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February 2007 - Posts

Wednesday, February 28, 2007 8:36 PM

Love the Partner Love...

Damn, I love it when our partners feel good about the Microsoft "touch." Check this out re: Gail Steele, a Mid-Atlantic Partner Account Manager to her boss from Digicon . Good morning John, I wanted to take a few minutes out of my day to tell you about
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 3:37 PM

The Event Experience...

We talk a lot about getting people to commit to an event, but not as much about how they feel when they are there. Call out to the team at NMR for their event yesterday. They've got a nice, comfortable seating area (with couches) that makes for a great
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:58 PM

Chalk one up for Vista...

On my Windows XP media center machine, if I wanted to burn a recorded show to a DVD, I couldn't do it w/Windows. I bought a program called DVD Santa, which got the job done. It wasn't the best, but it worked. Last night, I had to burn some shows of the
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:55 PM

Who Needs a CIO?

Interesting post from Chris Anderson on the mindset of the CIO today.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:49 PM

On name tags...

Our man, Seth, does it again. When you're prepping for your next event, think about it. Why name tags matter...
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 10:38 AM

Sort Problems Resolved…

I was at the NMR event this AM and Lauren Brice of the AFA saw Excel 2007's sorting/conditional formatting improvements and remarked: "You don't know how many hours of customer service support you have just saved us." That's what I love to hear!!
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Monday, February 26, 2007 3:38 PM

Location, Location, Location...

Marketing is both science and art, no question. The art part is how you make people feel, but there's a science part. One of them is when we make suggestions about locations for your event. There's a TON of data-mining and analysis that goes into this.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, February 26, 2007 1:50 PM

Open Office Hours…

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 2 nd and
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Monday, February 26, 2007 11:58 AM

A Purple Cow?

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 .
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Sunday, February 25, 2007 6:07 PM

How strong is the website?

Another tool to use before you call a company. Get a feel for how their website fares. Source: dnScoop - Domain Name History Tool, Traffic Verification and Forums
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, February 23, 2007 4:12 PM

The value of blogging...

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"
Posted by jerman of the board | 7 Comments
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Friday, February 23, 2007 4:00 PM

Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

We celebrated my brother's engagement on Sunday night by going around the table and having everyone offer his/her opinion about what makes a great wedding. My brother nailed it on the head when he said, " plan it as if you were a guest ." Paula Gulak
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, February 23, 2007 4:00 PM

How Not To Introduce Yourself over Email

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, February 23, 2007 2:26 PM

Next Best Practices Call

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:38 PM

How to Get Customers to Show...

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"
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
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Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:19 PM

Showing the customer love..

Went into the T-mobile store to buy a new bluetooth headset. I said, "Hey, do you have a discount for existing customers?" (it would have been nice if they asked me first, but hey, I'm aggressive.) The rep, Leo, says, "what's your cell number?" Then,
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:16 PM

Marketing Idea for the Dry Cleaner...

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.
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, February 22, 2007 10:06 AM

Seven steps to remarkable customer service

A GREAT piece....something to think about... Link to Seven steps to remarkable customer service - Joel on Software
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:22 AM

How to leverage a Microsoft event...

Got to hand it to Mike and John at ATSG . They really took full advantage of the launch at BWI Marriott yesterday. They rented out a room ( right in the middle of the event ) and invited a large number of their customers and prospects to join them for
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:19 AM

On Persistence...

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007 7:48 PM

Godin at U of MD write up...

Here's the official press release... Link to News & Events - Robert H. Smith School of Business - University of Maryland, College Park
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 5:04 PM

Getting Engaged and Getting Value...

Saw Karen Riordan of Grace-Hunt today at the Launch event at BWI Marriott. She was raving about the value of the Get Engaged program. If nothing else, it's valuable to learn how Microsoft works. You can't get that unless you are 'engaged.' [her word,
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 3:40 PM

Nurturing your relationships...

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007 10:27 AM

Event ROI...

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007 10:18 AM

Teaching How To Fish...

Every Friday, I prepare the agenda for my 1:1 meeting with Reed Overfelt, our GM. I send him a snapshot of our scorecard for each month (here's February) Then, I try to provide some commentary around it...what's going on. For example: Commentary We’re
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, February 19, 2007 1:42 PM

A good reason to call...

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
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Monday, February 19, 2007 10:24 AM

Making Your Event Remarkable...

If you are planning on joining the Event Best Practices call on Friday morning, I'm going to ask you to do some "homework." Coming on the heels of our field trip to hear Seth Godin , here's what I'd like to hear from you. What is the big "idea" for your
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Friday, February 16, 2007 2:37 PM

Tough Day for a Get Engaged Partner...

Sometimes things just don't go your way... Karen, one of our best marketers , was the victim of the snow and ice in the area. She had 35 people registered for her event, but only 2 showed up . Major bummer...but she's not giving up, even though she said
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Thursday, February 15, 2007 10:21 AM

Viral Ad

How's this for remarkable? You bet I went to their site after I saw this. Bet you will, too.
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007 12:29 PM

Snow, Ice, and Unified Communications....

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 closings.
Posted by jerman of the board | 5 Comments
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:15 AM

Market Madness, baby!!!

For those of you who like sports and stocks, here's a cool version of "March Madness" from Smart Money. See: Market Madness
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:09 AM

Get Engaged Partner in Print...

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!
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:02 AM

Supporting Your Event Efforts...

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:09 PM

Truth in Ad Sales...

A very funny satire on business culture...
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 5:17 PM

When am I wrong?

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,
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Monday, February 12, 2007 4:27 PM

The Wizards of Buzz...

For those of you who were at the Seth Godin event , this article will ring very true
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Monday, February 12, 2007 3:24 PM

Mobility Events...

If you are interested in doing an event that tells the mobility story, we've got a very cool offer that involved some Palm Treos to seed your customer accounts. Let me know.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, February 12, 2007 1:47 PM

Get Engaged Means Business..

Today, 25 partners were removed from the Get Engaged program for non-participation/non-performance. This program is for partners who are serious about driving business with Microsoft. No deadweight on the team...only working with the best of the best
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, February 12, 2007 11:46 AM

Using Click to Attend Sites...small change

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 11, 2007 9:00 PM

Seth Godin at U of MD-REMARKABLE!

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.
Posted by jerman of the board | 15 Comments
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Wednesday, February 07, 2007 11:35 AM

Hot Leads, Cold Calls

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007 7:48 PM

The Future of Music...

Since the early days of the Internet, it has been the music industry that I have most enjoyed watching as an indicator of just how turbulent the wake is stemming from this massive societal upheaval. Today, the next big salvo in the battle was launched
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 06, 2007 1:29 PM

The Attention Economy

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, February 06, 2007 10:37 AM

The Loyalty Effect

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
Posted by jerman of the board | 7 Comments
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Monday, February 05, 2007 10:31 AM

Super Bowl: Changing the Game

I love the game and I love the ads, but what really stood out at me during yesterday's game was the now-famous Doritos ad that was developed (allegedly) for $12. All I could think about was some big ad exec on Madison Ave. thinking "oh man, this is NOT
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
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Monday, February 05, 2007 10:16 AM

Seth's Blog: Really Bad Powerpoint

If you put together a presentation...ever, you should read this first. Link to Seth's Blog: Really Bad Powerpoint
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
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Saturday, February 03, 2007 7:52 PM

eMarketer.com - What Works, and What Doesn't, in Online Marketing

An interesting survey that could be of use when planning your online marketing campaigns.... Link to eMarketer.com - What Works, and What Doesn't, in Online Marketing
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