My top takeaways of 2019

As 2019 winds down, it marks the completion of my first full year as VP of Global Partner Marketing. This has been a year brimming with learning, exploring, and listening. Most of all, it was a year of transformation highlighted by the opportunities I’ve had to meet with so many of our partners.

I’ve been fortunate to connect to many of you directly, to hear your challenges as well as your successes. The result? Our Global Partner Marketing (GPM) team was able to take partner points of view and continue applying them so we continue bringing industry-leading partner marketing support into 2020 and beyond.

There are a few big examples from this past year that I want to highlight one more time before we all take some time off to recharge with friends and families during the upcoming holidays:

Affecting More than the Bottom Line

Cisco partners each deserve to be celebrated for the ongoing commitment to making not just Cisco, but the world a better place. There are so many great stories to tell, and we try to highlight as many of them as we can within our Partner Success Story blogs.

Speaking of cool partner stories, check out my write up on Be the Match if you haven’t read it yet! They run the world’s largest and most diverse bone marrow registry, making it possible for people with life-threatening illnesses to connect to doctors and potential donors. It is a life changing and lifesaving tool, powered by quick and easy connections. I’m constantly amazed by what our technology combined with partner expertise can do for our communities.

Reimagining Marketing Velocity

Something I heard loud and clear from partners this year was that you need more marketing resources—and you need an easy way to get and use them. To make this experience as simple and powerful as possible, we expanded our Marketing Velocity brand with more resources and templates that you can draw from to help market your solutions.

Marketing Velocity Learning is home to one of our biggest changes. We’ve reimagined online education by creating a 24/7 gateway that helps advance your marketing practices. For instance, we brought in some of the world’s best marketing minds to offer exclusive trainings.

Plus, with Marketing Velocity’s revamped event model, we bring our live events directly to you in your region. This gave me the opportunity to share with all of you what it really means to become a future-proof marketer.

Marketing your edge, together

Most recently in November, we wrapped up an amazing Partner Summit. There, we highlighted what makes our partners unique and uncovered ways you can “own your edge.” Chad Reese and I hosted a Hub talk on the future of growth marketing and how you can work with both marketing and sales to do even more for your customers.

This is just a smattering of highlights from 2019. GPM and our partners are always working to improve customer solutions, and we are thrilled to help spread the word on all the great work our partners are doing. We should all be very proud of what we accomplished in 2019, and I encourage everyone to enjoy some time at the end of this year to enjoy time with friends and family. Relax and recharge as we head into 2020. I have no doubt the best is yet to come!