliances partners and GitLab on joint go to market activities.
We partner with regional Channel Account Managers and Field Marketing regional teams to work closely with channel partners and GitLab Alliances for inclusion in their regional marketing plans.
As a service bureau to a wide variety of teams, we have support functions that are both in and out of scope at this time. We have ideated on a list of potential future service capabilities that, as this team is able to add resources and our business plan requires it, we will add to our list of service offerings. To recommend that we add a service offering to this growing list of potential offerings, please create an issue.
*. For an in-depth look at the programs and tools we offer our partners, see our marketing menu of services page.
As GitLab evolves, the growth of the channel becomes a critical component to our overall strategy of growth and new logo capture. With established teams in place, it's time to take our engagement up a level and as such, review how we partner together for proactive, and efficient engagement that results in high quality demand generation plans and delivering actionable leads for our sales teams. In order for our collective plans to work, it's first important to verbalize the roles, responsibilities and focus areas for each functional team.
13 weeks prior to the start of the following quarter, planning for that quarter will commence. FMM's and CAM's are expected to partner together and setup regular, consistent planning calls, preferrably bi-weekly. The focus of each cadence call will change as the plan formulates. Specifically:
Develop partner campaign objectives and set goals (specifically NFO SAO goals). Set up recurring biweekly cadence with the individual partner, CAM and FMM to keep planning and campaign action items on track.
Based on campaign goals, identify the regions where pipeline needs are the greatest. Architect campaigns to support that/those regions. What are the campaign elements/tactics needed to create interest?
Agree to campaign tactics and persona targets, develop budget request and expected outcomes in the form of MQL's and SAO's.
Formalize/finalize the tactics, define action items and workback plan. Identify any speaker needs. Final agreement on MQL and SAO targets. Complete FY23 Partner Planning Template and submit back to FMM and CAM.
FMM and CAM submit holistic budget request to Channel Marketing for MDF approval.
Own the strategy, relationship and ongoing, consistent engagement with the Select partners in their territory. The channel account manager is responsible for the holistic success and health of the partner relationship.
Sets the strategy for the region, manages the Channel Account Managers and approves the criteria for Select and Open partner selection in the region.
In partnership with field sales, drive MQL's to convert to SAO's. The field marketing managers are responsible for articulating which areas of the business require the most attention and where we need channel partner engagement to drive demand generation plans.
Develops the strategy and conversion targets for the team in partnership with field sales leadership.
Develops scalable demand generation campaigns and tactics for partners to generate Partner Sourced opportunities.
Once a plan for the quarter has been established it is imperative that the channel account manager and the field marketing manager stay in close, consistent alignment about plan execution. The strategy is driven by the channel account manager, while the field marketing manager is responsible for executing on that strategy in partnership with various support teams, including but not limited to the channel account managers.
MDF CAN and SHOULD be leveraged as much as possible when the partner is involved in an activity. Further information about how to initiate and MDF request can be found here.
GitLab Marketing receives 'credit' for opportunities that are partner sourced so long as the oportunity has a BATP (Bizable Touchpoint) from the campaign. Check out the field marketing handbook page that details the FMM process where CAMs can read more about how to complete the lead gen issue.
These activities are captured as Campaign Type Details on the campaign level in Salesforce.com for Partner - MDF Campaign Type only.
channel_mdf_pop and complete Step 1CAMs can now order swag for approved co-marketing events or other approved awards through Channel Marketing’s partner swag portal. Please allow 10-15 business days for the approval and processing of your request plus additional shipping time. The event start date cannot be within 3 weeks of the request as items may not arrive in time. Please allow plenty of time for the Swag to be delivered.
Please note we have a new vendor, and the new portal information will be available shortly. In the meantime please follow the following steps to get your swag ordered
Partners now have the ability to place a FREE trial button on their website as a critical call to action to their demand generation plans. Free trials allow users to have 30 day access to the full set of features in the Self-Managed version of GitLab. Once a visitor requests a free trial from a GitLab partner, the record is sent to GitLab for the license key to be generated and assigned to a partner in SFDC. In addition, the lead is then routed automatically via Vartopia to the partner for tracking and follow up. This is the same process that is followed whether the record is considered a lead or a contact within GitLab's instance of SFDC.
Partners can access and manage their GitLab leads in the same interface as their deal registration. When leads are shared with partners, partners will now see an additional tab in the Vartopia GitLab Deal Registration portal called Prospects. Partners can also easily convert their prospects to deal registrations and submit them to GitLab for approval. Please refer to the following assets to walk you through how to access these leads, step by step:
When requesting support from our team, we commit to responding to your issue within 2 business days (when request is easily understood) or a Zoom meeting invite to understand the request, scope, timeline, goals and expectations.
Alliances Marketing Team
The role of alliances partner marketing manager is to own and develop the demand generation plan for and with our alliances partners based on the account strategy developed by Alliances Director and in alignment with company SAO goals for the segment and region.
Account assignment/alignment as of Sept 2022:
Gabby Chorny: IBM and RedHat aligned to Brett Egloff and VMware aligned to Vick Kelkar.
Gabby will also provide support to the ISV partners in the form of up to 5 solution briefs per quarter at the direction/priority of Mike LeBeau, Alliances manager.
*As of Sept 2022 Gabby will commit to providing 5 solution briefs for key ISV partners. Future support will require discussion, planning and budget. See Coleen Greco for additional details.
While each account does have it’s own unique go to market motion the following is a list of what the Alliance marketing manager is responsible for:
Our team is small but mighty and there are a few things that are simply outside of our scope as of Sept 2022:
For additional questions, concerns or requests please direct them to: Coleen Greco, Director, Global Channel and Alliances Marketing.
Channel Marketing Team
Karen Pourshadi: Senior Channel Marketing Manager, Karen will be focusing on partner content: enabling our partner marketing resources with major GitLab GTM initiatives and developing turnkey, integrated Instant Marketing Campaigns for GitLab channel partners.
Kelly Walker: Senior Partner Program Manager, Exec Engagement, Kelly will be focusing on our channel partner events including GitLab Partner Summits and more!
Samara Souza: Senior Partner Program Manager, Samara will be focusing on creating new service offerings for our partners to leverage in their demand generation motions including but not limited to: Free trial syndication; case study development, MDF process, and much much more!
Lauren Roberts: Partner Marketing Specialist, Lauren will be focusing on supporting our channel partner programs including the Free trial program; partner microsites, & our MDF process.
Alliances Marketing Team
Hank Belz: Senioar Alliances Marketing Manager. GCP, Oracle, Nutanix and Cisco.
Gabby Chorny: Senior Alliances Marketing Manager. IBM, RedHat, VMware and developing solution brief for up to 5 ISV partners per quarter.
Lindsey Lopez: Alliances Marketing Manager. AWS and Microsoft.
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