Marketing for Microsoft Partners : Marketing

Martin Gregory, Director of Server & Tools discusses the Server 2008 opportunity - Podcast

Mike — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:59:00 GMT

“Microsoft’s Director of Server & Tools, Martin Gregory, was recently interviewed by Ian Yates of ITRadio regarding the latest updates around some of Microsoft’s newest technologies, including Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. With the recent availability of Windows Server 2008 RC1, the focus of the interview is the latest features and capabilities of the new server, with Martin highlighting the four key pillars of the new technology – web, security, virtualisation and the solid foundation for enterprise workloads.”

Listen

How to Conduct Better PR - How To Guide

Mike — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:15:00 GMT

I receive a lot of PR 'how to' requests from partners .. I've attached this PDF file which provides excellent advice. I hope you find it useful.

Collaborate and Communicate More Effectively with Publisher and Outlook 2007 - Article by Total Network Support, Australia

Mike — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:57:08 GMT

Vanessa Recchia, Marketing Manager at Total Network Support is driving the Business Productivity Initiative within the company. Vanessa shares her thoughts about using the new Publisher and Outlook to communicate more effectively. re involved in the Business Productivity Campaign here in Australia.

It’s here! The latest version of Office 2007 to replace Office 2003.

So, you ask the question, “Why should I upgrade?” “What extra features does it have?” How will it assist me in my marketing efforts?

I have to say that without it, I could not market as easily!

If you have ever thought of upgrading because of an application - then Publisher 2007 and Outlook 2007 are the reasons. Prior to the launch of Office 2007 we were sending out regular e-letters to our clients in the most traditional of ways and perhaps most time consuming. Using Microsoft Outlook we would BCC all the recipients, and I am sure you’re all thinking,”Not the most compliant or effective way of communicating”. But nevertheless it worked and was relatively easy. The only problem was design and the fact we couldn’t personalise each and every email.

1) Firstly you need to create contacts, you may have your own CRM system or custom database such as Maximiser, FastTrack or GoldMine but in this instance I will discuss the utilisation of Outlook 2007. This is important, because in essence without it you have no database of people to communicate your message to.

2) So what are you communicating? Who are you targeting, what is your audience? What does your business hope to achieve out of this e-letter? Is it going to be a regular promotion, is it going to be an informational piece? Monthly/Quarterly? This all needs to be a part of your marketing strategy.

3) Design It – Use Publisher 2007 to create and design your own custom e-letter with your branding and corporate layout.

4) Proof the e-letter – So, you have created your masterpiece in under 30 minutes - now it’s time to test it by sending an e-letter to your colleague prior to mailing out to your entire database. Why? It’s always wise to check the design, spelling, grammar, and size of the e-letter. I am a perfect example of this - in the Dear “First Name” merge field, I didn’t create a merge, therefore all TNS clients e-letters were “Dear First Name”. While this is amusing now, it wasn’t when all our clients responded with “Regards, First Name”.

5) Finally – Under your Tools tab, click Mailings & Catalogs – then click E-mail merge, and send to your database in a just couple of clicks.

Things to Consider

What are you trying to communicate? What is your objective? Target Market? For example: our engineers would not be as excited by legislative changes impacting organisations regarding email archiving, as much as a director of a company would.

This is something that needs to be a part of your marketing plan and strategy. Here at TNS we have focused on informative pieces rather than promotional e-letters. This is all dependent on what your clients see as value. Our market research indicated that our clients required informatin that wasn’t easy to come by - so we have focused on risk management, software piracy, security, disaster recovery and legislation that affects every business in Australia. This is how we communicated the legislative changes e-letter.

By planning ahead, your strategy will be in place and your sales team and other staff can be focused on what you are marketing and hoping to achieve.

Part of the planning is the frequency of your internal communications. This becomes crucial to you and your clients. It differentiates junk mail from a real message. You want to capture your targeted audience and keep them reading, and ultimately returning for more. This means clients will expect to see an e-letter after a few months as it becomes part of their reading and an expectation will be create and established.

Spam ACT – Consider the legislation, you must have permission to communicate to them, an opt-out clause is a must and you must honor that request.
Be topical - Your client wants the expertise and insight you have in your specific field. Use your newsletter to alert customers to seasonal promotions or sales, new and improved products and services — what's happening now.
Make it informative - An e- letter is an opportunity to build credibility by sharing news, tips, case studies, reviews, profiles, success stories. Think of it as a soft-sell tool.
Promotions - Short, sharp, simple, contact details.
Make it personal - Address your clients' expressed interests. This is the kind of customer service that catches on quickly.
Keep your promise - Whatever frequency you decide works best for your business (quarterly, monthly, or weekly) ensure you deliver the news consistently and on schedule.
Stay on point. Remain focused on your key messages. And make sure your newsletter ties in to other advertising and marketing efforts such as direct-mail catalog drops, print ad campaigns, and your Web site.

Happy Marketing!!

Get the Most out of the Australia Partner Conference - Join the Customer Campaign Group Today!

Mike — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 03:54:26 GMT

If you are attending the Australia Partner Conference, you are invited to join the Customer Campaign Group. Before joining the group, you must join the 'Australia Partner Conference Network' at http://apc07.leveragesoftware.com. Once you register, navigate your way to groups and join the Customer Campaign Group. Post a comment, message or ask a question. Looking forward to seeing you online.

What Sales & Marketing Courses do Partners Want? What do the Think They're Good at?

Mike — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:31:00 GMT

Our marketing consultantcy, Carpe Diem recently undertook a survey of over 50 Australian Partners, obtaining feedback relating to their thoughts on what sales and marketing readiness training they would like.

This graph is interesting, showing their levels of interest in different courses in reducing order - but also showing their perceived level of competence.

Some interesting points:

solution based selling skills rated the most important
the ability to create and convert leads in relation to the IO Campaigns is rated lowest for Partner competence
time management is rated the highest in competence(!)
high interest in understanding the business value arguments relating to new MS releases.

Do let us know if you'd like to see other results from the survey - we also have information on:

differences in perceptions based on the type of Partners (eg ISV, SI etc), and also the organisation level of the respondent (eg CEO, sales resource etc)
preferred time of year to undertake instructor led training
preferences for mode of training (eg face to face, online etc)
feedback on willingness to pay for different types of courses.

Solving the Puzzle Together - Solution Selling Practices

Mike — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:10:13 GMT

A great article on how solution selling practices have waned within the Partner community, but how a strong focus can lead to sales success.

In Australia, we offer solution selling training for our channel partners. Key points we reinforce in our training that the article refers to:

- need to train at sales manager level

- need for constant reinforcement, and even modification of hiring approaches

- need to use reference sites to convince customers of capability

- need to appeal to "personal wins" (an area that I feel the official Solution Selling methodology neglects)

http://rcpmag.com/features/article.aspx?editorialsid=753

This Friday- 27th !! Submit Your Solution for Australia Partner Conference

Mike — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 08:08:07 GMT

THIS FRIDAY - 27th !!

Click here for the submission tool: https://partner.microsoft.com/Australia/40043064

So please do take a moment to submit your solutions and great customer stories for this prestigious award.

As a reminder, here are the categories:

Custom Development Solutions, Application Infrastructure Development

The Custom Development Solutions (CDS) Award recognises exceptional, innovative partners who focus on the development of customised solutions, web solutions, and tools built on Microsoft technologies leveraging the Visual Studio family of development tools. Specifically, custom development partners may deliver highly customised solutions to support customer unique business practices, deliver one-off enhancements that allow customers to integrate existing systems with new technologies, or develop extensions to existing Microsoft solutions that the customer may already employ. All partners who develop customised solutions for customers using Visual Studio should consider applying for this award. Our desire is to honour partners who are serving unique customer needs by developing on and with Microsoft technologies and solutions in the areas of application infrastructure development, smart client development and Web development

Data Management Solutions, Database Management

The Data Management Solutions, Database Management award recognises exceptional partners who support customers with their mission critical applications. Showcase how SQL Server 2005 reduced application downtime, increased scalability and performance, and tightened security controls. This award is open to partners who have a Database Management Specialisation under the Data Management Solutions (DMS) Competency.

Licensing Solutions, Software Asset Management

The Licensing Solutions, Software Asset Management award recognises partners who consistently seek to improve their SAM solutions and services, and provide ongoing attention to customer service excellence. Successful entries will include descriptions of innovative solutions, services and/or marketing strategies used to provide outstanding service, as well as achieved results and appropriate customer supporting evidence.

Mobility Solutions

The Mobility Solutions award is designed to provide recognition for partners who specialise in developing, deploying, supporting and marketing software solutions and / or services based on Microsoft Windows Mobile technologies. Companies and organisations worldwide are implementing mobile business solutions to accelerate business cycles, increase productivity, reduce operating costs, and extend their business infrastructure. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), System Integrators (SIs), VARs and related Services partners are utilising this unique opportunity and very effectively developing, deploying, and supporting breakthrough mobility solutions.

Business Process and Integration Solutions

The Business Process and Integration Solutions - - award recognises best practices for selling and deploying business process management (BPM) and integration solutions. This award is intended for system integrators, solution and service providers, and software developers that concentrate on service oriented architectures (SOA), enterprise application integration (EAI), business-to-business application integration (B2B), business process management (BPM), and adapter development using Microsoft BizTalk Server and may include other Microsoft technologies such as Windows Communications Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation.

MBS Microsoft Dynamics AX

The MBS Microsoft Dynamics AX award recognises partners who demonstrate excellence in delivering value to our mutual customers. These partners are champions in delivering solutions to delight customers and drive business productivity. They consistently exceed customer expectations and have earned great loyalty from their customers. The winner demonstrates leadership within the Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner community in terms of adding new customers, driving revenue growth and contributing to the overall success of the Microsoft Partner community.

MBS Microsoft Dynamics CRM

The MBS Microsoft Dynamics CRM award recognises partners who have exhibited unsurpassed leadership in providing Microsoft CRM solutions to customers. The winner is a true champion of the Microsoft Dynamics value proposition. They provide consistent, quality and predictable service to Microsoft CRM customers to ensure immediate benefits out of CRM investments. They also demonstrate business leadership through aggressive demand generation, nurture marketing, new customer additions, and revenue growth.

MBS Microsoft Dynamics NAV Solutions

The MBS Microsoft Dynamics NAV award recognises partners who have exhibited unsurpassed leadership in providing Microsoft Dynamics NAV solutions to customers. They are true champions of financial management, supply chain management and/or customer relationship management solutions whose energy, persistence, and integrity have allowed us to strengthen our leadership across multiple verticals and geographies. They provide consistent, quality and predictable service to Microsoft Dynamics NAV customers to ensure immediate benefits out of Dynamics NAV investments. The winner demonstrates business leadership through aggressive demand generation, nurture marketing, new customer additions, total revenue and revenue growth.

MBS Microsoft Dynamics GP

The MBS Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner award recognises a Partner who demonstrates excellence in delivering value to our mutual customers. This Partner is a champion in delivering solutions to delight their customers and drive their business productivity. They consistently exceed customer expectations and have earned great loyalty from their customers. This Partner demonstrates leadership within the Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner community in terms of adding new customers, driving revenue growth and contributing to the overall success of the Partner community.

Microsoft ISV/Software Solutions

The ISV/Software Solutions Partner Award recognises the ISV Competency partner who excels at developing and delivering “People Ready” packaged software to customers. The software solution(s) must work together with one or more of latest server based platforms from Microsoft and middleware products including SQL Server 2006, Windows Server 2003, BizTalk 2006, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Business Solutions (all products and versions) and Exchange Server 2007. The solution must also be built utilising Microsoft .NET development framework(s) and tools including Visual Studio 2005. A qualified “People Ready” software solution will help customers make better informed decisions and facilitate effective collaboration with colleagues, customers and partners. Companies applying for this award should also have demonstrated effective partnering with Microsoft by utilising Microsoft Partner Program benefits and/or engaging with Microsoft to develop, create demand for, and sell its software.

Microsoft Learning Solutions

The Learning Solutions Award recognise partners’ commitment and ability to deliver high quality learning services using a consultative engagement model. It also validates the impact skills assessment; technical training, student mentoring, and Microsoft Certified Professional exam preparation have on customer satisfaction, and the application of Microsoft technology to solve business problems.

Microsoft Small Business Specialist

The Small Business Specialist Award honours those partners who are using Microsoft technology to deploy innovative small business solutions. This award is only for partners actively enrolled in the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community. Small Business Specialists serve all customer types and sizes. However, the purpose of this award is demonstrating innovation for deploying a small business Microsoft-based solution (fewer than 50 employees or fewer than 25 PCs). Key Microsoft products in the small business solutions stack include Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office Accounting 2007, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Small Business Financials. Submissions should focus on how the partner provides ways for a small business to better connect with customers, partners and employees, to manage business processes productively and to reply on dependable, flexible and secure software.

Microsoft Information Worker Solutions

The Information Worker Solutions award recognises exceptional partners who have excelled in offering breakthrough Microsoft Office system solutions. Have your technology and marketing offerings increased your customers' workforce productivity, enabling teams to work more effectively across boundaries with partners and customers? Has your innovative thinking helped to solve a technical challenge or helped to address your customers' business needs and empower their people? Submit your solution and showcase the unique and positive impact you have had on your customers' business pain points through your expertise in the Information Worker Solutions Competency.

Information Worker – Unified Communications

The Information Worker - Microsoft Unified Communications and Collaboration award recognises partners who have improved customer workforce productivity, and enabled teams to work more effectively, through the use of Microsoft technologies. These technologies include, but are not limited to, Unified Messaging, Live Meeting, and federation and telephony integration through Live Communications Server.

Microsoft Networking Infrastructure Solution

The Networking Infrastructure Solutions award honours partners who have infrastructure practices with proven proficiency in implementing solutions based on the Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 Operating Systems. This award also recognise partners with innovative services-based solutions that help small and midsize customers realise their potential by providing operational efficiencies with the help of Windows Server and other related infrastructure technologies. Have you provided these companies with technology solutions that have resulted in core infrastructure transformation? Whether this was their first server or it was a migration from competitive or legacy systems, did you help them build a strong infrastructure foundation layer that supports their business goals? If yes, submit your solution and showcase how you have uniquely and positively impacted customers by solving tough business pain points.

Microsoft Security Solutions, Infrastructure Security

The Security Solutions, Infrastructure Security award recognises exceptional partners who have demonstrated expertise in providing services focusing on developing security strategies, governance, policies, procedures, risk assessments, and risk management, while providing overall security management services Submit your solution and showcase the unique and positive impact you have had on your customers’ business pain points through your expertise in the Security Solutions Competency.

Sales & Marketing Plan in 4 Steps

Mike — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 10:20:47 GMT

This is taking us back to the '4 P's' of marketing.. definitely worth a read.

http://smallbusiness.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=156126

Word of Mouse Advertising Promises Huge Dividends

Mike — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:40:00 GMT

Regardless of the medium, no form of marketing is more valuable than word-of-mouth referrals. Unsolicited, honest endorsements from friends and associates carry rock-solid credibility. Bring those referrals to the online world—where they reach infinitely larger audiences—and you have a priceless advertising vehicle. After all, if one real-world happy customer can influence a dozen or so friends or family, imagine the reach of a network-enhanced personal referral campaign through "word of mouse."

Don Sexton explains how to build your brand from the start

Mike — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 16:27:00 GMT

The most valuable assets owned by Microsoft, IBM, and Coca-Cola are their brands, according to Don Sexton, Trump University professor of marketing and sales. Sexton says the same holds true for small companies and explains steps you can take to add value to your brand. Register now.

How to Conduct a Successful Marketing Event

Mike — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 07:25:00 GMT

As part of our productivity campaign, we asked our event agency (Jack Morton) to conduct a live meeting for our partners about how to conduct a successful event. We had about 60 partners on the Live Meeting with good interaction and Q&A. Feedback was 8.5 out of 10.. Check out the attached powerpoint and we hope you find this useful.

How to Conduct a Successful Marketing Event PPT

Five Contributors to Better Marketing

Mike — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:46:00 GMT

I delivered this presentation to approximately 200 partners at the Australia Partner Conference in 2006 - Feedback was good averaging 9 out of 10. Based on research, there are 5 main contributors to better marketing listed below.. The presentation outlines each step from practical marketing sense, and give you the Microsoft resources to help you execute. I've since spoken with a couple partners who used the resources in this presentation with excellent results. Here are the 5 steps covered throughout the presentation:

Targeting
Value Based Messages
Offers
Repetition & Integration
Co Marketing

Note: I've deleted slides pertaining to our most engaged Certified and Gold partners. If you are a Microsoft Certified or Gold Partner and want to discuss joining a campaign, please let me know.

Five Contributors to Better Marketing PPT

Key Marketing Concepts for Microsoft Partners - "Well Worth It"

Mike — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:11:00 GMT

The course run by external consultants Carpe-Diem is a great introduction to marketing and Partner feedback so far has been great.

If you don't believe me, see below..

"This course is a marketing course for professional marketing people, wow did that scare me! As a small business owner I see myself in technical, sales, marketing and business management roles, so to walk into a session that was unashamedly focused on full time marketing folk was a concern. After the first hour I was totally convinced that this was the place to focus our efforts that day. Vicki presented energetic, relevant material that we used the very next day.

Highly recommended course, very happy with Carpe Diem.

Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work

Mike — Sat, 26 May 2007 02:59:41 GMT

I am often asked advice from Microsoft partners about Public Relations. How can we best utilize PR team to make an impact in the marketplace. There are a number of things that contribute to a successful PR campaign including setting the right expectations with the PR firm, finding the right PR match, and understanding how to speak to the media among many other things. I came across this article from prsite.com that highlights some of the pitfalls and should help conduct a successful PR campaign. , how can we get the right message out there. prsite.com is a division of Zable Fishcher Public Relations - Margie Zable Fisher provides her insight.

Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work

New Partner Marketing Initiatives Calendar Launched

Mike — Thu, 24 May 2007 16:25:00 GMT

This is something that we get such great feedback on and very wide usage of. We bring together all the events, campaigns, program benefits, promotions, training and more into one easily downloaded calendar.

Go get yours now here !