Q&A: New Juniper VP Says Partner Marketing Enablement On The Way

Luanne Tierney, the 14-year Cisco veteran who took over four weeks ago as new vice president of global partner marketing for fast growing networking equipment provider Juniper Networks, spoke with Everything Channel Vice President and Editorial Director Kelley Damore and CRN Editor News Steven Burke at the XChange Solution Provider conference about her departure from Cisco, her plans to bring marketing muscle to Juniper partners and her first impressions of the Juniper culture. Here are excerpts from the interview, Tierney's first discussion of her decision to leave Cisco.

Why did you leave Cisco?

When I look at the innovation of Juniper and the leadership at Juniper, it was an opportunity I thought I needed to take advantage of. You look at the leadership of [Juniper CEO] Kevin Johnson and my new boss, Lauren Flaherty [Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer]. They have this incredible vision I wanted to take advantage of and help bring to the next level. It was about six months ago that I really started noticing all the great marketing that Juniper was doing. You would walk through the airports and see the campaigns. Juniper is out there. And I love marketing. So when it starts appealing to me, you know they have got something.

You did a lot of partner marketing enablement at Cisco. What are you going to do at Juniper to make sure partners have best-in-class marketing?

We are investing heavily in partner marketing efforts. We are going to bring thought leadership to the partner community. Just like technology is changing so quickly, so is marketing. Think of all the new social media aspects to marketing. We are going to teach our partners truly the latest and greatest marketing techniques. We are going to become their trusted marketing advisor.

What is Juniper going to look like in terms of marketing enablement for partners a year from now?

One of the things we are building right now immediately four weeks into the job is an [intelligent global] co-marketing engine [for partners]. Do you listen to Pandora or Slacker radio or shop on Amazon. When you go onto Amazon and you buy a book or electronics it remembers you. You bought a Black Eyed Peas song and this time I am going to offer you a Justin Timberlake song. We are going to do that same thing. It is about knowing who our partners are and what types of marketing they have done in the past and then we are going to serve up stuff that they might not have thought about that they needed to grow their marketing.

So we are going to take a co-marketing engine and start helping our partners scale by serving up marketing that they want without necessarily asking for it. We need to scale our marketing around the world. So we are going to have a global co-marketing engine that easily serves up assets, campaigns, resources, click-to-help, all those types of things so they can quickly use Juniper's marketing assets. So if you are marketing security [as a partner] it will serve up a new marketing campaign around security and then tell you how to integrate social media into that campaign. Are you doing a Twitter feed or a blog?

In the past many partners would have had to track down their marketing person or partner account manager to figure out what is available. What we are going to do is make it easy for them to find out what is available. Think of it as a co-marketing engine best in class.

Next: Teaching Partners Social Marketing

H ow quickly will Juniper partners see this?

They will see it pretty quickly. The goal is within 90 days.

One of the things you did at Cisco was an annual marketing conference for partners. Will you do the same kind of conference at Juniper?

We are absolutely going to teach our partners all the latest and greatest techniques. Initially it will be through one on one type engagements. Also we will start really communicating with our partners through these social media, creating a channels blog on Facebook, engage with our partners through Twitter feeds. First we are going to start building those relationships in marketing. Then what we will look at is, is their an appetite there for them to come to an event?

Compare and contrast the Juniper technology vision with the Cisco vision.

What attracted me to Juniper was the focus around the innovative products. My job now is to help our partners co-market with Juniper. It makes it really easy when the products are so great.

You established a lot of personal relationships with partners at Cisco. What is your message to those partners? Are you going to bring those relationships over to Juniper?

I am going to to build out new relationships with the Juniper partners. It is all about relationships. I have had a lot of partners reach out to me and say, 'We are really excited for you. Let's keep our relationship going.' But I am staying focused on marketing and how to build the brand of Juniper and our partners. So am I going to bring partners over? We'll see. That is not my goal. My goal is to help our current partners drive demand.

How committed is Juniper to the solution provider as the brand influencing the customer?

We are incredibly committed. That is why they hired me: to help our partners truly brand with Juniper their services. To me it is an endorsement of how committed Juniper is to partners. This is the year we are going to co-invest in our partners and really help them drive their business.

What is your message to partners here at XChange?

It is time to capitalize on some of the new trends in marketing: the mobile marketing, social CRM and video. We are all selling technology, but partners need to embrace these technologies to market to their customer. Let me give you an example: I was getting a coffee this morning and I had partners walking up to me telling me they are following me on Twitter asking me how my child is doing? It is a way to engage your clients and your customers. And partners right now are thinking how am I going to sell the technology not necessarily how am I going to engage with my customers. We are going to teach our partners through marketing thought leadership. They want to know how to do this: we will teach them how.

Next: Juniper's Big Marketing Investment

Talk about the investment Juniper is going to make to ensure that partners are best in class with marketing?

Kevin Johnson and Lauren Flaherty have said that there is a 20 percent investment increase in all of marketing. All I can say is: it is a beautiful thing. We are definitely heavily investing in marketing. Marketers need money: You can't market without marketing dollars.

Is this a net new marketing initiative for Juniper with your appointment?

Yes. Absolutely!. My job is to build out global partner marketing at Juniper. Taking advantage of the assets, the advertising campaign, but also building out marketing campaigns for the partners and giving them co-marketing dollars.

What is your first impression of the Juniper culture compared to the Cisco culture?

I have to say the people are amazing at Juniper. They are so receptive, innovative. They want to make things happen. I love the idea of strategy innovation coupled with true execution. It is a blast! Everyday I wake up and say 'Allright, Let's Go!'"

What is the Juniper marketing message to partners?

It is our time.

Is your appointment at Juniper an inflection point for Juniper and its partners?

It is absolutely our time to invest in our partner community around marketing. It is time to truly be a trusted marketing advisor. We are going to bring out best in class co-marketing for our partners. We are going to show them the way that marketing can really matter to their business, to be a competitive differentiator to their business.

Do you see Juniper going from a tier two to a tier one vendor?

Absolutely. It is fun. It is a blast to be part of the leadership team.I completely believe in the Juniper vision. I believe it and I am excited to be here.