Nurturing Partner

and Customer

Relationships

Christina Bauer

Agenda

• My Background

• How are Good Partnering & Good Marketing

Related?

• Tips for partnering with Microsoft… no matter how

big your company is

• Tips for getting attention of prospective partners

• What does Microsoft do for partners?

• Tips for partner planning… how to achieve results!

• Q&A

Christina Bauer

• Many, many years in high-tech marketing

• 15 years for start-ups

• Built channels for Best Software, Abra Software, Cyber-Ark Software

• Microsoft PAM-Managed Partner for 5 years

• Entrepreneur

• Now working for Microsoft

• Initially Partner Marketing Manager

• Now run DIG Program

• #1 Source of partner-led pipeline in MS US mid-sized enterprise: $88M to date on total goal for all US of $100M.

• #1 Source of Cloud pipeline and revenue

• I am a draftee… be gentle!

Our First Question

Question: How are Good

Partnering and Good

Marketing Related?

Answer: Marketing to

partners is the same as

customers. Nurture!!!!

The Nurture Enemy: The Blitz!!!

Blitz occurs when someone comes in your office & says: we need leads now

• Do a blitz call-down for an event

• Do a one-off email blast or postcard

• Do an event next week

The Challenge

• Brain works by repetition

• Old study rule: repeat something out loud 7 times to remember

• Same is true for your prospects

• Must hear your message 5-7 times to remember

• Each time = 1 “touch”

Your Friend: The Marketing Touch

A marketing touch = A single message to a single audience

• The message goes to the same list

• The message offers the same solution (SharePoint is one touch, BizTalk is another touch)

• The message always has an offer, something FREE to attract attention

A marketing campaign = multiple touches

• My rule is 5-7 touches over 6 months

Touch Example: SharePoint

Example: SharePoint

• Offer = SharePoint webinar

• List = IT Directors in your area, with phone & email

• Touch 1 = Email about webinar

• Touch 2 = Telemarketing call

• Touch 3 = Reminder email about webinar

• Touch 4 = Post webinar email. Thanks for joining us, do you want slides? Or… Sorry you didn’t join us, do you want slides?

• Touch 5 = Post webinar call with same content

By the time event is over, your prospects should connect your name with SharePoint

Six months down the road, when a project comes up, they will think of you again!

Become a trusted advisor!

Most partners are selling services, not product

• You need to sell them the way THEY sell

• This is a relationship sell

• You act as a trusted advisor to your clients and prospects

• Rule when talking to prospects: you are NOT a salesperson, you are a tech expert calling with knowledge they need to be successful

What do trusted advisors do?

• Build a relationship over time with YOU, 1:1

• Know you and your needs

• Don’t call WANTING something, but OFFERING value

What DON’T trusted advisors do?

• Send out impersonal messages

• Not know about you and your needs

• Call one time and disappear

Suggestions for a multi-touch campaign

Circle your campaign about a set date

• Seminar

• Webinar

• Launch date

• This will help to ensure that sales calls, emails etc happen in sequence

Vary the ways you touch your 1 audience about your 1 solution

• PERSONAL emails. No graphics, no fancy stuff. Should look like a note from YOU to THEM (preferably actually not you, but someone in sales)

• PERSONAL letters.

• PERSONAL calls.

Be patient!

• It takes 6 months for a pipeline to build

Tip: Always have an offer

Average IT person gets 100 unsolicited calls/week and more than 50 unsolicited emails/day… How do you break through the clutter?

Be sure to have always have a great FREE offer

• Technical white paper

• ROI calculator

• 15-20 no-obligation online demo

• Introductory meeting

• Needs assessment

• Risk assessment

Not-so-great offers

• Discount (more on that later)

My favorite offers for Partners!

• LEADS LEADS LEADS!

• Money to drive leads

• No money? Try vision, persistence and personality

My favorite offer for CUSTOMERS!

My Favorite Offer: Events

• Microsoft events are the best, easiest and cheapest offer

• Co-brand landing page with MPE (MicrosoftPartnerEvents.com)

My Favorite Type of Event: The Breakthrough

• Free information on Microsoft Products. We don’t always do a great job in boiling down new

releases into key points and training IT folks – use it!!!

• My favorite event title is “Breakthroughs in _____ (SQL Server, Unified Communications, Collaboration, etc etc)”

• Over six years, it has never failed (although internally everyone got sick of it!)

Our Next Item

Tips for Partnering with

Microsoft… no matter how

big your company is

Step One – Learn The Alphabet Soup

SMS&P = Small & med business

• Breath = smaller businesses

• Depth = medium-large

EPG = Enterprise

• Short list of 1000 enterprise accounts

Global = Huge global companies, managed out of different areas where HQ is located

Managed Partner = Partner with a set

Microsoft business contacts (Partner Account Manager, Partner Community Manager, Partner Marketing Manager) Join the program and you have a manager!

Step Two – Build Buzz

Tip One: Track & Report Revenue

• Find out what deals Microsoft is aiming at in your area (depth list, EPG list etc.)

• Announce wins on the Depth list, EPG list etc

• Announce everything else anyway

Participate in events & offers

• Understand the fast-moving culture

• Get onto the short list

Ask “the questions” whenever you meet a new Microsoft person

• What do you do?

• How can someone like me help you meet your goals & objectives?

Step Three – Maximize Managed Partner Status

Join the Program and you ALL have a Partner Manager!!!!

Keep regular Partner Manager Contacts

• These are monthly or bi-weekly calls or emails

• Soooooo tempting to cancel to fight internal fires

• Resist the temptation – this is your chance to catch up on news and be introduced to opportunities!

Track revenue

Meet goals in your business plan

• Leads

• Revenue

• Win wires

• Case Studies – the easiest to do by far!

Step Four - Expand your network!

Local contacts are great, but even better to build relationships in Redmond… and all over

WWPC – sign up for structured networking meetings with both local and national folks

• Your PAM can give you the names of folks to reach out to if you are unsure

• Try to connect with the product management side of the solutions you carry

• When meet, discuss what you like and great ideas for the future

Pinpoint the PACs to join and network your way onto them!

Start local User Groups for the products you support, if they haven’t been started already

Now We Consider

Tips for getting the attention

of prospective partners

Hint: it’s similar to

customers

Map out the sales cycle

Not only good for attracting partners, but you will need to get them these sales tools to be effective

Figuratively map out sales cycle (flow chart etc.) Typical components include:

• Marketing touch campaign

• Lead comes in

• Send out brochures

• Sales PPT

• Tech Demo

• Proposal Template

Literally map out sales cycle: Set up meeting and place all materials for your offer on table

• Consistent look?

• Look like form the same company

• Professional?

• Different from competition?

Choose a competitive differentiator!

We all know how important it is to choose a competitive differentiator!

• You don’t want to invest in a campaign that turns into sales for your most hated enemy… the competition

Challenge is that differentiators are SO hard to develop!

Companies spend hundreds of thousands on market assessments and research to define a competitive differentiator that is:

• Unique

• Compelling

Until now, I have NEVER worked for a company that can spend millions on defining competitive differentiators, so I have developed a sure-fire system to define this in less than 10

minutes.

My Competitive Differentiator Cheat Sheet

• Take your top salesperson out to lunch

• Ask him/her what they say when they’re pitching & top competitor ABC comes up

• Translate what they say into marketing speak as follows:

TRACK results and ROI

Set up a CRM system

• Excel

• MS CRM

After event, send data back to Microsoft

• Registration list, if appropriate

• Check depth list, and any traction there

Encourage sales to use CRM

• Do report that lists new activities by rep

• List your activities too when calling case studies etc!

Trust but verify… send leads to sales but track HOW they follow up

Send regular reports (monthly, quarterly) on the results of your multi-touch campaign (internally & to other partners like MS etc)

Design Campaigns for Hunters or Farmers

Old Adage – Two types of Salespeople

• Hunters – like the kill of a new deal, don’t want to be bothered with service questions afterwards

• Farmers – love to build long-term relationships. Do half customer service and half sales

• Try to get hunters to build new channel, farmers to nurture

Before setting up a campaign, ask is it for hunters or farmers?

• Hunters are great for breaking into a new arena or competency

• Farmer are great for cross-sell campaigns, or launches of new versions of old products your company has sold before

• Critical for ensuring you have the right partner mix! The pretty girls at the dance won’t necessarily approach you!

You may know the answer, but it’s important to ask the question

• Make sure sales folks know if their follow-up will be different, get that commit

Pitfalls to avoid (AKA my favorite mistakes)

• The Marketing blitz v. a personalized, multi-touch campaign

• Throwing the leads over the wall v. having the entire sales process mapped out

• Not getting credit where credit is due v. tracking leads so when sales says “I did it!” you can add “Not without me!”

• Making marketing decisions based on hearsay v. at least SOME data

• Not doing multi-touch campaigns to MY MARKETING prospects, such as inside resources and outside partners like Microsoft

A note on program effectiveness

• Often, in creating programs the creative gets the most focus

• Again, great thing about lead generation is that such choices can be driven by years of data

• Actual campaign effectiveness driven by: list (60%), then offer (30%) and then creative (10%)

• If your campaign isn’t getting the results you want/need, it is most likely the

list!

Our First Question

What does Microsoft do to

enable partners?

www.MicrosoftPartnerEvents.com

www.ClicktoAttend.com

LiveMeeting!

Microsoft Office Space

Case Studies

Our Next Item

Tips for Partner Planning…

how to achieve results!

Work together to estimate your prospecting need

Some companies have run rate business from current customers

• ISV’s (Independent Software Vendors) average 20-30%

• Custom services can be 60-80%

• Where does your organization fall?

As lead gen marketers, this is a KEY question!

Need to set meeting with sales, management and take a swag at what everyone estimates will come in next year

Key questions:

• Will recurring revenue from current client base increase, decrease or stay the same?

• What clients have big projects on the horizon? How much could these bring in?

• What revenue goal is break-even?

• What revenue goal would hit 20%, 30% 40% growth?

Marketing needs to end up with a goal number for prospecting activities

On a Calendar year cycle? Not too early to start this process!

Ready to prospect!

#1 Rule of Business Planning

Once you create a plan, it is then 100% assured that will NEVER happen! Business and marketing plans are living documents meant to be constantly updated and changed as new date available.

The first time data comes in in a way you didn’t expect, it’s just new interesting data to analyze! Use the information to change your suppositions and edit your plan. For example:

• Average sale size smaller than thought

• Productivity by salesperson higher than thought (more leads please!)

• Response rates to campaigns higher/lower

This spreadsheet can be on your desktop, something you run and re-run

Again, key to this process is to have closed-loop ROI as well

#1

Questions, Answers & Thanks!

chrisbau@microsoft.com