Member Spotlight: Cloud GTM Leader Course - David Forsch

I'm excited to spotlight David Forsch, WW Sr. Partner Account Manager - Distributors at GitLab, an incredibly experienced member of our course. David has shared with us his insights on the 🙌 growing role of channel partners in cloud marketplaces.

With a remarkable track record in partnerships at companies like VMware, Citrix, and now GitLab, we're fortunate to have experts of David's caliber in our community.

Let's hear from David:

📝 Q: What is your top piece of advice or insight for peers navigating the cloud marketplace landscape?

“For ISV’s earlier in their journey, spend time to make a thoughtful decision about an offering that differentiates it in the eyes of the cloud provider(s) and their key go-to-market (GTM) role(s).

The offering should be mindful of a ‘better together’ story in the eyes of customers, which will get the attention of key sales stakeholders, cloud providers, and other partners.

📍 The early goal is the first sale, then the second and then the fifth.

As with many partner GTM journeys, the first few steps can be hard, but repeatable success resonates with the cloud providers and their customer-facing professionals."

📈 Q: Based on current trends and your experience, what predictions do you have for the future of cloud marketplaces in GTM? What untapped opportunities exist for partnership leaders?

“There are reports of expected increases in customer cloud spending commits.

I believe the AWS Distributor program and DSOR pilots are evidence of the increased cloud providers’ leverage of channel partners to accelerate market reach and partner services attach - resulting in increased customer usage of their commits.

ISVs should keep an eye out for this convergence as cloud providers quietly embrace it in their GTM strategies and programs.”

🎓 Cloud GTM Leader Course

"Lastly, the Cloud GTM Leader course was quite valuable for me.

Several experts repeated roughly the same handful of best practices for success, while adding their own valuable POV and experiences which are quite valuable when developing a strategy for this space.

Many ISV leaders are currently charting their course for this significant shift, and the value of learning - even for this long-time channel veteran was both validating and insightful as we enter into yet another sea change in the partner ecosystem."

In line with David's remarks, nearly all hyperscalers are intensively working to integrate partners even more closely into the cloud marketplace GTM.

It's only a matter of time before these efforts further elevate the already high marketplace adoption to the next level. Do you agree?

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