60 Days at Paragon Software

After starting with Paragon Software Group in June I have been able to gain a lot of traction internally with my coworkers as well as build on the momentum of creating a better more efficient channel sales experience.Using the principles I developed while writing the Channel Sales Playbook, I have been able to hit the ground running with the new company. In fact, I may be updating the Channel Sales Playbook or putting together a new one just to give a more detailed set of actions that I have tested with positive results. (In my non-existent spare time)

Besides the channel stuff, I also have the responsibility to work with the developers and the product managers in Europe to generate documents and product copy that will be used for the company website and be distributed internally and externally for customers. This is a new role for me. I did something like this in my last position and I obviously like to write so it seemed like a good fit. Writing product documentation is not as easy as writing a blog post about a shiny new desk or Twitter tips 101. In the latter, I am writing for myself and can be as creative as I want. For product documents there is a much tighter timeline and content focus that needs to be covered. It’s an adjustment but I’m submitting good stuff that is getting approved by the team so I guess I am doing something right.

Paragon even has user created videos on YouTube where people are showing off the software. I really should have looked into this before getting hired. Either way when I stumbled across these, I was excited.

This video is of Partition Manager along with an excellent music track.

I love user generated videos for products. I think Paragon should hold a contest or something with a giveaway for the best user generated video showing the Paragon Software products. They don’t seem to think it would be worth the effort but I see what other brands like Mozy, Carls Jr. and Pepsi are doing and figure Paragon could get into the user content arena also.

The company has a great team of sales, marketing and support people. After the first week getting my head wrapped around the products and what was already being done, I realized everyone is pretty much running on all cylinders making things happen.

Initially there was talk about having a press release done about me joining the company and explaining what my plans were for the Paragon Partner Network. I have never had a press release written about me let alone ever been mentioned in one. I was always the guy in the background making things happen for the people who were getting written up in the media. As the saying goes “Always the bridesmaid never the bride” or something like that.

It took a couple weeks to get used to the software. Drive Backup is a really good backup software. I installed it on my three machines at home and have not had any issues yet. Even my laptop has a scheduled backup run once a week now. Since I’ve been playing around with the product, I feel completely comfortable telling anyone how great it is.

Press Release

The company decided it would be a good thing to have this done. To get the word out to the vast number of VARs we would like to work with and even to the competitive solutions we come up against. Paragon software is going to start popping up on some radars soon and our products are going to start showing up in more and more

Here is what the final result was for the Paragon Software Channel Press Release.

Partner Training is the Key

My plan for building the companies channel sales group is all about getting the right training to the partners. Sure I can recruit reseller all day long but unless they feel comfortable talking about and implementing the disaster recovery software, they never will.

Instead of flying all over the U.S. doing trainings, I got very intimate with WebEx. What I didn’t expect was the desire of the Paragon partners to want this training so quickly. I’ve been averaging about 6-10 trainings a week for new and existing partners so far and more scheduled through the month. I explain more about using WebEx for sales here.

Paragon Software Sales Tools

One of the few things the company lacked was a standard template for demonstrations, trainings and partner recruitment. They were so busy making money no one got around to it. I took on the task since I was already working on other company documentation and created these. After a couple trainings and recruitment calls, I had some adjustments to make based on what partners were responding well too and now I have something I can bring to the masses.

60 Days at Paragon Software Group

In the past 2 months I have been doing a lot. Honestly I cant remember when I have been this busy before. Between putting together the structure and executing on the plans I made, I have been running nonstop. I expected this to be a quick post as an update but I guess I did a little more than that.