There are those out there who are convinced that PowerPoint has "dumbed down" corporate America and has become an insulting process where presenters read their slides to the audience. On one side, you've got Edward Tufte who HATES PowerPoint. He goes...

Rebecca Patterson of ASAP Software has got it right. In 90 minutes, she got three brand new prospects to agree to meet her at the upcoming Syngergy event in Alexandria. Her message was straightforward and simple. "You have a free chance to learn...

Before I came to Microsoft, I had my own company. I also worked for a partner for a few years. I can relate to the time/budget constraints of the average partner and the fact that you're running at 100 mph. Instead of recreating the wheel (which happens...

OK, next question that partners ask is "What's the value of the Synergy Event series for a partner?" [this is what most people call down on at the Shark Tank blitzes] Fair question. Let me start by giving you the assumption. It's going to be...

A lot of partners who are new to the Mid-Atlantic relationship have asked about " the Blitz ." There's one going on right now at the Microsoft DC office, so let me explain. It's the flagship co-marketing activity for all partners in the Mid-Atlantic...

Adam at SolutionsDevelopers sent in some good questions today. Widely relevant. I spoke with my CEO today in regards to the topics we would like to present for the Event in a Box. From our conversation, I have a few questions about the exact locations...

From BaselineSelling.com Today's Baseline Selling Tip is about asking questions rather than presenting information. On Friday evening my wife and I entered an art gallery and were followed around by a very young sales clerk.  Each time we looked...

We have a motto: "No Lead Left Behind." Marketing is an expensive proposition and when a customer indicates that s/he has interest, you had better do everything you can to follow up on it and close the sale. Quick anecdote: A friend of my family just...

As a student of marketing, one of the things I struggle with everyday is "how do we make people remember our message?" I'm a big believer in the power of the story as outlined in Seth Godin's book, All Marketers Are Liars and this morning, I was reading...

A couple of partners have asked about the fact that we have "opt-in" events and "opt-in" dates for these events. Good question. Let me give you a little context and our underlying assumption (basically partners-and MS- will be better off in a pure...

As a salesperson or a marketer, what is the ONE thing you want a customer to do when you leave a voicemail? Answer: you want him/her to call you back! Why, then, do so many people leave their numbers · at the end of the call? · very quickly...

If you're going to opt-in to the Mid-Atlantic partner event model, you need to eat, drink, and sleep at www.microsoftpartnerevents.com It has MS built slide decks best practices for demand gen how to conduct a successful event We're...

The good news--there are some wicked features. Excel is incredible w/automated formatting. Word has got automated Blog posting (good for me) and the way you can preview font chanes is neat. PowerPoint simplifies deck development big time. The bad news...

Did you know the average person sees about 54 presentations a year? The challenge we have as presenters is to make such an impact that they remember us as presenters, but also what we presented to them. Join us for a 2 part webcast series where Brian...