The transcript below is available for those who prefer to read along. Please be aware that it may contain minor errors.

Grace Clark:

Today I am with Amy Graff, the North American Partner Marketing Manager at Rockwell Automation. So welcome to our show and if you could just give us a quick introduction of yourself and what you do.

Amy Graff:

Thank you, Grace. Hi. I’m very excited to be here today and really honored that you chose me to be your guest today. So my name is Amy Graff. I am a Partner Marketing Manager that sits in our North America division of Rockwell Automation. I have been with the company coming up on five years and have been in a partner marketing role for that entire time, so I have fallen in love with our partner ecosystem and feel that I’m still learning every day. I am really excited to be talking about the opportunities here for our system integrators. But what I do actually at Rockwell is, I am all partner marketing. I do also manage the marketing for our EPC partners as well, which is a new partner program within about a year now for Rockwell. So yeah, so between our system integrators and our EPCs, that’s where I spend the majority of my time.

Grace Clark:

Fantastic. Kicking off our discussion today, to you, why is marketing now a essential thing for system integrators to invest in?

Amy Graff:

Oh gosh, Grace, that is such a good question, and I do see that it is definitely changing over the course of these past few years that I’ve been here, but do still see that many of our system integrators that I work with, I would say, it’s probably that 80 20 rule where 80% of our system integrators right now do not have dedicated marketing resources on staff. I see that it still is things like the engineer by trade who also happens to be their office manager. And, oh by the way, they’re managing their social media platform, so they’re wearing a lot of hats. Which is fine because I think a lot of our system are also very successful and have been very successful doing that. But to me, marketing is becoming more of a need to have versus a nice to have. And I really do think that that’s changing.

It has a lot to do with how customers are also changing. I think customers- your end user customers- they’re changing the way that they are doing business in terms of consuming a lot of their information online or consuming their information in different ways. Many times, months before a conversation is even had, face-to-face, or over a phone or whatever that might be within sales. And it’s those marketing resources that are able to hit those customers where they might be in their journey, in a way that a traditional system integrator who might not have marketing would be able to touch those customers. I really do think that’s important, but also not only the way that the customer goes about their journey, there’s multiple customers now, it might not just be one person who’s making the decision anymore. Many times that decision maker is multiple people, maybe not all one person who’s making the decision, but there’s the influencers and there’s stakeholders and there’s all of those types of people who come together to make a decision.

So sometimes it’s really difficult then for a traditional system integrator who really just relies on their sales channel to have those conversations. But now having marketing can allow you to talk to those multiple customers, really identify who they are, identify what their pain points are, and really how to best talk to them and talk to them in ways that, again, a system integrator who does not have marketing might not be able to do. And then lastly, I think marketing is more than just developing a pretty website or a deck for a presentation or collateral. 

I think historically, a lot of times it’s just, ‘okay marketing… I need a sales sheet for my sales team, or I need help making the deck pretty.’ We’re so much more than that these days in marketing and really becoming aligned with the overall business objectives and really helping to move and generate business along with the rest of the organization.

Grace Clark:

I completely agree with you, it’s not a nice to have anymore. You’ve got to start investing in marketing one way or another because if you aren’t, your competitors are.

Amy Graff:

Oh, 100%. 100%. And that’s the other thing too, and I think it’s a bit of a FOMO situation too, right? Because it is a system integrator community, right? 

Let’s say with the CSIA, as much as it’s nice to have all those system integrators come together, they’re also able to see what other people are doing. They’re seeing businesses that are having these marketing folks now on board really having an edge and being able to help drive business forward because of that marketing resource.

Grace Clark:

Absolutely. As we know, thought leadership is a really big thing in this industry, demonstrating thought leadership; putting your engineers great solutions into the forefront and demonstrating how you understand these technologies. What strategies do you see integrators using to better position themselves as thought leaders in the industry?

Amy Graff:

Sure. That’s a great question, and I do think that that is so important and a way to help our system integrators distinguish themselves. A lot of what I’ll see now is, and I don’t know how different this really is Grace, but I think that opportunity to speak at events where you might be part of a panel, be a keynote, host a session, or any of those types of things where our system integrators have the opportunities to stand in front of their audience- customers and prospects- to talk about what makes them different, what makes their solution different, what makes them better, and what makes them unique. I think that the other thing that we really need to talk about in terms of from a strategy is it all again starts with the story that they want to tell.

What is that story that demonstrates their uniqueness, that demonstrates that differentiating point? You really need to have that story nailed, and I think that’s where your marketing resource can really help you say, ‘yep, you nailed it’. That is for sure a differentiator. We don’t hear that anywhere else in the market. Or, ‘Nope, we just need to tweak this, or we need to make this better’. We need to make this stronger. So I think that there’s those opportunities to speak, I think co-written opportunities or co bylined opportunities, whether it is a press release announcing a new solution or a white paper where we can provide these opportunities to give our system integrators that platform, that light, that spotlight to tell their story to me would really be a way to help bolster that thought leadership opportunities.

Grace Clark:

Absolutely. So that kind of leads me into, as the partner marketing manager for Rockwell, why does it make so much sense for Rockwell to even invest in marketing with their partners like this?

Amy Graff:

Another really, really great question. So just for clarification, so I am one of a few partner marketing managers. I have our North America system integrators and EPCs, but I do have a host of other colleagues that I work with that do manage our other partner programs. 

Selfishly, I’m going to say it’s because it’s a mutually benefiting opportunity. And the one thing that I am also seeing is that as we are seeing our system integrators bring marketing on board, they are becoming more sophisticated. We like to call them maybe those market making system integrators, where historically maybe their businesses has all just come from, let’s say distributors or the distribution, whereas now they didn’t need to do the marketing or didn’t have the resources to help them do the marketing, but now they’re becoming more sophisticated and have those opportunities to become market making and partner led opportunities where the partners identifying the opportunities, the partners bringing those opportunities, they’re closing those deals, it’s all being done through the partner.

We know that we have those mutual opportunities and leveraging that expertise of that system integrator maybe in areas that we may not have those, that expertise brings those mutual alignment and mutual opportunities. And even just as a part of being a system integrator with, I’m just going to use Rockwell as an example, that is also somewhat of an expectation that we would have from our system integrators that they are becoming more sophisticated, that they are aligning with where their partner, whether it’s Rockwell or whether it’s a competitor of Rockwell, they’re aligning with whatever that their partner’s business objectives are. Again, identifying those opportunities maybe together and going at it again, whether it’s ideally would be from a partner led standpoint,

Grace Clark:

What are the benefits that a system integrator could experience from utilizing a partner network like Rockwell’s?

Amy Graff:

So I would say again, alignment with overall business objectives, really trying to say what are our business objectives? Let’s say as Rockwell, what are your business objectives as X, Y, Z system integrator? And trying to find those mutually benefiting, I think market awareness and market access for maybe some of those system integrators who might not have as much of industry experience or opportunities. Let’s say for example, if there’s a particular target audience, maybe there’s a particular geography that we could bring them along in because we know that they have this expertise in a particular area and we know that they have the perfect solution for that end user customer. And so partnering with somebody like Rockwell can take all that and bring it with us to an opportunity or a customer that they might not have had that opportunity to be visible to if they weren’t part of an ecosystem like Rockwell.

Going back to one of my other earlier points, just providing the platform to help tell their story and help amplify their voice. So once we do identify what is that story that they want to tell, what’s that great success story that they want to tell, what’s that great ROI that they want to share, giving them a platform to amplify their voice. Again, whether it be through opportunities that we might have, let’s say with certain publications or maybe on our website, and also not only let’s say with I guess media that would be targeted toward the end user customer, but also even within our own backyard, within our own ecosystem. One of the benefits and one of the differentiators of let’s say for example, the Rockwell automation partner network ecosystem, is that it is so diverse and so differentiated with the number of partners that we have and the different types of partner programs that we have.

We can help that partner tell their story even within their backyard. So we’re sharing  maybe their solutions, their expertise, maybe their capabilities to a technology partner, or to another strategic partner that may not have those things, that might have those gaps. So we’re, it’s almost like a matchmaking situation where we’re taking one and matching them up with one where maybe there is more of an opportunity and bringing a more cohesive and a better outcome to that customer. It’s not just for the end user customers, but even within our own four walls that we can really help that partner tell their story and amplify their voice.

Grace Clark:

What could system integrators involved in the partner network, they know of it, but what could they be doing to better leverage the network to enhance those marketing efforts?

Amy Graff:

Well, number one, have a marketing resource. They would be able to actually dig into it a little bit more, and I get it right? I get that that’s not, as we talked about, a need to have, it’s a nice to have, but really digging into the programs that we have available to our partners, whether it’s again, helping them tell their story, it’s developing a formal case study if it’s a written case study or a video case study or a case study that goes on our website, taking advantage of their badges and their certifications and co-marketing together. So again, identifying those areas of opportunity. So where is our area of opportunity? Where’s that system integrators area of opportunity and how do we do that together? So let’s take our collective forces and be stronger and be better together. Maybe taking advantage of some campaigns that we take from, let’s say our global commercial marketing team and make it more applicable for our system integrators to use with their own end user customers events, right?

So Rockwell Automation just got off of their largest trade show, Automation Fair, and having a platform for that system integrator to exhibit or to sponsor to have their customers come to an area where they’ll be and maybe have those face-to-face meetings that might not always happen on a day-to-day basis. Industry recognition programs, best practices that we could bring to those system integrators. There’s all kinds of different programs and different opportunities for our system integrators. But again, I think number one is just having that marketing resource that can really, number one, understand it and what does it mean and what is the benefit and what are they going to get out of it? Digging into it to what exactly does that mean and how do I use it? And then going out and executing.

Grace Clark:

So how do you see co-marketing initiatives with system integrators evolving in the next few years?

Amy Graff:

So I will say personally, from a Rockwell perspective, we have so many opportunities. I think to enhance the marketing arm of what we do with and for our partners and really to leverage the expertise that our partners bring to market to help build lead generating opportunities, again, to help amplify their voice, to help drive demand brand awareness, whatever that might be, whatever their business objectives might be. We are recognizing that we have those market making system integrators out there and we want to leverage them and we want to help them meet their goals, but at the same time help meet our goals as well because we know we can’t do it alone. That’s why we have such a robust partner network, because we cannot be all things to all people, so let’s partner with those experts who might fill those gaps and might fill those opportunities.

And I think also, Grace, another point is that really to maybe leverage more heavily some of those campaigns that might have traditionally come out from. Let’s say our global marketing organization might be targeted to the end user customers. Taking some of those and boxing them up obviously would need a little bit of tweaking, but making them applicable for our system integrators to use with their own end user customers and really trying to take out some of that heavy lift that assistant integrator would have to do on their own to do the research, to do the content development, to do all of those kinds of really time consuming, budget consuming activities. We do that heavy lifting for them, package it up, give it to our system integrators to leverage. They can put it in their own brand voice, they can put it in their own brand template and make it easy for them to again, help drive that demand and ultimately those leads and opportunities that they might not have had an opportunity to do on their own.

Grace Clark:

To wrap up our discussion here today, what are you seeing trending in the world of system integration

Amy Graff:

As it relates to our discussion that we were having? Even around marketing, I am seeing more and more of our system integrators realizing that marketing is important. And to sound like a broken record, that it is no longer a nice to have, but a need to have. I’m also seeing that they’re realizing that because they need to do business differently, as we talked about earlier, in terms of the customers, right? The way that the customer buys that journey, which used to be very linear in the way that a customer would make a decision, it’s not that case anymore. It’s very different. They’re consuming information from all different points in more of a circular way, and not only is the customer consuming their information differently and their buying journey is not linear, there’s also more customers to think about and being involved in that decision-making process. Thinking about how marketing can help that, I think that is definitely a trend. 

I would say the other thing that I’m seeing a lot of is our system integrators are realizing the importance of being able to tell their story and having a platform to tell their story and really leveraging opportunities to stand out and be a differentiator, and their solutions that they’re developing now are so robust and so advanced and happening and changing so quickly. Just even the way that the world is changing with smart manufacturing and with cybersecurity and AI and all of those things that are happening so fast, our system integrators are realizing that they need a way to tell their story, and I think marketing can really help them do that. And from a trend standpoint, I know you’re probably asking more general terms, but I’m thinking more from a marketing perspective.

They need a way to tell their story and we can help them do that, or even just help them guide that opportunity maybe if they don’t have marketing support, because I don’t want to leave those system engineers out, right? I’m not saying that if you don’t have a marketing person, we can’t do anything with you. That is not what I want to say at all. We can certainly help you, and that’s what let’s say my role is as a partner marketing. Even if you don’t have that marketing support, I can stand in and try to be that marketing support to help you do all those things. I can help support those system integrators who may not have those dedicated marketing resources to do the things that they need to do to help again, bridge those gaps and bring those new opportunities.

Grace Clark:

That’s really fantastic. Is there anything that I haven’t asked you about that you’d like to talk about today?

Amy Graff:

Well, I would say for those system integrators out there who are listening to this and wondering where do I start and maybe they don’t have that marketing person on board, I would say reach out to your partner manager for sure. Each one of our system integrators do either have a partner manager available to them and or their distributor partner to really ask and get more involved in what are the opportunities out there from a co-marketing standpoint, what are those opportunities that we as Rockwell can help support our system integrators with? Go out and talk to your partner, manager or anybody, whoever. You have to really try to understand what are those opportunities and make sure that you’re leveraging them. Make sure you’re leveraging those opportunities because that is why I’m here to help make our partners better. They’re great already. I’m here to help them be better and ultimately be better together and really leverage mutual opportunities.

Grace Clark:

Thank you very much, Amy, for joining me today. It was really great getting to talk to you.

Amy Graff:

Thank you so much, Grace, for having me. I really enjoyed our time.

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