Gregor Klos, SentinelOne
Gregor Klos is the senior channel business manager for CEEUR at SentinelOne. Klos has been working in the IT industry for over 15 years. He is responsible for designing and executing programmes that create growth opportunities for our partners across the region and ensure their success.
Before joining SentinelOne, Klos held various positions at Splunk, where he initially drove business expansion in German-speaking countries as territory account manager and regional sales manager before becoming a partner account manager in 2015. In this role he was responsible for building a reliable partner ecosystem.
Number of years in current role:
5
Number of years in current company:
5
Number of years involved in indirect/channel sales:
15
Reports to:
Naveed Malik, AVP EMEA channels
Number of employees in channel organisation:
60
What percentage of overall sales come through the channel?
40 per cent
What is your personal channel philosophy?
Partners are critical in helping customers understand how to break through the noise and recommending the best solutions to help solve their toughest security challenges. No one vendor can solve every customer problem and the partner is where it comes together.
What were your biggest personal channel accomplishments over the past year?
When I first joined SentinelOne, the partner landscape was rather unclear, but under my leadership, we identified dormant and unsuccessful partners.
By then identifying the "right" partners, qualifying and enabling them, we fostered a force of focus partners who receive the appropriate attention and benefits of our partner programme.
What were your organisation's biggest channel accomplishments over the past year?
Partner Summit 2023 with first Partner Advisory Board. The PAB consists of 15 hand-picked execs from our partners plus SentinelOne execs out of EMEA. Central Europe was represented by three partner execs.
This year there was also an awards dinner with the ceremonial presentation of partner awards: EMEA Distributor, EMEA Champion, EMEA Partner of the Year, Rising Star and MSSP and Tech Star of the Year. Central Europe was represented by two winners in this international competition (MSSP + Tech Star).
In each of the previous three years, Germany provided the EMEA Partner of the Year. The Central Europe region established a row of prestigious channel-facing events that combine knowledge transfer with networking and socialising in a unique way. These events have been growing over the years and have become a brand of their own. Now we are happy to welcome more than 100 partners to each event.
What areas would you like to see your channel partners invest in in 2024?
We would like to see our partners nominate dedicated contacts and knowledge carriers and make time as well as allocate personal resources for training and certification.
Invest in suitable and if possible high-profile events to attract customers, especially after Corona. Objection handling and deep product knowledge are the key for success, and the partners who invested in this area before their first deal are now the most successful ones, as proven by our EMEA Blue Print partners from Germany.
We'd like to see our partners identify and invest in the right portfolio and services: The combination of different solutions from different vendors under the umbrella of the partner.
What are the biggest challenges facing your partners in 2024?
In today's threat landscape, point solutions are decreasing in popularity. Customers are seeking to consolidate their security vendors, their security consoles and their data to gain a unified view of the enterprise security landscape.
Enterprises need a specialised security approach centred on all enterprise data to prevent attacks. Disjointed platforms do not result in better protection. Bigger brands do not mean better security.
Partners who build their services on a unified AI-based security analytics platform that seamlessly aggregates and connects data from all security products in a single, streamlined technology and interface will put themselves in a position to succeed.
In what ways do you use your role to build equity and inclusion?
We ensure that everyone has equal access to training, resources, and opportunities and engage with everyone equally. We are accountable. Whether it is feedback from our staff or partners- we make sure that everyone is heard.