Partner Loyalty

Are you loyal to your key vendors and distribution partners? That was a big theme the past few weeks. Ingram has been preaching it at VTN for a while. Sonicwall and HP both focused on it at their recent partner conferences. It is a big focus. So what does that mean? That we as partners CHOOSE to do our business with our vendor partners. We make decisions every day on what solutions we will sell and whose products and services those solutions will contain. At HTS we made a conscious decision a few years ago to narrow our vendor lines way down – to consolidate to a few key vendors and sell their products. That means we are not making decisions based on price but loyalty and then selling on value. I struggle with the excuses some partners give for why they can’t be loyal to a vendor or disty partner. They want the freedom to shop on price but they turn around the next minute and complain that Dell only sells on price and not value. Folks – we can’t have it both ways. We either are true channel partners and focus on selling value or we just become a price leader and deal with Dell style marketing all day long. Loyalty means we learn the value proposition and learn to share that with our clients. Our vendor partners have pricing where they do for a reason. Things cost more usually for a reason. That is certainly our experience. We sell HP and Sonicwall because we believe in their products. For many years though we only sold parts and pieces of their line. A few years ago the lightbulb went on and we figured out the importance of loyalty to our relationship. Our business has changed dramatically because of it. We no longer are trying to sell and support every vendor under the sun. Our engineers can get trained in a product line and know that is what they will be installing and supporting. Our marketing funds are significantly larger because our volumes are up with these key vendors and our relationships are so much deeper. It is not rocket science. Loyalty is a powerful driver of success. As partners we have to learn it and live it. Are you a loyal partner? Or are you one that just focuses on what is best for you? Success comes to those who make investments with their vendor partners. Think about it and then do it. Pick a few and go deep. It will make a difference in your success.

Final Thoughts on the HP Partner Conference

I spent a couple days at the HP Partner Americas Event in Las Vegas this week. It was a very well done event full of a boat load of great content. HP always does things up first class. There were a few key takeaways from my perspective. Mark Hurd addressed the crowd and really focused on partner loyalty. It is all about partnership and relationship at a deep level. I have been preaching that for a long time as well. We have to go deep with our vendor partners. HP wants that to happen. None of this partial commitment – a big theme was being ALL IN with HP. I heard a similar message across the strip at the Sonicwall conference earlier in the week from CEO Matt Medeiros. Both companies are going to focus on partners who are loyal and sell their entire product set. Great news for HTS as we are aligned that way already.

A second observation was the type of partners at the HP event. I fit in that group from an age perspective. They wore suits and ties, which is a big stretch for me, but the average age of the attendees at the HP event was fairly high. This is a seasoned set of partners who will not be leading their respective companies forever. A great opportunity for HP to build some customer loyalty for the future by investing in the channel and helping grow up the next version of partners. Things will change in how the partner business happens. Web 2.0 is going to change a lot and the millenials (young workforce in their 20’s) are already changing how IT has to work and function. A lot more of that change is coming. Our HTG peer groups are focused on helping partners get positioned for the future.

The third observation is in the way HP runs a first class event. They had plenty of staff on hand, their systems worked for scanning into the breakouts, the meals were good and entertainment fantastic. How can you beat Steve Young and Sheryl Crow? Sonicwall held its event at the Plazzo which did have nicer rooms than Caesars. It is a brand new hotel so that is a bit of an advantage. The HP investment was in the event itself. Sonicwall takes a little different approach. Their meals were a step down, their entertainment a lot less – three impersonators, three “attitude girls” and a money machine – but they paid for a majority of the room cost so it was a lot less expensive to attend. Sort of a David and Goliath approach to the event. Both were good and I am glad I was able to attend both, but hope they don’t run them concurrently again. It was a bummer missing key pieces of both events. My hat goes off to both these companies for understanding the need to allow partners to come together to learn and grow. I appreciate that investment and support. It is those kinds of things that create loyalty. Thanks to Mark and Matt for believing in the channel.

Sonicwall Partner Conference

I have been in Las Vegas this week for the Sonicwall Partner Conference being held at the new Plazzo Hotel. Another fantastic venue and great job by the Sonicwall crew. Matt Medeiros kicked off the event Sunday afternoon with his state of the union address. I really enjoy Matt. He is energetic and leads the company the way it should be led - with passion from the heart. I get jazzed every time I am able to spend a little time with him. He is infectious with his love for the vision he has for Sonicwall. Leadership comes from the heart, and being around leaders like Matt gives me an example to follow and a company to get excited about.

2008 is going to be a break out year for Sonicwall. The key phrase I heard over and over was "everything is going to be new" this year. They have a fantastic product roadmap across all their lines of business. But key to it all is they remember the partner. They are listening to feedback and working hard to correct some of the issues they have experienced in the rapid growth they have had. Support is being brought back internal to Sonicwall and much more of it back to the US. They have heard the channel loud and clear.

Matt said one thing in his keynote that has stuck with me. "I've never seen a company cost cut itself to prosperity". Truer words have never been spoken. With the uncertainty of the economy, some companies are trying to adapt by slashing all kinds of things. Expenses and people. While I know we all have to control our costs, the ability to endure tough times is not handled by slashing things, particularly key components of the company like sales and marketing expenses for example.

The true test of my believing in a company is what I actually do about it. Two years ago or so when I heard Mark Hurd at HP, I immediately went and purchased some HP stock. I did the same when Steve Jobs came back to Apple. I now have Sonicwall in my investment portfolio. I am a believer in their future. This is not a solicitation for you to do the same, but I believe in putting my money where my heart is, and right now, it is totally in the Sonicwall camp. They understand the future, and it is now.

Thanks for a great week in Vegas!

New Cell Phone

I managed to lose my Treo this past week while in Raleigh. No idea how, but it slipped out of my sweats during my morning walk and it was nowhere to be found. So Nancy and I went to the local Verizon store to get a replacement. Good news was that I was due for an upgrade. Better news is that with the push technology from Exchange I don’t have to worry about contacts and phone numbers being lost – they just get pushed down again. One of the amazing things to me is that no matter what city I am in, what cellular store I enter, they are always busy. There is always a line usually full of people with no idea of what they want and not nearly enough help to get it done. That was true in Raleigh as well. I looked over the options and there were quite a few available. I settled on a different form factor this time – an HTC slider model - the VX6800 is what I think they called it. Windows Mobile 6 with a nice keyboard and good feature set. It didn’t take long for me to get the phone activated and operational. The sync happened quite quickly over the air with the Active Sync process. I was pretty impressed. This phone also works on wi-fi somehow – haven’t had a chance to test that yet. But it is smaller than the Treo and seems to be a lot better phone than the Treo ever was. The one thing that seems obvious to me is that I need to use the stylus a lot more with this phone – it has a lot more options and fewer buttons although I keep finding shortcuts all the time. Probably need to find some 6 year old to show me how to really run it. SO it wasn’t a bad experience – just a little diversion during our trip. It does have a flight feature that disables all the stuff that is not supposed to be on when flying which I enjoy with all the travel I do. So far I am pleased with the decision to change form factors. Let's hope I can hang on to this one!

Partner Conferences

Today I am on the way to Las Vegas for the beginning of partner conference week. Sonicwall's conference begins today, and HP's starts tomorrow. Why they can't communicate enough to make sure they don't overlap is beyond me. But at least they are in the same town and I will catch pieces of both. I find these events very valuable - not because of the content so much - but because of the people. It is the single best place to gain access to key executives and the best of their partner base. There is no other place I know to visit with the cream of the crop for these vendors. They don't invite every partner, they invite those who are engaged and performing. So I love being able to network and meet up with partners who are not worried about how they get a discount on this sku or a few dollars of MDF for a lunch and learn. These are typically partners with a plan and folks who have been making it happen. If they weren't they wouldn't be there. That said - it you are in Vegas for either of those events let me know. I would love to catch up with you and see what is happening in your world. I have a couple reporters looking to talk with some good partners as well.

I am really looking forward to hearing from Matt Mederios and Mark Hurd. What is said from the top does matter. A couple years ago when Mark came on as CEO of HP, I was so impressed I actually went home and bought some HP stock. That was a good decision (not quite as good as the Apple stock I bought but still good). Don't ever think that the vision and direction of a leader doesn't matter - certainly not a true leader. These two companies have true leadership at the top. That is one of the key reasons we partner with both of them. They also have some great additional leadership in key areas. I am especially excited to meet Adrian Jones this week from HP. He came into the HP organization to lead SPO and has been a huge help in correcting some of the issues their dealer authorization arm has caused. I love working with people who just make it happen and Adrian has been one of those folks at HP along with some of his reports. I am grateful to be able to work with people in large companies who still understand the importance of people. Same things goes for Sonicwall. Both companies have their issues, but at the end of the day they are approachable and willing to work at making things right.

Let me know if you will be in Vegas. See you there!

Do you have an attitude of gratitude?

Yesterday we wrapped up our HTG3 meeting here in Raleigh at the Microsoft offices. It was a great couple days of sharing life and business together. We traded great ideas, cool technology hints, little known secrets of the web - but most of all we spend a couple days living life together. One of our agenda items this meeting was some "thank you time" where the folks could express gratitude to others in the group for impact that had been made on them and their businesses over the last three years of meeting together. We don't do that nearly enough. Not in our business life, and certainly not in our personal lives.

None of us becomes successful on our own. We are helped by mentors, vendors, distribution partners, other small business IT owners - we get help from all over the place. It may come from reading an article in a magazine or listening to a podcast. This meeting we had Cecelia Galvin, editor of ChannelPro magazine, sitting in as an observer for a bit. ChannelPro is one of the places I get ideas for my business. But how often do I take time to say thanks to the folks who make it happen. HTS would fail without the investments made in us by our key vendor partners. We would have no products to sell, no message to market, no future. Without our distribution partner - Ingram Micro and their team - we would never survive. They not only pick, pack and ship the things we need to have work to do, but their services and interaction with our team make it possible to succeed. The members of HTG, VTN and other peers share so many great ideas that we SWIPE (steal with integrity and pride everyday) that if we stripped the things we have learned from others HTS would be a pretty lonely place for me to work because it would be back to that one man shop I started 23 years ago. We didn't figure out success on our own. We did it by learning from others and imitating what they were doing our own way.

So I want to take time to thank the many who have helped me personally become what I am today and for the investments made that have allowed HTS to become the company it is today. More than that, I want to encourage you as fellow IT professionals to take time to write an email or place a phone call to at least one person who has made a difference in your life and your business. Don't let the opportunity to bless another with a heartfelt thank you slip any longer. Develop an attitude of gratitude and be one of those unique few that say thank you to people every day. It will set you apart. The world is great at taking and expecting. We need to become great at sharing, giving and being grateful. Do it TODAY!

Working with Vendors

We had a great day yesterday in our HTG peer meeting sharing about business and life. One thing keeps coming up over and over the more time I spend with partners - the frustration of trying to work with vendors. I had numerous conversations with partners yesterday and most every day for that matter, about how they struggle to be connected to the vendors their very business depends on for success. It is a strange phenomenon. Vendors are very dependent upon us as partners to sell and support their products for success as well. So it really is a situation where both parties need the other to succeed. But somehow there are so many breakdowns in that relationship it just seems to be a mess for many most of the time. Partners get frustrated and jump to the next vendor thinking the grass has to be greener over there only to find the same end result. The reality is that a partner-vendor relationship is about people and that is a very complicated affair. It is really not all that different than being in a deep friendship or marriage - you have to work at it and not give up. Marriages fail because people decide it is not worth working through the problems to get to the other side. There has to be something better. Partner - vendor relationships fail for the same reasons. They consist of imperfect people who don't always do what is expected (even though those expectations are not clearly defined by either party). They consist of change in personnel and programs and direction by both companies. They are a moving target that require a lot of determination and hard work. But if I was going to sum it up in one word - success in building a vendor relationship requires one thing - COMMITMENT. From both sides - moment by moment and day by day. It is not always going to be pleasant or fun. It will be frustrating. But as partners we need to make wise choices on who we will go to market with, select a handful of go to market partners, and then make a deep commitment to get connected and stay committed to them. We can't move with every change in the wind. We have to be honest when we are frustrated and work with them to resolve it. We also need to be grateful when things are good and thankful when their products and programs have a positive impact. I hear a lot more whining than I do gratitude from the partner community. It is like vendors "owe us" or something. They don't owe us any more than we owe our customers. Certainly we don't like to think of that relationship that way. I treat my vendors like a customer, as that is what they truly are. We are blessed to have deep relationships with our key vendors - Microsoft, HP, Sonicwall, Ingram and a few others. Building those has taken many years and a lot of work, and the process never ends. People change and it is a continual process of going deeper and wider in each of those companies. But it is well worth it. We are blessed to have great vendor partners. It is a win win for both of us. It can happen. But it starts with a commitment and then rolling up your sleeves and getting to work.

Hello from Raleigh

This morning we begin our HTG3 meeting hosted by Worksmart in Raleigh. This is our first meeting of 2008 for the group, and I am excited to see what the planning looks like for 2008. Their business plans are due today, and this begins the accountability for the year ahead. Is your plan done? Have you put it on paper? We need to have things documented and more importantly shared with others that will hold us accountable and inspect what we do. We perform better when someone inspects us. It is a true fact. Who is your inspection parter? Who holds you accountable? Without that you are likely to grow much more slowly and be much more of a lifestyle than growth partner. Do you want to grow? Find someone who will hold you accountable to goals for your business, your leadership and your life.

Join A Call Today

This morning - February 20 at 9 PST - Karl Palachuk will be hosting a call around SMB Summit. Mike Iem, conference director, and myself will be on the call to talk about the great things that will be happening at the conference. Here are the details:

DIAL-IN NUMBER : 319-279-1000

ATTENDEE PIN 1024518

You don't want to miss this call. It is limited to the first 300 callers so call in early to get your spot. There is much news about the agenda, which is very packed with great content, mostly partner delivered. This covers business, sales and technical tracks. There are also two full days around the newly announced (officially) products from the Windows Server Solutions Family - SBS2008 and EBS2008. This is a conference you don't want to miss. Get the early scoop on this call today!

My new Garmin Gadget

Nancy got me a Garmin 550 for my birthday and today we are in North Carolina testing it out. My early analysis is that it gets us in the area, but twice when we got down to the last 500 ft it had us going the wrong way. Not sure why that happens. The location was on the other side of the street or a bit different location than the directions gave us. The lady kept saying it was right there as we drove by but it wasn't there at all. We quickly learned to look around that spot and it was in the immediate area but certainly not where it told us. So it was close but no cigar on the exact location.

Later today we were on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the little Garmin got totally confused. It was trying to send us the wrong way and wanted us to go in circles. We would have never made it out of there if we didn't have our trusty map with us. We had decided to stop earlier today to pick up the old fashioned map since I wasn't sure if my wireless air card would get signal up in the mountains (which it didn't) so it was very good we got a printed map to have along for the ride. We finally found our way off the parkway and then the Garmin insisted on taking us on some state roads rather than the four lane highway and Interstate roads we decided were our route of choice. I think there is probably some fine tuning I need to do on the settings. Overall I am pretty pleased with the unit. It has certainly been a better director than I am when reading the map. Nancy was always frustrated with my slowness to give directions ahead of the time she needs to turn or my total lack of giving any directions at all. We still aren't ready to throw away the map but it is a very nice addition to our travels and something we will carry with us as we explore this great nation. We were able to use it today to find a couple of cemetaries where Nancy's relatives were buried in combination with the power of the web. Takes a bunch of electronics to go on vacation anymore - cell, GPS, PDA, pc with search. The rental car we have has two cig lighter plugs fortunately so we can keep them all charged up. But without the technology we may have been wandering for a while. We never would have found the county historical society or those two cemetaries without the tools. It takes a village of electronics for us to travel now!

Have you heard of InkSeine?

Here is information about a new prototype for tablet pc's that has been made available for testing. InkSeine is being developed by a small team at Microsoft Research. The application is for demonstration purposes only, and not on track to become a real Microsoft product you can buy.

Here's what InkSeine can do:
• Serve as a virtual pad of paper. You can scribble and writes notes, draw pictures and doodle. Words can be recognized, and used as commands or search terms.
• Search. You can search the Web, your e-mail or your Tablet PC right from the "pad of paper" using pen gestures. For example, just write your search term longhand, circle it, flick your wrist in the right direction and the search is launched.
• Select and embed "clippings" -- images, document or Web page parts, etc.
• Drag and drop links into notes.
• Create insta-icons (with automatic, in-page links) by just snapping a picture of any portion of any screen, including the document or Web page you're linking to.

InkSeine has user interface innovations, such as "radial menus" and pen gestures that make it one of those applications you have to see to understand, so check out a video on it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=bWi6vtSK7N4. If you have a Tablet PC or other pen system running either XP or Vista (preferably Vista), you should download it at http://research.microsoft.com/InkSeine/install.html

Leading Change

I finally got time to read one of those great books that sometimes gets bought and sits on the shelf a while. John Kotter's book called "Leading Change" is one I have had a few years but never got it along on the plane to read. I did on my recent trip and managed to finish the entire book over a couple days. It was a read well worth it.

I believe that managing change is the biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity we have ahead of us. Change happens. We can deny it, try to ignore it, run from it - handle it any way you wish - but the train has left the station and change will happen. My opinion is that to really succeed we have to learn how to handle change. It starts in our own minds and our attitude toward it. Are you a change embracer or do you resist at every corner? It flows to our employees and families - they follow based on how we lead. But inevitably the real opportunity is for us to help our customers adapt to change. We are change agents as we serve our clients. We bring change constantly into their lives. We have to help them feel good about that change and adapt to it. That is our job. How well we do it will determine much of our success.

Kotter gives us great examples and methods to help lead change. At the core of the book, is a eight-step process:

Establishing a sense of urgency
Creating the guiding coalition
Developing a vision and strategy
Communicating the change vision
Empowering broad-based action
Generating short-term wins
Consolidating gains and producing more change
Anchoring new approaches in the culture

The opportunity is here today. We need to become leaders of change. We need to start with ourselves and then lead those in our circle to embrace change and make it part of their daily lifestyle. Change happens. What are you doing to help lead people there.

The Go-Giver

I read a book that had been shared with me on my flight to Pittsburg this week. It is called "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It really has impacted my thinking. This is a business parable book but it really captures so much of my heart. The most prevalent question I am asked over and over is "why do you do it - spend so much time helping other peers in the industry. Doesn't it cost you and your company a lot"? This book really says exactly what I struggle to explain when that question comes up. Life and success is not about getting, it is about giving.

The story centers around ambitious young Joe, who is spinning his wheels professionally despite his hard-charging attitude and generally likable personality. In keeping with his bold spirit, he decides he's going to meet a powerful local businessman, Pindar, and convince The Chairman (as he's known) to help Joe land a big account. To Joe's surprise, Pindar is easy to get a meeting with. However, Pindar's goals for Joe are not necessarily the same as Joe's goals for Joe, and thus this unlikely parable unfolds with Pindar taking Joe under his wing and teaching him a series of success lessons.

Each lesson involves Joe meeting a new, successful person and learning what led to their successes. Each meeting teaches Joe one of the Five Laws of Stratospheric Success.

The Law of Value
The Law of Compensation
The Law of Influence
The Law of Authenticity
The Law of Receptivity

After learning each Law, Joe agrees to try to put it into practice before the next meeting with Pindar, where another Law will be unveiled. And not only does he have to put it to work, it has to happen that same day. Five lessons in five days. Of course each works just as you would expect from a law. While this is a parable, I find these truths to be foundational in my life and quite honestly can verify they work. Most of us know these truths - the breakdown comes in actually doing something with them TODAY. We think about it, plan for it, but never quite get around to doing them. That is the key to success - knowing what to do and actually doing it - over and over - day after day - moment by moment. This is a book worth reading. I encourage you to spend the money and the couple hours it takes to read it cover to cover - in one sitting - but most of all I encourage you to be a Go-Giver and put it to work IMMEDIATELY. The world is run by people who show up. The world will be changed by those who understand these principles and put them in practice day after day. Go do it TODAY!

Airline Coupons

I am in Pittsburg with Zenith today for a preview of some very cool new technologies that are coming in the future. But what I want to write about this morning is my frustration about working with airlines. I went to the airport early yesterday to try and redeem a couple of 2-1 coupons that were provided as part of using airline credit cards. Some of you undoubtedly know what I mean. I went to the Delta counter and was told to call the promotions desk and try to find a flight that would meet the red tape of the coupon. She wasn't very encouraging and appologized before I made the call for the difficulty I would have. She was right. I never did find a flight that would work. So I decided to try it with US Air where I had the second coupon. Went to the counter and was told the same thing - please go sit down and call the number to try and find a reservation that would meet the requirements. I actually was able to find a flight to Calgary that would work and since Stuart has scheduled a SWOT for IT Matters I was able to book the flight and use the coupon. It took forever and had to be done at the airport since I had to go there to ticket it. Of course, they won't allow booking online like all the other things they sell me. What a pain. Obviously their strategy is to advertise a great deal about a free second ticket, which isn't free anyway as they assess all kinds of fees, but the real struggle is the fine print and difficulty in actually using the darn coupon. C'mon airlines - this is crazy. If you are trying to reward customers for being loyal then treat us as such. Seems like a very bad customer service move to irritate your best customers with fine print and stupid rules. Just my view but certainly did not make any warm fuzzy feelings for me. How about you?

Response Point Opportunity

The Microsoft Response Point team is looking for VARs to participate on their 2008 VAR Council.

Members of this Council will have the opportunity to meet quarterly (via voice or in person) with the Microsoft Response Point team. They’ll try to use only an hour or so a quarter of your valuable time.

The Response Point Marketing and Development organizations will be using the Council, through mutual communication with you, to better understand how they can create better solutions; improve Microsoft and Partner marketing effectiveness; identify and improve go-to-market inefficiencies, and hear of your successes and challenges.

They do understand they are brand new to the market. They do though want to learn from you and your peers as we build up our joint Response Point experiences.

If you are interested, drop me a line.

The power of team

We finished our retreat this afternoon and sent the team back to their offices with lots of good information and training and hopefully with a new outlook on life. Last night we spent the evening having fun together. We had our annual awards ceremony and presented about 2o different awards to the folks who have made it happen during the last year. Then we bowled together. That is always a lot of fun. A time to let down our hair and enjoy each other's company. You get to see a different side of people when they are in a non work environment having fun. Today we had our review of 2008, a bit more planning and training and then heard some words from Ingram who reviewed their report card of HTS for the past year. Of course they gave us a 20% growth goal to chase, but that happened in 2007 and we blew past that so we should be able to do it again this year.

We closed the day reviewing our big bets for 2008. Have you identified the technology or areas you are betting your company on this year? Have you determined how you are going to achieve growth. Part of it is really aligning with key vendor partners. Part of it is having a gut feel for what technologies are going to be hot and going after them. Sometimes we miss, but more often than not we have been right. We ended the day with my 30 minute discussion of the future and how I see our business over the next 5 years. In a couple words it is growth and change. They go together but are not directly coupled. We have to continue to grow to survive. We cannot stay stagnant in this industry and survive. We will be reinventing ourselves again and again. But along with that we have to embrace change. The technology business is going to undergo some very extreme changes in the next few years. We have to adapt and embrace those things.

All in all it was a fantastic event and the team had a good time and left charged up and ready for a great year together. We grew 32% last year in revenue. Will we do it again? I don't know but we are going after it and will give it our best effort. The HTS team is ready to make IT happen!

Investing in Team

Today and tommorrow the HTS team which I lead is at an offsite in Kansas City. We hold an annual all hands retreat each year to bring together our entire team and get people connected and on the same page. We started this back in the late 90's and have been holding a time away and together for 10 years now. It is one of the best investments we make in building team and positioning us for growth.

During our two day event we focus on a number of training objectives. This year we have training being presented by our key vendors - HP, Microsoft, Sonicwall and 3Com. Our distribution partner will be with us as well - Ingram Micro. We will be learning about their key technologies for 2008 and positioning our team as the go to partners with these partners. This year we are taking a page out of the HP playbook by doing a lot of our sales and technical training in one large room with our sales people sitting with the engineering staff that supports them. This is something we learned from sending a couple of our staff to the HP technology summit in Houston last year that has paid big dividends for us. It will allow these small teams of a sales person and the appropriate engineer to talk about specific customers who can benefit from the solutions being presented as we go through the day. Our objective is to leave Saturday afternoon with a list of target clients that we can go present these solution ideas to and hit the ground running.

Of course one of the main purposes of the event is to have fun together. Tonight we have our opening celebration. This years theme is based around the concept of an orchestra and each of our 8 locations will be presenting a song - yes singing or lip syncing - to the group that describes their office. Last year we did an olympic theme and again had each office do a skit along those lines. It gets pretty creative and crazy but there are lots of laughs and pokes at the boss so I just hold on and see what happens. We are blessed to have a great part of our management team in Jane Cage who is awesome at driving this event each year. She is focused on having every detail in place and making sure each person gets the most value possible being at the event.

So what does it cost? A lot. We pull 80 plus people from the field plus feed and house them off site at a hotel in KC. I am typing this blog post from my room there now as we came in a day early as a management team to prepare and make sure we are ready to get the maximum return from our time together. So if we measure the cost in dollars out, we are only looking at one side of the equation. That is what a lot of us do as partners. But when we consider the impact of training, team building, relationships, vendor interaction, distribution interaction and just overall letting our hair down for some fun - it far outweighs the cost. I encourage you to make and take time to build your team. Having a staff that is connected and together on the same page is a key to success and growing your business. You can't get there alone. All of us are smarter than any one of us. It is about us.....not me.

Dealing with Loss

One of our peer group veterans, Jeff Penland from CNS in St Joseph, Missouri, lost a son this past weekend. As I write this post I am in the car (not driving thanks to my lovely bride) heading south to be in town for the funeral tomorrow morning. Often we think of peer groups as a place to go to get business information and ideas. This week I have been blessed to experience another very important aspect of peer power - sharing a heavy burden and lifting one another up in difficult times. Jeff's 24 year old son will be buried tomorrow. It doesn't get much tougher than that. But over the last few days I have been blessed to read emails, hear of phone calls and witness the power of peers as they care for a brother in pain.

Often we live in isolation and don't have anywhere to turn when things get tough. But one of the real values of a peer group is that a band of brothers begin to develop a deep relationship that is about far more than business. People connect at a level that is not experienced by many. It is a dynamic of a peer group that I think has more power than any other. People begin to become involved in each others lives at a level that is deep and intimate - and there is a common concern for the well being of each one in the group. It shows the power when one in the group stumbles under the weight of life, and the rest can reach down and pick them up and restore them to life. Oh how difficult it is for those who have to deal with everything alone. So many crumble under the pressures of life and business.

Find some peers you can share life with. Business is important, but it is not the end game. Living life with a group of people who share a common bond is the most powerful resource we can have on this earth. Community is so critical to our success. Find it. Don't give up until you do. It will be the best investment you have ever made.

New SBS Resources on the Microsoft Partner Site

There is a new place to get all kinds of information about SBS. It can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/40046800?msp_id=sbsmyths and features stories on Phil Kenealy, Stuart Crawford and Aaron Booker who are all members of the HTG peer groups. There are links to a number of great resources including the SBS Test Drive - an online way to let customers or parnters take SBS for a drive without having to install it locally first. There are training guides for sales, technical and getting started with your SBS practice. Resources are there to help you make the right choices as well in your server platform. So check it out. A lot of great resources available to help you grow your business around SBS.

Have you used Microsoft's Tele-PTS Support

If you haven’t used the Tele-PTS service in the past it can be helpful when your pre-sales teams are working to track down product information & positioning, competitive documents - here are the details. It is a FREE service!

Imagine having an resource in house who…
•…had 200-300 level expertise on almost every current Microsoft product and good friends at the 400 level
•…could articulate the business value of the products
•…knew how to position Microsoft products against the competition
•…could demonstrate products to your customers
•…could help your team with readiness on unreleased products
•…could teach your staff how to use the Demo Showcase and the Technical Demonstration Toolkit
•…had a file drawer of white papers, case studies, competitive battlecards, and customer-ready decks
•…worked 12 hours a day, without breaks or lunch
•…and worked for FREE!

•Microsoft Telephone-based Partner Technology Specialists (TPTS) provide FREE and unlimited presales support to Certified and Gold Certified Partners for all Microsoft products as a benefit of the Microsoft Partner Program.
–NEW! Free support for Registered partners with deals over $5000
•Competitive Sales Assistance: We’ll help you overcome customer objections and positively position Microsoft technologies against the competition by providing white papers, discussion guides, case studies, customer-ready presentations, IT competitive comparisons, and business incentive funds.
•Technical Sales Support: Accelerate your close rate with assistance with configurations, reliability, feature capabilities, readiness, product demonstrations, scalability, interoperability, and migration.
•Business Value, Licensing, and Pricing: Assistance with comparison proof points, TCO, ROI, cost/value, performance, and licensing.

•How do I contact TPTS?
–Send mail to askpts@microsoft.com
–Call 1-800-426-9400 between 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM PST
•Select option 1
–Enter extension 82972 for Microsoft Dynamics
–Enter extension 82973 for all other Microsoft products
–Have your Microsoft Partner Program ID ready
–For issues or questions with TPTS service, send mail to partresp@microsoft.com

Free Booklet Download

Last spring and early summer I was honored to get to write a booklet with a couple of great guys from across the water - Andy Trish (NCI) from Great Britain who spearheaded the project, and Dean Calvert (Calvert Technologies) from Australia. We created a booklet to help partners grow their SBS business - a collection of ideas if you will. It was printed and released at the Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver but is also available for download.

This electronic booklet is available for Microsoft Partners to download, provides advice about how you can leverage Windows Small Business Server (SBS) to showcase your small-business expertise, maximize revenue-generating opportunities, and build solid customer relationships. In here, they discuss everything from starting your business and securing financing to working with Microsoft, training, and successfully selling SBS.

While this resource has been available for a little while, it’s one that I wanted to call out for anyone who was not aware of it. Why? For those of you who know Dean, and Andy, you know that the information they share in this resource for you is going to be very insightful, actionable, and well worth any amount of time it takes to read through. A few of my thoughts are worth considering too. Thanks again to the two of those guys for letting me be part of this team.

Download your copy at https://partner.microsoft.com/40045545