Verizon Channel Chief On AI, SMBs And Convergence: Inside Verizon’s Partner Growth Strategy

Verizon’s new channel chief sees AI, convergence and solution-selling as key drivers of partner growth. John Constantino says partners can boost profitability by selling across Verizon’s portfolio while capitalizing on new opportunities in AI, SMBs and a rebounding wireline market.

Verizon’s new channel chief, John Constantino, may have only been in the role for three weeks, but he already sees significant growth opportunities for partners. At the top of the list: helping customers buy complete technology solutions spanning mobility, fiber, fixed wireless access (FWA), security and SaaS offerings rather than individual products.

Constantino believes Verizon has made good headway with partners over the last couple of years in reducing channel conflict, aligning channel success more closely with leadership priorities and investing in programs that help partners expand beyond traditional mobility sales. But he also sees emerging opportunities around AI, SMB customer acquisition and a resurgence in wireline demand driven by enterprise modernization and AI adoption.

In his first interview as the channel chief for the telecom giant, Constantino discusses where partners can make the most money, how Verizon is working to become easier to do business with, and why he believes solution providers will play a larger role in the telecom giant’s growth strategy moving forward.

Here’s what Constantino had to say. You can also read more about the longtime Verizon executive’s vision for the channel and his plans for partners here.

Where can partners make the most money right now with Verizon?

I think it runs the gamut, but I will tell you that this convergence opportunity, with the investments in both FWA and fiber, I think there’s a ton of money to be made around owning a customer relationship end to end and selling more than one product. I think the partners that are going to be solution-capable in selling, versus selling one individual product and moving on to the next, are going to be the most successful. I think we need to be well-armed to equip our partners to be able to do that. But I think, at times, we leave revenue on the table, both for Verizon and our partners, by being singularly focused on one product. So, absolutely mobility continues to be a major part of our business. But now, with convergence, fiber and FWA, I think there are also a lot of other solution-selling capabilities that we should bring to the table. I think we’re leaving some money on the table together. … [Things like] security solutions, all of our SaaS offerings that we offer through our marketplace, and what we’re doing in the enterprise space with different wireline capabilities, instead of selling siloed products, can we sell multiple different solutions? But at the end of the day, I think getting really great at our core services makes everybody a lot of money as well.

Are you finding that you have to kind of talk to partners about selling multiple things and convergence, or are they already there? Where are their heads at? Do they already see the opportunities?

I think a lot of partners would love to sell everything. So, from a partner willingness perspective, I think the community is there. I think Verizon really building and enabling that, and being easy to do business with, is where we continue to have work to be done.

When engaging with partners, everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to make money. Ensuring that what we’re asking them to do and where we want them to play is profitable for a partner is extremely important. Making sure that we’ve enabled and built the right programs and customer support is really critical. Customer support is super important for Verizon as a firm, but also important when our partners are transacting with customers. Making sure that is all lined up really tightly, I think, enables them to be more comfortable selling multiple solutions to the same customer.

Given that Verizon is a large telecom with a tilt toward direct sales, how are you and your team working to reduce channel conflict?

I think some of the steps were already made, but I will say that’s been the most surprising thing coming back in. We now view channel as an additional distribution point for our senior leaders. There was a time when if you were a field leader or an executive at Verizon, you had your direct team and then channel kind of sat over here. While channel still sits under me, that’s actually in your P&L now at Verizon. So our leadership is super invested in working side by side with partners, and it’s removed a lot of the friction that used to exist.

It allows [for] local decision-making. We’re very big on having our executives be very local and make local decisions, whether that’s in midmarket, small business or enterprise. Make the right decision on behalf of your customer. We cut out a lot of the friction for partners, and the amount of teaming and work side by side with direct leaders that happens now within the channel community is the highest I’ve ever seen at Verizon. I think that’s important, not just for me and my team to engage, but for our direct teams to have that level of engagement as well.

What are you doing to help partners capitalize on AI-related opportunities?

I think we’re doing a lot of that work in the enterprise space to see where some of the work we’re doing with AI fits there. I also think my goal is to enable some of our AI capabilities for our partners. We do a lot of work, and we’ve invested heavily in AI—making my direct teams more efficient and helping us understand which customers to prospect. For me, if that’s already built and we’re already invested in it, how do we unleash that with some of our partners? Those are some of the things we’re looking at. We’ve done some enablement today, and we’re looking at additional enablement opportunities. But I also think it goes back to: Can we get our partners to look across and sell the whole portfolio? We’re doing things in small business that are investing in AI tools. Can we have our partners be part of that conversation with our customers?

What other untapped areas of opportunity do you see for partners right now?

Yes, two places for me. First, there are 6 million small-business customers that don’t do business with Verizon. That goes back to where I think having distribution reach and partners that can get in front of customers we don’t have today is really critical. I also think there’s this shift in wireline that has happened over the last several years. We’re going through technology revamps and different types of technology, and I think there’s a tremendous opportunity for my partner ecosystem to help us start to capture some of that wireline revenue that, as an industry, has been declining for a long period of time and is now starting to rebound with the adoption of AI.

Those are the two big areas. But again, it goes back to anywhere you have access to customers that I’m not reaching. I am unbelievably interested in how we partner there. On top of that, with my co-sell community, what solution capabilities and product capabilities do you have that add to our portfolio and help us win additional customers?