 Welcome to the latest edition in our series of profiles where we shine the spotlight on AireSpring's amazing partners. This time we're speaking with Curt Allen, President of the Channel at Sandler Partners and former President at X4 Solutions.
Hello, Curt. Thank you for agreeing to speak with us today. Please tell us a little bit about your background and the history of X4.
I started in Telecom back in the early nineties working at AT&T. Then in the late-nineties I migrated over to Intercall, which is now the largest conference and collaboration service provider in the world. I was at Intercall from 1997 to 2005. While at Intercall, I managed one of their national account teams and then their wholesale services group, which marked the beginning of my working with the Channel. I really got indoctrinated into the channel while managing Intercall’s carrier partners and providing white label services to resellers. In 2005, the founders of X4 [Stephen Snure, DJ Fioretti and Steve Braverman] approached me to join their new company. At the time, I was selling and managing over $20 million annually, so I had to think twice before leaving an established brand with a steady income. But I chose to make the move. After spending my first ten months at X4 as their Senior VP of Sales, I became President and a partner in the company. Today, I am incredibly glad that I made the decision to help this once-young company grow.
The industry is abuzz about your recent merger with Sandler Partners. Can you tell us more about how that decision was made and the impact it will have on the industry?
X4 has experienced excellent growth and success for the past twelve years. That success is due to our agility and our solid commitment to all our partners in the channel. However, we began to notice that the market for master agents like ours is coalescing around scale. Larger agencies with more resources and a wider distribution infrastructure are realizing an advantage in a market that is packed with complex solutions and an even more complex supply chain. To continue providing our sales partners with an edge in this ever evolving market, we looked for ways to scale our operation. In July of 2016, we decided to merge with Sandler Partners. I was named President of the Channel, and we are now the second largest distributor of telecom and cloud services in the industry.
During this acquisition, both Alan Sandler [Founder of Sandler Partners] and our team at X4 agreed that the key to a successful transition was to make sure none of our primary constituencies experienced disruption in their business activities. This included ourselves, our stakeholders, our sales partners, our sales associates, and our carrier partners. Now that the merger is complete, I can confidently say each of those constituencies are better off today than they were before.
Part of how we accomplished this is by keeping many of our processes the same for the time being. For example, our sales partners get to work with the same people they always have, they use the same online portals, and we have even kept our payroll system in place. While those aspects of the business haven’t changed, our revenue is climbing tremendously. In fact, we have closed just under one million dollars in new MRC for the last three months.
Clearly, this merger demonstrates an ability to identify important market shifts. What would you say is the secret to success in this industry?
I think it is incredibly important to know your role in the marketplace. For example, we are not market makers, we are market facilitators. By observing our sales partners and the various carriers, we are in a perfect position to spot where there are gaps/opportunities and where our support services are needed. The Sandler/X4 partnership exemplifies this perspective. Instead of trying to spread ourselves thin, we recognized that scaling up was the only way to support our sales partners at full capacity. Now, we can work with any kind of agent, VAR or MSP, no matter what their business model. We also have an incredibly robust support, training, and development system designed to give our partners the tools they need to operate successfully in this market. Like I said, as market facilitators, we are loyal to the deal, not the brand. This merger represents a relinquishing of individual ego to host and support larger and more profitable deals for everyone involved.
What do you think is the next big thing?
Data delivery services are becoming integral in telecom. Making broadband connections more viable and supporting SD WAN solutions are going to become standard practice for solution providers that want to remain relevant. The same can be said for redundant networks and failover options. But the best way to look at it is that the next big thing is something we haven’t encountered yet.
Instead of focusing all your energy on a new trend or a hot new offering, it is better to position yourself and structure your business so that the next big thing doesn’t overwhelm you. You have to remain agile. I continue to harp back to the Sandler merger, but it truly reflects this philosophy. Not only can we react quickly when new things hit the market, but we can also remain firm when larger entities threaten the market. If a larger company buys out one of our competitors, they could swallow the market through sheer resource superiority. When there are several big players this is much more difficult, allowing the market to remain competitive and produce higher quality products.
What do you like about working with AireSpring?
AireSpring is a bold company when it comes to solutions, and a firm friend when it comes to telecom relationships. I remember when AireSpring started to offer and create its own solution set rather than remain a reseller. Your executive team has never been shy to take risks in an increasingly complex market and I admire that. Of course, I am biased because you have also always used the channel as a primary means of distribution for those services! You’ve remained true to your commitment to the channel all these years.
At the same time, AireSpring is really a standard when it comes to continuity. X4 is a relationship based company, so it is especially attractive when you have a brand like AireSpring which has housed the same team for over a decade now. I met Charles Lomond, National Director of Channel Sales, in 2005 and we still work with him today. That kind of relationship is more important than anything else in this industry. When I recommend someone, I am sticking my neck out, so having close business partners who I know and who I can rely on makes all the difference.
What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of the office?
Well my family keeps me pretty busy. I am happily married to my wife, Jeanine, with whom I have a 16 year old son, named Todd. We also have three dogs—a Chihuahua, a French Bulldog, and an English Bulldog. We are lucky enough to have a teenager who still likes to hang around with us, so I am taking advantage of that as much as I can! He and I are avid concert goers and, when my wife can handle the band, she’ll tag along. But Todd and I easily go to 50-60 concerts a year.
My son Todd is also quite an accomplished lacrosse player. I go to all of his games, and I am the voice of the Hillgrove Hawks where he goes to school. I used to coach, but now I get to sit at the PA and narrate the game while watching him play! I have no complaints!
Thank you, Curt, for speaking with us. We are excited for you and the future of the new Sandler Partners!
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September is Disaster Preparedness month, and you are the first line of defense in helping ensure your customers have an iron-clad plan to help them weather natural or man-made disasters. Join AireSpring Sales Engineer Chuck Long Thursday, September 15 from 1:00 - 1:45 PST as we explore how to create a disaster recovery plan and look at the comprehensive suite of products AireSpring offers to support it!
