14. Hunters and Unicorns - 202020 Mastery Mission - Michael Musselman

Welcome to Hunters and Unicorns, 20/20/20 Mastery Mission. 

20 topics, 20 guests for 20 minutes. 

We're here to unlock tribal wisdom from tech sales legends to help you get one step closer to mastery. 

Today we are joined by Mike Musselman, Senior Director of Technology & Strategic Alliances at Lacework, the data-driven security platform for the cloud. 

Leading Lacework's ecosystem of strategic relationships with cloud service providers and other independent software vendors for activities around co-sell, co-build, and co-marketing activities, Mike is well equipped to introduce us to the next chapter in technology sales – how to scale your business by aligning your technology, ecosystem, and sales playbook with the three major cloud service providers. 

Mike explains the evolutions that are driving ecosystem development and the huge levels of opportunity attached to the emerging trend of aligning a cloud infrastructure to your business strategy. 

I look at us being built on Amazon Web Services, then I look at them having hundreds of thousands of customers and us having less than 100 customers. The opportunity and the theory is - if I could ever make that partner bring business or accelerate our pipeline, then that makes us a multi-billion dollar company pretty fast, so every day, that’s what myself and my larger extended global team are aiming for. 

By now, most organisations have moved some aspect of their business to the cloud. The inherent benefits of cloud computing are clear to them, but many may not understand how to accelerate their pipeline and customer base with the leverage of the cloud service providers.   

Sharing tips and tricks from his experiences getting started and transacting on Marketplaces, Mike explains how to kick start your relationship with a cloud provider, build teams around “goal alignment”, and the importance of understanding your position in the ecosystem and nurturing relationships inside and outside of your own organisation. 

Listen to our story session to discover more on how to apply Mike’s strategies to real business scenarios and learn tactics, tips, and best practices for aligning with a cloud provider to scale your business.