I am fresh back from the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Advisory Council meetings last week. AppSource, and the whole ISV strategy was a central topic. Unfortunately I cannot share too much because of NDA handcuffs, but I can share some public themes, and my opinions.
Mobile phone apps ruined everything. As a result of minimal processing power and small screen size, mobile app developers had little choice but to keep things basic. Given that mobile devices are used by everyone on the planet, including a lot of people who are not particularly smart, mobile apps …
Dynamics 365 Customers and Partners have had a few changes pushed to them in recent years. Dynamics 365 was evolving at a pretty rapid pace since it hit the cloud, and when James Phillips took over the team, he took both of his feet and smashed the gas pedal. It’s …
Microsoft recently announced the availability of the Common Data Service (CDS), as a platform, accessible with a PowerApps P2 license. A few folks got kind of excited, many others said “So what?”, and most have no idea what I am talking about right now. But our firm has bet the …
I got a call the other day from a customer who said that another partner told them that they should not use a solution like ours because “It can cause issues”. I thought, what a vague and crappy thing to say. I assume this partner was not a reseller of …
When we designed our RapidStart CRM solution for Dynamics 365, we had a pretty specific idea of how it would be used. It turns out, that when you eliminate the complexity of customizing Dynamics 365, customers get pretty creative.
Microsoft likes to use the term “Hero Offer” for a particular subscription. It’s like the Sears Good, Better, Best approach. Usually the “Hero” offer, means that you are a hero to Microsoft if you sell it, not that is is the best solution for every customer. So, what is the …
I have had several of our partners and friends ask me how the new Dynamics 365 will effect our RapidStart CRM ISV offering. I think they feared I may slit my wrists, but actually, we got lucky. RapidStart CRM was always focused on the new CRM customer who was looking …
Who could argue with the concept of keeping your finger on the pulse of your customers? From the CEO, to the VP of Sales, to the Sales Manager, right down the line to the sales team… everybody has a desire… a requirement actually… to know what is happening with their …
Just a few short years ago, Office 365 launched. At the time, selling the product required genuine knowledge, and migrating to the product required genuine expertise. There was significant partner margin and incentives on the sale of Office 365, as well a nice margins on deploying it. Those days have …
So I am sitting in the Dynamics Partner Advisory Council on Sunday as Microsoft unwraps Dynamics 365. They start the conversation by saying they are going to make licensing waaay easier, and proceed to layout the most complex licensing structure I have ever heard.
The other day I was speaking to one of our RapidStart CRM Partners, who not only has an expert Dynamics CRM team, but is also a big fan of our model. He suggested that RapidStart CRM was like T-Ball for a home-run hitters. So here comes a post littered with …
It’s true… we are hiding things from you, or rather your CRM customer. We confess, we have been caught red-handed. But nothing nefarious is going on here… I swear! So what do we have to hide, and why?
No, we do not actually need to know “Did you get Married Last Year” in order to successfully deploy Dynamics CRM Online with RapidStart CRM. But that question was the genesis of how we eliminated the consulting component from the deployment process.
Many partners and customers are under the impression that gaining user adoption (a/k/a Active Use) is very hard to do. History supports this, at least based on the most commonly used approaches to this challenge. But I will tell you that it is actually very simple.
It is the heat of the political season, so in the spirit of that, I’ll need to “walk back” my post title. Success cannot be Guaranteed; even “Or Your Money Back” simply means you failed. The best that anyone can do is set you up for the best possible chance …
Okay, well I knew it couldn’t last forever. We created the first “Packaged Deployment” model available only through Microsoft Partners; RapidStart CRM. Now there are few others, so I have to write that “Why Us?” post.
There is an interesting battle taking place down in the trenches of SMB. Microsoft and Salesforce.com are peripherally aware of it, because both of these major CRM platforms have expressed some interest in SMB, but the opposition ranks are growing.
The best I.P. ideas begin with a wide view; making sure as many possible challenges are being solved. The best ideas, are by definition, the “Best” ideas, but they have to withstand the cyclical nature of business.
Okay, I can hear the Microsoft Partner community thinking “Why on earth would I ever Down-Sell, and how on earth would that Increase profit?” Okay, got it, you’re from Earth. Before I explain my rationale, let’s quickly cover a few sales techniques that you are already familiar with.
