You can tell a lot about a company by the way they go to market. And you can tell that the major vendors that use a North American model, instead of going to market in Canada directly, just don’t get it.
While some vendors will say they have a North American model, in essence, what they have is a U.S. model. In terms of market size, Canada is a mouse beside the American elephant. So when it comes to attention and resources, where is the “North American” director of channel sales going to spend his or her time? Exactly. And it’s understandable; they have numbers to make.
I remember when Sun Microsystems, which had a strong Canadian go-to-market led by Andy Canham as the Canadian president and John Cammalleri as channel chief, was acquired by and absorbed into Oracle, which has a North American model. I asked Tom Wagner, who led North American alliances and channel sales for Oracle, about the decision to end that Canadian-first model. He said Canada and the U.S. were basically the same.
“We do look at it as a North American market, not a U.S. and Canadian market,” said Wagner. “The selling opportunities are virtually identical, and the program architecture we’re rolling-out and opportunities for partners apply for Canadian partners as well.”
Spoken like an executive that clearly doesn’t spend that much time in the Canadian market. Because the two are incredibly different. The sales motion is different, and often longer. The market opportunity is very different; the U.S. is big enterprise, Canada is small and mid-market. Our definitions of small and mid-market are even different. Revenue targets that may make sense in the U.S. can be unachievable in Canada.
There are two models we see vendors using. In the North American model, the country manager, if there is one, is a glorified salesmen. The key executives, such as the channel chief, report into their North American superiors, who set program direction, and not the country manager. In the Canada-first model, the country manager sets the go-to-market direction, manages the key executives, and sets program and direction designed for Canada.
Some vendors do get it. While we’d have liked to have seen a Canadian picked to lead the subsidiary, Microsoft has always had a distinct and strong go-to-market in Canada, with corporate programs adjusted to reflect the Canadian market.
Another vendor that gets it is Intel. Under new Canadian country manager Graham Palmer, a reorganization is underway. While previously, separate sales and marketing organizations in Canada would have reported into U.S.-based executives, now as country manager Palmer will direct and oversee sales and marketing strategy for the Canadian market. And other vendors are also going in this direction.
“It’s a very holistic view of what’s happening in the market,” said Palmer. “It will allow (me) to set the unifying direction for the country team, as opposed to being more business-segment focused. You have a breadth of visibility into the entire market, and can identify where there’s opportunities for collaboration and new partners.”
It’s ironic, because the Intel-owned (but separately run) McAfee is going in the opposite direction in Canada. Former McAfee Canada president Luc Villeneuve has been moved into a new role, and the McAfee executive that runs the Northeastern U.S. will now tack on Canada to his job, with the new title of vice-president of Americas East and Canada. Canada can’t be a tack-on to a region of the U.S.; not by a major vendor such as McAfee. Canada is a distinct market, and shouldn’t be treated as an afterthought.
Vendors that realize Canada needs its own approach will succeed here. Those that don’t won’t, but they’ll probably be too “North American” focused to notice anyways.