The sudden widespread adoption of remote work has accelerated demand for team collaboration software around the world, so much so that the market is projected to grow from $10 billion in 2020 to $24 billion in 2027 in the U.S. alone, according to Grand View Research.
So it’s no surprise that monday.com — a cloud-based work operating system (work OS) where teams plan, run and track projects, processes and everyday work — wants to strengthen and grow its presence in North America. Currently, more than half of monday.com’s customers are based in the region, but the global company has only just begun to maximize the market potential here through channel partners that can sell the SaaS product to both small and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises.
Channel partners — third-party businesses that market and sell services on behalf of a vendor — are vital to monday.com’s sales strategy, and it currently has nearly 100 channel partners in more than 45 countries. The company has recognized its value, tripling the size of its global channel team in recent months. And this summer, it hired Director of Channel Partnerships Alexandra Detweiler for its new North American division.
With nearly 25 years of experience building and leading SaaS sales and global partner alliances teams at industry heavyweights like Microsoft and Salesforce, Detweiler is tasked with supporting existing partners and acquiring new ones, to put it simply. But her mission is ambitious.
“We want to build upon our existing worldwide partner program and create the largest and most successful partnership ecosystem for our SaaS work operating system (OS),” Detweiler recently told Built In NYC. “In the next year, we want to capture a tremendous market share of organizations and drive millions of dollars of revenue via our North American Partner Channel.”
While it may sound like she’s got her work cut out for her heading up the new channel partnerships program, Detweiler said monday.com has invested in her and her team’s success in multiple ways.
“We have the support of a tremendous partner enablement team, including a new onboarding Partner Academy, which provides new monday.com partners with sales and technical enablement and certifications,” she said. “We want partners to help with localization efforts and to build customer apps for enterprises on top of the monday.com platform,” Detweiler said.
The ideal monday.com channel partner’s professional background can vary, but Detweiler said above all, they should share the company’s core values of transparency, ownership and accountability. “Ideal partners serve as an extension of our culture,” she said. Those values drive her channel partnerships team, too.
Built In NYC recently caught up with Detweiler to discuss more about her work owning the complete partnership lifecycle and the channel partnerships team’s function within the company as it seeks to expand into new markets.
What are the expectations for your role as director of monday.com’s Channel Partnerships team?
Our mission is to drive value and net new revenue via our partners and enable our shared customers. The North American Channel Partnership team is responsible for the recruitment, onboarding, and joint go-to-market (GTM) strategy for the monday.com work OS.
My goal is to guide and support both internal team members and external partners in an effort to create and execute successful strategies for driving monday.com into new, expanding markets. I provide our team with a clear understanding of monday.com’s strategy, align resources to enable progress and remove roadblocks.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities as part of this team? What skills and experience do you find to be an asset to your work?
The team and I own the complete partnership lifecycle, spanning from recruitment of partners, technical and sales onboarding, GTM and business development, to the execution of partner lead sales. Our goal is to build a best-in-class partner ecosystem.
I came to monday.com with 25 years of previous partner lead sales experience working with internal teams and external partners to create a shared vision. My time at Microsoft stands out as instrumental to the development of my leadership and the delivery of results. My early days on the Microsoft Windows mobile apps team highlights the importance of early adoption. I look to those experiences to inspire organizational excellence for the monday.com North America Channel Partnerships team.
What is the team’s vision for the new North American Channel Partnerships?
We want to build upon our existing worldwide partner program and create the largest and most successful partnership ecosystem for SaaS work OS. In the next year, we want to capture a tremendous market share of organizations and drive millions of dollars of revenue via our North American Partner Channel. It’s a considerable opportunity for our partners who are seeking net new revenue streams and professional services growth.
We want to build upon our existing worldwide partner program and create the largest and most successful partnership ecosystem for SaaS work OS.”
How does this team operate within the business, collaborating with sales or other departments?
Our North American Channel is one of five monday.com partner teams. The others are Reseller and Referral Partners, Global System Integrators, Technical Integration Partners and Academic Partners. We have the support of a tremendous Partner Enablement team, including a new onboarding Partner Academy, which provides new monday.com partners with sales and technical enablement and certifications.
Our channel partner team collaborates with monday.com’s sales teams. We align prospective and existing customers with partners to deliver sales, as well as integrated solutions. Our position at monday.com is to always work in the best interest of customers.
What are some examples of successful Channel Partnerships?
monday.com’s North American Channel Partners and Channel Partner Managers are working to grow the customer base, adding a net new SaaS revenue stream, and extending professional services practice.
One of our partners, Damco Solutions, shared monday.com’s goal of delivering value through simple yet powerful technology solutions. We’re helping the entire Damco team master our product’s capabilities through the Partner Academy, where they are learning to create apps and building blocks so they can provide fully customized solutions to each client.
How does the Channel Partnerships team embody monday.com’s values and what is this particular team’s culture like?
Personally, I was drawn to monday.com’s rocketship growth as well as the core values and culture. In everything we do, we seek a culture of transparency, collaboration and ownership. We strive for impact in everything we do as a company and as a team. We are committed to inclusion, respecting ideas and making decisions together. Lastly, we move at lightning speed and we are not afraid to fail and iterate until we land on what will drive the most value for our partners and customers.
For those on our team, Channel Partner Managers, like Sarit Chalamish and Katherine Heisler, all exhibit passion for networking, relationships, excellence and iterating.
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