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.
• 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.
• 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