Valerie Scharlin Richards Email & Phone Number

Santa Clara, California, Us

• Drive market expansion through targeted positioning, messaging, content, and assets to support the Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies for Infoblox solutions for the Channel sales and marketing teams and the commercial, midsize enterprise market.• Create, distribute, and manage customer/partner benefit-focused collateral including datasheets, solution guides, presentations, one-pagers, blog posts, and win stories; sales enablement assets including battlecards, presentations, videos, and guides.• Conduct market research and interpret the results to identify ideal customer profiles and buyer personas, pain points to solve, benefits of our solutions, and market differentiation.• Cross-functional collaboration with Product Management, Sales, Enablement, Channel Marketing, Field Marketing, Events, Corporate Marketing/Branding, Demand Gen, PR/AR, and Web teams.

San Jose, California, Us

• Owned the outbound Partner Program strategy, messaging, and collateral/deliverables.• Managed the quarterly to-partner communications program and public and portal website content.• Planned, executed, and measured direct and indirect lead generation programs: webinars, trade shows and events, content syndication, online advertising, social media, and enablement “playbooks”.• Drove awareness, lead generation, and enterprise sales opportunities with global Technology Partners (AWS, SFDC, SAP, WordPress, Contentful) and Channel/Solution Partners (SIs, Consultants, Digital Agencies).• Collaborated with Business Development/Channel Sales and Inside Sales to execute outbound call campaigns and lead engagement tactics.• Partner marketing advocate on cross-functional teams, defining partner sales and marketing requirements for product launches and other general marketing initiatives.

New York, Ny, Us

• Promoted a 2nd time into Zift’s Center of Excellence team to provide customers and employees digital and traditional channel marketing strategies, thought leadership, consulting, and enablement services.• Engaged in 10 internal and external discussions/best practice sharing sessions offering integrated marketing insights, recommendations, and training to drive desired channel business outcomes and goals.• Advised key Enterprise customers such as VMware, Samsung, and Atlassian on tactical partner marketing initiatives to deploy within the platform to drive adoption and increased partner value. • Developed the “Ready – Set – Go” program, a Channel Success initiative designed to create a data-driven and measurable action plan, corresponding enablement training and tools, and assistance in execution.

New York, Ny, Us

• Promoted to manage and coach a team of 6 CSMs with varying backgrounds and experience levels to proactively demonstrate value to the customer base to reduce churn and meet company revenue targets.• Developed the Zift Channel Success Plan, a data-driven, value-based customer action plan to drive adoption, engagement, renewal, and growth. Launched, trained, and mentored 15 CSMs on the process. • Created 10 Playbooks and How-To Manuals on marketing best practices and general account management guidance. Deployed cross-functionally to CSMs, Sales, and Professional Services.• Managed the success function in new customer software implementations, focusing on strategy, onboarding, enablement, and adoption. Engaged in 21 new customer implementations during 2019.

New York, Ny, Us

• Hired for channel marketing and digital marketing domain expertise; focused on email, social media & content syndication, document library management; enablement tools; lead & opportunity management. • Established and grew relationships with day-to-day contacts and executive sponsors in over 30 accounts.• Monitored and identified trends in platform adoption and utilization, providing strategic channel and partner program guidance via weekly or bi-weekly reporting discussions and scheduled business reviews.• Escalation point for customer product, training, and service issues; worked cross-functionally to resolve.

San Jose, California, Us

• Recruited to lead the overall global SMB channel go-to-market strategy and plan; oversaw a 4-person virtual team and $2.3M annual budget. • Charged with centralizing, standardizing, and taking the SMB Channel Marketing program to the next level, poising company to achieve double-digit revenue growth in the global SMB market. • Worked cross-functionally and with agencies to develop, execute, and track turn-key integrated demand generation kits to fuel SMB market sales through channel partners. 300 kit downloads in the 1st 90 days.• Owned the SMB partner program strategy, messaging, and collateral, plus the integrated tools to recruit, on-board, enable, maintain, and reward partners. Doubled the number of SMB partners in 1 year.• Assisted in the strategy and launch of the new Zift Solutions channel marketing automation platform in support of partner-led co-marketing activities and lead/opportunity tracking.

Pleasanton, Ca, Us

• Position changed due to company merger in 2010; promoted a 3rd time to Director in 2012.• Directed general channel marketing, strategic partner/alliance marketing, partner recruitment, and outbound marketing of the channel partner program; managed 2 direct reports and $500K annual budget. • Developed annual channel go-to-market plan: messaging, web properties, communications, collateral and sales tools; created integrated digital advertising, events, and training campaigns.• Led co-marketing efforts with Premier Master Agents and Strategic/Alliance Partners (Cisco, Polycom, Samsung, ADTRAN) to increase awareness, revenue, and new partner recruitment.• Logistical lead for the Partner Advisory Council, bringing together C-level/SVP representatives from the company’s Top 10 partners 3 – 4 times a year.• Managed presence at 4 major industry trade shows annually, created event campaigns in SFDC and post-show lead follow up processes and tools for the sales team.

Pleasanton, Ca, Us

• Promoted a 2nd time with added responsibility for leading the online demand generation strategy and execution for the SMB and Mid-Market customer segments; managed 3 direct reports.• Directed the PPC (pay-per-click) and alternate online lead generation programs, generating ~15,500 leads with a 4% lead-to-close rate and $6.3M in new lifetime customer revenue.• Supervised development and execution of a new Marketing Automation Platform, generating $620K in attributed revenue within the first 6 months of program implementation.• Provided critical insights on marketing spend and ROI: tracked and monitored metrics on campaign leads, conversions, resulting revenues, and spend to provide visibility into each program’s level of effectiveness. • Managed the channel marketing strategy to recruit, train, and enable new and existing channel partners. Contributed to 50% growth in channel revenue and 300 new channel partners.

Pleasanton, Ca, Us

• Promoted within 1 year with added responsibility for Channel Marketing; managed 1 direct report.• Captured $1M+ in renewed business and $150K of net new business via cross-sell and up-sell campaigns, overseeing the execution of Monthly Customer Retention campaigns. • Reduced monthly out-of-contract customers from ~2,000 to ~300 per month over the course of 3 years by initiating the launch of a highly targeted and segmented Customer Retention program. • Grew partner base and revenues by 150% in 1 year via a successful overhaul and re-launch of the Channel Partner program.

Pleasanton, Ca, Us

• Hired to develop, execute, and track lead generation campaigns for the SMB and Retention sales teams. • Executed monthly e-mail and telemarketing campaigns highlighting specific solutions in ideal target markets using targeted customer profiles to drive in net new leads.• Re-designed and re-launched the Customer Referral Program to encourage lead referrals from existing customers as well as provided integrated marketing tools for the sales teams to promote the offering.• Developed and executed highly segmented monthly customer retention campaigns that reduced churn to the lowest level in company history, 1.8%.

Santa Clara, California, Us

• Defined, set, and evangelized global channel requirements on all cross-functional product launch teams for hardware, software, and service launches.

San Jose, California, Us

• Managed all high-touch outbound corporate marketing communications programs.• Developed, managed, and distributed outbound product marketing programs highlighting the Voice division’s entire product line.• Developed, administered, and monitored internal and external channel sales tools and communications.

Mba

Ba, Major: History, Minor: Managerial Economics

Professional Award In Public Relations