SonicWall announced this week that it is reunifying its approach to managing sales across enterprise and small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) by appointing Robert VanKirk, previously senior vice president of strategic sales, to the position of Chief Revenue Officer.
At the same time, SonicWall revealed that Steve Pataky, vice president of worldwide sales and channel chief for the U.S., has resigned. Pataky had been mainly responsible for SMB sales via the channel, while VanKirk had been primarily tasked with expanding SonicWall’s presence in vertical industry segments.
The decision to consolidate enterprise and SMB sales efforts is coinciding with an effort to increase the size and scope of the high-touch sales team at SonicWall, says company CEO Bill Conner. While all transactions will continue to run through the channel, Conner says it is clear partners are asking for more sales support as cybersecurity becomes more complex.
Conner notes that since spinning out from Dell Technologies, the overall SonicWall portfolio has increased by over 40 products, representing some 160 million lines of code. Asking partners to become experts in every aspect of the SonicWall portfolio simply isn’t practical, especially when updates and additions to that portfolio will be made in rapid succession in the months ahead, says Conner.
While Conner credits Pataky with reinvigorating a SonicWall channel that now consists of more than 17,000 partners, changes in the way cybersecurity products and services are consumed require a new approach to sales at this time, says Connor.
“The last three years with Steve have been awesome,” says Connor.
While SonicWall before and after the acquisition and subsequent spinoff from Dell Technologies has always benefited from a loyal base of partners, competition across the cybersecurity space has never been fiercer at a time when IT organizations need products and services that go well beyond a basic firewall.
The complexity associated with selling a more diverse portfolio of cybersecurity products and services naturally represents a major challenge for solutions providers at a time when cybersecurity expertise is in chronic short supply. IT vendors that make the extra effort to make resources and expertise available will for many solution providers become the deciding factor in determining to partner with one vendor versus another.
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