Today, Abra Gilman from Borek Business Solutions is writing a guest post. Borek Business Solutions is a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner in Bend, Oregon. Abra Gilman is their Existing Customer Sales Manager. I used to work with Abra, and I can tell you she’s one of the best. She’s deeply committed to her customers, and in return, they trust that she’ll lead them in the right direction. So for all you Microsoft Dynamics Partners, here are some tips for a strong year-end.
Microsoft’s fiscal year end is coming, how’s your forecast?
by Abra Gilman,
Borek Business Solutions
email: abra [at] borekbusinesssolutions.com
Abra Gilman, Customer Sales Manager at Borek Business Solutions
A timely email from my Microsoft PAM informed me there are 62 selling days left until the end of Microsoft’s FY09 year. So, how do we keep the inspiration going from Microsoft Convergence last month, pass it along to our customers, and end this quarter with numerous existing customer add-on sales for our Microsoft Dynamics GP practice?
Through the years I’ve learned to start with the resources that Microsoft and our own staff have already created for our customers – and build upon them. We know there are current promotions – so keeping that in mind, I did the following:
1. I thought about the exciting news and products I saw at Microsoft Convergence that still excite me. I’ve downloaded most of the Microsoft Dynamics GP, CRM, and SQL session material through my
Convergence Session Builder. If you haven’t done that, I encourage you to take a look. The Microsoft Convergence site has a great overview of most of the concurrent sessions. I picked a couple of the most inspiring sessions and looked for useful content within the powerpoints. For me this year, I found Smartlist Builder/Excel Report Builder to be of particular interest.
2. I emailed the presenter (email addresses are almost always listed on the last PPT slide), who was more than eager to send me her notes/steps to creating the actual demo portion of the session.
3. I emailed my customer base and announced a free webinar to introduce and give Microsoft Dynamics GP Tips and Tricks using Smartlist Builder and Excel Report Builder (SLB & ERB). We’d already told them through a ‘Post Convergence’ Newsletter that we had seen exciting features in this module while we were at Convergence – now we want to share what we’d learned with them. We mention the benefits of SLB/ERB to any customers when speaking to them, and add taglines to our emails for a couple of weeks to advertise the upcoming webinar to our customers.
4. As attendees started registering, I made sure we geared the presentation to show the capabilities within those areas that SLB/ERB will extend (ie. Quantities in Inventory crossing several tables).
5. During the presentation (which was simpler to create because I started with the Microsoft presenter’s materials), I used the current Microsoft promotion to make the product pricing more attractive. We also offered 10% off installation/training for this module within the current month for attending the webinar (whether they already own the product or not).
Using this method, we usually get 2 sales of a product immediately. But following this example, we may also get:
- 2 customers upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP Version 10, or at least the latest service pack, to take advantage of the capabilities I’ve shown.
- Several hours of consulting for installation, planning, training, and implementation of the product.
- Another touchpoint with our customers through them even glancing at the webinar announcement or attending the demonstration. We’ve planted a seed throughout our customerbase of this product.
- Plus, we’ve made sure our customers know we are staying up with the latest enhancements so we are the “go to” resource for them for their ERP system.
We just met with a customer last week who wants to see a product we did this exact type of campaign for last year. They saw it briefly and now want to plan for the implementation/rollout of it this quarter.
Next installment – using our Microsoft Dynamics ISV partners to extend our expertise and offerings to our customers…
Thanks Abra. Thanks Borek Business Solutions! 
Related posts:
- The Partner Event for Microsoft Dynamics Partners and ISVs
- Are Microsoft Dynamics Partners Ready for the Social Media Revolution?
- Microsoft Dynamics Partner Survey About ISV Marketing
- Njevity, Inc. Presents Denver’s First Look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
- Microsoft Convergence – Meet me in New Orleans
Subscribe with RSS
