The Partner Forum exploded.
It wasn’t the first time. And, it wouldn’t be the last.
A vocal senior executive from a local Partner asked the question in a stern voice:
“Where are all the leads?”
Murmurs of agreement from members of the audience turned into immediate follow-up accusations.
“It’s favouritism!”
It wasn’t.
But, it was a good indicator of which Partners would stand the test of time and which ones would not.
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Lessons From The Trenches
As a reasonably new Microsoft Partner, I couldn’t understand the hostile line of questioning. Despite being in business for just over a year, we enjoyed a good working relationship with our Microsoft counterparts, and our pipeline was healthy.
At that moment, I looked around and came to a realization:
The successful Partners weren’t the ones being vocal.
Stand Alone. Stand Together.
The assumption that Microsoft was hiding thousands of unallocated leads from their Partners was insane.
In reality, there were a lot of great leads in the pipeline, but they already had Partners attached to them.
Was it a nefarious plot to make some Partners successful while others failed? Absolutely not.
These leads directly resulted from the Partner’s proactive attempts to generate a pipeline. A side-effect of their goal to be largely self-sufficient.
The impact? A healthy business and a healthy relationship with Microsoft.
And sometimes, that healthy relationship means you get pulled into the right deals and introduced to great customers.
Remember:
_ Win the right customers.
_ Implement solutions that make a real impact.
_ Earn trust.
_ Build reputation.
_ Repeat.
The rest will follow.
