Coletta Vigh: Woman of the Day

Meet the Woman of the Day for August 1, 2017 - Coletta Vigh, director of channel programs at WatchGuard Technologies.

Coletta Vigh
Director, Channel Programs, WatchGuard Technologies
Location: Seattle, WA
Number of years in current position: 2.5
Number of years involved with indirect sales: 13
Twitter Handle: @colettavigh
Fun Facts:
Is fluent in another language
Enjoys public speaking
Has an advanced degree
Has an MBA
Is a mentor
Has completed a marathon
Had a lemonade stand
Biography and Background:
As director of global channel programs at WatchGuard, Coletta was directly responsible for developing and delivering the WatchGuardONE partner program, globally. She established and managed the partnership guidelines and program benefits including Discounts, Rebates, Security Pays, Cooperative Advertising, educates channel partners and internal sales teams, shapes channel messaging, enforces global program requirements, and continues to ensure infrastructure alignment to support the program. WatchGuardONE leverages a value-based model that focuses solely on reseller certification and training to attain partnership status. We are 100% dedicated to partner satisfaction and growth.
The WatchGuardONE Channel Program was released in 2015 and has now been well adopted by our partners and internal teams. This past year was focused on ensuring that we have the market readiness resources and back-end systems in place to best support our channel partners. Over the past year, I have: Developed and formalized our onboarding program that escorts new partners through the initial 90 days of partnering with Watchguard. This ensures that partners are engaged from the beginning with detailed overviews of partnership benefits, including security pays incentive programs and deal registration, as well as periodic team-orchestrated check-ins to ensure partners have the details they need and are never lost as they ramp up their WatchGuard business. Released a new Partner Portal, a centralized communication hub that provides increased visibility into quarterly sales progress, management of rebates and cooperative advertising funding as well as leads and opportunities. Significantly improved go-to-market resources with a clear focus on SMBs and distributed enterprises, as well as improved go-to-market resources for key verticals such as education, healthcare, hospitality and retail. This allows WatchGuard and our partners to be laser focused on areas where we know that we can mutually maximize our success.
In 2017, we're continuing to focus on ensuring that our channel partners have the tools and resources necessary to excel with their WatchGuard business. Renewals represents a significant portion of our partners' business, so we're investing in a new system to provide increased visibility into customer upcoming renewal needs, as well as improved ability to produce quotations. Since we realize that our partners require flexible managed security offerings, we are ensuring that our product lines and business models evolve in that direction as well. This is true across our entire line of security products.
CRN's Channel Chief, 2017. "The Channel Chiefs list identifies the channel executives who consistently defend, promote and execute effective channel partner programs and strategies."
While there are an impressive number of inspiring women who have fought to break down barriers, Ruth Bader Ginsberg is my current inspiration. Gracefully navigating through setbacks along the way, she became the second woman appointed to the US Supreme Court, a position with a unique ability to legally influence the equal citizen stature of women and men in America and set a foundation for key issues today and in the future. Ruth Bader Ginsberg establishes alliances, builds upon incremental successes, while keeping her eye on the goal and maintaining an educated and open perspective.
Establish Credibility: Be knowledgeable and true to your interests and passions. Be Resilient: There will be plenty of setbacks intertwined with success. Recognize your failures, continue to learn, and keep moving forward. Stay Open-minded: Some of my most rewarding experiences have been the result of being prepared when an interesting opportunity comes along. Use compassion and recognize the power of a team: There is something magical about creating a safe environment where an idea transforms into a full blown plan of action that the team can get behind.
Since it's only one day, I would be Anthony Bourdain. I would travel to Burma and enjoy a very local day and dinner with Aung San Suu Kyi. Through Anthony's work he can get a glimpse of the world through his guests' eyes, talk politics, culture, food and be truly moved and inspired. Nothing brings me more joy than connecting with interesting people and expanding my views.
I would go for a 2-month hiking adventure through the Te Ararora and Queen Charlotte Tracks in New Zealand in April, accompanied by my husband, a native Maury story teller, and an experienced guide who plays the harmonica and guitar. This would be an opportunity to connect with nature, spend valuable family time, learn the area's history, challenge us physically, and leave us with a new harmonica skill to build on upon our return.
Previous WotC Woman of the Day: Helda Lopes

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