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March 2007 - Posts

Friday, March 30, 2007 10:38 AM

New Email Etiquette...Proposed

If it's a 1 word response, don't send it. No more "ok" or "thanks". I guess "yes" and "no" may be the exceptions.
Posted by jerman of the board | 6 Comments
Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:59 PM

A missed opportunity...

So my wife forwards me an email that has all of the markings of a email spoof. It reads (in part): FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, February 8, 2007 Cancer-causing Chemical Found in Children's Bath Products Women's Shampoos and Body Wash also Contaminated
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
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Thursday, March 29, 2007 5:14 PM

Closing the Event Loop...

For Microsoft to invest in your Partner event, there's got to be an ROI . The partners who communicate this back get the love . Simple as that. Now, we've made it even easier to track it. The data from our partner-led events is uploaded into Siebel and
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, March 29, 2007 5:05 PM

The Music Album Re-emerges...

Of all the industries that are being turned upside down by the Internet revolution (heads up on cell phones), none is more fascinating to me than music. Read another good article today about the changes it is facing and then called an old friend, Andy
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Wednesday, March 28, 2007 4:34 PM

Windows is Most Secure?

It may be hard to believe, but don't take it from me, take it from Symantec: Link to Report Says Windows Gets The Fastest Repairs
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 27, 2007 3:40 PM

ClickToAttend.com Conversion Rate...

Joan Muschamp of AKG writes in: I have been tracking my click throughs more closely the last few drops, and I”ve notice that while I am getting a lot of clicks right to the registration page of Click to Attend, they are not actually registering in large
Posted by jerman of the board | 3 Comments
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Monday, March 26, 2007 4:47 PM

Lead Generation Services...

Vinny from ICI writes in and asks: We got 23 registered and counting! What does Lead generation entail? I received an alert stating that we qualified for lead generation services from Microsoft on the Microsoft Partner Website. The answer, my friend,
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 26, 2007 4:25 PM

Connecting to Your Webinar Audience...

Sitting in on a really good webcast now about Presenter Excellence . While we don't advise using this as an opportunity creation vehicle, it is a great tool to nurture/cultivate your relationships. I don't love all of the slides (some are a bit text heavy-
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Monday, March 26, 2007 2:18 PM

The Comcast Dip...

Thanks to a free offer by Seth Godin and some quick typing by yours truly, I received a copy of Seth's soon-to-be published next book, The Dip . The basic idea...it's ok (even great) to quit. You just have to know when it's strategic quitting and when
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Sunday, March 25, 2007 6:42 PM

Taking It...

Working for Microsoft is like being a magnet for criticism and unsolicited feedback. There's one guy I know socially who, in particular, loves to find anything he doesn't like about Microsoft...a product, the way an event was held, a website, a commercial...and
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, March 23, 2007 4:06 PM

Live Meeting Account for Partners...

For those of you who joined our great call this AM, thanks. Great comment about using Webinars (particularly in the winter to avoid drop-off, but also as a nurturing tool) and my follow up was to look into licensing for partners. And here's the good news...you
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
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Thursday, March 22, 2007 11:14 PM

Microsoft's "Cool Hand Luke" Problem...

Anyone who has seen Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke , can recite the movie's key tagline. You're probably thinking it right now... "What we've got here is failure to communicate." A few years back, Microsoft's mission was simple...." A PC on every desk
Posted by jerman of the board | 4 Comments
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:53 PM

Sense of Ownership...

Last week, I got into a bit of a "flame war" with some folks in Microsoft who hadn't bothered to upgrade their PC's to Vista yet. They are a distinct minority, but they basically felt that the time it would require (a few hours, granted) would take them
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 4:51 PM

It's Your House....

Hosting an event is like hosting a party at your house. In the prep stage, there are hundreds of details to think about...and, as my wife has taught me, they are all important. But, once in showtime, you can't be too prescriptive. You want your guests
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:46 AM

Simple Math...

60 registrants 20 attendees 4 requests for an IT Assessment Seems like the NetCentrics guys are happy (as am I) with their event yesterday. Kudos to John and the team for another solid day. Looking forward to the next one in June. You know what made this
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:37 AM

When good events go bad...

On Friday's call this week, we're going to talk about making Lemonade out of Lemon Events. Karen Kalantzis is going to speak, as will Dave Sobel . Here's what happened to Dave for his event yesterday: Registered: 19 Confirmed on the phone yesterday (by
Posted by jerman of the board | 4 Comments
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 11:31 AM

On Blogging and the Internet...

A great post on what it all means... Link to gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards": edelman talk
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:06 AM

Capturing Attention and Imagination..

Here's a great story about a recruitment campaign ...but the idea works for any time you are trying to motivate people to do something.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007 4:23 PM

Another underutilized asset for your events...

We talk a lot about the "Event Experience" and how we want to tell a good story to customers. One resource that many partners don't use (some do) is the Demo Showcase (for Gold/Certified) partners.If your engineers are in front of a crowd (or even one
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:22 AM

Great PowerPoint...

I blogged before about what makes a great presentation and there's been a lot of discussion about it. Now, a web-wide contest for the best PowerPoint . Judge for yourself.
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, March 20, 2007 10:53 AM

Presenter Excellence...

Could be an interesting course for those who do webcasts/webinars...I've registered. The Presenter Excellence Training is designed to enhance a presenter’s ability to effectively use audio and web conferencing to convey their message. While many presenters
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Monday, March 19, 2007 11:16 PM

Book Review: Made to Stick

It's rare that I will review a book before I've finished reading it. It's also rare that I will decide to read a book again immediately after I finish reading it. Made to Stick is that type of book. The authors tackle the idea of what "sticks" in our
Posted by jerman of the board | 3 Comments
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Monday, March 19, 2007 11:01 PM

Godin's Next Book...

So, Seth Godin's new book called "The Dip" is coming out. Today, he posted an offer on his blog of a free book for a select few. Well, I pitched...and on the strength of my numerous Godin references on this blog (and last month's presentation ), I'm getting
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 19, 2007 10:56 PM

Revolutionary...

So I just got a T-mobile Dash phone and it is SWEET. It's got Windows Mobile 5 on it, direct email (a la Blackberry) with a full keyboard, ability to see Word, Excel, Powerpoint, camera, video, music, etc. Heck, you can even watch recorded TV shows. It's
Posted by jerman of the board | 3 Comments
Monday, March 19, 2007 11:46 AM

Reselling opportunity...

We're looking for a few partners who might be interested in reselling Essential Support Services as part of a User Acceptance Testing pilot. What's in it for you The invoice to the partner is 10% below the MS direct price – allowing a 10% mark up. Requirements:
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, March 16, 2007 12:04 PM

Technology Upgrade Cycle...

Every 2 years or so, roughly, I make (relatively) big upgrade investments in my technology infrastructure. The investment is in both time and money. I'm almost at the end of this cycle which began with the Vista install process, which part of the reason
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Thursday, March 15, 2007 3:01 PM

Tracking every dollar…

There's a balance between partner satisfaction and smart marketing. A partner approached me to be a sponsor at an upcoming open house. They are tincupping to multiple vendors and claim they will have a few hundred people at the event. No problem with
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, March 15, 2007 1:33 PM

Another nifty little feature...

So my mom emails me and says "I need a picture of Nana and Poppy [grandparents] from October 22nd." I go to Instant Search and type in "October 22" and click "See All Results." Then, I click "Pictures" on the toolbar. Bang, I got it. Quick and easy. Love
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Thursday, March 15, 2007 12:20 PM

Intrusive, Unwanted, and Unappreciated Interruptions...

I just got a phone call and when I picked it up, the automated voice said "We're sorry. This message was intended only for an answering machine. Goodbye." Are you kidding me? I did a *69 to call the number back: 866 849 3243 I then managed, I think, to
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, March 13, 2007 12:47 PM

CPE Hero-self-nomination...

In Microsoft lingo, the term "CPE" means "Customer/Partner Experience." In other words, are you customer and partner-focused? Every quarter, we have an award for folks who go 'above and beyond' and they get the 'CPE Hero' Award. I'm nominating myself
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:11 AM

What Makes a Successful Event?

By the end of April, we will have co-sponsored over 75 partner events in the Area and have touched directly over 1300 customers. I get asked a lot by partners who want to do an event: "what's most important? Location? Topic? Time?" I've posted on the
Posted by jerman of the board | 3 Comments
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Friday, March 09, 2007 2:57 PM

Godin is Wrong...Targeting isn't dead

Ok, so my marketing hero isn't 100% wrong about " interruption marketing " but he's a bit wrong. When we heard him last month at the University of Maryland , he told us about the megaphone concept of " flipping the funnel ." Give your best customers a
Posted by jerman of the board | 3 Comments
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Friday, March 09, 2007 2:38 PM

Giving Customers the Megaphone...

I was so impressed with Laurie Brice's questions at the NMR event , that I sent her a copy of Office 2007. She called me up to say thanks and made me an offer I couldn't refuse, "I think I'd be a great reference for other customers to understand the potential
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Friday, March 09, 2007 2:19 PM

Finding the Right Info...for free

Seems like companies that get paid for directories like OneSource and Hoovers are in trouble. Was just reading Tim O'Reilly's piece on the alpha-version of freebase , an open database...kind of like wikipedia on sterorids. Google created the umbrella
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, March 09, 2007 11:24 AM

Publication to check out...

Thanks to Joan of AKG for sending this in: It might be a good idea to tell partners to subscribe to the RSVP publication put out by Partner Event Services www.microsoftpartnerevents.com/RSVP I’ve found some good stuff in the past two issues, that helps
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Friday, March 09, 2007 11:16 AM

Mozart's Turkish March...

(Patting myself on the back)...the person who put us on HOLD...continually :-( during the call w/Hans...that was Mozart. Will find him/her. Aargh.
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, March 08, 2007 3:04 PM

Not All Customers Are Equal...

In the post on smarter placement of partner events , I mentioned that there was another filter through which we put our customer list in order to refine our efforts. With the scale of the market the Mid-Atlantic team, for example, is trying to address
Posted by jerman of the board | 4 Comments
Thursday, March 08, 2007 11:21 AM

Reminder: Partner Demo Showcase

Every Wednesday in the DC office, when we wrap up our Shark Tank Blitz session, I ask each of the partners to share a 2 sentence value proposition about themselves. Why are you better/different than anyone else? Truth be told, only about 5% of partners,
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Wednesday, March 07, 2007 12:32 PM

Rules of Thumb

This is a great wiki of Business Rules of Thumb. Really like it.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Wednesday, March 07, 2007 11:15 AM

Smart Placement of Partner Events...

At one time or another, you have seen a list of event slots that we are trying to fill. These are not random allocations based on gut feel. There is data behind this to support why we are advocating (and supporting) events in these cities (dates are just
Posted by jerman of the board | 12 Comments
Wednesday, March 07, 2007 9:54 AM

More on "No Lead Left Behind..."

It's too expensive for you to generate interest on the part of a customer and then not follow up in some way. Too often, I see partners calling the "hot leads" from an event and not bothering to follow up and nurture the cold ones. It's like a garden...got
Posted by jerman of the board | 2 Comments
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 3:35 PM

Daylight Savings Time is Coming...

A video from DC NBC 4 with my boss about what you (and your company) should do re: Daylight Savings Time this year. www.microsoft.com/dst2007
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 1:25 PM

The view from the CIO...

We've got a great guest speaker lined up for our Best Practices call this Friday at 9.30am EST. Hans Keller, CIO, of the National Aquarium in Baltimore will join us to discuss: what separates good events from bad what makes events memorable what types
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Tuesday, March 06, 2007 12:17 PM

Avoiding "Save Uh-Oh's"

Sometimes you hit "save" and you don't mean to...[better than not hitting save when you mean to, I"ll grant you that) No worries. Go to "Previous Versions" and just hit restore. You're old copy comes back and you're up and running. I actually used it
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 2:56 PM

One question to ask yourself in planning a Microsoft event...

I get a lot of questions about what Microsoft expects in an event. Many partners are very creative and looking for a "stamp of approval." Save yourself the time...we're partners. Ask this question: "Will this idea help drive additional Microsoft licensing?"
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 2:08 PM

Misleading in the Internet era...

Growing up, my dad would say "Behave as if everything you are doing is going to be on the front page of the New York Times." It was his way of saying: be ethical and upright. In the pre-Internet era, most things wouldn't make it. Now, everything does.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 2:04 PM

One thing I love in Outlook 2007

There are many, actually, but here's one of them. I get a normal email w/an attachment. What's the first thing most people do? Open the attachment, of course! Thing is..that takes you out of your groove and it takes a while to get back into it. Not anymore.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 1:45 PM

Use what you've got...

As a partner, one of the tools you can take advantage of is Microsoft Partner Events . It is the cornerstone to our strategy and a great resource. Many partners don't do this fully and it's a shame. Please...take some time, sit in on the webcast on Mon.
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 1:42 PM

Keeping Bloggers Honest...

For aspiring bloggers out there (and me), here's a good post on why people unsubscribe from your RSS feed. BTW...if you add me to RSS, I consider that a great compliment, so thank you! And, I will do my best to make sure you don't have a reason to unsubscribe
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Monday, March 05, 2007 1:36 PM

More on Daylight Savings Time...

I've posted before on the Daylight Savings Time challenges that your customers will face. You can also call them and provide some value by pointing out the link to the Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center I can't emphasize enough how much we've
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
Thursday, March 01, 2007 3:07 PM

Generating Customer Activity...

The data is in (finally) and with a huge call out to the US Business and Marketing Officer's team, we finally have the visiblity we need into our pipeline. Now, for every single event that our partners executed between August and January, we have a unique
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:30 PM

IE7 on Vista...

When it works, I really like the browsing experience, but for whatever reason, IE7 on Vista is crashing on me...a lot. Not acceptable. And yes, Firefox works fine. Ugh.
Posted by jerman of the board | 4 Comments
Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:19 AM

Is the customer always right?

No. While presenting at the NMR event on Tuesday, I started to expound upon the merits of RSS. Realizing that most people probably didn't know what it was (I war right, only 5% of the audience did), I introduced the concept. I demonstrated the ability
Posted by jerman of the board | 1 Comments
Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:09 AM

Event Follow-Up Process...

An apology to those of you at yesterday's Blitz. I gave you some wrong info. Here's the follow-up process for an event. Anyone who registered to attend an event is loaded into Siebel as an activity for us to follow up on. It is tied to your organization
Posted by jerman of the board | 0 Comments
 
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