Ah Summertime! Vacations, Beaches and PREPARATION.

As we sit back, relax and enjoy an ice cold beverage, we should consider that the number two selling season is quickly approaching. I am talking about the fact that December is the second highest sales month for new license sales in the business application (ERP/CRM) industry.  So, as you roll over to avoid getting sunburned… you should consider that your Fall Marketing Campaign should be 100% done and ready to execute the first week in September. Continue Reading…

Looking for Microsoft Partner Network Accreditation information?

• Use our Accreditation Path Decision Tool to determine the tests and preparation you need.
• If you already know which SALESWORKS preparation workshops, you can skip to the MPN workshop registration list.

Continue Reading…

I always wonder what business owners were thinking when they created the layers of complexity in their business models.  Maybe they weren’t thinking and that is why it grew so complex over time.  I look at the average Microsoft Partner today and wonder how they got so complex for a business that, on average, has revenue of only $6.5 million dollars.  Now this leads to a BIG problem when it comes to scaling and growing an organization, since clearly complexity drives cost and slows growth. Continue Reading…

It is not without irony that I’m writing this blog article on July 1^st – after a very short sleep, on a Canadian holiday, on a BC Ferry boat.   The deadline for the article is today.  I planned to write it last week.   But many client projects that had drop dead deadline dates of June 30^th took priority.  The last component was delivered at midnight.

Continue Reading…

I had the pleasure of attending SMX Advanced, the premier Search Marketing Expo, earlier this month. SMX Advanced is recognized as being the go-to event of the year for Search Engine Marketers and all the big names in the industry are in attendance.

Let’s take a look some of the information that was put forward that business software resellers can use in their inbound marketing strategies. Continue Reading…

As a copywriter and a former reporter, I’m always on the lookout for clichés in copy.

A journalism professor drove this home for me many years ago by sharing his least favourite cliché:

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. Continue Reading…

“No not these leads, I want those leads…I want the Glengarry leads (a bunch of them).”

As sales managers or executives, what’s the most common request we hear from sales people? Continue Reading…

Photo taken by Ryan Folstad.

Salesworks welcomes the newest member of the team, a 4-month old Schipperke puppy. His name is yet to be determined but it’s been narrowed down to either “Jackson” or “Booker”.

Post a comment with your favorite name (of the two) and help Cathy decide.

Growing Pains

Like the gangly teenager that transitions from childhood to adulthood, the growing Microsoft Dynamics Partner often faces difficult but necessary growing pains.

As partners approach 30 to 40 employees ($6.0m – $8.0m in revenues), there is a tendency for owners to add a layer of mid-level management to control functional groups like sales, marketing, delivery, lines of business or even separate offices. Continue Reading…

Mobile devices target a more specific audience than that of the traditional web.  These days the majority of executives use smartphones and companies are still spending on mobility and productivity tools for small to medium-sized businesses.

According to a Nielsen report in 2009 more than half of the smartphones on the market today are used for business.  Apple recently announced selling 50 Million iPhones/iPods and Google has announced they are making 100,000 activations per month of new devices.  With only those two statistics combined you have a HUGE emerging market of business users to target.

While executives are using their phones for business, they are also using them for pleasure, installing games and applications.  Ignoring this advertising channel is eliminating an emerging revenue stream. Continue Reading…