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! 

 

I’m speaking around Orange County in several public venues this month.  If you’re available, I hope you can join us.

If you’re in the Orange County area and you’re interested in learning more about how to use Twitter, the popular micro-blogging tool, to grow your business, come join us on April 29 for margaritas and networking at El Torito in Laguna Hills.  The cost = $10 bucks. 

To get more details or register, visit the OC Small Business & Entrepreneurs Group.

Also, tomorrow night, April 7^th, I’m speaking on a panel with other women entrepreneurs in Ladera Ranch.  We’ll talk about the lessons learned the first year in business.  If you are a woman entrepreneur, and you are interested in coming, please send me an e-mail.  The first two women to respond can come for free as my guest.  For everyone else, the cost is $15. (Sorry guys, this event is ladies-only).

My friend Richard, who has a blog at http://rddinmv.blogspot.com sent me this beautiful and timely quote today.

I will be like the rain drop which washes away the mountain;
the ant who devours a tiger;
the star which brightens the earth;
the slave who builds a pyramid.
I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.

– Og Mandino

When we realize the power of consistency, we can do anything we set our mind to.  When you decide that you really are devoted to growing your business, it will be by focusing on doing the right things every day, every week, every month and every year. 

Before you know it, you’ll have strong marketing muscles and a booming business.

Are you part of the Orange County Duct Tape Marketing Group yet?  Our March topic is Blogging for Business!

If you’re not blogging about your business, you are missing out on one of the most effective and affordable ways to promote your business online! Blogging is the foundation of social media marketing, providing fresh conversations. In this meeting, you will learn why blogging is should be a foundational part of your marketing mix. We’ll also discuss:

• Why blogging is an extremely effective marketing strategy for small businesses right now.
• Finding keywords that will bring the most traffic from search results.
• How to develop persuasive, compelling content in just minutes.
• Leveraging your blog to influence friends in online social networks.
• How to develop persuasive, compelling content in just minutes.
• Etiquette, tips and tricks that make you look like a pro!

Why should you attend?

Blogging is an easy and fun way to promote your business - BUT if you don’t have your blog set up right, you won’t be getting the full business benefits.

Register to learn about Blogging for Business

MEETING AGENDA:

5:30 Welcome and Networking - Appetizers Served
6:00-7:30 Marketing Meeting
7:30-8:00 Wrap Up

Come mingle with other small business owners, marketing and sales professionals as you learn how to apply Duct Tape Marketing’s principles to your business. Veteran marketing professional, Adrianne Machina of Tornado Marketing, an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, will facilitate a discussion on the practical steps you can take to market your business affordably and effectively.

Microsoft Convergence has become a can’t-miss event for many.  Microsoft Convergence is Microsoft’s premier customer event, and is preceded by a Microsoft Dynamics partner day.  I’ll be headed to Sage Insights in May and can’t wait to see how their event compares to Microsoft’s. 

Now I know many of you can’t afford to put on an event on the scale of Microsoft, but who can?!  Everyone has to start somewhere.  The first Great Plains Stampede and Great Plains Convergence had only a handful of people - but they built from there. (Great Plains Software was acquired by Microsoft in 2001.)

With more people looking to get referrals and build their business through word-of-mouth, now is a great time to think about hosting a small, locally-based user group.  If that’s something you are interested in trying, let me share some lessons I’ve learned over the years from attending Microsoft Convergence. 

1.  Make sure your top executives are actively participating in your event.  Although your clients (hopefully) love your staff; they want to know they are important, and that they are being heard at the highest levels of your organization.  They want to understand the direction your company is headed. 

2.  Make sure your information is educationally-focused.  In past years, I would hear sporadic complaints when a conference became too “sales-y” only talking about an upcoming product releases.  Make sure you provide value that can be used TODAY, not just in the next version of your products. 

3.  Provide plenty of socializing and networking time.  All work and no play make for a dull event.  Build in some time and ways for people to get to know each other.  If you have partners, this might be a great opportunity for them to sponsor part of your event.  Microsoft Dynamics GP partners and customers have come to look forward to Rock-n-Rave  year after year.  Their party at Harrah’s this year was as phenomenal as ever!  With their clever marketing efforts to drive booth attendance, this event is both a great socializing event and a great marketing tactic.

4.  Communicate.   Microsoft had a website.  They Twittered. (http://www.Twitter.com/MBSconvergence.) They created a FaceBook group.  They created ways for people to find each other and connect online before the conference.  Once you arrived at the event, they had handouts and signs.  Partners also reached out to their clients to host dinners and cocktail hours.  All of these efforts helped to make attendees feel confident that they were in the right place at the right time.

5. Take care of the details.  Everything was meticulously planned.  The food. The meals.  The hotel rooms. The signs.  I can’t even imagine running logistics for an event of that scale!  In past years, they even had signs on all the doors, the floors and in the lights.  The devil’s in the detail, so make sure you put a highly organized person in charge.

One last thing.  Microsoft Convergence attendance was down (I heard @ 15-20%) from prior years.  Paying $1500 for a conference, plus the hotel, airfare and dinner costs for travelling across the country to attend, PLUS the out of office time was too much for many people at this time.  There wasn’t much Microsoft could do to react.  Contracts were signed long before the economy tanked, so their costs were fixed.  But if I was putting on an event today, I’d keep affordability as a top-of-mind issue.  It doesn’t have to be free, but the value has to be clearly communicated.

Last week, one of those “famous” internet marketers sent me an email.   He was mad because people were taking too long to see the value of his product.   His readers would hem-and-haw before making a purchase.  I’m sure his email was meant to be some type of psychological ploy to get you to buy his info-product.  But it sure backfired on me. 

I wondered how much this guy could really know about marketing. So here’s what I wanted to say to him.

Dear Internet Marketer,

I know you think you have a fabulous product, but if there’s anyone you should be mad at, you should be mad at yourself.  You obviously haven’t done a great job of communicating the value of your product. You are being defensive instead of understanding that people are wary and you need to assuage them and prove to them that your book is different. It’s not that they wouldn’t (or don’t) invest in their business. It’s that there are a lot of internet marketer snake oil salesman out there promising something for nothing.

I work primarily with professional service and technology companies and hear that same indignation all the time.

“I can’t believe they bought from that shmuck when we’re a jillion times better…we take over their unhappy customers all the time.”  I know.  It DOES HURT when someone doesn’t see your value. It hurts your balance sheet as much as your ego.

As you may well know, ‘building a better mousetrap’ is only step one of building a successful business. Communicating how and why that mousetrap is better (a.k.a. MARKETING) is the key to blowing out your sales.  For all of you who are out there feeling under-appreciated and a best-kept-secret.  You have two options.

1.  Call and cry on someone’s shoulder. 

(Net effect: You’ll know you have friends who care and you’ll temporarily feel better.)

2.  Improve your marketing so that your product or service looks as good as it actually is. 

(Net effect: Pretty soon you’ll be selling more and attracting more of the clients who value you.)

Simple, huh?  So which path will you choose?

When you are out speaking  at an event or doing face-to-fact networking, timely follow up is extremely important if you want to convert contacts into relationships.  Leads grow colder by the minute.   

I come back from every conference and speaking gig with a stack of business cards that I have to sift through and add to my contact list.  Solutions like Plaxo, LinkedIn, GMail, Salesforce.com, ACT and Outlook have all made desktop and online address books  fairly easy to update - once they’re in the system.  But it’s the adding of new contacts that’s time consuming.  That’s why I was so excited to find this new FREE solution DubMeNow that allows people the ability to text or email their contact info directly into your mobile device.  (There’s also a paid Pro solution for corporate users.)

How does DubMeNow work? 

Users of DubMeNow can email or text their contact info to you.  Once you accept the message, it moves into your phone database. Depending upon your particular set-up, the contact info can sync with your desktop CRM or contact management software when you perform the next sync.  Its usefulness will grow with adoption, but DUB already syncs contacts and updates with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Siebel On-Demand and SugarCRM.   Facebook and LinkedIn integration are in the works.

And here’s the super cool part - anytime someone that’s given you their contact info via dub makes a change, it’s automatically updated on your phone.

You can also create DUBIDs to make the process that much easier.  Send me an invite using my DUBID, which is  TORNADO.  I will be sending my contact list DubMeNow invites shortly!

One final thought - You still have to have business cards!   They tell me a lot about you, and no matter how cool this technology is, not everyone will adopt it.  So bring your business cards AND show everyone how technically savvy you are by being an early adopter on this too-cool-for-school whiz-bang technology.  DubMeNow, I’m IN!