Have you connected with your Microsoft Field

Monday I made a trip to St Louis - a short day trip - to meet with the area general manager of the North Central region for Microsoft. I also was able to meet with another manager who oversees the PAM and PCM resources in NCA. It was a great visit. We talked about HTS and HTG and again found out how important it is to market ourselves to our vendors. As much as we work with Microsoft I am continually amazed at how many touches it takes to get the message out about who we are and what we do. It was a revelation that we actually sell software - the feeling was that we were influencers but in fact we actually transact over 300K in licensing ourselves plus influence a bunch more. So it requires us as partners to reach out and make sure our vendor partners understand who we are and what we do. That is our responsibility. Too often we want to just sit in our offices and wait for vendors to figure it out. That is crazy. Is that how you deal with your customers - sit and hope? Some may but that is not the formula for success. We need to be partners with our vendors. That means we build a relationship and we reach out and do things. So I encourage you to take time to meet with key vendors and help them understand your business and goals. I am confident my three hours in St Louis will be one of the best investments I will have made this month. I also followed up and called a few other folks in the region when I got back just so I could deliver the same message to them. Market thy company to your vendors and disty partners. It is critical for your success.