Generating & Converting Leads - MS IO Campaigns

Course Description

Effectively Generating and Converting Leads with Microsoft Infrastructure Optimisation Campaigns

Participants: sales, presales, marketing and general management
Duration: 1 day

Subject Overview

This 1 day interactive workshop will provide attendees with the background to – and an overview of – Microsoft’s Customer Campaigns aimed at Technical Decision Makers (ie Core IO – Optimise and Secure Your Core Infrastructure, BPIO – Optimise Your Business Productivity Infrastructure, and APO – Optimise Your Application Platform Infrastructure.

The Campaigns will be viewed from a sales and marketing perspective, to allow attending Partners to develop their own sales and marketing plans to capitalise on local Microsoft promotions in respect of the Campaigns.

The sessions are localised to the relevant Microsoft subsidiary.

Objectives

Program objectives include:

• to provide sufficient understanding of the Customer Campaigns - together with some relevant sales and marketing knowledge/skills/processes -  to assist Partners generate and convert leads relevant to each Campaign
• development of an internal action plan – to be shared with Microsoft – to effectively pursue the Campaigns.

Target Audience

The session is designed for senior personnel within the Partner, responsible for the development and execution of sales and marketing strategies. Pre-sales and business development resources will also value from attending. Partners are encouraged to send a small group of attendees to the event to work together as a team.

Prerequisites

There are no mandatory prerequisites for this session.

Useful but optional prerequisites include:

• basic knowledge of Microsoft’s Customer Campaigns targeted at Technical Decision Makers (ie Core IO, BPIO, APO) (see www.microsoftio.com)
• understanding of basic sales management and marketing processes and concepts

Content Overview

1. Overview and context
   • overview of concept, specifics and application of the IO Customer Campaigns
   • why these Campaigns have come about
   • link to People Ready initiative
   • comparison to previous Microsoft promotional programs
   • use of assessments to build value for customers – but also to build pipeline for Partners
2. Market opportunity
   • local subsidiary market statistics
   • characteristics of “prime” target markets
3. Opportunity identification – latent pains
   • overview of the types of pains likely to be exhibited by customers whose infrastructure is “basic” or “standard” (ie low level of optimisation)
   • which parts of the organisation are likely to be feeling these pains?
   • what are the implications of the pains?
   • what improvements can be made by addressing these pains?
4. Promoting the optimisation assessments
   • pointers and overview of available materials to assist with promoting the need for customers to undertake the various optimisation assessments
5. Convincing prospects
   • value propositions relating to elements associated with each Campaign
   • competitive landscape and positioning
   • demonstrating business value (introduction to available tools relevant to each Campaign)
   • overcoming buyer concerns
   • reinforcement of overall Microsoft value proposition
6. Case studies
   • small number of in-depth case studies
   • list of case studies/Proof available to participating Partners
7. Resources
   • overview and location of key resources available from Microsoft
   • description of other Partners that may be available to help (ie partnering with other Partners)
8. Action planning
   • development of action plans to be shared with Microsoft