Microsoft's U.S. Channel Chief: New Sales Tools Boost Business

Margo Day, vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Partner Group, said partners working closely with the company are making much more money from their Microsoft solution sales. For example, she said, partners that teamed with Microsoft on a Small Business Server campaign grew their sales four times faster than other Microsoft partners.

"The rest of the channel grew at 40 percent in the Small Business Server world," Day said. "The partners that went to market with us grew their sales 160 percent. That is a four-times multiplier. It is unbelievable."

Microsoft's sales tools, in effect, are lowering partners' sales, general and administrative (SG&A) costs dramatically by subsidizing everything from training and presales assistance to the cost of putting together seminars, Day said. The Redmond, Wash.-based company's U.S. channel training budget is $19 million, up 35 percent from last year.

"That is training I am paying for. Take advantage of it," Day said.

Microsoft is subsidizing more than 70 percent of the costs of training for its Gold partners and 15 percent for Certified partners, according to Day. The training for top partners includes five-day boot camps centering on specific Microsoft go-to-market initiatives. "It's all about harnessing the market opportunity with us," she said.

About 35 percent of Microsoft's U.S. channel budget will be marketing with or through partners via programs such as Campaign Center, Day said. "We will subsidize your marketing," she added.

Among the marketing initiatives Microsoft is offering partners at its U.S. partner site are targeted materials like direct mail, which can be created using Microsoft templates and customized with the partner's name and logo. Microsoft is also offering not-for-resale software that can be used as a proof of concept for customer engagements. There's also free presales technical assistance, which Day called one of the "best kept secrets at Microsoft" because only 15 percent of the vendor's partners are using it. Microsoft Gold certified partners have a dedicated technical support coordinator.

Microsoft also enables partners to sign up clients for seminars or "webinars" via its Events Planning Center at Microsoft.PartnerEvents.com, Day said. And for nagging problems with customers, Microsoft has set up a customer care system for partners at 1-866-MSLISTEN.

Peter Illari, sales and marketing manager at Computer Systems Resource Inc. (CSRI), a Westchester, Pa.-based Microsoft partner, said he plans to advantage of Microsoft's Event Planning center and other initiatives he did not know about. CSRI's Microsoft sales stand to grow 50 percent to 70 percent this year through strong sales of Exchange, Small Business Server and Windows Server 2003, he said, adding that the solution provider is getting strong support from the regional Microsoft office.

"I like working with Microsoft because they can field an army at a moment's notice," Illari said.

Illari said he refuses to put resources into Linux because he's receiving so much support from Microsoft. "My horse is attached to Microsoft," he said. "For me, it just doesn't make any sense [to sell Linux]. Who is selling Linux-based product that is going to provide me with this kind of support?"

Gary Schneider, president of Business Financial Solutions, a Northbrook, Ill., .Net-based ASP, said he's impressed by the breadth of partner tools that Microsoft provides. "There are a lot of people taking shots at Microsoft, but they are not about to let that stand in their way. They are proactive. They are aggressive. They are willing to change if necessary," he said. "We will take stronger advantage of the investments being made by Microsoft [on new tools]. Not doing that is wasting a valuable resource."

Still, Schneider said he would like to see Microsoft provide more information on the financial investment that partners and their customers need to make on specific solutions, as well as the potential return on that investment. "I don't hear a lot about the financial side," he said.