The Triangle continues to produce e-commerce and email service, marketing and advertising related powerhouses, from ChannelAdvisor to Bronto, Windsor Circle to Netsertive and more. But a new player is growing rapidly in the business of enabling B2B sales through channel marketing: Zift Solutions. WTW talks with its CEO, industry veteran Ken Romley.

Triangle tech executives may recognize the Romley name. He was an executive at DoubleClick and SmartPath (now owned by Aprimo). Now he’s making news as the head of venture capital-backed Zift, which last week announced the acquisition of a rival. Having raised some $6 million in venture capital and with The Channel Company involved now as a minority owner after last week’s deal acquiring Channel’s Marketing Advocate, Romley and company have plans for major growth. That includes more jobs.

Our Q&A:

First, a bit about the business. Please explain for the novice out there what channel marketing automation is, how it works, and why it’s important

Channel Marketing Automation allows companies that sell through indirect channels (resellers, dealers, distributors) to extend their marketing to help their channel partners be better marketers a drive more sales.

With CMA suppliers can easily syndicate website content to their partners’ sites, syndicate social media posts via their channel partners’ accounts, provide email marketing campaigns the partners can use to nurture prospects and customers and ultimately distribute leads directly to their channel partners to follow up with and ultimately close faster.

What is the market size in dollars that you are targeting and is it continuing to grow?

More than 70% of all B2B sales come from companies selling through third party channels.

Zift Solutions targets the mult-billion dollar market that supports the marketing done by channel partners. This is a market that is in transition from spending a majority of the money on traditional media and manual outreach, to rapidly adopting new, more effective, digital techniques. Zift Solutions is at the forefront of providing the infrastructure required for companies to make this transition.

What sets your company’s technology apart from others? Do you have any patents and/or IP protection?

We are the most complete channel marketing and management automation platform with the deepest integration capabilities. Now we also have more than 15 years combined in the channel marketing automation space, which is unmatched from any competitors.

Zift was recently selected by SiriusDecisions as the top Channel Marketing and Management (CMM) Provider and was recognized as a Strong Performer with the top Technology score in the recent Forrester Wave™ Report: Though-Channel Marketing Automation Platforms, Q3 2015.

What were the key factors in making the acquisition last week?

By combining the entities we are now the largest provider of Channel Marketing and Management solutions in the industry. We are now the dominant player in a crowded market. Together we have nearly 100 customers and more than 30,000 channel partner users around the globe.  Plus by doubling our R&D and account management teams it allows us to innovate and deliver advanced features, functionality and support for our customers.

The Channel Company is a part owner of Zift – did that come about as part of this deal? Is it a minority stake? Or had the firm invested earlier?

It was part of the deal and it is a minority stake. The agreement with The Channel Company will help us expand our reach into their network of relationships to help grow the business even faster.

You say you are hiring. How many jobs and in what areas? How many of the jobs are in the Triangle?

As we assess the combined entities further we will begin to add additional roles to support our growing base of customers and users. Additions are expected across all areas of the organization including R&D, account management, services, support, sales and marketing.

Are you seeking additional funding at this point? (Who are your investors other than Raleigh-based Southern Capitol Ventures?)

We are always considering new opportunities to help grow our company. In addition to Southern Capitol new investments were led by Arrowroot Capital and SSM Partners.

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