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AchieveUnite, Inc. |
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July 1, 2019 Issue |
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CEOCFO MAGAZINE |
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AchieveUnite, Inc. is providing Consulting and Education to the Technology Industry focused on building Channels, Successful Partnership, Alliances, and Leadership Expertise |
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Founder and Chief Executive Officer AchieveUnite, Inc.
Interview conducted by: Lynn Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – July 1, 2019
CEOCFO: Ms. Caragol, would you tell us the idea behind AchieveUnite? Mr. Caragol: AchieveUnite is a consulting and education company, focused in the technology industry helping companies and individuals build channels, successful partnership and alliances, and hone their leadership expertise.
CEOCFO: What do people need to know in that arena that perhaps is not readily available? Ms. Caragol: In the tech industry, like many industries, it is all about partnerships, and needing ways to get to the market to reach the consumers. Whether you are B2B, B2C, small, medium, or large enterprises, government, service providers, you cannot go it alone. We understand intimately how to effectively build the right strategy for your company. We then help companies execute that as well. In addition, we focus on the IQ and the EQ – it’s as much about the intellectual abilities as it is about the leadership skills to drive change, build great cultures, and influence others in a positive way.
CEOCFO: Do you work with companies one-on-one? Ms. Caragol: We work with companies and organizations in three different ways. One way is that we work with the company and the executives at that company. Ideally, we help them build their strategy and then we help them execute for success. Secondly, we teach education programs that might be sponsored by a company or an executive sends his/her key individuals through the program. For example, we offer our ACE: “Leadership by Influence” Program, which is a channel and tech flipped classroom, video-based learning leadership program. Another example is our channel acceleration boot camp, a program offered to vendors and distributor teams honing their leadership skills. The third way we work with companies is through alliances like CompTIA and ACW, and we partner with them to bring successful initiatives to market.
CEOCFO: Would you walk us through a typical engagement? Ms. Caragol: A typical engagement would be where we would help a company solve some business challenge or opportunity, identify something they think they’re missing, a market they think they want to go after, etc. It could also be something where they recognize a challenge that they need to solve such as partnership channels or go-to-market arena.
CEOCFO: What do you look at when a company comes to you for help and how do you develop a strategy? Ms. Caragol: We look internally at the company, the markets, customers, landscape, and industry trends. We look at the data – qualitative and quantitative. We look at the industry landscape and then we look at the competition. It is these factors that help build the market strategy.
CEOCFO: Do companies that engage, tend to follow your recommendations? Ms. Caragol: Yes, they do. Part of our secret sauce is that we stay with them and help them in execution and we see results because of that.
CEOCFO: What type of results might a company see? Ms. Caragol: We have clients who have seen 100% growth from the implementation of the strategy that we recommended. We also have clients who saved money because of inefficiencies and processes in the system. On the training and coaching side of our business, we have many people who have been promoted and have excelled in the leadership ranks, in part because of our coaching and training programs.
CEOCFO: What do you understand about leadership training that is different from the crowd? Ms. Caragol: Our approach is a cohort, a peer group learning environment. It is done with coaching wrapped into it, so behavior shifts when you do something over time and you continue to get assistance for that. We blend that. The second thing is we teach EQ and IQ, and both of them are equally as important in this space. We focus in both arenas with our program, those being the emotional intelligence side and the intellectual intelligence side; the soft skills and hard skills.
CEOCFO: How do you teach somebody so that they retain what they learn? Ms. Caragol: Adults learn from interaction, so all of our education programs are taught in classroom and workshop environments so that they are experiencing learning and they have a chance to process it intellectually and emotionally. Secondly, we wrap coaching into our programs, so I may have a client for a period of time and then I may switch to coaching. I may work with a client on a consulting engagement, and then we may shift to coaching after that, which also reinforces the learning and helps the leader sustain personal and professional growth. Third, we really teach concepts and practices that people immediately start putting it into practice right away. We have a number of ways that we do that through our leadership platform and our workbooks and exercises that really reinforce the behavior change.
CEOCFO: Does the overall macroeconomic environment affect what you do? Ms. Caragol: Yes, it does. We are operating in a great environment right now and clients like SaaS companies, Security companies, Hardware and Software companies, need our services. It is very difficult to get to the entire market direct, so you really need a partner ecosystem, whether you are distributing through channels like Cisco or you are selling direct but with influence and solutions service through other companies, like Salesforce.com. Whether you sell direct or are distributing 100% through channels and partnerships, you have to have an ecosystem. That is what we specialize in.
CEOCFO: With so much happening in technology, how do you stay on top of new ideas, trends and services? How do you recognize a product or company that is really good or viable today, and then all of a sudden is not? Ms. Caragol: We focus on skating to where the puck is going. That is the language we use with all of our team and our focus is to take our clients on a journey. All of our team has been practitioners in the industry, such as Chief Program leaders or Channel Chiefs, or CMOs, and then they decided to take a different approach. We also do research with Universities. We recently published an eBook on Partner Lifetime Value®, and we demonstrated the ingredients and recipe for long term partnerships to be successful.
Basically, we have figured out that if you want overall revenue growth and channel growth, there are six ingredients for success, with research that is statistically viable. Lastly, I spend a lot of time speaking at industry events. We take the time to guide where the puck is going. We spend a lot of time on the industry and not just in the industry.
CEOCFO: What are you surprised we can do with technology and what are you surprised we cannot do yet? Ms. Caragol: I continue to be surprised at how many amazing disruptive technologies applications come out. We can do so many things that we could not do previously, whether that is something in a B2B environment or something my kid can do because he is on an app shopping for tickets. I just love the innovations. I think we are going to continue to see technology take over human driving, airplanes, etc.
CEOCFO: How do you reach out to prospective clients, or are people coming to you these days? Ms. Caragol: Most of our business has been referrals and people who know many of the folks on our team. Our alliances recommend us as well, and automation partners recommend us.
CEOCFO: Where do you see growth in the different areas of focus?
Ms. Caragol:
I continue to see growth from our consulting and program development
business and I absolutely see growth on the education and enablement side. CEOCFO: What do you offer that people do not take advantage of as much as you would expect? Ms. Caragol: We focus on the learning/education side. We can help companies that are trying to figure out what they need to do but they do not have a significant amount of money to get started. We have a proven way to help companies build channels right the first time or fix issues and challenges. I fundamentally believe that every company, regardless of the industry that you are in, needs to have a good set of partnerships. They can exponentially help you build your business.
CEOCFO: What has changed in your approach over time? Ms. Caragol: We continue to grow and I have learned how to harness the power of experts and help them build their practices. I think our use of systems and office tools has changed, in order to make ourselves more efficient and effective.
CEOCFO: Why choose AchieveUnite? Ms. Caragol: Come to us if you have any questions related to your go-to-market and partnership alliance channels. Domestically or internationally we have a great deal of experience. Come to us also if you want to develop your leadership skills – hard and soft skills / IQ and EQ and be a great change leader.
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“We take the time to guide where the puck is going. We spend a lot of time on the industry and not just in the industry.”- Theresa Caragol
AchieveUnite, Inc.
Contact: Theresa Caragol 770-883-7794
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Leadership Training, AchieveUnite, Inc., Improve Business Partnering, Theresa Caragol, AchieveUnite, Inc. is providing Consulting and Education to the Technology Industry focused on building Channels, Successful Partnership, Alliances, and Leadership Expertise, CEO Interviews 2019, Business Services Companies, Technology Company, building channel partnerships, leadership by influence, improve partnership working, improve channel sales, channel incentives, channel engagement specialist, channel engagement manager, channel engagement strategy, partner onboarding, partner onboarding guide, value chain analysis, AchieveUnite, Inc. Press Releases, News |
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Theresa
Caragol