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3 Resources That Can Increase Business for Microsoft Partners

by Genna Joudrey
12 minutes read

Being a Microsoft partner is a rewarding, yet challenging venture. There’s a wealth of information at your fingertips, so focusing on activities that help you grow and achieve digital transformation is key. The Microsoft Partner Network is loaded with different programs to help you differentiate your practice, build, and sell. This post will go into detail on three resources that can help you expand your Microsoft practice as a partner.

1. Technical Enablement 

As a Microsoft partner, your customers are going to be looking for professionals who have a specialized skillset in a product or solution area. There are many partners to choose from, so your main job is to stand out from the crowd. To keep up with your customers’ demands, Microsoft offers several technical enablement and practicebuilding resources. The Partner Readiness Assessment can help you figure out the steps you need to take to get your practice to where it needs to be. The assessment provides a structured methodology and support for all phases of the cloud lifestyle.  

The Training Center is a webpage that allows partners to access role-specific learning paths to build your skills on Microsoft products and solutions. There is content for administrators, architects, developers, consultants, business analysts, sales, marketing – the list goes on. If you are aiming for a certification exam tied to competencies, you can use the Microsoft Competency Learning Paths specifically. 

To help support customers by meeting their needs, you can review the Recruit, Hire, Onboard, and Retain Talent playbook. This playbook will help you ensure as a Microsoft partner that you are enabling your employees to have the right skill set for digital transformation. This tool can help you take a step back and look at your practice to determine whether you are running an effective cloud practice.  

Technical Journeys, when activated, can guide you to connect with partner technical consultants that can help your business develop key capabilities. You can increase sales, accelerate app development, and deploy more efficiently by utilizing this personalized technical guidance.  

2. Go-to-Market Resources 

Being a member within the Microsoft Partner Network gives you access to go-to-market resources and services that can help accelerate your business and introduce you to partners and customers. Partners with gold and silver competency automatically have access to these resources to ensure that you are driving demand and accelerating your pipeline. If you are just starting out or not quite at the gold and silver level, your services from Microsoft will increase as your business does.  

Three go-to-market resources you should look into are 

Ready-to-go marketing assets: Here you can find downloadable sales resources that you can implement into your own website and marketing plan. Some topics are rather specific, such as “Azure within Reach for SMB”, but others are broad like “Small and Medium Business Sales Plays”. There are several customer engagement tips, campaigns, and client case studies just a click away.  

Qorus Content Hub: This hub is a sales-enablement benefit for members of the Microsoft Partner Network. You can share content directly with your customers, track the usage and performance of those materials, and improve the value of your direct marketing content. By improving your content game, you will be able to reach more customers.  

Digital Marketing Content OnDemandHave you ever wondered if you can market WITH Microsoft? Well, you can. Digital Marketing Content OnDemand is Microsoft partner’s personalized marketing assistant when it comes to customizing content for social, email, website, and blog. Ten-week digital campaigns are delivered and there is an auto-feature to push content to your accounts. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and watch your traffic improve!  

3. Referrals 

Referrals can help you generate more business and create powerful connections with customers. If you have created a business profile in Partner Center, your business will surface in the Find a Microsoft solution provider pageOnce a potential customer enters in their information in hopes to find an ideal partner to work with, a list of options will surface. The system will then generate a referral once they have selected a partner. Once the referral is accepted, a negotiation can take place on a deal or project. Referral analytics are available so that Microsoft partners can view their performance.  

For more information on how to properly use referrals, download the Microsoft referrals guide.  

The three benefits above are just a few of the resources available to you through the Microsoft Partner Network membership. By using the tools provided by Microsoft, you have a higher chance of growing your business, reaching new customers, and selling your solution. You can read about all the available resources here 

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