Denise Sangster: Unleashing the Power of Data for Partnerships and Profitability

Harnessing the immense power of data can help businesses stay ahead of changing market competition and disruptive market trends.

With a host of awards and recognitions, Denise Sangster, President & CEO of Global Touch, Inc.®, is an expert at unleashing the power of partner ecosystems, accelerating IT company-partner success, and establishing predictability of growth, revenue, profitability and value between IT companies, customers, and partners through 360° of alignment.

Denise has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Global Women in Tech, a Transformational Game-Changer & Disruptive Innovator, Engineering the New Partner Profitability Journey, Data Storyteller, Customer Experience Catalyst, and one of the IT Wondrous Women™ in her field.

A frequent speaker at IT Company, partner, and Wall Street events around the world, she has advised the world’s most innovative technology companies for over 25 years, helping and inspiring them to build cutting-edge disruption through next generation partner ecosystems that generate predictable and sustainable revenue, growth, and profitability, and align with required customer business outcomes.

Partnering for life, not projects

At Global Touch, Denise and her team really know partners! “Our broad industry contacts allow us to engage with them and understand their challenges and emerging opportunities,” she says.

As a CEO, Denise’s role is to ensure the firm continues to fuel its clients’ success and helps them stay a step ahead of changing market competition. Additionally, she believes in partnering for life, not just for projects, and treats her clients as clients for life as she continually finds ways to add value to their businesses.

“Our goals at Global Touch are to work with the best global thinkers to turn early market disrupters into creative disruptive innovation, identify and embrace unique market nuances of what really works and why, and build IP to accelerate our clients’ success,” she says.

Every client project is unique and requires a fresh approach. Global Touch works from the perspective of the clients’ partners and customers to find solutions that can impact sustainable revenue growth and customer success.

“Our general approach is to start with a conversation around ‘what ifs’ and ‘what then’. Next, we create a customized approach to fit the personality of our clients’ business, while meeting their needs, challenges, and requirements across categories such as products, services, customers, partners, and geographies,” Denise explains.

From vendor ecosystem matchmaking to partner profitability, Global Touch has built a world-class reputation in delivering actionable insights that help shape future direction for sustainable revenue growth through partners. “We focus globally to maximize client resources and fortify competitive barriers with first-hand experience in more than 100 countries,” says Denise.

“Work every day like you’ve never won a client engagement and treat every client like they are your only one.”

Overcoming the challenges of being a businesswoman

Starting a business on your own is not an easy road to take. Entrepreneurs face different challenges, including, but not limited to, reputation, network, funding, and so on. For Denise, there were two initial challenges: lack of a broad or global reputation beyond the database world and being an American female working globally. 

At the outset, three customers from her prior technology company retained her to work with them. All were located outside the US market, and so, to expand her reputation, Denise started writing for several IT publications in Europe (UK, France, and Germany), Australia, and the US.

She was then approached by a group of IT executives to create the first IT pan-European event for the IT industry that focused on a go-to-market through and with partners. The event, called “EuroChannels,” was a big success, but it was met with initial resistance from some European IT leaders who did not want an “American girl” to help grow the European IT market.

“I eventually won most over, and some even became clients,” Denise says. “The best part was many became very good and life-long friends, extending our relationships to their spouses and children. In fact, I have had four (adult) children of European technology executives’ work for my company over the years.”

Unlocking the power of numbers with Data Storytelling

Since its founding, Global Touch has created game changer opportunities for clients who are investing in the moment to leverage the future. “Our sweet spot is helping technology companies grow predictable revenue by unleashing the power of partners,” says Denise.

For over 25 years, Global Touch has helped its clients unlock predictable and sustainable growth and revenue through valuable insights and analytics about partners around the world. Their data-led management consulting services helps technology companies create partner success by providing cutting-edge consumption-era services that enable customers to grow and partners to succeed at every lifecycle touch point.

“Since Global Touch was founded, one of our core disciplines has been to use data and wrap a data-led story around it. Then, to fashion metrics to help our clients understand existing and transformation metrics,” says Denise.

When it comes to adopting innovative thinking and technologies, Global Touch takes a data-driven approach and goes beyond strategy to unlock the power of numbers with Data Storytelling. “We continually redefine our clients’ expectations to eliminate boundaries while balancing current performance with transformation to be ready for what’s next. We do this by leveraging our deep global field experience and operating in a data-centric culture wrapped in data storytelling, plus sharing our knowledge of how to support partners with the portfolio, programs, and benefits needed to future proof outcomes that customers need and want,” says Denise. 

“We continually redefine our clients’ expectations to eliminate boundaries while balancing current performance with transformation to be ready for what’s next.”

Building a motivated team and workplace

Denise credits all the work that has been achieved to her incredible Global Touch team. “The staff is made of smart, inquisitive professionals willing to strive for a changing level of excellence,” she observes.

Global Touch is a dog-friendly workplace where dogs are welcomed into the office, employees set their own hours, and the dress is very casual, resulting in a motivated team that puts in an extraordinary amount of work.

“Our workdays are never the same,” says Denise. “When we’re in the office, our team brings our dogs to work, which creates work-life balance, reduced stress, creates better communication, and nurtures productivity.”

Supporting women in the IT industry

In October of 2020, Global Touch started its blog series called IT Wondrous Women™, designed to highlight the plethora of fantastic women working in the IT industry.

“This blog series has exceeded my expectations. Spotlighting women working in the IT industry is one of the highlights of my career,” says Denise. She believes there are a number of things that emerging women entrepreneurs should think about to be successful. Her top five recommendations for emerging women leaders seem simple enough to do. While number 5 has been the hardest for her to remember to do every day, she believes it is also the one that has the most positive effect:

1. Always be exceptionally well prepared for every meeting and discussion, and dazzle peers, superiors, and clients with strategic thinking and readiness for anything that will move the company or client forward. This will increase their visibility in an appropriate way without being seen as boastful or arrogant.

2. Emerging leaders must be confident in business knowledge, social manners, and etiquette. Many women don’t realize the value of a solid hand shake or appropriate cultural greeting with women or men and how it can create a memorable first impression!

3. Treat customers as customers for life and devise ways to interact with them, even when they don’t have the budget to make short-term purchases.

4. Women leaders of tomorrow must upgrade their self-talk and turn off their inner critic. Instead, turn on their inner coach.

5. Leaders of tomorrow must make it a habit to celebrate small daily successes with their team. Recognizing daily successes in a meaningful way supports your team and helps drive the company’s performance.

“I am a woman, but I never considered this a barrier to success.”

What’s Next for Denise?

“This is a great question.  The market is changing exponentially faster every day, and this means there are more opportunities, challenges, possibilities, and innovations needed to stay a step ahead of competitive threats,” she observes.  “I’ve never been bored in this industry, and I don’t think that will ever change.  I am privileged to work in a business that continually changes opportunities through new and next generation innovation.”