Increasing Zscaler's Channel Partner Profitability

Currently, Zscaler has nearly six-dozen certified and authorized security service partners, a base that’s growing three times faster — and is more profitable — than partners without services. // Larry Walsh & Bryn Nettesheim, Channelnomics (For Zscaler Partners, Success Is All About Security Services)

Being one of the highly-coveted service partners and value-added distribution partner, of course we were at the Partner Summit portion of Zenith Live and have our own perspective on how all of this maps to not only the channel community, but more specifically the smaller commercial partners and their customers. 

A Golden Opportunity, Indeed

Increased revenue and margin even for smaller VARs? Yes, please!

at the Zenith Live ’24 conference in Las Vegas, Zscaler made a point of emphasizing to the partners in attendance that comprehensive technical capabilities plus robust service capacity is the winning formula in the best-of-breed security market. // Larry Walsh & Bryn Nettesheim, Channelnomics

For the large enterprise VARs it's easy to see how increased services, especially as a fully authorized services partner, translates to more opportunities and, therefore, more profitability. But what about the smaller SME VARs; those that don't have a deep bench of Zscaler-focused technical talent always at the ready? Hint: The answer is a value-add distribution partner -- like the only one whose stated mission is providing "Everything the Zscaler Channel Needs to Succeed". 

Here's how you win and gain your share of the enormous channel opportunity:

• Build or Partner?: Getting top authorized partners in front of your customers is going to exponentially increase the likelihood of success. As a commercial VAR you could try and build out this an authorized services program yourself, but as you will surely find out it's going to be a VERY heavy lift. And it should be. What Zscaler has built with all of their service partner programs is akin to being a Rolex partner -- where only a relatively small percentage will be able to achieve and then retain the certification and commitments. For this reason, fully leveraging your distribution partner, in this case SecureDynamics, makes the most sense (for the majority). There's no channel conflict, as we are here to back you all the way, whereby you and your customers just get to enjoy our capabilities as though they were your own. 
• Get comfortable saying YES: VARs that have partnered with SecureDynamics have confidence that they can engage any opportunity with confidence. Of course every Zscaler partner is required to fulfill sales and engineering certification requirements (yes, we help with that as well), but as we all know there's are inherent gaps between certified, qualified, and exceptionally well qualified. With the gaps closed, you can engage opportunities of any size, knowing that we are going to back your play -- from pre-sales and throughout the entire Zscaler journey that the customer will have before them. 
• Increase your margin, grow your business: From the very first quote you receive for any registered opportunity you will see that SecureDynamics provides a huge discount for delivery services. This added margin allows you to earn more, learn more, and enjoy your Zscaler-enabled life more than ever before. Not only is that what you are surely after, but what Zscaler wants for you as well, as that is why we worked so diligently with them to bring all of the service capability to the commercial channel space. 

The bottom line is that, even where you are offering your own services for various IT needs, having a fully authorized Zscaler distribution (non-competitive) partner relationship right at your fingertips, with advanced value-add services like free health checks, is going to have a real impact on your profitability, customer satisfaction, and growth potential. 

As Soderlund explained, Zscaler wants to enable partners to be able to sell, deploy, and support its products with more independence, which ultimately will help Zscaler grow its business. // Larry Walsh & Bryn Nettesheim, Channelnomics