Telarus Nabs Former Zayo Channel Chief Scott Forbush As SVP Of Sales

Master agent Telarus is bringing on longtime channel advocate Scott Forbush as its new senior vice president of sales.

Forbush, having previously served as channel chief for Zayo Group Holdings and vice president of indirect sales for Electric Lightwave, is no stranger to working with partners.

Forbush has spent over 20 years in the telecom industry, including nearly 12 years spent within various service providers like Vonage and Integra. His decision to make a move from a carrier to a partner came after realizing the "unique" opportunity that master agents have in the consolidating industry today, he said.

[Related: Telarus Unveils Order Status Tool To' Give Partners Their Time Back']

"It took a lot of soul-searching to take the leap from a well-known national carrier as a channel chief," Forbush told CRN. "With all of the consolidation going on in the service provider space, Telarus is uniquely positioned for explosive growth, and not every master agent can say that. I knew if I were going to make the move over to the partner side, it would be with a company like Telarus."

As carriers grow larger through acquisitions, master agents are becoming the lifeline for telecom solution providers and other sales partners. Larger master agent organizations have access to better contracts and more resources with carriers than most sales partners with direct contracts.

"Master agents are very relevant in today's market. I think as you see more consolidation, you'll see the big telecoms also consolidate down on the number of direct contracts they have," he said.

That trend is already evident with some service providers today, and Forbush expects it to continue.

"It's going to be imperative for these smaller sub-agents to pick a master that they know and trust," he said.

In his new role with Telarus, Forbush will be recruiting new partners with the help of Telarus' regional vice presidents and channel managers. He'll also be evangelizing Telarus' resources for sales partners, including real-time VoIP monitoring software platform VXSuite, and the company's circuit monitoring service which was announced in June.

The master agent's regional vice presidents, along with their direct reports, as well as Telarus' sales and engineering teams will report to Forbush.

His priorities include leveraging his experience as a former channel chief to become intimately acquainted with Telarus' community of sales partners, as well as its supplier partners.

"That's one of the reasons Telarus is bringing me on -- it's about how I've always interacted with partners," he said. "I want to know what their motivations are, what their business intentions are, and how we can best align with them."

To do that, Forbush will be hitting the road. He plans on attending Telarus' upcoming Innovation conferences this fall across the East Coast and Midwest.

"We want all out partners to grow along with us, but as we grow, I think you'll see our strong focus on remaining as close to the partners as we possibly can," he said. "That's always been key to the Telarus success, and we won't be losing that personal touch."