CRN Interview: Telarus Northeast Senior Partner Development Manager Franchi On Helping Partners Expand Beyond Connectivity

From Back Office To The Field

Master agent Telarus is aggressively expanding into the Northeast, and the master agent has brought on its very first manager based near the Big Apple.

Tina Franchi is now serving as senior partner development manager for the New York/New Jersey area. No stranger to the master agent space, Franchi has spent over a decade working for a sub-agent organization and two master agencies, giving sales support to channel partners looking to increase their recurring revenue streams.

In her new role, Franchi is making the switch from back office to the field. Here's how she plans to help existing Telarus partners expand beyond their connectivity practices while recruiting brand-new partners.

What is your new role?

I'm based in Connecticut, about an hour and half outside New York City and I'll be supporting New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The main thing I'm working on is helping the partners learn more about Telarus and what the company has to offer the partner community. The company is really well known on the West Coast, so it's really about engaging partners on the East Coast and going through the differentiators that we have to offer. I'll be talking to existing partners that we aren't doing business with today and could be, and helping them build their businesses with some of our suppliers, like Spectrum and Comcast.

How has your transition been from the working in a back-office capacity, back to the field and building relationships?

I've been in the industry for about 11 years. I started off in sales and then went into support, and now I've decided to get back into the sales role. It's been really great so far. I've been having success talking to partners, both old and new, and partners I've known throughout the years. I've educated a lot of partners already that are not partnered with us on what we have to offer. I really came to Telarus for that reason -- the resources and the culture it offers to the channel community. The [company] is really connected to its partners.

What are the next big technologies and selling opportunities that partners need to be educated on?

Partners should be looking at what we have to offer in the UCaaS, contact center, mobility, and security space. A lot of agents are still strictly selling connectivity, and many agents still don't know how to go outside of the box to sell anything else. I've been focusing on getting in there and showing them the tools they need and the resources we have that they can use to sell other solutions aside from just connectivity.

Why is now the time for partners in the Northeast to take a look at Telarus?

Telarus has the resources here in the Northeast now, and I believe that is thanks to their merger with CarrierSales [a cloud and mobility-focused master agent that Telarus acquired in October.] When Telarus bought CarrierSales, they got the dedicated resources and direct relationships with Verizon, CenturyLink and AT&T. They also got dedicated support for technologies other than connectivity, like cloud, contact center UCaaS. If there was going to be a time to expand into this region, this is the time.

Telarus is also actively bringing on new partner development managers in [other Northeast cities], including Boston and Philadelphia. We also just hired six more support people for Northeast.