How Digital.ai Leverages Marketplace to Win Deals

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All righties.

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Hi, everybody.

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It's good. We can't see anybody else, but I know there are 10.

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Just really quick introduction. My name is Amy Callahan. I am one of the

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enterprise accounting executives here at tackle. And today I have the honor to be able to chat with

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Mike Williams from digital. Mike, I'm going to pass it over to you to introduce

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yourself and a little bit about digital.ai. All right. Thanks, Amy. Privilege is mine, by the way, just so you know.

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I'm Mike Williams. I'm the senior senior account executive for digital AI.

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I have a great name, digital and AI. So you've probably heard of those kind of

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before. But what we do. I'm work the Bay Area primarily in the software

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development area at Silicon Valley.

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And that's my my charger. The company is digital AI is a combination of a

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private equity roll up that we did about four years ago with some best of breed

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companies.

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And what we do is we solve the problem of software development life cycle. So

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all digital transformations that have gone awry. There's no issues. They have

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less visibility.

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They have tools, sprawl, etc. We help solve those problems for the top airlines

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, the top financial institutions in the world.

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Now, the top gaming companies in the world and technology companies in the

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world as well. So excited to be here and talk about how we can make more.

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How we can all make more money and maybe even work a little bit less. I don't

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know. Oh, that would be great. And Mike, I mean, everybody, Mike is very humble. He's

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been hitting club for 21 years. So we all have a lot to learn from Mike here.

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And we all want to be at club as accounting second. So Mike, can you just share

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with me through your tenure of selling?

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What has your journey with marketplace been and from your perspective? Can you

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share and office the brew? What that looked like for you in the last couple of

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years?

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Yeah, so great, great question. So the reality is, is that, you know, I've been

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in, been selling for quite a while, as you know, 20 years is club or whatever

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is my, is a good thing. But that just means I'm old.

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That means I've seen that I've done it. Right. So, but like really about three

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to four years ago, it was business as usual, right? It's just the hard slog of

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selling, right?

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Where you've got enterprise selling, you've got multiple buyers, you're just

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trying to win deals. And something unlocked about three or four years ago,

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really, to let me understand that these market places out there occur basically

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, we're starting to form.

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And I didn't really understand it too much because I wasn't quite sure of how

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would it affect me? Like, why would a cloud hyperscaler like Google or AWS or

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Microsoft that matter?

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Why would that affect me? And in fact, in some cases, I'm even competing with

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them actually, right? So I had to kind of really dig in and figure out what

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these were and what was the big issue, what was the big deal?

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And what I found was the fact that there's these whole market places out there

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that tackle is actually helping to create essentially and helping to you to get

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listed.

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And I found that there was potential opportunity, huge opportunity, that I wasn

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't even aware of.

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So here to four, I've been selling into these deals, trying to grab budget from

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the owners of those particular, whether it's engineering or whether it's a

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product or what have you.

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And here come to find out, there's this huge transformation budget or cloud

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budget that's enterprise-wide.

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And it's tied into these marketplaces. And so I just started to do my math and

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our homework and obviously our alliances people got involved with tackle.

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And what we learned was that the kind of business that we do, part of it is a

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listing on that marketplace, which is a good thing.

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So we figured out, we have to be on the marketplace. And I was reading up about

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companies that literally had grown 3,000% in revenue because they were on this

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marketplace.

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I'm like, well, we got to get there. We got to get there. So we finally got

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there. We got into the marketplace. It happened to be AWS with their

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marketplace.

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And then I learned that there is a whole other side to it, which is the

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procurement side.

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So that basically helped me to believe that the procurement people now are

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looking at this.

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And oh, by the way, if I can have my solution on the marketplace, I found out

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that it actually takes the spend from that cloud budget and choose it down so

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that they don't have to take as much commit for like AWS AWS.

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Or Google, they don't have to do it all in just cloud compute. It can be done

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through marketplace spend as well.

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And therein lies the aha moment, like, oh my God, this is this is, there's

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found money here. There's there's situations that are happening, but that I

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wasn't aware of.

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And that's what led me to this. Now, what's interesting is is that just like

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when we found that out, what I realized was that we were going to be able to do

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that.

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And I realized was that, okay, it's like, it's like a, I see it like Walmart,

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right? It's like, okay, well, now I'm on the marketplace.

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And Walmart, it's just like going to Walmart, right? Like you're a product

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person, you got your product and it's at the way back of the Walmart, right?

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No one's going to see it and no one's going to ever get to it. So I had to

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realize that just getting on the marketplace was the first step.

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So you have to do that. And then once that happened, then I realized, wait a

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second, there's people out there selling on my behalf all day long every day.

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And they're at the hyperscalers. They're at AWS. And they're the account

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executives that work that account.

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So I'm trying to sell into this, you know, ABC account, the spend, the money,

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the procurement people want to chew down on their commitment for AWS or Google,

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or Microsoft. So what I'm trying to figure out is, is, okay, how do we help

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each other do that? How do we help each other win?

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So I had to literally, and this is what I would recommend to people is make

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sure that you have the ability to understand number one, the opportunity to get

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registered, but also the opportunity to know who the account executive is for

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those hyperscalers.

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And if you know that, guess what? They're already, they're already geared and

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wired to help you out, but you can't just sit there and expect your product, if

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you will, or solution in the marketplace to sell.

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So that was an aha moment. And obviously, we've done a lot of transactions

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through there. Well, thankfully with the help of tackle and Amy and her team.

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But does that answer your question, Amy? Absolutely. And you know, you touch a

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little bit on CoSEL and that's amazing to hear you as an account executive

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talking about co-selling with the clouds.

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And, you know, that is one way not only to build a relationship, but, you know,

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to get people to lean in to help you. There's multiple people selling with you,

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right?

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Did you have any reservation before you start? Because now you're getting that

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motion, you're selling with the cloud through the cloud, but did you have any

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reservation and selling, you know, through the marketplace in the past? Or did

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you jump in full force?

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Well, okay, so salespeople are very particular people, right? We're a different

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breed, right? We don't like a bunch of people getting in our deals, right? We

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don't want to control, et cetera, et cetera.

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So that's always an issue, right? When you start to think about it. But what I

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realized was that in taking that myopic approach, nobody knew what I was doing.

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Like the procurement people didn't know that I was actually, I have a solution

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that adds a ton of value to the company.

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And oh, by the way, it helps the company to chew down on its commitment to the

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hyperscalers. So essentially, you know, my one reservation was, well, this

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doesn't matter to me.

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Like, what's the big deal? Like, why do I need to include, you know, these

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companies into my selling process and selling motion?

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And then again, like I said, it's like the light went on. It's like, wait a

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second. We have the same goals. I call it, we say, a win-win-win, right?

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The hyperscalers win because it chews down commitment that they have for their

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customers.

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It's a win for me, obviously, because I can sell my deal in basically probably

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an eighth of a time that it takes me to close a deal today on the transaction

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side, which is huge.

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And then it's a win for procurement, right? So the procurement people in the

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company. So I would say the reservation is just kind of getting out of my own

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way, you know, as an old guy seller, right?

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There's like, there's a whole new world out there. And I need to embrace it.

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And since I did that, it's clear sailing.

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That's awesome. So what is next? I know you had like, I got to have the front

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row seat with you recently, and you have wins on the marketplace and you're

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continuing doing what you do best.

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Do you share a little bit about your latest wins and what is next for you at

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digital and how you're planning on scaling this out with your book of business?

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Yeah. So that's the exciting thing. It's literally opened up more opportunities

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than I even knew I had before in one account, right? In, you know, in ABC

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account.

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What I did was, and I found some interesting things out, right? So one

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interesting thing I found out was that most companies out there are dealing

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with multiple hyperscalers, right?

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So they're not going to be just dealing with one. They're going to be dealing

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with, you know, like AWS and Google, or maybe there's Azure and Google or Azure

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and AWS or whatever, right?

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So, so number one, from a company perspective, you know, I recommend you get on

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at least two, two marketplaces because you can, you can have some flexibility

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there, which is what I needed for this deal.

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So, so this deal actually, they came to me and said, I said, Hey, great, great

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news. We can work through AWS, all of that. And they said, well, no, that's

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good, but we're already at our commitment with AWS.

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So, you do Google. Can you work with Google, right? And I said, yes. So, so it

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allowed me to take the spend that they would normally put, you know, and of

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course they're trying to do the same thing as a company.

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They're, you know, looking at both different clouds and commitments, right? So

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now, and then we had to get on the mark. We had to get on the marketplace,

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which, which we weren't, which we weren't, as you know, Amy.

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And that was a heroic effort that Sanjay and you and probably 15 people at

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Google helped us with dramatically. And we got on the marketplace, got it going

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, got it live. And once it was live, it was like, boom, five seconds.

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And the procurement person pushed the button and we're good. And we're like, we

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're like, holy, this is awesome. So, but it took us.

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What was it like two weeks, three weeks? I mean, literally from when we said,

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okay, we got to do this to now it's live. So it was amazing. How long or how

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quickly the tackle team got engaged and leaned in with the Google team and got

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us, got us up and running.

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Now, since then, Amy, I haven't told you this, but since then I've already had

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to a meeting with the client exec from the company. I'm just one company I'm

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dealing with.

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He went through and explained to me, here's my number. Here's my number for the

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year. What's my, this is my commit. This is their commit is a company.

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This is also what my number is for markets marketplace. Here's, here's how much

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I can burn out, burn down a marketplace. And this happened to be $2.3 million

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that they could burn down in marketplace over the year.

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And I said, I said, hey, Mr. Mr. Google account executive, I aim to be the guy

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that takes down the whole $2.3 million of that spend just so you know.

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And he's like, he's like, okay, Mike, that'll be great. If you can do it,

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fantastic. Right. So, so anyway, that's opened up. Now, what he's doing is he's

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looking for other opportunities in other parts of the business.

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Because he overarching over arches a number of different organizations that I

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wasn't even involved in. So now he can actually help me to navigate into other

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areas of the company that I wasn't in.

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And again, we have the same goals in mind. Chew down, hit our number, you know,

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make more money and go to club. Go to club. Right. So that's.

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Yeah, I love those as club Thailand is pretty great.

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If you have one piece of advice for all account executives out there. What

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would you say so that all of us can also hit club.

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Yeah, and leverage. So, the one thing I would say is, is, is, if you don't

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embrace the cloud marketplaces in the next now.

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And then, you know, I think it's going to be a big thing. I mean, this year,

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2024, you will be behind the curve, because it's going to be not an if it's not going to be an if, but it's going to be a when that it's going to be huge adoption. It's going to be everybody's on doing this. So you got to get ahead of the

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curve. You got to get your companies. If they're not doing it today, you've got

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to get them involved.

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And then you can't just sit around. You can't like the Walmart example, right?

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You can't just say, Oh, great. I'm in Walmart. My stuff will just fly off the

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shelves.

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Because that's not going to work. Right. Amy, you know, you both you and I know

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that you've got to engage. I mean, engage your tackle person. If you're working

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with tackle, obviously, hopefully you are.

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You're you're a accounting executive from Google or AWS or or Azure Microsoft

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as well.

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Because it's nothing is going to happen unless you engage them and you register

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opportunities. Now, let's I will be clear. Don't waste their time and don't

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call them up and say, Hey, you know, I was wanting to know if you've gotten the

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opportunities going on at XYZ company,

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because they're going to say, no, and hang up on you. Right. Because number one

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, you haven't registered any opportunity. Number two, you haven't even done your

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job to know whether or not it's an opportunity.

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And so you've got to register the opportunity. You got to know what's going on.

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And then you create value with the A.E. And they say, Awesome. We can work

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together. I can help you unlock the potential of getting this deal done. Plus,

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let's look at other deals we can do down the way. So number one,

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get on the marketplaces. Number two, don't sit around, make sure that you're

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actively actively working the deals with the cloud, the hyperscalers.

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And three, you know, have fun, have fun and enjoy enjoy the brand new horizon

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when you're when you're when you're at club and you're spinning up, you're

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spinning all this money or whatever they're spending money on you.

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And it's all good. So that's that's kind of the takeaways, I think, necessarily

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Thank you so much, Mike. I really appreciate the partnership has been so much

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fun working with you. I know you're at RSA. So if anybody watching an RSA come

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say hello to Mike.

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Fine. Amazing. And that'd be great.

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Time today, Mike.

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Yeah. Thanks, Amy. And thanks for all your help. And if Sanji is listening,

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thank you, Sanjay. I appreciate it, man. We'll talk to you later. Have a great

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day.

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You too, Mike. Bye. Bye.

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Bye.

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