Interview with Darrin Nelson from Pellera

1. Darrin, your career runs through IBSI, Netsetgo, Strategic Computer Solutions, Sirius, IBM, and now Pellera- and across all of it you’ve built practices, sales teams, engineering teams, and marketing teams. In the solution provider world, growth usually means standing up an entire new practice rather than just launching a product. Can you walk us through what that actually takes- and where you’ve seen most of these efforts stall?

Such a great question with so many important nuances.

My approach has been to actually starts with what the desires are of the company: What do we want to be (ie ISV, OEM, VAR, SI, MSP)? What technology disciplines do we want to serve (ie Infrastructure/Server/Storage/Network, Cybersecurity, Cloud, AI, Data, Application Modernization, Custom App Development, etc..). These previous 2 decisions should be function of market demand and anticipated CAGR over the next 3-5 years.

I personally would then rationalize the objectives of our business with what I was hearing needed by the customer demographic we wanted to serve. Understanding patterns of demand and what the trajectory of those demands will likely be I’ve always used to prioritize my focus. Once this is understood, it is time to prioritize which partners and tools might be available to provide GTM and delivery leverage. If it makes sense, leverage those partners and tools to provide focus around a practice capability you are building and leverage them to ease, subsidize and scale your go-to-market.

I first learned this by anticipating the market needs for Lotus Notes and Groupware needs to build my first consultancy/systems Integrator (IBSI). While working for IBM/Lotus back in the mid 90s enterprises were clamoring for being able to facilitate cross functional collaboration and automated workflows. I saw the need, joined a small consultancy as principal and CTO, built a team of 30 engineers that helped customers implement Groupware & Collaborative platforms.

At the onset we focused exclusively on designing, implementing and supporting Lotus Notes infrastructures and applications (clearly, I just aged myself). We played a role in helping Eastman Kodak migrate 90,000 OfficeVision VM user to Lotus Notes and helped them build hundreds of collaboration and workflow applications. While doing that we stumbled into the commercialization of the Internet. We had customers we were doing Groupware work asking us if we could help them build eCommerce platforms for them. We had a density of AS400 and Groupware customers so we built some IP that enabled our custom-built web-based eCommerce front ends to be fully integrated with AS400s and especially JD Edwards systems. We went live with Bauch & Lomb (Ray Ban, Killer Loop), Nalgene Nunc, and New Hampshire Ball Bearings very quickly. We enabled these companies to be able to take online eCommerce orders and be fully integrated with their AS400 backends. It wasn’t long before our eCommerce business exceeded our Groupware business.

So, in the above case, we knew we wanted to be a consultancy/systems integrator. We saw the need and demand for Groupware design, implementation and management skills. Lotus Notes was the hottest groupware platform on the planet, so we built strong skills and teams around Lotus Notes. We had success with hundreds, if not thousands of implementations and built a brand for us in that space: speaking on our successes at IBM events, publishing our success in trade magazines like “The View”, aligning ourselves with IBM sellers and leadership. Before we knew it, we were getting more leads from IBM bringing us into customer accounts than our own sales team was creating. The same was true eCommerce. We started by using our own IP and developing custom code for each implementation. eCommerce eventually matured and it didn’t make sense for us to manage/maintain IP that was commoditizing by much larger ISV’s (ie IBM, Intershop, etc..) investing billions of $ in this space.

We eventually committed to IBM’s Websphere Commerce being our eCommerce platform. We built skills and a robust team/practice around Websphere Commerce. We had dozens of successful implementations and now augmented our Lotus Notes/Groupwware brand to also include eCommerce & IBM’s Websphere Commerce Excellence.

Throughout my career of building businesses, that are made up of practices, with strong competencies in key technology platforms, I have leveraged the above methodology to build and be part of selling 5 companies, 3 successful recapitalizations, and dozens of successful practices including, CyberSecurity (IBM TIM/TAM/FIM, Verify, QRadar, Guardium, Sailpoint, BeyondTrust, Cisco Duo, Cisco Umbrella, Cisco ISE), Data (ie IBM Cognos, DB2, Snowflake, Tableau), UX -Adobe, Observability- Splunk , etc… the list goes on, but the methodology remains consistent.

Finally, once we get through traversing Business Objectives -> What we want to be -> What Platforms/Tools/OEMS do we want to leverage and we have some success, we identify patterns of needs and opportunities for accelerators (both GTM accelerators and implementation accelerators). At this stage we can then harden IP around these accelerators to define offerings that we then use for GTM acceleration, scale and simplify closing deals as well as accelerate and minimize cost of implementation.

So, while traditional thought might be that one should start by launching a product. That was usually much further down the maturity curve for me, where we market test our theories by having some success first that is aligned with our business objectives and desired pedigree first and based on what we learn we then harden into offerings/products that we can scale through market we choose to serve. The market will tell what it needs if you are observant enough.

The last part of your question regarding, where do most efforts stall, has no simple answer.

However, I can tell you I learned early that, as a solution provider, hypothesizing what the market may need and investing in building some really cool technology is a risky business. They don’t always come chasing for what you build. We focused on investing in areas where we saw patterns of customers issuing PO’s and signing SOW’s. While this approach may not be sexy, we chose not to be an ISV/OEM that hoped to build that next cool widget/app. I have been a solution provider and knew my place was to serve my customers. We simply needed to listen to what they wanted and solve those needs with consistency, integrity and excellence.

2. When it comes to strategy and GTM enablement, there is this abstraction to the whole concept, as with all knowledge work. But in your expertise, how do teams translate these abstract ideas into concrete actions that deliver the desired result?

It starts with the customer desired business outcome. You start there and work backwards.

Once you understand what the desired customer business outcome is and can produce KPIs that demonstrate the success of accomplishing those desired business outcomes, you now can identify what your target markets are (similar to those that you have had early success with), who the buying and recommending personas are, etc.

From there you can build GTM plans, including your sales/marketing team enablement, and pipeline ignition activities (and marketing plans) that will allow you to hunt and have a presence in the habitat that these target demographics occupy (i.e. industry events, industry publications, industry conferences, relevant online properties, etc..). All of your content has to consider the objective and who the audience is consuming the content.

For your sellers you need to arm/enable them with training and content that is credible, simple for them to understand and evangelize using semantics that is comfortable for them. Likewise for any customer facing content you’ll need to use the lingo that the buying/influencing personas for that target market use, understand and expect.

It’s far easier to build your plan (GTM, Enablement, Marketing, etc..), once you understand the desired customer outcome you are solving for and the demographics you’ll need to inspire achieve your own business objectives.

3. There is satisfaction, as a strategist, when you see the unique insight, innovation, or system take root and become reality. But many new and old strategists still exist in the realm of ideation. Insight is cultural and stays in pitch decks- to these teams, who aspire for more but get stuck in the same loops, what would you suggest they do?

This requires a cultural shift that will likely require at least one inspirational, visionary change agent that has the support of leadership. It requires the relevant team to take an art-of-the -possible and growth-first mindset every single day.

The past should be used for nothing more than to learn from. Learn from what growth inhibitors you may have faced and ideate on how you can be better tomorrow than you were yesterday. The past and current state should not be used as guardrails or constraints.

Favor progress over perfection recognizing that we may make some mistakes, but we will pivot quickly and based on what we have learned be better. This is not an event. It is a journey of constantly evolving recognizing that complacency is nothing more than the early stages of irrelevance. With this constant expectation of change, there will be times when portions of the organization will struggle and can become less than supportive.

Leadership needs to continue to support the change agent and encouraging the teams to evolve, as this ultimate progress ultimately benefits all.

It is critical to gain buy-in with the team members that will be accountable for helping drive the change. This starts by including them in the envisioning of the art of the possible and building the plan. Make them part of the opportunity so they can help provide contextual input on the plan that also helps make them feel accountable for the delivery of success and this co-created plan.

4. A large part of GTM, marketing, and sales training is that the teams learn new behaviors and not fall back on methods or strategies that don’t yield results. However, many organizational systems enable teams to return to their old habits. How can organizations develop methods that go beyond incentives that help them make changes that stick and alter behavior for the better?

First leadership needs to be clear about what the desired business objectives are, emphasize how committed the leadership team is to achieving those objectives, and what the strategy is for the organization to accomplish those objectives.

The KPI’s that will be used to manage the journey must also be clearly communicated and visible to all stake holders. Expect what you inspect. Help all in the organization understand the role they each play in achieving these KPIs that ultimately measure the success of us attaining the desired business objectives outlined above.

Now they can feel like they are relevant and part of the solution and feel some accountability for performing their jobs and impacting those KPIs and the ultimate success of the company. Habits/activities that do not support hitting the above KPIs/Objectives need to be replaced/evolved regardless of whether they are new or old. New or old is far less important than if they are contributing to the success of the business or if there are better ways.

The “how” is much less important than the “what.”

5. There’s something so interesting about a change agent- but not many people get exposed to business opportunities within the org or get buy-in for their ideas. If a person with high energy does want to bring change, how do they gain trust and buy-in for their ideas and execution?

Small successes lead to opportunities to drive larger successes on larger stages.

Start by identifying something that is within the purview of our manager. Use this as a showcase for you to prove your passion, capabilities and success. From there identify a larger opportunity for impact and ask for support from relevant leadership to solve for it (possibly providing a high level, well thought out plan on how you will drive success). Keep pushing. You will ultimately earn a chance.

Use each opportunity as a platform to show your abilities to a broader network.

You are essentially interviewing for your next career move every day with every interaction you have. Each success you have will build your brand of credibility and the network of possible leaders/participants that can influence your next opportunity.

Talk is cheap. Inspire by doing.