Top Gun 51 Profile: Axcient’s Angus Robertson Wants You to Know About PLG

Angus Robertson, chief revenue officer for Axcient, is a strategic thinker. He drives a ton of innovation at Axcient for the partner community. As co-chair of the BAAP CompTIA Council, Robertson takes creating resources to help partners discover and adopt new, emerging technology very seriously. Axcient is 100% channel-focused, a strategy Robertson started driving when he joined the company more than two years ago. 

Axcient’s Angus Robertson

Robertson’s commitment to the channel and finding new ways to help partners succeed has earned him a spot as a Channel Partners Top Gun 51 award winner for 2020. He says that the key is to listen to partners to drive change. If a strategic vendor, distributor or partner needs it or requests it, it is vital — particularly during a pandemic. 

Our Top Gun 51 recognizes a new generation of channel executives, those who build and execute programs in a way that drives partner, customer and supplier success. We polled master agents, distributors and analysts – those who know them best – for nominations to our prestigious list.

Channel Futures: What attributes do you think next-gen channel leaders must have?

Angus Robertson: Technology is changing all our lives, and it never stops. New, emerging technology is happening all the time. It’s critical that we are all continuously learning and developing our networks. That allows us to be prepared for what’s next. A trend that has been driven by B2C companies like Netflix and B2B companies like Atlassian is the concept of product-led growth, or PLG. Channel and sales leaders will need to know how they fit in this PLG world. They will need to help their customers make that transition too.

CF: You have had such a huge role in innovation at Axcient for the partner community. Can you comment on what’s currently going on in the industry? For example, COVID-19, changes and fluctuations, projections and so on?

AR: “May you live in interesting times,” which apparently is an ancient Chinese curse, but is actually just good old-fashioned 1800s marketing. We are certainly living in interesting times. How we adapt to our new realities will determine our success or failure. 

COVID-19 is affecting the channel in significant ways. Distributed workforces are here to stay. That means an accelerated transition to cloud and the required security that goes along with it. In addition, the larger IT solution providers are going upmarket. They are buying smaller SPs and outsourcing IT from larger SMBs. The question to ask is, what role do we play?

CF: If you could give one piece of advice to partners, what would it be?

AR: Now is the time to think about what is next for your business. So that means digital transformation, including cloud and security, will feature heavily in all our future. What is your plan as an IT solution provider to build your business for a multicloud world? Who are the vendors that will help get you there?

CF: Any other thoughts on this award?

AR: The Top Gun 51 award is important, as it helps the global IT market understand the power and opportunity of the IT channel. Many vendors do not understand how the relationships, technical know-how, support and billing from an IT solution provider can truly scale their product sales and overall go-to-market. I want to thank Channel Futures and Channel Partners for helping to put a spotlight on the exciting things happening in the IT channel and for shining a light on how we can help other vendors succeed.