The editors of CRN have included Seagate’s Natalia Case among its 2016 Women of the Channel. Case, a seven-year-veteran of Seagate, is in good company. Among her fellow honorees are channel professionals from Dell, Cisco, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Oracle.
CRN’s editorial staff established its annual Women of the Channel list to spotlight “women whose channel expertise and vision are deserving of recognition.”
Case, a senior sales manager based near Toronto, Ontario, works with Seagate’s channel partners (distributors, resellers and retailers) to grow the company’s consumer hard drive business in North America. Her team’s top channel partners include Staples Canada, CDW, PC Connection and PCM.
Case’s manager, Patrick Robinson, called the CRN recognition “well deserved.”
Skilled Leader
“During her time at Seagate, Natalia has proven to be a highly skilled, determined and capable leader,” said Robinson, director, Americas, for Seagate’s consumer solutions group (CSG). “Her knowledge of the channel and her ability to lead customer engagement has been a key component of our success. When I look at the competitive landscape and why Seagate is winning within our CSG business, Natalia’s efforts are a significant reason.”
Case began her career at HP and said she is inspired by female tech leaders such as HP Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, IBM CEO Ginny Rometty and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
“The channel has been a predominantly male-dominated industry, but Seagate has a wealth of talented females that I can lean on for advice and feedback,” Case said. “It’s just a matter of connecting with those networks, which can also be outside the company.”
Case said it’s equally important to keep managers informed about both successes and challenges.
“The best way to grow is to advocate for your own career,” Case said. “Let your manager and other leaders in your organization know what you’re working on and be sure to highlight your accomplishments and wins with them each month or quarter. I’ve learned to ask for support when I want to implement something new that might drive sales growth or customer satisfaction.”
A big part of Case’s job is to meet frequently with distributors and resellers and gather their input about Seagate consumer products and retail campaigns so that they can be tailored more effectively to the channel’s needs.
Selling Value
“At Seagate, we’re constantly looking for ways to bring more value to our partners—and at the same time, identifying the partners that know how to sell value to their end customers, rather than just moving units off their shelves,” she said. “I’m really focused on growing business with partners that support creative professionals, who value fast technologies like Thunderbolt and RAID storage.”
