Breaking Myths About Comcast Business

In this edition of Mythbusters, Eric Solomon, the director of national partner sales at Comcast, discusses breaking myths about Comcast business. The discussion covers Comcast business’s global capabilities, security solutions portfolio, and the success of teaming at the SMB, mid-market, and enterprise levels. The indirect team at Comcast business has undergone significant changes in the last twelve months, including a one-to-one ratio for partner sales managers and inside partner sales managers, growth in the program team, and alignment with the corporate marketing team. Additionally, Comcast business executives will be more visible on the road, focusing on SaaS, MDR, and creating more differentiation and expansion. Advisers are encouraged to engage with Comcast for aggregation and explore the MMI product for domestic and global opportunities.

Introduction

Hey, channel partners. You are not watching the Discovery Channel, but this is an edition of Mythbusters.

Mythbusters, Comcast edition. We got Eric Solomon. Eric is the director of national partner sales at Comcast. Hey, Eric. How’s it going?

Things are great, Tim. Thanks for asking. Looking forward to the discussion.

I thought we’d have some fun today. We do a Mythbusters edition. You know, Comcast is a giant is a giant company. Most people know the brand.

They think they know what you do, and most do. But let’s let’s go, you know, three or four myths deep here and see if we can break some myths. What do you think? Are you are you up for the challenge?

Myth Number One: Comcast Business Connectivity

I’m up for the challenge, Tim.

Alright, Eric. I love it. Challenge accepted. Alright. Let’s start with the biggest one. Myth number one, Comcast business only sells connectivity within its footprint.

Alright. So, actually, we’re gonna call that one a myth.

It’s false.

We have a full security solutions portfolio that we can sell anywhere inside of our footprint or outside of our footprints. This includes managed detection and response, endpoint detection and response, TMR, SOC as a service, a full a full toolbox. Furthermore, we have global capabilities. We have over fifty pops throughout the world, a twenty one plus year of global WAN experience.

Our global network is unique, and our partners can sell managed services on top of it or without it.

We’ve also made it’s this one’s really interesting. Out of footprint investment over the last year, we’ve hired a hundred and seventy account executives out of footprint that are outselling the full suite of Comcast services, and many of those reps are out, account executives, I should say, are out, partnering, teaming with our channel partners today. So, you know, really, we are focused in and out of footprint. I would call that myth busted.

I think the myth is busted. We see it in real time, whether it’s giant large opportunities, big enterprise opportunities, or expanded regional opportunities, the partnering, your footprint is has really become a superpower with the investment you guys have made. It’s become a special things for a for a lot of our technology advisers around the globe who’ve embraced it and embraced the partnership. So myth busted.

Myth Number Two: Teaming with Comcast Business

There’s a lot of opportunity with Comcast out of footprint and in footprint. Alright. Let’s go to myth number two. You ready?

Absolutely. Bring it.

Comcast business is not teaming in a friendly way. In other words, you’re not partnering with advisers in the field. What’s up?

Tim, I love this one. I’m gonna I’m gonna go ahead and bust this myth. So we consider teaming a great opportunity for mutual growth.

We recognize the strength of the indirect channel, and, certainly, it’s a it’s a it’s a love of mine. Over the last twelve months, some of our largest deals, as a matter of fact, our largest deals have come in from a team effort.

The partners and the direct teams are stronger to to together. We like to leverage our existing relationships with your partner’s endorsements to create a best environment for all.

We we we think in terms of this being added mind share, added retention, and we believe that everybody wins in this situation.

We’ve had a lot of success in this area. Teaming is something that we’re a big believer in.

Yeah.

Myth is busted in a big way. As you said, not only, a lot of SMB and mid market teaming, but at the enterprise level and its enhancement. Superpowers are created when teams come together. So we’re seeing great synergies when teaming happens in the field.

When people come into a situation with an open mind, they put their egos on the shelf, and they just talk about how to create the best possible outcome outcome for the client. We’re winning together. In fact, I remember not too long ago, we had a chance to spend some time with your whole team, and we talked about the Telarus one team one mission. You know?

It’s it’s our whole ecosystem. It’s Telarus plus our suppliers like like Comcast and our advisors in the field that make this all possible. And when we connect and lock arm lock arms, we’re winning at a at a faster rate and at a bigger rate. And the growth, you touched down retention.

Retention is really strong too because the client sees the strength of the support, the unified support. So I’m with you. Myth busted. Alright.

Myth Number Three: Changes in Comcast Business Indirect Team

Myth number three.

Comcast business indirect team has not changed in twelve years.

Is the indirect team stale? What’s going on, Eric?

So I I’m gonna I’m gonna go ahead and and and try to bust that myth.

First of all, I wasn’t here twelve years ago, so there’s a change.

But let let’s just talk about this.

The indirect change, by the way.

It’s a great change.

I I certainly hope so.

I enjoy being here.

The indirect team, has grown, actually, over the last twelve months. There has been plenty of changes made. There’s been, a few changes in leadership, but we have actually gone from our field sales team, the PSMs, the partner sales managers, which is our field sales team.

They each had an inside partner sales manager, that was shared with Yeah.

You know, between two or three of them. We’ve actually gone to a one to one, ratio.

So each partner sales manager has an inside partner sales manager. They’re part of a team with an engineer that we call a three wide team.

Okay.

There’s been growth in that area. We’ve grown, significantly. That one to one ratio should allow us to to give our partners and customers better service in this you know, from a sales perspective. Furthermore, our program team is now aligned with our corporate marketing team, which gives our partners opportunities to take part in in things like the players golf tournament, access to more content like white papers and thought leadership.

And, you know, we are actually building a content portal that’s gonna be rolled out later on this year. We’re focused on ease of doing business. It’s a priority for us, customer service, customer excellence.

That’s what we’re looking at, and we have certainly we’ve certainly grown the team, and tried to streamline the team so that we can make it more efficient for our partners and and and give a little bit of change over these last this last year. So, definitely, there’s been a change over the last twelve years.

Yeah. What I’d say there is miss busted for sure, and I think the myth comes from people who haven’t been engaging with Comcast as frequently as others. They haven’t seen the the real time investments to reduce friction.

All the things that you just talked about are really empowering the channel to do more with more from Comcast. So be able to engage more with less friction to create better transactions overall client experience because of your investments. And then the new stuff coming, you know, more content, more thought leadership, that’s all great too, because we know these services are complex. So creating too because we know these services are complex.

So creating thought leadership, creating good content, giving that to our advisors so they can use it to edify your position in the market is also just outstanding, and we’re looking forward to that. So, what can we expect? You know, we’re headed into the the end of twenty twenty.

Can we finalize that and say that we we busted another myth?

Look at you checking me. Yeah. Myth busted.

Alright.

Future Plans and Roadmap

More better from Comcast, and we can we can expect even more. Right?

Absolutely.

Alright. Myth busted. So twenty twenty four, we’re past the second half cruising into twenty twenty five. What can we expect over the next, you know, the closing months, but also kicking off twenty twenty five, and, we’re racing into the the bright future here?

Alright. So, you know, as you start to see Comcast on the road, what you’re gonna see is is is a little more investment. You’re gonna see our executives out on the road.

You know, people like Matt Fosnott and and Nelson Ortiz are coming out on the road. Nelson is is is our vice president of solutions engineering. We’re bringing Joe Austin, who is our VP of solutions architecture, to talk about some of the enterprise deals, Mike McKeown, who is our VP of global sales, to talk about how we wrap this all together into global solutions. You know, Matt’s our channel chief certainly putting it all together for our partners. You’re gonna see more of them on the road.

As far as a a product is concerned, we’re really focused on SaaS and and and, frankly, MDR. Take a look at us. You’ll we’re on the road, you’re gonna see our MDR demo. We have a unique offering powered by Rapid7.

We’re gonna be able to show you what that looks like, why it’s exciting, and we have the only partnership with them in the channel right now. It’s unique, and our partners want want want to take a look at it. So, I would say that’s what you would look for from us on the road for the next six to twelve months.

Awesome. More differentiation, more expansion, really focus on those advanced solutions.

Customers are looking for them. They’re in high demand, and you’re gonna be there to fill the need. Let’s wrap things up with one rapid fire question. You ready?

I’m ready.

Engaging with Advisors and Aggregation Solutions

Alright. We talked about travel in the country. We talked about your global footprint. You and I get to engage with advisers all over the place. What’s the one thing that you wish more advisers would do? Either a best practice that you just you see some people doing and others not. And you’re like, if they would all do this, they’d all be killing it out there.

Tim, when it comes to, multisite customers, when it comes to aggregating customers, Comcast has a play. It’s an exciting play. You know of us for our network. You know of us for, our SD WAN offerings.

But when it comes to aggregation, I would say take a look at us. Give us a shot when it comes to aggregation. We’ve earned it. We have a product called MMI that we’ve been taking off with, I would say.

Have partners take a look at that, whether it be domestic or global.

It’s a pretty exciting offering for for our partners, for our customers.

Take a look at us for aggregation. That’s what I think that more should be looking at more partners should be looking at.

Yeah. For sure. Look. I see it in real time. So do you. When partners embrace you for an aggregated solution and they partner, they’re winning with a very high rate.

Alright, Eric. That’s our time. Three myths busted, a great future road map, talking about engaging with you in the field, what they can look forward to, and we’re looking forward to just continued success with our partnership with Comcast. You guys are great.

To all the advisors out there, think Comcast for aggregation like Eric said. Also, look, do a deep dive into the portfolio, engage with your Telarus team to find out about our services, solutions, and tools, how they match up with Comcast, and how you can do more together with Comcast and Telarus. That’s it for now. Be great.