In February, Brad Dupee left the helm at Copper Conferencing to become regional vice president of channel sales at fellow conferencing provider InterCall. Dupee has been tasked with enhancing InterCall’s channel strategy and realigning the company’s focus and resources to support its top performing partners. PHONE+'s spoke with Dupee about his first six months in his new position and his plans for growing InterCall’s channel operations. What follows is a transcript of the interview.
CS: What is the relationship like between InterCall and Copper Conferencing, and how will your experience at Copper help you succeed in your new post as InterCall’s channel chief?
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| Intercall Channel Chief Brad Dupee |
Running a successful reseller like Copper Conferencing has been an absolute benefit to my quest for learning and has made a special contribution to my role as a channel sales leader in conferencing. They say that walking in another’s shoes is a priceless and valuable experience — and having been in the role of an InterCall channel partner, I cannot say enough about how it has shaped my perspective in leading our channel sales effort as the supplier. It is an unparalleled advantage in the conferencing channel and one that I intend to maximize.
CS: What have been your main goals in your first six months with InterCall and have you achieved them?
BD: Much of my early focus has been internal at InterCall ... specifically on re-education to help further strengthen the channel foundation. This effort pays ongoing dividends for our partner base and the support they receive from InterCall.
InterCall and my channel leadership predecessors have done a magnificent job of becoming the leader in providing conferencing services to customers through channel partners. As a logical next step, we must, quite simply, continue to mature. In the channel world this includes reinforcing our support of our existing channel partner relationships, cooperatively rethinking how conferencing should be sold uniquely through any one partner, generating real mindshare around the sale of conferencing through those partners and continuing the process of accelerating our growth — together. The fruits of this simple philosophy are already evident.
CS: How do you intend to identify InterCall’s top performing partners and then shift the channel focus toward supporting those partners?
BD: While we continue to grow in the number of partners through whom we sell our services, we have entered a new phase of channel maturity. Identifying those partners with the potential to over-perform is arguably the simplest part of the process. We’re now engaged in modeling sales plans and then executing with our partners. This is where the rubber meets the road.
