The Fifty

These 50 Rules are Simple, But Hard

We ask our Darktrace Americas Partner Organization team to commit to fifty things that, in total, help create and continue the culture that we want in supporting Darktrace partners. It’s fifty rules that define how we will act and respond when the going gets tough in serving both our partners and our own sales teams. ?And together, they define how we will earn any description of us given by others when we are not part of the conversation.

I had the chance to join Randy Seidl on his podcast Tech Sales Insights LIVE (view here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:7148357679453765632/ ) and we were talking about culture. I told him about these 50 things that we commit to each other and said that I know they will lead to the culture that we want to build together. I told him that I'd post it here for all to see. No secrets.

Our Darktrace partners and our partner sales team are just that, partners. So we gladly share what you can expect to see from us as we work together. And I'm confident that our partners will take me up on #50 should the need arise...

The Fifty rules that we'll stay accountable to include:

1. Our first two priorities every quarter will be to forecast quota and exceed our forecast for indirect revenues across the Americas.
2. Everyone will understand our plan and metrics. Or ask questions if they don’t.
3. We’ll know the numbers: both ours, our partners, the sales teams we support.
4. We will keep a top priority of adding net new customers with our partners.
5. We will quantify everything we can in our plans and we will communicate our plans to all who are impacted or can help us make them happen.
6. We will run to the sound of trouble: when we hear complaints, concerns or calls for help.? We will face trouble head on and not hope that it gets better.
7. We will remember that bad news does not get better with age. Communicate bad news and your best options or ideas to remediate it.
8. We value authors over editors (doing over critiquing).
9. We are sales professionals first and channel professionals second.
10. We will help our partners build professional services practices around Darktrace solutions.
11. We own our partners’ experience with Darktrace , no excuses.
12. We will pursue and support equally our largest partners, our faster growing partners, our newest partners, and partners that bring unique value (i.e. to a vertical or to a defined geography)
13. Showing up matters, and we will show up every week. Thirteen weeks each quarter.
14. We build our culture every day by our actions and err on the side of daring knowing that who dares wins.
15. We will communicate successes. That is teaching, not bragging.
16. Operational excellence and urgency of action are the ante to play
17. We will serve BOTH partners and our sales teams and we know that we'll be scored by both.
18. We run our race in 13-week quarters. And we are accountable to both Darktrace fiscal quarters and our partners' fiscal quarters.
19. We will know the number of partner-employed sellers selling our solutions each quarter.
20. We will know the math of revenue, growth, and profitability. We will think in terms of margin dollars, because our partners do.
21. We don’t demand loyalty from our partners, we earn it. And we expect integrity and trust.
22. We will know what is possible and doable.
23. We expect diversity in people and their ideas. And we acknowledge that those two things go together.
24. We will take control of our destiny: we’ll control what we can and not fixate on what we can’t.
25. While we are innovating for the future we want, we will ensure that the trains will run on time now. There is no future if we cannot manage our present.
26. We are doers, don’t pontificate.
27. Get more right than wrong, and don’t dwell on the wrong.
28. Companies and organizations grow or shrink, they don’t just drift sideways. We will grow.
29. Our assignments will change in growth. Remember, the alternative is worse.
30. Nature abhors a vacuum. Fill the space with partners or our competitors will.?
31. Sic Parvis Magna: greatness from small beginnings. We will try lots of small ideas then scale them. Quickly.
32. Don’t wait for perfection. Hippocrates did not have an MD.
33. Unlike chess, we are not playing a two-person game. Involve everyone you need to win. But not more than are needed.
34. You can win alone, but you shouldn't.? And NEVER lose alone.
35. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is today. Do something now, don’t opine on prior attempts or why they failed.
36. You can kill the thinker; you cannot kill the thought. Be open to people’s ideas.
37. You’ll never learn anything listening to yourself. Actively listen to others.
38. If you always play the pass line, you can only win small. Make big bets that are well informed.
39. Don’t be in denial when something we tried fails. Act. Move on.
40. Remember, they make the windshield bigger than the rearview mirror for a reason.? Always look forward.
41. Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. Your plan precedes results. Keep your plan current and live your plan.
42. The best way out is through. When in doubt move. And keep moving.
43. Evidence is not the plural of anecdote. Act on evidence, not opinions.
44. Who before what. Identify people key to bringing any idea to reality, then address the goal and desired result.
45. Grow bigger and better. At the same time. It’s not one or the other.
46. The 11% rule. We need 9 ideas for every winner. A third will be deemed possible after 2/3 fall out or prove impossible. A third of those will exceed expectations or goals.
47. Connect your past to your future: you are who you are from what you’ve learned through both victories and failures. Use your history to guide your future.
48. Ask good questions. Good questions are the ones that might have answers.
49. Good engineering can change economic equations and boundary conditions. Don’t assume that something is not possible by today’s constraints. Challenge the physics and prove what could be possible if conditions were different.
50. Challenge me if you catch me not following our rules.

Scott Strubel is the Vice President of the Americas Partner Organization for Darktrace and author of the book Simple, but HARD (https://simplebuthardbook.com/ ). You can find more articles on leadership, sales, and partnering at Scott's blog scott-talks.com .