Partnerships Unraveled
The weekly podcast where we unravel the mysteries of partnerships and channel to help you become more successful.
Partnerships Unraveled
Meaghan Moore - Scaling Across Every Route to Market
In this week’s Partnerships Unraveled episode, we sit down with Meaghan Moore, Vice President, Global Partner Marketing at ServiceNow, to explore what it takes to triple revenue from $10B to $30B in just two years. For Meaghan, the formula combines building a scalable partner ecosystem, maintaining laser focus, and embracing AI-driven innovation.
She shares how she’s navigating hyper-growth while expanding ServiceNow’s partner network from a handful of SIs to more than 2,800 active partners, and aiming for 10,000 in the near future.
We discuss:
- Laying the foundation for partner marketing at a massive scale
- How to create focus and clarity in the middle of rapid change
- The role of resilience and psychological safety in high-pressure environments
- Knowing when to shift from building to scaling a route to market
- Encouraging AI adoption across teams and driving breadth before depth
If you’re leading through rapid expansion or evolving your partner strategy, this conversation is packed with practical lessons and leadership insights.
Connect with Meaghan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meaghansullivan-moore/
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Welcome back to Partnerships Unraveled, the podcast where we unravel the mysteries of our partnerships and channel on a weekly basis. My name is Alex Whitford, I'm the VP of Revenue here at Channels and this week I'm very excited to welcome our special guest, Megan. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing wonderful. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to have you on. We were in our prep call laughing about the experience of being on a rocket ship. I was sharing some stories at Zoom, and right now you are at ServiceNow experiencing some of that same crazy ride. Maybe, for the uninitiated, you could give us a bit of an introduction about who you are and what you do. Yeah, I would love to. So I'm Megan Moore.
Speaker 2:I run global partner marketing for ServiceNow. Indeed, a rocket ship action about who you are and what you're doing. Yeah, I would love to. So I'm megan moore. I run global partner marketing for service now. Um, indeed, a rocket ship. I feel like I climbed on one of the best you know companies in the industry about two and a half years ago. I was previously previously at sap for about 11 years, where I built up the global partner marketing organization, and doing the same thing here for serviceNow, but at a much more condensed timeline and faster pace, yeah, and a very different, I imagine, channel architecture.
Speaker 1:Just give us some remit in terms of what the sort of part of it is, the landscape, so we can get an understanding of what we're playing with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. We here at ServiceNow we're growing very, very quickly. We just reached over $10 billion in revenue and we expect to hit $30 billion in the next two years. So we literally have a remit across all partner types, all the way from hyperscalers, large SIs, resellers, isv, build partners, the whole thing. So we cover all routes to market all products, all geos.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and you cover all marketing across all those partner types.
Speaker 2:All marketing. Yeah, Now we're up to probably about 2,800 active partners in our ecosystem and we expect in the next two years that number will be north of 10,000. So we're on a very, very fast growth.
Speaker 1:So I always find that sort of scale we were talking about my time in Zoom that sort of scale is interesting because you are spinning plates. You're spinning plates in three different rooms in the dark. What sort of early bets are you making to be able to leverage and support that sort of massive, exponential partner expansion?
Speaker 2:So I think you know, coming in over the last two years, it's really been about laying the foundation, and it's been very interesting because there are certain parts of channel marketing and ecosystem, but you just have to have foundational things in place, whether it be an MDF program or a clear program guide and incentives and all of that. So what we've been doing is laying the foundation and then really trying to leapfrog ahead in terms of how we use AI to accelerate and make that more efficient and get our partners ready for this next big transformation that we're currently in the middle of. So I think you know the most important thing is we really stood up a shared infrastructure with programs, content engine, co-selling frameworks, really that allow us to scale super efficiently, and so, rather than a one-to-one support model, which you can do with 10 partners, you know we're really a scale program and how do you support the know, the thousands that will be coming in?
Speaker 1:and and I yeah, I just want to say that number again because it's insane 10 billion to 30 in in two years.
Speaker 1:You know people do go you know, and triple revenue across a two-year period. They don't from a foundation of 10 billion. That's that that just doesn't happen. And one of the things that I certainly experienced when I had my time at Zoom was it takes a certain level of resilience to deal with the amount of pressure knocking off the sides, explosions, that happens with that level and pressure of growth. And given that you're aware of what is happening and what is going to happen, how do you sort of intentionally design your team culture, your hiring process, the people you wrap around?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's. So your and my experiences are so similar, because Zoom during COVID was very similar to what ServiceNow is going through in. You know the current environment and I think you know, especially with AI and with the iterations, of how fast this thing is changing. Like every 90 days there's something new. So the pressure we felt even 10 months ago is not nearly even the pressure we experience today. Right, competition's never been fiercer.
Speaker 2:I think every layer of the infrastructure is transforming as we speak and so with that, we as a company and we as an organization have to move very, very, very quickly. So I think the most important things to your point are just clarity of purpose. We have to have just laser focus on exactly what we're trying to achieve, because when you have 600 crisis priority things thrown at you, how do you pick the ones that matter the most amongst all the noise and everything coming so quickly? So I just want to make sure this is exactly what we are doing. Here's exactly what we're focused on and this is the why. So the strategic intent behind it, I think you know having that psychological safety. You know the new, the new buzzword over the last 12 months, but how can employees really come forward and say like it's either too much and I can't handle it or I really need help on, you know, balancing this and where can I land?
Speaker 2:I think it's super important as a leader in a very, very high growth company that you just have to be laser focused, and with your team too, on where are they at that point in the journey and how can you support them in that to make sure that they've got this and they know that I've got their back. And then, I think, celebrating the wins Things are coming at us so fast and furiously Celebrate those wins, say that was awesome, great job. Let's keep going to kind of keep that momentum and that excitement up but also recognize the failures, learn from them quick yeah, yeah, I love it, right, I'm, I'm a real.
Speaker 1:that's what work was when it comes to this stuff that I think a mentor of mine once sat me down in a in a really dark moment, um, and he just was like alex, we do difficult then said a word that I'm not going to say on the podcast because that's what we do, and it was just that was it. And it was like it's fine to feel bad, that's totally normal. You're also strong enough, like, so just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and go again. And I go back to that moment, like every time I'm in a difficult moment now, because what I didn't need was an arm around me telling me it's all going to be okay, because it wasn't and we needed to go and fix something really complicated. I just needed someone to be like, yeah, it's difficult, get over it, it's going to be fine, like we'll get there, but today is going to be tough and you are tough, so it's fine.
Speaker 2:And you know what I love too, your experience, my experience, right, like it is such a privilege to be at a company like this or a company at Zoom in that time right, that you are in this high growth. It's a very special time in a career and in a moment, and very rare to be caught at one of these companies, right when you're going through this super massive high growth trajectory. Because, yeah, we do hard for sure, sure, but when you get over the hard and you have success, I mean it feels great, right, and to walk out of this when we do, whenever we do, and to come back and say you know, I did that, I was there, I was part of the change, I was part of that growth, I was part of that rocket ship and it was awesome, I mean, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean how exciting I think it's a hundred percent and you know I was, you know I was a friend of mine. He's joining a very, very high growth AI company and he was talking to me about it and I was just prepping him to say, hey, this is what I think life is going to look like for you, which is going to be amazing and terrible and everything in between. But I shortcutted I don't know eight years on my CV, like because I was there for two years and I got a major promotion that I was way too junior for. But I was right place, right time and had the experience of dealing with Zoom. And so someone just went yeah, run it, you can do it.
Speaker 1:And to me that's always what I tell people is like bet the market, bet the company, company and just keep going, because it you know, evolution is a step change, right, it's not linear. You get these periods where you just achieve more in six months than you did in six years, and so it's worth the struggle to put up with the pressure and don't you look back on it now and say that was one of the highlights of your career?
Speaker 2:Yeah, loved it, like it was so special.
Speaker 1:Loved it. It was also this is the other thing that I'd say, because it is funny how, in the moment, you only recognize what's difficult. I also was. There was a moment in my career where I could get a meeting with basically anyone in the world.
Speaker 1:With anyone, right, and I'm a junior, fairly junior guy, young in my career, you know, only eight years in and I could have called almost anyone and been like, hey, let's talk. And so there are huge advantages. You know, you're just dealing with the onslaught, so you just don't recognize them. But I then left to go to the start. I like, oh, all these people that were desperate to speak to me now won't answer the phone, like, and so there is real power that comes with being in that moment, so that resiliency is so strong. What's your sort of tactic when, when someone comes to you and they're just overwhelmed day three, they're like, oh my god, I was not expecting this yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I think what's super important is is really to stay present and self-aware of it, because, to your point, you can spin up and you can be crazy and like, wow, this is too much, right. You know, I'm so overwhelmed and I have no work-life balance. That's one methodology. The other one is to say, like this is amazing, right, I am literally in the eye of the storm per se of this most amazing company that's doing this massive transformation in this really unique world. And this is amazing.
Speaker 2:Feel the magic around you, really grab onto it and embrace it, because it's not going to last forever, right, and know that you're going to have days that aren't great, but if you can stay pretty centered and have that foundation of like what a privilege it is to be here, it makes it so much more fun. I love my job so much and, as crazy as it is, or as much as I'm traveling or the hours that I'm working, I get so much self-satisfaction out of it, so much fulfillment and I'm just I'm. It's like top of the world, and I know it's not gonna last forever. So I'm really trying to grab onto that and just enjoy it while it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny, I think, uh, I won't give my full ted talk on why work-life balance doesn't make any sense, uh, but, um, there is no balance. If you're enjoying it right, like I would rather, I'd rather do a job for 80 hours a week that I love than do a job for 30 hours a week that bores me, like to me. I just never understood that whole piece. Um, let's double click on focus. So an old mentor of mine used to tell me, alex, there's a thousand ways to win, but we picked this one. Um, when you've got that onslaught of loads of ways that you could be successful, how do you keep and I really mean operationally, because people are just running in a thousand different directions how do you keep people and I really mean operationally, because people are just running in a thousand different directions how do you keep people on script and on direction?
Speaker 2:So I think what's really important we talked about a little bit before is, first of all, just the focus on here's, the five most important things that we need to achieve this quarter. I mean, part of it is having a fairly tactical view of like a quarter from now, and then there's also keeping the long-term in mind of like and then what do I want to do the next 12 to 24 months? But really having the focus of when we walk out of this particular quarter, what am I going to look back and say like that's exactly what needed to happen and I did that to prepare for the next step or whatever. So just that focus is important. I think understanding strategic intent and why you're doing everything and why you're headed there is super important too, because that allows you to prioritize.
Speaker 2:And then you and I talked previously in a different conversation about what I call the strategic no, and that is you know you're going to get a lot of requests because a lot of people and organizations and externally are looking for a lot of things from you. But when can you really place the strategic no in terms of does it tie to our biggest growth levers and will it scale? If it doesn't answer to those questions. It's a very polite gosh, you know. I know that that's something important to you, but we're really focused here now. And what other ways can I get you to your objective, you know, while still staying focused here? So it's really being super hyper collaborative, but being focused at the same time to make sure you're all moving in the same direction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think by nature I'm someone who sort of tries to zoom out and find the sort of quickest path between A to B. I was forever going to one of my early CEOs and be like I've had a great idea, he had a great ideas list, which was him basically blindly telling me no, so it's a great idea, we're going to put that on the list and we're going to come back to it, and it was just like we never came back to any of them. But it's because, yeah, when you've got that full, when you understand how to win, any detraction from that way is losing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think too to your point like having the big ideas list. Sometimes one of those may pop and it's awesome. Like I brainstorming it's when you get the most innovative and you break glass is when you kind of get in a room with a whiteboard and dream of the art of the possible, like what could be. So I love having the list. You can't hit all of them, but you know there's some golden nuggets in there.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that you know, I I I get jealous hearing you talk about that. It's high growth, but also high partner expansion, because that that just sounds like a problem to get your teeth into when you're talking about those very, very different routes to markets, different customer segments and different geographies. How on earth do you build a marketing motion or a revenue motion that's able to support the rate of growth that you're talking about?
Speaker 2:So I think it's done strategically with a lot of data and analytics, right? I think the simplest way to think of ecosystem and partners are what can I not get to on my own? Or to what do I not want to get to on my own, meaning service now on my own? So you know, you can leverage partners to get into white space. You can leverage them to get into geo expansion, where we don't have coverage. Or you can leverage them to do like you know, say, like it's mid-market or like you know, a lot of little deals that add up to a lot of money. Right, there's different ways to reach different parts of the market. So I think it's super important to look at kind of what are we trying to unlock? Is it net new logos? Is it net new enterprises? Is it net new geos? Is it you know what is it? And then really using different partner classes and different partner types where it makes the most sense.
Speaker 1:And so one of the things that I think is really sort of interesting in terms of that motion is there's the build motion and the scale motion requires typically two different teams, two different functions, two different metrics. How do you know when to go? Okay, we've been building this route to market and now we want to scale it wide. Do you have a particular data point that you're after?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that all goes to like looking where are the customers, where's the market opportunity, where's the product fit? It starts there, right. It starts at a strategic level, at the you know the large part of the company saying kind of here's where we want to reach. We figure out where you can put your direct sales and where you have the most you know density and expertise in that area. And then you wrap partners kind of on the periphery of all that. Where can partners help accelerate the direct sales? And that would be like it's a sell with motion. Where can partners do it? Where it's a sell through motion? And then in some cases, in many cases, because ServiceNow and our product and just who we are, we're selling to a lot of our partners as well where they become customer zero, they get a lot of success using ServiceNow across their enterprise and with all the AI implementations, they can use that as a test case then to go sell to their customers. So it's a really unique. We have all three motions Nice.
Speaker 1:Pivoting slightly, you gave me a really interesting bit of help, so I then ran into a board meeting and shouted at everyone. So I appreciate that. But one of the things that I find sort of interesting around AI adoption three ways you can adopt AI AI in your product, as ServiceNow is doing. Ai in your operations, which is how do we do our job better, faster, cheaper every day. And AI in our go-to-market. The problem is AI in our operations can't be built top-down. People are too far away from the detail. There's too much nuance. There's too much nuance. There's too much customization, which means we need non-technical, non-strategic and non-processed people to stand up and do all of those things simultaneously with AI. How do you encourage that change?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think there's a couple ways we're doing it, as you mentioned. One of it is just organically Like what are people playing with? What's in your sandbox? What are you experiencing in your day-to-day job? Kind of making it better. I think that's one thing you know. I think there's also tools that a company can give their employees. Certainly, we have a lot of products here at ServiceNow that we use you know ourselves with Now Assist and other things that just kind of help us do our jobs better. But I think right now it's AI curiosity, right. There's like AI curiosity, ai fluency, ai maturity. You know there's a lot of different words for it, but we are really encouraging people to just start playing with it, start using it. You know, make a Zoom background, make a video, make a you know some content. You just start using it to get familiar with it is the most important thing, have AI office hours.
Speaker 2:So every month we will all get together and do you know? What are you using it for? What are you finding the most valuable in all sorts of areas of your life? And then we you know we as a company we've got some very cool like teams, chats and things going on about. You know cool things. People have seen that either other companies are doing cool ways, that marketing is being enabled by AI out in the industry, or something that someone's discovered here that we can all kind of play around with. So it's just, you know, it's just getting in there and making it part of your remit.
Speaker 1:I love that. From a mass adoption perspective, I've been going backwards and forwards on what's more important depth or breadth when it comes to AI adoption. From your perspective, what's the priority?
Speaker 2:I think right now it's breadth, because I think right now you just have to get a surface level understanding of kind of what's happening out there. And, as I mentioned, you know, every 90 days there's some massive big change in AI. You know, grok coming out a month ago, that we think is just amazing. Open AI is really cool. You know you've got Claude with Anthropic. There's so many different tools out there.
Speaker 2:I think just understanding what they all are and what the pros and cons of all of them are I think is super important. There are so many startups popping up also with you know, different tools. So just kind of having a breadth of like what is out there, what are the industry trends and what kind of what's happening. We will get to the depth once we land on something like you know, okay, that one works well for us as a company or works well for our industry, you know that's when we will start maybe going deeper in it. Or from a marketing perspective. You know, maybe there's a certain vendor that we land on that we can get scale from as a company. That's when we will go deep. But I think for most marketers right now, just having the breadth and knowing and having a pulse of what's going on in the industry is really important?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think certainly from a, because I think there's lots of fear, which there shouldn't be. I think the people who see this as exciting as an opportunity, that's true. If you see it as terrifying, also true. That's the weird world that we live in, um. But I think if I sort of look at this from a business consultancy perspective, um, the 80 20 tells me that a few people are going to make all the changes that deliver all of the value, and so I think businesses that index too heavily on. Let's make sure everyone's super fluent. It's like that's not where the value is going to come from. Right, there's a few people who are going to make radically great system changes, operation improvements, go to market improvements that the whole crowd will benefit from yeah, totally awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I also like a bit of advice, and not just on the podcast, but about the podcast. We always ask our current guests to recommend our next guest. Who did you have in mind?
Speaker 2:Well, one of my favorite in industry that I've worked with gosh I'll date myself for about 30 years is Larry Walsh. He's the CEO of Channelnomics and just has some amazing things not only going on, but he also has a pulse across the entire industry and just an amazing thought leader. So I think I think you'd have massive success in chatting.
Speaker 1:Awesome, Megan. Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom. It's been awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.