Sprint Master Agent Hyperion Partners Is On A ‘Demystifying Mobility' Mission

Master agent Hyperion Partners wants to help wireline- and cloud-focused partners tap into lucrative mobility opportunities by "cracking the code" to mobility solution-selling.

"All businesses are buying mobility. I think for many partners, their first reaction is to shy away from it because they feel like they don't know enough about it. We try to make mobility as simple as possible," said Kerry McGonigal, managing partner at Hyperion Partners, during The Channel Company's XChange 2019 event in Las Vegas.

Mobility- and Internet of Things-focused Hyperion Partners told CRN that it is Sprint's leading master agent. Adopting a Sprint-exclusive focus has allowed the company to zero in on mobility consulting and specialized device procurement services for the carrier while helping to simplify the process for other partners to enter the mobility arena.

[Related: Sprint IoT Will Be Set On Fire By 5G, Execs Say]

Sprint authorized its master agent program in September 2018. At the same time, the Overland Park, Kan.-based carrier realigned its three indirect channels: its mobility program and its IoT program, which is now focused on master agents; its wireline and cloud program; and its wholesale group, all of which now fall under the Sprint Business Partner Program that targets small to midsize businesses, enterprises, the public sector and federal government customers.

Hyperion Partners' program offers its partners support from Sprint's partner management team and Hyperion's sales directors via referral and reseller partner program models. Partners can choose to earn incremental commissions or rebill their own mobility solutions.

Perhaps most importantly, the company provides tools such as quoting and order entry, tech resources, and education to "demystify" mobility for partners, especially those that have been selling wireline-based products for years, McGonigal said.

Hyperion Partners today has close to 100 partners, and Melanie Wilt, director of strategic partnerships for Hyperion, wants to double that number this year.

There are partners selling millions of dollars worth of services in the wireline space today that want to continue to grow their business, but these companies need to be thinking about the next natural extension of their portfolios, McGonigal said.

"You're selling wireline and cloud services today, what happens when that wireline goes down and the cloud service ceases to function? We're just leading the natural extension, which can be wireless failover," he said.

But many partners are still intimidated by mobility, McGonigal said.

"We are making it simple and we aren't trying to make partners do anything revolutionary," he said. "Mobility is almost the equivalent of, 'Do you want fries with that?'"

It's not just the traditional telecom agent that can and should be getting into mobility. Wilt said that many different kinds of solution providers are now offering mobility-adjacent solutions.

"There's a lot of companies that traditionally wouldn't sell mobility and IoT solutions, but it's an easy addition that adds value to their solutions," she said.

And while some partners believe "the juice isn't worth the squeeze" when it comes to mobility selling compared with the commission that can be made off a technology like SD-WAN, with technologies like 5G on the horizon customers are already starting to ask about wireless as an option, Wilt said.

"These partners are talking about digital transformation," she said. "They are going to be missing out on money if they aren't thinking about adding those types of solutions."