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Channel Mic Check — where distributor DNA meets digital swagger.
Hosted by Calhoun McKinney — Vice President, Go to Market — and Jessica McDowell — Sr. Vice President, North America Marketing and Digital Customer Success — this podcast brings fresh energy to the B2B tech channel. From market updates and TD SYNNEX insights to candid interviews with vendors, partners, and innovators, Channel Mic Check cuts through the noise with real talk and real impact.
This is where connection meets conversation. Each episode tests the mic and turns up the volume on what actually matters—growth, innovation, and the stories shaping today’s channel ecosystem.
Forget the corporate jargon. Expect insights with edge, stories with substance, and voices that lead with purpose. Whether you’re a partner, vendor, or industry insider, this is your all-access pass to the conversations driving the channel forward.
Tune in. Turn it up. Channel Mic Check: it’s not just talk, it’s a movement.
Molly, we are on Channel Mic Check. So glad to finally be here together. Now before we get started on our marketing as a service talk track, I'd love to kinda open these a little fun fact about our guests. And your fun fact is you are into competitive sailing. That's right.
Speaker 1:The plot twist here is you live in Colorado.
Speaker 2:So how are you making this happen? I know. It seems very counterintuitive, Colorado being a landlocked state. We do have beautiful mountain lakes, which is where I race. And, you know, the thing about sailing, which you might not know, is that the fastest way from one buoy to the next is almost never a straight line.
Speaker 2:And so it requires adjusting on the fly, working as a team to really make everything work. Sounds like a good metaphor for our day to day lives. So that's great. No. If I
Speaker 1:I I know so little about this sport, because it's sport. Yes. Is. About the sport. Competitive sport.
Speaker 1:Competitive sport. I feel like there there's a a term or a technique in there, like, is it juking? Is it jib jiving? What are we doing?
Speaker 2:What is it Jibing and tacking. You're So if
Speaker 1:I were to use jibing, what what is the use it in a sentence for us.
Speaker 2:Going downwind, we're gonna jibe in order to make the next mark. I cannot wait to drop us on
Speaker 1:a call. I can't wait to be on like a very serious call with you and use that phrase, and you're gonna be like, oh my god, here she goes. Just tell her that. Alright. Awesome.
Speaker 1:Let's dive into it. Marketing as a service. Okay.
Speaker 2:So marketing as a service really helps our partners show up digitally. So in everything that we do, that's our goal. Because when you show up digitally, your end customers can find you. So the four things that we like to talk about that are really the pillars of marketing as a service, There's our partner marketing portal, and these are kind of the always on digital campaigns that go out via social, via email, and then produce leads that our partners can follow-up on. We have our fish tank lead distribution portal, and that is really the availability of leads for partners within their industry, within their geography, so they can go in and download leads all the time.
Speaker 2:We have our MyShop ecommerce platform, and so that is a way for our partners to represent the products that they sell, the capabilities and the services that they have on their website, so digital representation of their business. And then we have our consultation services, which is a complimentary way for partners to engage with us, talk to us about what's working and some opportunities for growth, and then we'll come up with a plan and we'll execute together.
Speaker 1:I love that. Lot going on, and it sounds like we're really coming at it from all the different angles. And as we've engaged with partners since launching this, what are you hearing from the partner community that really validates us having this this massive suite of offerings?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, our partners are really great at sales as they should be focusing there. And I was talking to a partner the other day and he's like, you know, we knock on doors, not literally. Yeah. That's what they're doing.
Speaker 2:And so partners don't always have time for marketing. They don't always have the resources in house for marketing, or they may know that marketing is important and they just haven't had an opportunity to get to it. So that's where we can really plug in where they need us, when they need us, and help with that.
Speaker 1:Totally agree. That is really a massive commitment that we have as a company to partner with our community to help them scale. So I love that, and I like that that's being validated by our community because we like to be partner led in what we do. So as you've worked with these different partners, what have you found in terms of like a common denominator when it comes to partners who are really getting the outcomes and results out of these different marketing offerings? Are there any best practices in there?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I love that question. So I think first of all, being open to understanding that your brand in the market is so important. So being out there digitally, displaying your capabilities when the buyers are out there ready to buy is so important. And also for partners, whether or not you have the capabilities in house, whether or not you have the think you have the time to get to marketing today, just understanding the importance and just being willing and open to engage with us and seeing how we can help with that.
Speaker 2:And I think that we have a
Speaker 1:lot of great case studies that we can share with partners when we do engage with them to kind of show that path of, hey, partners who've taken advantage of these things, these are the outcomes that have resulted for them. And I would add one more to that from some conversations I've had with partners around things that they're doing that are their differentiators is really knowing who they are, knowing what makes them distinct from their competition. And sometimes we're evolving so fast that we don't always take the time to capture that message in a way that can be scaled out throughout their entire organizations. And so I think that's something that we help partners define if they don't have that already. And I like that because it's not just doing marketing for the sake of doing marketing.
Speaker 1:Right. It's really doing marketing that has a very targeted outcome to get to your target customer that you have in mind so that you can help solve the problems that you're really distinct and competitive at solving. So right on. Now Molly, switching gears, one of the things a partner told me last week was that your team makes it really easy to engage with these offerings. Talk to us a little bit about what that means.
Speaker 2:Sure. It's super easy to engage with a complimentary consultation, so that's a great way to start. Another way I would answer that question is from a funding standpoint. So I think when we rolled out marketing as a service to partners at our Inspire conference in the fall, the first set of questions I got from partners, from vendors, from internal employees is how are partners gonna pay for that? You know, how does how does that work?
Speaker 2:Where does that come from? And we've got a lot of flexible options there in terms of where the the investment can come from. So we talk to some resellers that have a budget. And so if they have a budget, that is fantastic. We can make sure that your investment is in the right things and that we're getting you the results that you want and deserve for your investment.
Speaker 2:Partners may have access to vendor MDF, which is fantastic. So if and when they do, we can make sure that the activities that we're driving align with the vendor's requirements so that they can claim those dollars, they have the POP and all the things they need. We also have access to vendor MDF. So in some cases, we can help align a partner with the correct vendor investments that they can access, and we've got those with our campaigns that we run, our lead gen campaigns, as well as through some of the business units, so we can help facilitate that. And finally, something that's new within the last year is financing.
Speaker 2:So just like a partner would finance a product purchase through TD SYNNEX, they can finance their marketing as well.
Speaker 1:I love that. And I think you mentioned complimentary. And I really wanna hone in on that because what's so special about this is we're we're a fortune 100 company. And we're taking the very things that we use for ourselves as customer zero, and we're extending that out to our partners, in many cases, complimentary because we believe in it so much. And I think sometimes, like, psychologically, think, oh, if it doesn't cost anything, like, not really valuable.
Speaker 1:But that's not the case here. We these are some really high value, very advanced, sophisticated martech offerings that we're extending out to our community. And so I love that we do that. We're gonna continue to do that, and and you and I love to brainstorm new ways to do that. And so I'm excited for some of ours.
Speaker 1:So stay tuned. I'm excited for some things that are on the horizon Yeah. For Yeah. It's gonna be good as always. And now speaking of new, I mean, we have launched a lot of new offerings.
Speaker 1:So how are those going? They're going great.
Speaker 2:So the complimentary is a great way and a no brainer, I think, for anyone to engage and get started. From there, we can really help scale a partner's capabilities through some more advanced things. So one example is with a partner that engaged with us through their MyShop ecommerce platform. Their own website wasn't really reflecting the capabilities that they had. So we have launched web development as a service as a complimentary offering to MyShop, and we're able to go in and help partners with that as well.
Speaker 2:So whether it's that or some search engine optimization or some advanced things that partners are trying to do to better represent themselves digitally, that's really where we can come in.
Speaker 1:I think that's great. And as you've engaged with partners and we've launched new things and tried new things, and and I don't think we've done one marketing as a service offering the same. Every single thing that we're doing here is very custom. Yeah. Very bespoke.
Speaker 1:What surprised you?
Speaker 2:Oh, boy. I've had I've had some meaningful surprises since we launched this. I I will say one thing that stood out to me in particular, Calhoun, is I really, in my mind, had kind of pigeonholed this offering to our smaller to mid sized partners because I really viewed them as being the audience that didn't have any marketing resources or maybe they had one person that was also a salesperson. I thought, well, of course, they'll they'll need some help and some additional resources. And we've had a surprising number of larger partners who have a marketing department.
Speaker 2:They have field marketing resources, maybe a branding resources on staff, but they're they're missing something. Know, one partner in particular said, I've got marketing resources that'll create digital assets and so forth, but I don't have a business development type resource to help me really follow-up and close on those leads and opportunities, and that's where I need help. So it has surprised me how even some of our largest partners will come to us with a great idea, and that's where we'll come up with a a custom plan to help work with
Speaker 1:them. Well, the team's doing a great job. Clearly, results are in the numbers, so that's amazing. And we have a little tradition on Channel Mic Check where we end all of our episodes with a mic drop. So what is your mic drop that you have for our audience?
Speaker 2:My mic drop is that it really pays for partners to be putting their best face forward digitally from an omnichannel standpoint. So really making sure that they are always on in how they're reflecting themselves to their buyers. So we can help with that, and it starts with a complimentary consultation.
Speaker 1:I think that's great. My mic drop is short and sweet. I think it would be, what do you have to lose? You know? I mean, we've got all these complimentary things.
Speaker 1:Let's go. So, Molly, thank you for being here today. Really appreciate all that you're doing for the channel. Exciting times.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Alright. Thanks everybody.