The Channel Zone Podcast

Bill Hopkinson returns to The Channel Zone Podcast for a conversation about the forces reshaping managed technology, sales and leadership.
Now Director of Sales at Redsquid, Bill joins Mark Edwards to explore what AI actually means for businesses beyond the hype — from improving everyday productivity and customer QBRs to helping sales teams research, prepare, capture actions and maintain greater control of the sales cycle.
They also discuss the challenge of creating a consistent, high-performing sales culture while bringing together businesses through acquisition. For Bill, consistency matters: consistent measurement, consistent messaging, empowering people to solve problems rather than simply identify them, and creating genuine employee buy-in.
The conversation then turns to cybersecurity and the rapidly developing relationship between AI-powered attacks and AI-powered defence, before exploring Red Squid’s approach to sustainability, community involvement and employee ownership.
Finally, Bill explains why recognition, incentive trips and a healthy dose of competitiveness still matter in sales — and why, when it comes to building great salespeople, skill can be taught, but will is much harder to manufacture.

AI might appear to live in the cloud, but behind every prompt, model and application is something much more physical: data centres, engineering, infrastructure — and a huge amount of power.
In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards sits down with John O’Driscoll, Group CEO of Hanley Energy, to explore the extraordinary infrastructure boom being driven by AI.
John takes us inside the world of mission-critical power and explains why the new generation of AI data centres is fundamentally changing the demands placed on infrastructure. From traditional racks consuming 5–15kW to AI environments potentially requiring hundreds of kilowatts per rack, the scale of change is remarkable.
But this is also a fascinating business growth story.
Founded in Ireland in 2009 by two electricians, Hanley Energy has grown into a global operation with more than 1,000 employees, 13 offices and customers across more than 30 countries. John discusses the engineering culture behind that growth, the importance of speed and customer partnership, Ireland's remarkable pool of data-centre talent, and what the company's acquisition by Jabil now makes possible.
They also look ahead to what's coming next: the continued AI infrastructure race, the retrofit opportunity within existing data centres, pressure on power grids, alternative energy sources and Hanley Energy's ambition to become a billion-dollar business.
A fascinating conversation about AI, energy, engineering, entrepreneurship and the enormous infrastructure build happening behind the technology we increasingly take for granted.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards is joined by Yogesh Patel, Chief Growth Officer at Maintel, to discuss his journey from an early career in finance to more than two decades in telecoms, technology and sales leadership.
Yogesh explains what being a Chief Growth Officer really means — and why sustainable growth has to be about much more than simply winning new business. From customer retention and evolving propositions to creating new routes to market, the conversation explores the challenges of keeping a technology business relevant in an increasingly competitive and commoditised market.
Mark and Yogesh also dig into the changing world of B2B selling. They discuss the efficiency of Teams and Zoom, but also why face-to-face interaction remains incredibly powerful for building trust, developing relationships and uncovering the insights that rarely emerge during a scheduled 30-minute video call.
The conversation moves into account development, where Yogesh explains why traditional account plans can easily become little more than an administrative exercise — and how Maintel has reframed them as Growth Acceleration Plans focused on customer objectives, actions and genuine growth.
Yogesh also shares his view of the qualities that consistently distinguish high-performing salespeople: talk less, listen properly, remain curious, follow the sales process with discipline and develop the resilience to recover when a deal you thought was yours goes somewhere else.
Finally, the pair discuss the work they have done together using whiteboards and visual storytelling at Maintel, and the impact it has had not only on customer conversations but on the confidence of the sales team itself.
A wide-ranging conversation about sales, growth, leadership, customer relationships — and why sometimes the smartest thing a salesperson can do is simply stop talking and listen.

Heather Harlos has spent her career helping technology companies build partner programmes that actually work—not just on paper, but in the real world.
In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards sits down with Heather, Global VP of Programs & Enablement at Coro, to explore what it really takes to create successful partner ecosystems in today's rapidly changing technology landscape.
The conversation covers the evolution of MSPs, the growing challenge of supporting lean IT teams, and why simplicity has become one of the biggest competitive advantages in cybersecurity. Heather also shares her views on partner enablement, explaining why traditional training no longer fits today's channel and why modern enablement must be shorter, role-based and built around customer outcomes rather than information overload.
They also discuss channel events, relationship building, creative marketing, and why the companies that stand out are often the ones willing to be different.
Away from technology, Heather talks about her lifelong passion for horses and explains how lessons learned in the equestrian world—resilience, communication, emotional control and trust—have shaped her leadership style throughout her career.
Whether you're a vendor, distributor, MSP, reseller or anyone involved in partner sales and enablement, this episode is packed with practical insights and refreshing perspectives from one of the channel's most respected leaders.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, I sit down with Tom Corrigan, Chief Revenue Officer at QBS Software, to explore how the technology channel has evolved over more than 30 years—and where it's heading next.
Tom shares his journey from the early days of IBM through leadership roles at Avnet, Tech Data and Mimecast before joining one of Europe's fastest-growing software delivery businesses.
Our conversation explores:
Why "Execution beats theory" has become Tom's leadership philosophy.
How software distribution has evolved into software delivery platforms powered by people, process and technology.
Why relationships still matter in an increasingly digital, AI-driven world.
How SaaS has fundamentally changed the role of distributors, resellers and customer success.
Why AI is accelerating opportunity—but also dramatically expanding the cybersecurity challenge.
The growing importance of cloud sovereignty across Europe.
How QBS plans to grow from hundreds of millions of dollars in software revenue to $1 billion and beyond.
Why the channel should think bigger about giving back through charity and community initiatives.
This is a conversation about much more than software. It's about leadership, execution, partnerships and what it really takes to build sustainable growth in today's technology ecosystem.
Whether you're a vendor, MSP, reseller, distributor or simply interested in the future of enterprise technology, there's plenty here to think about.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards speaks with Nick Hamilton, Founder and Managing Director of Inconnection, one of the IT channel’s best-known events agencies.
Nick shares his journey from PGA golf professional to building an events business trusted by many of the biggest names in the technology channel. The conversation explores how events have evolved from simple hospitality or “tick-box” marketing activities into carefully designed commercial experiences focused on purpose, outcome, relationships and ROI.
Nick explains why the best events are not necessarily the biggest, why personalised invitations beat generic email campaigns, and why the first five minutes of an event can make or break the delegate experience. He also discusses the rise of more intimate, high-impact events, the importance of pre- and post-event engagement, the story behind Inconnection’s MemMail service, and how sustainability is becoming a practical expectation rather than a vague promise.
The episode also includes memorable stories from Nick’s career, including the evolution of the London Comedy Lunch, creative experiences at Abbey Road, and a brilliant tale involving a deliberately terrible coach used to surprise a high-performing global sales team.
A great listen for anyone in the IT channel, partner marketing, vendor sales, events, or anyone looking to understand how memorable business experiences are really created.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards is joined by Jonathan Keighley, Chief Revenue Officer at SaleCycle, for a sharp and honest conversation about what really changes when you move from senior sales leadership into the CRO role.
Jonny explains why the CRO job is far bigger than just carrying a sales number. He talks about shifting from pipeline obsession to revenue obsession, why onboarding, billing, retention, and customer success now matter just as much as closing deals, and how a true revenue leader has to think across the whole engine — from marketing and partnerships to customer experience and long-term growth.
The conversation also explores the modern sales toolkit: CRM, LinkedIn Navigator, sequencing tools, AI, meeting intelligence, and the danger of drowning in data while losing the human skills that actually drive trust. Jonny makes the case that curiosity remains one of the most valuable traits in sales, and that in a post-2020 world, face-to-face customer contact still creates the kind of connection virtual meetings often miss.
If you care about modern selling, revenue leadership, sales technology, hiring great salespeople, or building stronger customer relationships, this episode is packed with practical insight.

In this episode of the Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards speaks with Tess Garner, Senior Director of Global Channel and Alliances Marketing at Tenable, about how cybersecurity marketing, partner engagement, and demand generation have fundamentally changed in the post-COVID world.
Tess shares how Tenable, as an exposure management company, works through a global partner ecosystem of alliances, distributors, MSPs, and resellers, and explains why partner marketing is ultimately about winning hearts and minds. For her, successful channel marketing is not just about content and campaigns, but about human connection, memorable experiences, and helping partners feel engaged, enabled, and excited to work with your brand.
A major thread in the conversation is Tess’s doctoral research into how B2B cybersecurity demand generation has evolved since COVID. She argues that the traditional linear funnel no longer reflects how buyers actually behave. Instead, today’s buying journey is more complex, more self-directed, and increasingly influenced by peer networks, invisible social communities, AI-driven research, and partner ecosystems. Buyers now expect faster access to information, more personalization, and far less friction.
Mark and Tess also explore the shift from long-form gated content toward shorter, more human-centric formats, particularly on LinkedIn. Tess makes a compelling case that professional audiences still want credible business content, but they increasingly prefer it in more engaging, visual, and bite-sized formats. The discussion also challenges the continued overuse of dense PowerPoint decks, contrasting them with more direct, interactive, and memorable communication styles.
Alongside her corporate role and academic work, Tess also talks about writing her children’s book Charlie and Oggy, inspired by the simple but powerful idea of doing one thing at a time. It adds a personal dimension to the episode and reinforces one of the central themes of the conversation: in both work and life, clarity and focus matter more than ever.
The episode closes with a look at Tenable’s playful and highly successful jumper campaign, which used user-generated content to create joy, strengthen brand awareness, and show the human side of a cybersecurity company. It is a fitting example of the broader message running through the whole conversation: in a noisy world, the brands that connect emotionally, communicate simply, and create memorable moments are the ones that stand out.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, host Mark Edwards sits down with Steve Dawes, Chief Growth Officer at syclonX, for a conversation that spans nearly five decades of enterprise sales evolution.
Steve shares insights from his early career at Mars, where discipline, structure, and relentless activity defined success—22 calls a day, strict processes, and constant accountability. From there, the discussion moves into the legendary Rank Xerox era, widely regarded as the birthplace of modern solution selling. Steve reveals the intensity of Xerox’s training programs, the power of role play, and how sales excellence was built through immersion, coaching, and real-world experience—not dashboards or digital tools.
The conversation highlights a stark contrast between past and present selling environments. Steve and Mark explore how face-to-face selling, team camaraderie, and “learning by doing” created stronger salespeople—and question whether today’s reliance on Zoom and remote selling has weakened those fundamentals.
Steve also reflects on his time at Wang, one of the pioneers of word processing, and how simplifying technology for users became a powerful sales advantage. Along the way, he shares memorable stories—from managing a misfit team into top performers through energy, culture, and belief, to selling high-value systems through live demonstration and customer engagement.
The episode closes with hard-earned lessons from a 50-year career in sales, including the importance of showing up, building real relationships, and maintaining emotional connection within teams. It’s a rich, nostalgic, and highly practical discussion for anyone interested in how great salespeople are truly developed.

In this episode of The Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards sits down with Donna Joyce, Public Sector Account Director at Okta (specialising in Auth0), to explore a career shaped by an unexpected beginning: elite three-day eventing.
Donna shares what it was really like working as a groom for an Olympic rider—6am starts, half a day off per week, and two years with no pay—and how that environment hard-wired principles she still relies on today: discipline, routine, resourcefulness, teamwork, and accountability. The stakes in that world were real, and “doing what you said you’d do” wasn’t a motivational quote… it was safety.
From there, the conversation moves into Donna’s work in identity and cybersecurity, including a simple, human explanation of what Okta does: helping people safely use any technology, anywhere—often invisibly behind the apps we use every day.
Donna also breaks down what’s different about selling into the UK public sector: longer buying cycles, heavy procurement constraints, shifting priorities, and a complex web of stakeholders. Finally, Mark and Donna discuss AI adoption in government—the tension between innovation and guardrails—and why identity becomes even more critical as AI tools and agentic systems spread.
They finish with a brilliant (and chaotic) corporate hospitality story: a Dell Euro Disney trip to Paris where the Eurostar allegedly had to stop to restock the bar before even leaving the UK.