[E6] The Role of Strategic Alliances with Yeva Roberts of PFL.com AppChat

Yeva Roberts of PFL.com joins the AppChat Podcast to share what her role as Senior Director of Strategic Alliances & Innovation entails and how relationship building plays an integral role. Also addressed is the critical gatekeeper role of Salesforce solution engineers, successful tactics PFL uses to interact with them to drive sales, and what to look for in a great Alliances Manager of your own. Here are the key topics, with timestamps, as well as the full interview transcript: Key Topics 00:00-00:50  Introducing the AppChat and our guest, Printing For Less’ Yeva Roberts 00:51-2:23       Defining the role of Strategic Alliances and what it means 2:24-4:37          The history of Printing For Less 4:38-10:42       How Yeva got involved with PFL and the changes she has seen 10:43-11:55      Bridging the digital and print worlds to ensure people understand the value, importance, and opportunity 11:56-15:31       The breakdown of relationship building vs. business development in Strategic Alliances 15:32-20:04     The role of solution engineers and how to interact with them 20:05-22:39     How to identify the SEs that are going to help you the most to get established 22:40-26:21      Tips on managing relationships with your partner account managers (PAMs) 25:32-28:52      PFL's versatility across multiple clouds at Salesforce 28:53-30:15      What to look for in a great Alliances Manager 30:16-30:52      Closing out and how to get in touch Full Transcript Intro: 00:01 You're listening to the AppChat, a podcast focused on SaaS growth strategies, plus successes in the Salesforce ecosystem and beyond. Here's your host, CodeScience CEO, Brian Walsh. Brian Walsh: 00:13 Welcome back everybody. We are back on the AppChat podcast and today I'm joined by someone I think is absolutely fascinating. I had the honor of working with her for the past, I think a year and a half, two years. We've been on and off again, been working on things, having conversations, meeting up at conferences -- and so with us is Yeva Roberts who's the Alliances Manager for PrintingForLess.com. Welcome. Yeva Roberts: 00:39 Thanks, Brian. I'm so excited to be here. Brian Walsh: 00:41 It is great to be here. I'm sorry everybody else doesn't get to see the video of this because your smile just makes me want to speak in a really happy tone. So thank you for that. How would you define your role as an Alliance Manager? What does that mean? Yeva Roberts: 00:56 Wow. So, that's a tough one. So I guess it depends on what stage of growth you're in. As an ISV, I think for us being a startup within a larger company, it means that you get to wear multiple hats. So initially if you're the very first Strategic Alliances, evangelists is what we call each other, you get to be the channel operations person, the channel sales, channel marketing, what have you, because you're really trying to prove your worth in an AppExchange exchange of 4,000 apps. So for you and me, I think it's a matter of just being open to wearing multiple hats and navigating the ecosystem, and being that internal subject matter expert on Salesforce. As well as being that external subject matter expert on PFL, in my case to all the Salesforce solution engineers, account executives, marketing teams, PR, as well as all the SIs and ISV partners. Brian Walsh: 01:55 That is such an interesting role. I once heard it described to me as you're in charge of making sure two large companies, corporations, actually can speak the same language and understand each other. Yeva Roberts: 02:06 Yeah, it's funny. I love that because you're essentially a translator. You're getting to look at the world through a keyhole, really two keyholes, right? So you get to see your worldview as an ISV and then you get to advocate for and evangelize the second worldview of your partnership. Brian Walsh: 02:24 So why don't we back up a second and actually talk about Printing For Less. What is PFL? What