Selling “the Cloud”
in 90 Days
“Before this pilot, I handled
marketing as a chore, would
only market when it was
absolutely necessary, and had
never sold an online services
deal. Now, it’s one of the first
things I do every day... and in
1 month, we’ve made 2 sales
and generated 15 leads.”
Kim Walker
Franklin Computer Services
another NSM case
study... no, we don’t
make this stuff up!
Never Stop Marketing
h o w 8 microsoft par tners bui lt
a n d execute d a microsoft-centric
c o m m u nit y driven st rat egy in
3 m ont hs ... and had t he sales and
p i p e line t o p rove it.
Looming competition
to microsoft
Joelle Thompson saw the rising threat of Google Apps and other hosted service
offerings to Microsoft’s core business.
A Senior Marketing Manager at Microsoft, Joelle knew that it would take a
concentrated effort to make sure that the thousands of partner companies in the
eco-system would be well positioned to compete.
But, she was concerned. Joelle thought that there might be a “gap” between
what Microsoft offered and what these partners needed when it came to selling
the value of the company’s Online Services offering (sometimes referred to as ‘a
cloud offering’.) In particular, she was concerned that the support which her team
was offering was not ideal for the “billion channel universe” that the social media
era brought with it.
An Innovative Approach Was Needed…
And Then Some
Sensing the need for some outside expertise, she reached out to Never Stop
Marketing (NSM) and asked if the success of a previous MS Dynamics-focused
project could be replicated for this challenge.
Her charge?
“Find a few partners, see if you can help them build a social marketing strategy
that will drive the sale of Online Services AND tell us what we are missing in
terms of partner support.”
Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days |1
 But, that’s only part of the story of Joelle’s innovation.
Li ke what
She recognized that the “gap analysis” would not only benefit her team, but
others as well, so she forged together a coalition of forward-thinking social
you’re
marketing innovators at Microsoft, including Dharmesh Singh, Jennifer Tomlinson, rea ding ?
and Charl Pearce (we’ll call them the “Online Services Partner Marketing Dream Cl ic k on any
Team—or OSPMDT, for short. Actually, we won’t, that’s a ridiculous acronym.) of the below
In any event, they all agreed to collaborate and support an Online Services-
icons t o share
Community Driven Marketing pilot to see if they could get these answers. this with
a f riend.
She Was Right…Overwhelming Partner
Demand for the Program
The team’s sense that partners wanted and needed help in marketing online
services was met during the initial “call for applications.” Despite there being only
9 slots available, over 45 partners applied for the program.

For those who were not accepted, a Facebook group was set up where the
partners, MS sponsors, and NSM could and would share as much information as
possible.

With no marketing whatsoever, the page has grown to over 115 members…and
counting (over 80% of whom are other MS partners).

And Susan wasn’t even in the pilot program!

A deliberately diverse set of Microsoft partners with varying experiences

was selected.

The 9 partners:

•  Came from 8 different US states and the UK

•  Ranged in marketing sophistication from completely referral-based (2) to

primarily event marketers (5) to more sophisticated dedicated marketing
engines (2)

•  Had very limited (only 2) experience using social media/networks for marketing

2 | Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days Never Stop Marketing

 •  Served a variety of customers ranging from 1-5 employees, to SMB, to
Enterprise and Government

•  Differed in employee size dramatically [2-5 employees (1), 6-10 (2), 11-49 (3),
50-99 (1), >1,000 (1)

•  Differed in partner level [Gold-5, Certified-3, Registered-1]

•  And specialized in 9 different vertical markets

What’s more, coming into the program, only 2 of the partners had ever made any
Online Services sales (4 sales in total), and 3 of them had not even completed the
training to resell Online Services yet!

Breaking Old Habits…Building New Ones

What followed was a 6 week intensive marketing boot camp where the partners
were educated in the key concepts of Community Driven Marketing. They also
received weekly homework assignments (e.g. post a video of a compelling
story as to WHY a customer should be interested in Online Services). The
assignments were designed to prepare the partners for successfully marketing
their organizations and Microsoft’s Online Services offering in a social media
world. Oh, they were graded on their homework as well! One partner (not shown)
even flunked out.

The final project? Create highly-specific marketing plans with weekly

To read to QR Code, go to
http://reader.kaywa.com/ on your
mobile browser.
accountabilities, which they then shared with the larger community. (Ok, so we
made them do it, but they still did it!)
Note: each partner’s marketing plan is 100% unique despite the 1: many format
of the program.

Partner Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Final Plans

Evolve Technologies 100% 0% 100% 100% 80% 100%
Franklin Computer Services 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Janalent 100% 0% 90% 67% 100% 100%
Laser Link, Inc, dba net CIO 75% 100% 95% 67% 0% 100%
Netlink, IT 100% 100% 90% 100% 80% 100%
Get the free mobile app at KIZAN Technologies LLC 75% 0% 100% 67% 80% 100%
http:/ / gettag.mobi
To snap the tag, go to gettag.mobi Sogeti 100% 100% 100% 33% 100% 100%
Cloud Strategies 100% 100% 90% 100% 67% 100%
on your mobile browser.

Never Stop Marketing Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days |3

 Commitment to execution...
o r, o n e m ig h t s ay, t o “ nev er st op
mar k eti n g ” Share Th e
m icro soft
Community Driven Marketing is about identifying your Raving Fans (your most
partner s’
passionate advocates) and listening to what they are saying (here’s a list of tools
they use) and then programmatically cultivating relationships with them.
succe ss
s torie s wit h
A key point here…these are Raving Fans for the partner’s business NOT for
a friend.
Online Services necessarily. The “social” part of social marketing focuses on
Cl ic k on any
people not products, so their strategy focused on the relationships they had and
could strengthen.
of the below
icons.
Cultivation activities vary, but at the core sit two overarching
commitments:
1.  Serving as a curator of content for your community (say that 5 times fast)
2.  Connecting community members with each other

Simply put, ONLY share valuable stuff and bring like-minded people
together…and doing it in a remarkable way.

No easy task, but if it were easy, everyone would do it.

So, armed with a strategic framework, the partners executed in a way that made
sense for their business.

Numerous examples abound, but here are a few:

•  Richard Tubb of JamesCash in the UK committed to writing a “Helping” or

“Educational” blog post one time per week for his readers (many of whom are
IT directors at his clients).
Then, using Ping.fm he promoted the post via his Twitter account, Facebook
profile, and the company email newsletter. In so doing, he earned the trust of
his community and the right to begin conversations with them about Online
Services. Oh, and he never forgot the “social” part of social media, adding a
personal flair that indeed is “remarkable.”

4 | Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days Never Stop Marketing


“Not only did our community
marketing efforts through
social media drive pipeline and
revenue from our customers,
but I was excited (and shocked)
that it generated a whole
new level of marketing-sales
alignment. My sales guys are
actually asking me about Online
Sevices and how they can sell
them now.”
Michelle Follman
Sogeti
Never Stop Marketing
•  Mike Spence of Kizan Technologies in Louisville, KY chose to use Facebook
and LinkedIn to promote his “educational” offering, but instead, he chose an
event series around “the cloud” as the curated content experience.
Sensing some confusion in the market among his Raving Fans, Mike asked
opened the experience in the invitation itself by asking whether “the cloud”
conjured up images of a rainbow or a hurricane Mike. That spirit of open
dialogue (the real meaning of “social” marketing”) continued through the event
itself, led to an increasing number of attendees, and had a declared objective
of connecting each of his Raving Fans with someone else “of value”, based on
their interests or expertise.
This commitment to serving his Raving Fans solidified the network of trust
around him and his company.
•  Michelle Follman of Sogeti had a big surprise when she changed the nature
of her tweets from promotional to educational. Not only did customers start
finding more value in her tweetstream (her follower rate grew organically by
100% and Sogeti was listed over 20 times), but the sales force in her large
company also found value in it, improving the age-old challenge of aligning
marketing and sales. Net result…more of her sales folks talking about Online
Services with customers to the tune of 14 opportunities worth $3.4 million!
There were two big takeaways for all of these partners:
1.  First, marketing today, in a social media world, is not about you. It’s
about your audience. If you focus on giving as much value in terms of
information/knowledge as you can, you will earn their attention and trust.
That gives you the opportunity to discuss new sales opportunities with
them.
2.  Second, it’s not about “campaigns,” it’s about doing the little,
personal, “social,” things every single day that build up people as
marketing assets who will help you spread the word. What we like to
call: Never Stop Marketing.
Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days |5
 Without Results, It’s B.S….Did I Just Let ’s say I’m
Say That? intere s ted
At the three month mark (that is one month of solid execution), the partners
in doing this
reported some impressive results. t oo...
1.  100% of the partners had created a total of over 170 net new Online Marketing is not a some time
Services pipeline, affecting 60k seats worth over $3mm, which they thing or a “when we need it”
attributed to their Community Driven Marketing plans thing. It’s an “all the time” thing.

2.  50% of the partners had closed more than 20 deals in licensing and If you want to build a business

over $30,000 in services. that is sustainable over the long

haul, you need to build a culture
And the non-financial results are significant as well. that has marketing as a perpetual
activity. Like breathing.
Thanks to the spirit of cooperation demonstrated by the partners,
the group: Never Stop Marketing is a
mantra for how we work. More
•  Was nominated for a Worldwide Partner Conference Citizenship Award (but
importantly, it’s at the very core
they lost, oh well)
of the marketing engines that we
•  Continues to participate regularly in the Facebook group - helping one another build for clients.
and non-participating partners)
To learn more, visit us online at
•  Is forging ahead in creating new business offerings (like Pete’s “quick start” www.neverstopmarketing.com
landing page), new sales models (i.e. Jeff Adzima now quotes by person, not and join others who share the
device-which he shared on Facebook) and strategies for selling in a “cloud” mantra on Facebook.
world (as Richard blogged)
Email the author (Jeremy Epstein)
•  Was able to provide Microsoft valuable feedback about the “gap” in partner or follow him on Twitter.
marketing support (which was the point all along…but we’re not going to share
Subscribe by email or RSS to
that in this case study. Sorry!)
the Never Stop Marketing Blog.

Ok, So Microsoft Was Satisifed, How

About the Partners?
Well, Richard Tubb and Dave Sobel offered Facebook video testimonials
and Kim Walker and Pete Zarras provided recommendations on LinkedIn.
Judge for yourself! © 2010 Never Stop Marketing.
All Rights Reserved.

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6 | Selling “The Cloud” In 90 Days Never Stop Marketing