Marching Orders 2016: Stay Close to Microsoft
Editor's Note: Throughout the month of January, we'll be running installments of Marching Orders, our annual collection of advice and predictions from channel luminaries about what to do and what to expect in the year ahead. For this entry, longtime Microsoft partner Matt Scherocman, president of Interlink Cloud Advisors, provides some peer-to-peer tips.
In my opinion, Microsoft is changing faster than ever before. Customers are changing their business plans and processes quickly and the industry is rapidly evolving.
As partners, we are always in the middle between the vendors and the clients -- which can be painful! We all know that vendors, including Microsoft, are going direct to clients more than ever before. My marching order to my own team is to integrate tighter than ever with field teams at Microsoft. We know that there is painful change happening. Staying close allows us to better predict and react to changes.
One major initiative is ensuring that we are communicating back our value to showcase where we are having success selling, deploying, innovating and partnering. Microsoft is driving more direct customer touch in the CAM and CTM field teams. The days of just assuming they knew what good work we were doing are over. We have to show our value.
Our team must continue to be curious about how Microsoft is going to market today and how that will evolve for tomorrow. Are we helping the individual reps at Microsoft exceed their revenue targets, hit their scorecard objectives and take great care of clients? Only when we care about their goals will they begin to care about ours.
More Marching Orders 2016:
Posted on January 27, 2016 at 2:53 PM