Igniting the Revolution...

Thanks to those of you who turned out for Seth Godin's talk at the U of MD business school on Friday. As expected, it was a mind-opening affair and it's going to go a long way to shaping how the Mid-Atlantic team is going to go to market with partners...

What's the value of great customer service and high quality? Friday, I got a call from Ameriprise HQ telling me that my Financial Advisor was leaving the firm. I was taken aback. I have (or thought) I had a GREAT relationship with him. He and his wife...

Or perhaps Blog ROI might be better. Had an intro call with Chris Chodnicki of Bi4ce and he made my day by telling me that he'd read this blog and it wasn't the "usual PR junk you would expect from Microsoft." To paraphrase, he found it "entertaining...

If today's snow day isn't an argument for Unified Communications (see schedule below), I don't know what is. A story... My wife works for a federal agency. There was a meeting scheduled for 10am this morning. We awoke to ice, snow, and school...

Thanks to John Gilroy of Solutions Developers who sent this in...the value of old-school cold callin. Link to Hot Leads, Cold Calls - John Keating, Beacon Technologies - CRN

If you put together a presentation...ever, you should read this first. Link to Seth's Blog: Really Bad Powerpoint

Went out to a jam-packed event by MTI today in Reston. Over 75 customers there. These guys really know how to turn registrants into attendees. You know what they do? Programmatically reach out to registrants in the weeks leading up to the event Ask "involving...

Karen just wrote in with a great idea for our call in 2 weeks: Another idea I have is to set aside time to talk about "when bad things happen to good events." There are a lot of lessons to be learned about dealing with problems because event planning...

your customers and prospects. Congress has made a change in the Daylight Savings Time for this year...and it's going to impact many people, particularly those running Outlook and/or Exchange. If you want to be a trusted advisor, call and ask if they have...

Here's the official press release... Link to News & Events - Robert H. Smith School of Business - University of Maryland, College Park

One of the best parts of this job is working with partners to develop their marketing expertise. I'm particularly excited by the progress that Maria from MetroStar has made in the past few months. I think Maria would agree that when she started, her marketing...

Ellie at Enabling Technologies conducted a Unified Messaging event on Jan. 25th. She writes: I just wanted to follow up and let you know that the Baltimore event for Enabling has already resulted in a pilot for Miles Stockbridge, a prominent Baltimore...

When we went to hear Seth Godin, he talked about cultivating (as farmers do) those who are interested in your product/service. Ask people who know me and they will tell you that I have a very programmatic approach to managing the relationships I have...

I have NO idea who the author is or why he's writing to me. My name is XXXXXXX and I'm with XXX. We were founded in 1994 land, and maintain status as a small woman-owned business with a current GSA schedule and active secret DoD clearance. Our employees...

If you've got a stain on a shirt at the dry cleaner, they take one of these sticke rs and put it on the location of the stain. Makes sense, right? My idea...give the stickers to their customers. That way, when I spill something, I put the sticker on myself...

Was watching a presentation by one of my favorite VC's, Fred Wilson . He quoted an economist named Herbert Simon who said in 1971, " what does an abundance of information create? A scarcity of attention." That's the nature of the marketing world we live...

Ed Becker wrote in about the new process requiring customers to use a Live ID when signing into Click to Attend. Here's the answer: This is a fairly new addition to www.clicktoattend.com in order to make registration quicker and easier. Your attendees...

For those of you who were at the Seth Godin event , this article will ring very true

I love to read my wife's " O" magazine . One of our favorite columnists is Martha Beck . This month's article is " Martha Beck's 5 Best Pieces of Advice." One of them is "It's Good To Be Wrong." She writes: "Being open to new information and opinions...

A very funny satire on business culture...

A lot of people ask about how the local Microsoft team can help partners execute events. Here you go... To get a list of locations where you could hold an event contact your Partner Account Manager How It All Comes Together… Here are some great examples...

Big call out to Heinan Landa at Optimal Networks . He got a great mention in the Editor's opening piece in Washington SmartCEO . Well done, Heinan!

For those of you who like sports and stocks, here's a cool version of "March Madness" from Smart Money. See: Market Madness

With call out to Seth Godin for the concept , check out this resume This is how you do it! Props to Michael Eisenberg's blog .

Based on partner feedback… We'll be here every Wednesday for calling. If you want to come into the DC office to make calls, you can now do so. Bring your own list, use the caller ID, and stay focused. We'll still have our standard blitz on the...