Ultimate Guide to Partnering®

Quisitive Chairman and CEO Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® If you’re focused on forging successful partnerships with industry leaders like Microsoft and are seeking actionable strategies to scale your business in FY24, then you’re in the right place. Welcome to “The Ultimate Guide to Partnering,” a podcast where host Vince Menzione, a seasoned partner sales executive, provides strategic insights to drive your business success. Today’s episode features an in-depth conversation with Mike Reinhardt, Chairman and CEO of Quisitive, a publicly-traded, multi-year award-winning Microsoft partner. Recorded just a day after the Microsoft Inspire conference, this episode offers an exclusive look into the best practices and strategies for sustaining a successful partnership in the rapidly evolving Microsoft ecosystem. Your journey towards achieving exceptional business results through strategic partnerships starts here. What to Expect A rare opportunity to gain insights from a seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience in fostering highly successful partnerships within the Microsoft ecosystem. As Chairman and CEO of Quisitive, a publicly-traded, award-winning Microsoft partner, Mike brings a wealth of knowledge in areas such as business strategy, operational excellence, and financial management. His expertise is not just theoretical; it’s built on decades of practical experience, leading to multiple industry awards and a robust, profitable business. Beyond his credentials, Mike has a track record of being at the forefront of innovative solutions, speaking at industry-leading events and contributing to the discourse that shapes the future of tech partnerships. He offers not just a macro-level view of the trends and shifts in the technology landscape, but also a micro-level understanding of actionable strategies that can directly impact your business’s bottom line. If you’re interested in scaling your business, optimizing your partnership strategies, or gaining a deeper understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem, Mike’s insights are invaluable. Whether you’re a startup looking for direction or an established firm aiming to pivot or scale, hearing from Mike offers a unique blend of strategic vision and practical advice. So if you’re serious about achieving exceptional business results through strategic partnerships, then this is a conversation you can’t afford to miss. Why Listen? Mike Reinhardt brings a quarter-century of hands-on experience building award-winning partnerships within the Microsoft ecosystem, offering invaluable insights into business strategy, operational excellence, and financial management. Industry Leadership and Innovation: As Chairman and CEO of a publicly traded, award-winning Microsoft partner, Mike is a recognized leader in the field. He has been a key player in shaping the future of tech partnerships, speaking at industry events and contributing to important industry discussions. Actionable Business Strategies: Mike offers a unique blend of macro-level industry trends and micro-level actionable strategies that can directly impact your business’s growth and profitability, making his insights essential for businesses at all stages of development. In Quisitive’s Words Mike Reinhardt serves as the Chairman and CEO of Acquisitive, a publicly-traded, award-winning partner in the Microsoft ecosystem. With more than 25 years of experience leading partner organizations focused on Microsoft, Mike has been instrumental in driving Acquisitive’s growth and positioning the company as a marquee sponsor of industry-leading events like “Winning with Ecosystems.” An industry veteran, Mike’s extensive experience spans various facets of business strategy, including partnership development, operational excellence, and financial management. A regular speaker at tech conferences, Mike offers unparalleled insights into the world of tech partnerships, having recently participated in the Microsoft Inspire conference. His leadership has been instrumental in steering Acquisitive to numerous accolades, further solidifying its reputation as a leading Microsoft partner. With Mike at the helm, Acquisitive continues to set new benchmarks in innovative solutions, fostering a culture of excellence and collaboration. What You’ll Learn Business Growth Through Microsoft Partnerships: 0:00 Mike Reinhardt, CEO of Quisitive, delves into the components of their award-winning partnership with Microsoft, focusing on how it has fueled business growth. Leveraging AI and Marketplaces with Microsoft: 2:11 An industry expert discusses the historical context of their successful partnership with Microsoft, emphasizing the team’s strategies that align with Microsoft’s recent announcements about marketplaces and AI. The segment touches on the necessity for partners to re-think offer assembly across channels, aiming to drive AI adoption and engage customers in innovative ways. Strategic Acquisitions and Partnership with Microsoft: 8:09 The discussion shifts to Microsoft’s strategy to boost industry penetration via bundled offerings. Quisitive’s role as a key partner is emphasized, notably in winning the “Partner of the Year” award for healthcare business transformation. Preparing for AI Integration and Future Partnerships: 12:10 Partners are urged to deliver maximum customer value by aligning closely with Microsoft’s capabilities. The importance of focus and prioritization is underscored to avoid diluting brand value and customer dissatisfaction. Upcoming Trends and Changes: Closing Remarks This episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering is sponsored by QUISITIVE. Unveiling Ultimate Partner LIVE—Dallas, TX, Nov 13-15, 2023 Ready to decode Microsoft’s recent game-changing investments in #Marketplace, #SMC, and #GenerativeAI? Are you looking for actionable insights and a success roadmap? Are you looking to network and have bi-directional engagement with Microsoft Executives, SMC sellers, GPS and Marketplace Leaders, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partners? Your solution has arrived: Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit. Announcing Ultimate Partner LIVE – Dallas TX – November 13-15 2023 Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit I’m beyond excited to launch our first LIVE event. Consider this the “double-click” from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference to provide the prescriptive guidance and executive engagement to align, leverage, and scale your Microsoft Partnership. This is a one-of-a-kind, unique event that will help you crack the code. Ultimate Partner LIVE| Americas 2023  Why Attend? 🎯 Are you geared up to exploit the $50B Marketplace opportunity? Do you have a Marketplace Transactable Offer, not just built but with effective marketing and sell-through support? 💼 Have you designed an impactful co-selling plan for Small, Medium, and Corporate Accounts – SMC? Are you even sure where to start? 🤖 And let’s not overlook the game-changing potential of Generative AI, especially with innovations like Co-Pilot. Join Us in Dallas – November 13th to 15th Graciously hosted by Microsoft at the Las Colinas Campus, this event is designed with mainstage keynotes, breakout sessions, and individual boardroom sessions. The event will begin with registration and a social at 4 PM on November 13th, hosted by SMC Leadership. On November 14th and 15th you’ll experience: Deep-dive sessions that build on insights from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference. A unique assembly of 300+ participants, including Microsoft executives from GPS, SMC, and Marketplace. A confluence of industry experts offering prescriptive guidance through real-world experiences, frameworks, and best practices. Interactive Experience: Bidirectional keynotes Hands-on workshops Breakout and boardroom sessions Networking: Connect with Microsoft Executives, SMC Leaders, GPS, and Marketplace Experts. Meet some of the SMC Field Organization looking to engage with partners. Engage with award-winning partners: ISVs, SIs, LSPs, and CSPs. Walk away from these two days ready to implement your 2024 partner plan! How do I sign up? Limited Early Bird Pricing is now available. You can secure your seat today for what promises to be a transformative experience. https://cvent.me/8DN9bP?RefId=Company+Website I look forward to hosting you and seeing you in Dallas, TX, November 13-15! Vince Menzione Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. A Word from AG1 Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS microsoft, partner, customers, capabilities, business, mike, today, industry, ag, offerings, solutions, services, marketplace, ai, ip, teams, healthcare, platform, microsoft ecosystem, focus SPEAKERS Announcer, Mike Reinhart, Vince Menzione Vince Menzione  00:00 Do you want to hear from a partner with over 25 years experience building and shaping award winning partnerships with Microsoft? Do you want to learn his secrets to success as you shape your own strategy to grow your business practice? And do you aspire for incredible business growth in fiscal year 24, then you’ve come to the right place. Announcer  00:21 This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast, Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host, Vince Menzione. Vince Menzione  00:41 Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host, and today I will. Mike Reinhardt is the Chairman and CEO of acquisitive, a publicly traded multi year award winning Microsoft partner and a marquee sponsor of the winning with ecosystems event. And Mike joined us the day after the Microsoft inspire conference, as I had the unique privilege to be joined by many leaders in the Microsoft ecosystem that day, including Mike, with over 25 years experience leading partner organizations focused on Microsoft. I hope you learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming back, Mike Reinhart. I’m here with Mike Reinhart, the Chairman and CEO of inquisitive, a multi year award winning Microsoft partner, and a marquee sponsor of this event. So great to see you again, Mike. Mike Reinhart  01:39 Thanks. Great to be here events. 01:42 First off, I want to thank you for your partnership and sponsorship of this first live digital event. You live in a lead and amazing organization and your leaders at some of the finest in our industry. And this event is designed to help partners harness the power of working with Microsoft during these tectonic shifts we’ve all been seen to effectively grow their business. And frankly, I couldn’t think of a better person to spend time with today discussing success as an award winning partner. Mike Reinhart  02:11 Well, I appreciate that we were really pleased to you know, really, I have a long running history with Microsoft, I know every year you when you sign up for inspire, they ask you have you been here 10 years, 20 years, whatever. And I say, just give me the box. It says since it started with Fusion back in 1996, I’ve been there. So I’ve seen that history. And we’ve been very successful in that journey with Microsoft and how we you know, first and foremost, it’s all about the team, you’ve talked about the great team that I have around me, that’s what my secret to success is, is all centered around assembling diverse perspectives and people who know and understand what our customers are looking for. But also known understand what partnering with Microsoft means. And then understanding how you have to be adaptable and evolve with them, and know when and where you’re best positioned to bring value. And that’s been kind of our focus through all the different technology innovation changes that have occurred. And the timeframe I’ve been doing this. And we’re probably gonna talk a lot today about this latest sort of trend and shift that I think is gonna be fundamental in partnering with Microsoft around AI and some of the things we’re doing with marketplaces and things like that. 03:18 Yeah. And you and I had a longer dialogue on our podcast. And I encourage people watching today to go back and listen to that. We’re going to certainly provide links to that in today’s event. So a big few days here, right? The last couple of days, Microsoft made some big announcements, Satya and Nicole’s announcements around marketplaces and AI, you know, really, really critical to future growth. It’s I call this the tectonic shifts, we’re all seeing how do these priorities align to you and your business, Mike? Yeah, Mike Reinhart  03:49 so the marketplace has obviously been something Microsoft has really been investing in for several years, and we’ve been an active participant in that space, we’ve got nearly 100 different apps and solution offerings in the marketplace today. And again, it goes back to this whole idea about I talked about big IP and little IP in our model, the big IP are the major offerings that we’re bringing to market around our patient care management platform, and healthcare revenue cycle management and some of those kinds of things. We’re also doing all kinds of micro IP that are embedded as part of offerings. In a partner to partner model, we’re doing some unique things with board and there are financial planning and analytics tied into Business Central. So you see us doing those kinds of things. And again, Microsoft sees how that’s an important value point for customers, to again, get them to solving their business problems more quickly. consuming those services through the Marketplace experience, obviously, all bundled back and tied into the Microsoft platforms. But that process is a really critical one for customers or for partners to think about in serving their customers in two lenses. One is about how do you get your marketplace capabilities, whether it’s IP solutions, marketing programs, whatever embedded into that, to have visibility to interact with both Microsoft teams as well as customers. But the second is that PDP scenario looking for ways that you might be able to assemble offers together across the partner channel, that again, are going to allow you to engage with customers in a new way, and help accelerate that, as you think about AI is going to be a fundamental shift in how services are performed, as well as how we’re using that technology with our customers. And we think about it as an embedded process in everything we do. I believe it’ll be a fundamental change in how services are performed, how development services shift from an hourly based construct into performance units in a different way, as you think about paired programming, leveraging GitHub, co pilot and other kinds of mechanisms. So it’s going to fundamentally impact everything we do in the coming years. And thinking not only about how you use a I mean, co pilot, all the different offerings that Microsoft is bringing to mark market and how you’re going to be an expert to do that, but also how it’s going to be applied to what you do as a service and solution provider for your customers. And embedding that in the framework of how you provide services, whether it’s development services, consulting services, or how you really interact from a customer service, platform perspective, all those things are going to be key beyond just knowing how to deploy and implement AI technologies with customers. 06:26 So exciting it this time. I mean, we’re just at the precipice we’re at the beginning of this, it’s gonna be so great to have Lane join. For our viewers today, please stay tuned for that spotlight session featuring leaders from Microsoft and lanes origin for inquisitive. I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens, and now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity, and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D. And five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. Check it out. But Mike, I want to spend a little bit more time with you here on solution plays, which were another big area of focus from Microsoft’s announcements and the SMC market. And I know you have a very strong point of view from your work with Gartner. Can you tell us more? Yeah, so Mike Reinhart  08:03 we’ve been spent a lot of time with Gartner talking about what’s the next generation of IT services and solutions. And there’s a construct that they’ve been evolving really centered around product enabled industry services and solutions. And we have really been building our business model around that future sort of mindset where we’re thinking about industries that we have deep relevance in our own IP, again, that is helping accelerate value to customers and healthcare, manufacturing, retail with our payments and capabilities with our pay IQ platform and others, bringing all those together supported by and built on the fabric of the Microsoft Cloud across all three of the pillars that we discussed earlier. But then in addition to that, still, having that sophisticated systems integration capabilities that we know has to happen when you deploy these offerings into a customer’s environment. It has to coexist, both within their four walls and all the technical environment and business process environment that they have. But as well as in their partner or supply chain and other kinds of things as you start to extend outside that. So it’s really that bundling that we see. And as you think about the SMC landscape, and the ability to bring that kind of bundled offering around these products, enabled services and solutions. Again, it is what will help Microsoft really accelerate their penetration into those markets as they’re increasingly deriving value from industry. But also, again, the value to our customers is that we can get them in their journey and move them more quickly through that process to get to the value that they’re looking to achieve. 09:39 Well, it sounds like acquisitive, is poised to help those clients on that journey. Mike Reinhart  09:42 So we’re excited about it. We’ve seen some really good early wins as we’ve built out these capabilities over the last couple of years, continuing to build that momentum and continuing to invest significantly in enhancing not only the platform and products that we have in that space today, but continuing To invest in new industries and capabilities as we go forward, and we’ll look to acquire those capabilities to complement areas that which is hard. Sometimes you can’t do everything organically because you got to pick and choose where you allocate the capital. And that’s where the m&a strategy for us is critical to go and find some great partners that know and understand particular areas or domains, whether it’s industry or horizontal or functional, and bring that into our ecosystem to again, have more arrows in the quiver, as I describe it as we go to a customer to be able to solve a broader set of their problems and opportunities. 10:34 Speaking of those solving for those opportunities, congratulations on another successful year, and another Partner of the Year award. In fact, this time for healthcare business transformation, Mike, I thought maybe you’d spend a few moments with us there on what this award meant, and what you’re solving for. Yeah, Mike Reinhart  10:51 super proud of our teams in the accomplishment, we’ve been awarded a partner of the year for five years running, this is a third year in a row for our healthcare. And as we think about how we’re trying to bring our value to market, again, in this industry context about really building out a depth and breadth of service capabilities for customers, we have some great showcase wins with some of our customer set with Microsoft, both it optim as well as Arthur health and others that really are leveraging the power of this product enabled services and solutions. And it’s really exciting for our teams to be recognized for the great work they’ve done and acknowledgement that Microsoft is feeling and seeing the impact that we’re having with them to not only create value and revenue for Microsoft, but more importantly back to the customer lens, how we’re together, having an impact of those customers and helping really optimize their business through the technology. So excited about that we actually won two awards this year, not only the health care, but also solution assessment. And again, our teams are really focused on how we engage with Microsoft to drive the shared partnership value that we need to do. And then again, together serve our mutual customers to to achieve their outcomes. 12:02 Exciting times, Mike, and over 1000 employees. Now I think that’s up about 150. From our last conversation earlier this Mike Reinhart  12:09 year. Yeah, continue to grow, obviously moving and shifting. And that’s one of the things that all of us is partners, as we have these changes with AI and others, we got to be, you know, focusing on readiness for our teams to really align skill sets to how we’re going to be serving customers, how we’re going to be integrating these new capabilities from Microsoft. So encourage all the partners to really be having an ongoing process to think about how do you prepare your organization for this next generation, and be ready with your capabilities, but also with your people, you have to really focus? We’re spending a lot of time internally here acquisitive, around, how do we do readiness to enable AI into everything that we do. And it’s a process that’s going to take a long time. But we’ve started that journey and investing back into that process to make sure that we’re ready to serve customers and partner with Microsoft in the new way that I believe they’re going to really start to amplify beginning here in fiscal 24. 13:08 Well, you brought up some really good points, we have two workshops following this session on helping partners achieve and take advantage of this massive opportunity. But any closing words of advice for those partners that are watching us today? Mike Reinhart  13:20 Yeah, I think you know, depending upon where you are in your spectrum, obviously we’ve had a significant growth cycle and so are capable of taking on more things even even in that we gotta be careful about taking on too much. But really identify and prioritize what is it that you think is your best value to your customer first? And then where how do you align that best within the Microsoft ecosystem and capabilities and become excellent at doing that, and will showcase and build on that. And then take and build and grow that as you go forward. And again, it’s hard sometimes to you know, really know and understand how to best and most effectively do that. But prioritization is the key, you get in trouble. When you try to do too many things across too many fronts, you start to have brand value issues with Microsoft, as well as customer so stay focused and really prioritize the things that you think you can have the biggest impact on 14:11 yeah, really great point. I know we’re going to talk about that in one of the workshops, but specifically being that shiny quarter and a bucket full of shiny quarters showing up as the one that one partner that can do this one thing better than anyone else. I think that’s a great. Yeah, Mike, I want to thank you again for spending time with us today. Appreciate the Mike Reinhart  14:28 opportunity events. It’s always fun to have the conversation and continue to talk about where we’re headed. And again, there’s gonna be some, I think, fundamental changes in how Microsoft partners with all of us and I’ve been doing this a long time and excited about what this next journey will look like and looking forward to future discussions about how it’s unfolding and what what is happening in the marketplace. That’s creating value for both Microsoft and our customers. 14:54 So excited to have you here today. Thanks again. Thank you if you’re a partner are working with Microsoft. I hope you learn from this discussion as much as I did. And chances are, you want to learn even more, which is why I’m hosting my first live event in Dallas, Texas, November 13. Through the 15th. Come to our website, Ultimate Guide to partnering.com or the ultimate partner.com. And learn more. I hope to see you in Dallas, November 13 through the 15th. Announcer  15:28 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partnering. We’ll catch you next time on The ultimate guide to partnering

Quisitive EVP, Lane Sorgen Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® In the wake of Microsoft’s Inspire announcements on generative AI and co-pilot, the opportunity landscape for partners is evolving rapidly. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned veteran in Microsoft’s ecosystem, this episode is a must-listen. We’re joined by Lane Sorgen, Executive Vice President at Quisitive and former Microsoft leader, who will discuss leveraging Generative AI in Business Applications. With the industry undergoing tectonic shifts, Lane will share key strategies for partners to navigate and capitalize on these changes. This episode aims to equip you with actionable insights to optimize your partnership ROI. What to Expect Lane Sorgen, who leads Quisitive’s Business Applications practice, shares how this multi-year, award-winning Microsoft partner is leveraging Generative AI to unleash business results with its customers. We also discuss both partnership and leadership principles that have been core to Lane’s career success. We talk about real-world and actionable steps for you and your organization’s success in fiscal year 24 and how to thrive as a business leader. Why Listen? If you aim to: Engage effectively with Microsoft’s Partner Program. Build an effective Generative AI Practice. Become an effective business and partner leader. Then this episode is a must-listen. In Lane’s Words Lane Sorgen is the Executive Vice President of Global Business Applications at Quisitive Technology Solutions Inc. He has over 24 years of experience in the IT industry, including 18 years at Microsoft. At Microsoft, he held a variety of leadership roles in sales, marketing, and product development. He has a deep understanding of business applications and how to use technology to solve real-world business problems. Lane is a passionate advocate for generative AI and its potential to revolutionize business applications. He believes that generative AI has the power to automate tasks, improve decision-making, and create new products and services. He is also a strong believer in the importance of partnership and collaboration. He believes that the best way to solve complex business problems is to work together with customers and partners. Lane is a graduate of Delta State University and Christian Brothers University. He is also a member of the Forbes Technology Council. What You’ll Learn Episode Highlights: Generative AI and business applications with Acquisitive EVP.0:00 AI adoption in business and healthcare.5:00 AI in healthcare with a focus on Quizlet’s unique approach.7:35 Partnership challenges and opportunities.14:01 Microsoft and successful strategies.20:03 His career at Microsoft and career development.24:42 Speaking up in meetings and other great advice30:15 Leadership Lessons.35:14 Partnering with AI and customer-centric approach.39:49 This episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering is sponsored by QUISITIVE. Unveiling Ultimate Partner LIVE—Dallas, TX, Nov 13-15, 2023 Ready to decode Microsoft’s recent game-changing investments in #Marketplace, #SMC, and #GenerativeAI? Are you looking for actionable insights and a success roadmap? Are you looking to network and have bi-directional engagement with Microsoft Executives, SMC sellers, GPS and Marketplace Leaders, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partners? Your solution has arrived: Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit. Announcing Ultimate Partner LIVE – Dallas TX – November 13-15 2023 Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit I’m beyond excited to launch our first LIVE event. Consider this the “double-click” from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference to provide the prescriptive guidance and executive engagement to align, leverage, and scale your Microsoft Partnership. This is a one-of-a-kind, unique event that will help you crack the code. Ultimate Partner LIVE| Americas 2023  Why Attend? 🎯 Are you geared up to exploit the $50B Marketplace opportunity? Do you have a Marketplace Transactable Offer, not just built but with effective marketing and sell-through support? 💼 Have you designed an impactful co-selling plan for Small, Medium, and Corporate Accounts – SMC? Are you even sure where to start? 🤖 And let’s not overlook the game-changing potential of Generative AI, especially with innovations like Co-Pilot. Join Us in Dallas – November 13th to 15th Graciously hosted by Microsoft at the Las Colinas Campus, this event is designed with mainstage keynotes, breakout sessions, and individual boardroom sessions. The event will begin with registration and a social at 4 PM on November 13th, hosted by SMC Leadership. On November 14th and 15th you’ll experience: Deep-dive sessions that build on insights from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference. A unique assembly of 300+ participants, including Microsoft executives from GPS, SMC, and Marketplace. A confluence of industry experts offering prescriptive guidance through real-world experiences, frameworks, and best practices. Interactive Experience: Bidirectional keynotes Hands-on workshops Breakout and boardroom sessions Networking: Connect with Microsoft Executives, SMC Leaders, GPS, and Marketplace Experts. Meet some of the SMC Field Organization looking to engage with partners. Engage with award-winning partners: ISVs, SIs, LSPs, and CSPs. Walk away from these two days ready to implement your 2024 partner plan! How do I sign up? Limited Early Bird Pricing is now available. You can secure your seat today for what promises to be a transformative experience. https://cvent.me/8DN9bP?RefId=Company+Website I look forward to hosting you and seeing you in Dallas, TX, November 13-15! Vince Menzione Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. A Word from AG1 Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS microsoft, years, partner, customers, ai, people, healthcare, company, business, speak, partnership, opportunity, leader, decision, partnering, success, share, amazing, love, build SPEAKERS Announcer, Lane Sorgen, Vince Menzione Vince Menzione  00:00 If you’re a partner working with the hyperscalers like Microsoft, then you know this is an incredibly exciting time with Microsoft’s recent inspire announcements around generative AI and co pilot. The opportunities for organizations embracing Microsoft business applications are endless. So whether you’re a partner who’s just getting started with Microsoft business applications, or you’re a seasoned veteran, looking for new ways to grow your business, then this episode of ultimate guide to partnering is for you. This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast, Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host, Vince Menzione. Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host, and today I will. Lane Sorgen is the Executive Vice President and Quisitive, a top Microsoft partner. Lane is also a former Microsoft leader with a wealth of experience in the world of business applications. And he’ll share with us the exciting work that acquisitive is doing to lead the way in generative AI for business applications. We’ll also discuss the massive opportunity that we’ve all been seeing with the tectonic shifts happening in our world and in our industry. As a partner, how can you thrive and survive during this time of rapid change. Lane will share his best practices and principles of success. And he’ll give you the inside scoop on what you need to do to take advantage of the incredible opportunities that lie ahead. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming my friend, Lane sergeant. Lane Sorgen  01:58 Lane. Welcome to the podcast. Hey, man, glad to be here today. I am so excited to welcome you as a guest and ultimate guide to partnering. We had the chance to work together at Microsoft. In fact, I remember sitting side by side with you in a business review once I mean it was like way back probably 15 or no longer years ago. So so great to have you as a guest today. Yeah, same here. Same here. So we’ve had your CEO Mike Reinhart as a guest, an amazing business that acquisitive has and you lead one of the business units. And I was hoping you can help our listeners better understand what you and your business help to solve for customers. Sure, sure. I’d love to actually, I run the Global Business Application business. And so global business application business does is really, it’s all the areas where we’re engaging with customers to help them with what would be business application. So I’m generally working more with the business leaders inside of a company if you want to think about it that way. Now, obviously, that actually entails all of Microsoft Dynamics, so dynamics, fNo, dynamics, Business Central, all that’s in CEE, we do all of that as the general stuff. And then we’ve also we’ve built over the years different sets of software. So we have, for example, one offering, it’s called informatix, employee performance management. And it is very similar to what you and I used to use for the annual review process inside of Microsoft. And so it takes it to that kind of capability to all different sizes of companies. And then in addition to that, we’ve built several industry specific platforms largely on dynamics. And so we’ve, we have quite a big offering in healthcare. Actually, we’ve, we have one partner of the year twice for Microsoft in healthcare. We’re hoping for a hattrick this year. So fingers crossed. We have manufacturing software. And then we have public sector really SLG software that we built. And so all of that is is what is in GBA we have we have business on, I guess in four countries, predominantly in North America, though. And then we have a really large contingent of people. In addition to the US and Canada. We have people in the UK and then we have Pakistan and India group as well. That’s a great business unit. And we’ve had several leaders from the business application side. Monique, a word was a recent podcast. We’ve had Emily, he also on the podcast talking about this amazing time for Microsoft and business applications. And we’re starting to see it now like eight months ago, nine months ago, we weren’t talking about generative AI and now it’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue. And Microsoft has embedded quite a bit of the open AI capabilities with copilot I was hoping to get your read on things here and get your purse Vince Menzione  05:00 perspective, what are you seeing from the customers that you work with? And what are they looking for with respect to AI? Lane Sorgen  05:07 Well, generally speaking, that customers are telling this really the same thing you’d see in the press, which that’s not always the case, obviously. But the feedback is similar in that there’s great, great hope and belief that it’s going to make a profound difference in business and in their business. So they believe that they have some basic ideas about how that might be the case. But it’s not etched in stone yet. And then on the flip side of that same thing here in the press, is, alright, I’ve got to make decisions about how much of this do I put in the hands of, if you will, the machine. And so there’s concern of that. That’s, that’s the general feedback. Now, there is one exception I mentioned, we we spend a lot of our time in industries with business leaders in the industries in, in those cases, that will take healthcare, what we’re finding is, there’s a they already have a long list of areas where they can advance their business and have extraordinary value by the implementation of AI. And so so it’s not a question of trying to figure out how they use it, it’s real, or how they might what solutions they might have. It’s actually now a question of, how do I do it? Who do I partner with? And then the answering of the question about how do I manage it? And I guess the last thing I’d add is when we talk to the those business users and explain the notion of copilot where we’re going to take all these things that AI could do for you, and could just do on your own, but we’re going to put it in a window beside your your physician or whatever, so that they can just make much better decisions much faster. But there’s still a user element, when we explained that, that sort of satisfies that need, and they’re really ready. They’re ready to go. Vince Menzione  07:03 Yeah, I love the notion of co pilot, right. And I saw, I got to see Charles lamonta, who leads the business unit, discuss copilot and actually showed a use case where Microsoft is using using it internally for their own purposes. Healthcare, I want to stay here with healthcare for a moment because it is such an important area of focus, right 90% of global domestic product is healthcare. Right? And it seems like such an an area where we can drive great improvement. Where do you see the growth here? Lane? Yeah, well, Lane Sorgen  07:38 if we’ve been using in our health, I’ll talk healthcare specific applications called Amazing care. In that package, we’ve actually been using cognitive AI and ML, really, for four years in production with customers. And like, I’ll give you an example. One of our customers, they, they they build care plans based on prescriptions. And so they read about 4000 prescriptions a day that they fold into their system, and they’re taking some machine learning, but they’re trying to make sure that they they build the right care plan and care path for with the implementation we have in production right now using cognitive AI, we’re up in the high 60% In terms of accuracy, being able to read the prescription, and put it into the care plan and learn from it without any human intervention whatsoever. And so two months ago, we actually did a pilot, same customer, same implementation with generative AI. And we hit up into the high 80 percents and only took a week. So the thing is, I think in healthcare, it seems to me there’s this, they’re further along and thinking about all the ways that it can help. But it’s really the large language models that allow that, that effort to happen much faster. And so we are right now we’re going back through what we have in AI, and looking for areas where generative AI can actually advance it, not just AI, but there’s a lot of rules based processes in healthcare. And so we’re where we think we’re actually have a unique benefit and market is we focus a lot on niche products. And we think that we’re quite agile. And so it gives us an opportunity to come in and change these rule based models into Gen open AI generative AI. And that’s actually where we’re, we’re focusing so Macy care release in August is going to have our first co pilot just like Microsoft, where where we will actually be helping our customers build out and manage this care plan. And so I think I think that’s where we go, I think it’s going to, I think it’s going to spike a whole new opportunity and health care because a lot of what the systems that run health care, they’re really big 1020 100 million dollar implementations and so the opportunity to be Insert this kind of comment it just for an AI opportunity, I think creates kind of a whole new angle into healthcare. Vince Menzione  10:06 Yeah, it’s it strikes me that this is a tectonic shift. This is a once in a generation, like when the internet when we first got to life, it feels so strong right now. And there’s so much opportunity both from a, I’ll say, opportunity perspective. And then people there, a lot of people are saying we need to put guardrails around it and we could we could probably dive in here. We both know like, or people like Microsoft, people like Brad Smith, who we both got to work underneath we are Microsoft are really helping to drive that enforcement and helping governments understand both the opportunities and the implications of AI. Right, I love I love to see the application copilot being built into your portfolio and you’re a significant player in this business application space. There are others are a lot of smaller organizations there. And so I was wondering for our listeners, both partners and customers, if I’m on an on an elevator ride with you, and I asked you, why should I choose? Quizlet? Why should I partner with you? What would you say to me? Lane Sorgen  11:08 Yeah, okay, I’m gonna answer it. Like, because it’s you, right? If it was a physician, it might be different. But what if I entered you? The reality is decision company, when companies make a decision about what provider or platform they’re going to go to. And really, it’s really about people process and technology, right? I mean, it has been forever. Generally speaking, it will be we believe that if company Gates was people process and technology, we will win a lot. And our history suggests that to be true. But I would tell them that I think the reasoning department with us is a combination, really, I think the three things it’s it is integrity, longevity, and leadership. And they all kind of meld together. So from an integrity point of view, if you look on our website, what we say we can do, we can do it really well, right. And in our engagement sales, we still the same thing. And if we say we’re gonna do something, then then we we do it, the longevity piece is our company is that is the culmination of really five different companies that have come together over time, every one of those companies has been a well respected Microsoft partner for 20 years or more. So we all know, you can’t stay in business as a Microsoft partner in the same industry and segment for 20 years if you’re not doing things, right. So that longevity, I think, is a proof point. And then the last thing, which was actually a big part of my interest in coming to work here was was leadership. So the leadership is very diverse. I mean, there were people that came from all different countries, right, all different socio economic backgrounds, and just even so, so there’s diversity. But really everybody that’s got a leadership role in the company, there was a, they made a conscious deliberate decision, like like I’m saying here, where they choose to come to quiz tip, because all of us in some form or fashion, want to spend our life’s work helping companies achieve great things. And that’s really what Well, that’s not our mission statement that that is actually the common element that you’ll see throughout all beliefs. I think that’s the differentiating point, I’d say, an elevator. Vince Menzione  13:22 So integrity, longevity, and leadership. I love what you have to say here. And I will comment here, I’ve gotten to know several of your leader, I feel like you’ve built this amazing organization under Mike, obviously you and I got to work together. I know several of your other business leaders that have come together to form this amazing organization. And you are, I would say a partner that has gotten a REIT working with Microsoft though, we could probably dive in here on the Microsoft aspects specifically, but I want to this is the ultimate guide to partnering. And I love to share with our listeners like the nuggets of why a partner like acquisitive has gotten it right. So I thought we could dive in here a little bit on partnership. And love to ask you this question. What do you believe makes ln what do you believe makes a great partner whether it’s working with Microsoft or with other partners that you partner with an ecosystem? Lane Sorgen  14:13 Yeah, I think I think the I think the answer to that is there may be best or easiest by an answer to another question. Okay. And I actually use this day in and day out partner with customers partnering partner to partner partnering with Microsoft on specific engagements and it was awhile back and we were working what was supposed to be Microsoft’s what are their first partnership deals with the customer? Okay, and that can be a lot of things. So that’s sort of irrelevant. But as large company in somebody’s ranking very high like the number two person that could not like it was the number two person company came in to provide some guidance to the team trying to craft this partnership and said you Here’s the way I want you and the team to work. I want you to engage in every discussion, every decision by asking yourself, what would we do if we were one company? And I remember thinking, Oh, that’s brilliant and wishing I had thought of it. And, but But nonetheless, I thought that’s right. And we actually did wind up fine forming a partnership with Microsoft in that company. And so since that day, when anytime we’re engaged in a partnership, like trying to when we’re doing planning here at acquisitive, and I’m in the room, we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to partner with Microsoft on open AI. Right? I’m always asking the question either of myself from the group, think about what we do if we were one company, because in doing that, you really shed all of the tension that everybody’s carrying with trying to make sure that your own company’s interests are protected. And you get to an answer, what the thing that was wound up I think even being like, like doubly brilliant about it is, if you can, once you get down to like what we would do as one company, each party has the opportunity now to say a partnership has to be good for everybody. And the way it’s shaped right now, it’s not good for me. So if we want to be in it, then if you want me in it, which took in 15 years since that happened, nobody’s ever said no. If you want me in it, then here are my interests that need a need to that need to be considered. And it’s just hard to get there, right? I mean, everybody respects their company, and they want to do the right thing for the company, and they don’t want to screw up for the company. And so I found that I think that’s the most important thing I would share about partnerships, whether it’s Microsoft or a customer or partner partner, which by the way, I’m a huge fan of, and I think we ended in an industry and an echo system should be doing more of it. But I think that’s the most important thing by just here to kind of net it out. Vince Menzione  16:57 I think what I heard you say here was a shared vision for success, right? We come together to protecting our rice balls is an is a term I’ve heard use over the years for protecting our own interests and coming together. And basically, like, I like the idea of whiteboarding this, like what is what is the shared vision and value that we want to provide to the market? to the customer? Right? How do we want to think about that better together, and really come together as one organization, as you said, right around this partnership and strike out? Like, what are the what do we hope to achieve? And how are we going to achieve it? Right? Lane Sorgen  17:35 Yeah, I will use that in my framing of that message. I’m just gonna adopt it. Vince Menzione  17:43 I think you have it, I think you have it, and you’re doing it every day in the work that you do, from what I hear. When I talked about the tonic shifts we’re seeing and it is striking, right. We have been we’ve been seeing transformation we’ve been seeing challenging times, right. We live through COVID. We’ve had economic headwinds now as well. What challenges do you believe partners face today? Lane Sorgen  18:04 Yeah, well, I think, and we have the opportunity as a partner inside Microsoft, and then it’s a huge ecosystem, but we can use the small world. So we’re connected to lots of partners. So not just looking at it through my eyes are criticized, but lots for the feedback. I think. I think it’s clear that the same challenges to kind of their same challenges today that they’ve had that we’ve had in the past, which is really just run business, how do I sell more? How do I staff? How do I how do I develop people? How do I stay current on technology? How do I get funding if I want to grow? And all of those things are I think still at the heart of how do I how do I manage when the economy goes down? And those things are at the heart of what it is? I think those are the challenges. I don’t think that I mean, my experiences have anything you need to offer on that front. However, there is one area that I think is a unique challenge right now. It’s not the first time it’s had this challenge was first time about 12 years. And that is really the the economy, it slowed. And so this is a big, that’s a big part of what we’re focusing on right now. So the what’s happening in our experiences with hundreds of customers is past 10 years comprehend size, what’s their vision, like? These are the customers we’re trying to target? What’s their vision, and then from that comes a list of the projects that they need to do technology, business apps are whatever that are going to facilitate achieving that vision vision. And then they break it into their departments the way that the general ledger manages that organization and they have a budget. And then that department is assigned to a person or persons assigned to department and then you’ve got the sponsor inside the company. And so for the past 10 years, that person, the beginning of year, I’m kind of simplifying but at the beginning of the year, they’ve got these three projects they got to do and then what they their processes I’ve got but got funding, I just need to go find who I’m going to get to do it, right. And then they got to make sure that they do it. It’s it’s a, it’s a hard, it’s hard task that has to be managed by by the customer all. But the big change is that oh, and when it’s time to do the project, they select it. It’s a rubber stamp in the organization. So so what we’re seeing all over the place is the it’s no longer a rubber stamp. And so the decision goes into rubber stamp, we’ll hear from a customer Hey, you’re selected, like we’re gonna start, I’m gonna get the paper going. Next Monday, we hear back over the cancer, the project’s been paused. And so what advance I know, you and I live in this in similar chairs back in 2008 2009, remember? Yeah, right. So I think the challenge for us as partners is, we actually do this more than the sponsors in the company, right? They’re going to do one or two a year, like it’s a company. That’s a lot of what we’re doing. And so we understand this notion of the bat, the business case, the value proposition. And so the challenge we have is, we’ve got to help that I’m just using the term sponsor that sponsor understand that that budget is not yours, right? That is a placeholder that you can have when it goes up to the committee. And there’s a business case, right. And so your job, which we would love to help you with, is to actually build out the business case. So when you bring it to your company, they can make the right decision, because what we see is their their decisions in companies where they choose not to do a project, because they don’t have the business case, but the business case is there. And so the company is making your decision from wrong, but they’re making the wrong decision because they don’t have the facts with which to make a decision. And I think that’s the biggest challenge we have, as partners in this community and its ecosystem. And frankly, partners, as a collective group with Microsoft to drive business is we got to help make sure that they these people know how to do this, because they’re some of them may not have ever seen it, but a lot of them are definitely not practiced at it, given a booming business over the past 10 years. Yeah, Vince Menzione  22:11 I thought I heard you say too, is like, it’s been easy. The last several years money was cheap for a while. Yep. And everything was forward leaning, like let’s lean in. Absolutely. And we come from a time you and I both were we know the economic headwinds of the Oh 70809 time period, and having to do those cost justifications, right? And helping the client understand the value of the solution, what it will drive to the business and the impact, and how will actually save money time, all those things that come into factoring into really, it’s not costing you anything to do this. There’s a payback over probably the time here Lane Sorgen  22:45 costing you not to do it. In most cases, right? The intuition that form that original budget entry was right. But but you don’t get to approve projects on intuition. Vince Menzione  22:59 Yeah. And we’re leaning in and maybe for some of our listeners that are a little younger, you’re like, you gotta lean in and you got to help the customer understand the value. Right? It’s as easy as then then then it’s been the last several years. Right, right. I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with AEG one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens, and now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity, and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D. And five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. Check it out. So great, great to hear your perspective here coming directly from certain markets that we all care about manufacturing state and local government healthcare in particular. So what isn’t taught, but you believe to be true. You’ve been around Microsoft, you’ve been around inquisitive now for many years. What do you believe to be true to successful partnering? Lane Sorgen  24:42 Well, I think there’s a lot of there’s a lot of training and stuff. I felt like in a way this is a bit of a lame answer. But it’s what comes to mind when I think about partnering and that is there’s an old quote I wish I could remember who said it but it was check your ego at the door. But you know, it’s partnering is really hard because you got what you say you’re the person that’s trying to be part right? That person, you’ve, you’ve got your own concerns, you’ve got your own baggage, whatever, right? Your own beliefs, your own experiences you’ve had, you tried to do this before, and somebody was a bad actor, and you had a bad experience, right? We’re, we’re bringing all of this in. So when I say ego, I’m not talking about an egotistical person, what I’m talking about, is really kind of check those things that cause cause you to be hesitant, cause you to be protective, or pushy, or whatever. So so that we can get to this shared vision, that’s really, that’s a hard thing to do. And I mean, I felt like I’ve been practicing this for 30 years. And I still, even when I’m practicing, and when I think I’m doing it, I’ll realize, Hey, I got to, I got to kind of reset myself, because I’m not really entering this in the disabled. And if you take it, like, I saw this for years, when I was sitting in the Microsoft chair, working with partners, that, that that actually that kind of checking their ego, or whatever coming in, I think sometimes makes it difficult to understand what it is that Microsoft is looking for. I mean, every partner that exists does small into Microsoft. Okay. So when we think about it, like we are the smaller entity, so that generally means we we conform, and we sort of more to Microsoft, that’s an interesting thought, when you think about the notion of checking your ego at the door. And the reality is, it’s just a matter of finding where our interests align with theirs. And the truth is, we as partners have actually the ones are going to have to do this, right, we’re going to have to figure out where we align it. And it’s just a lot easier, check the US door and figure out how they’re how we’re going to make money in this partnership that we personally are Vince Menzione  26:54 for so I love what you have to say around check your ego at the door. I’ve also said and maybe it’s not quite exactly the same, that hubris when hubris enters the room. Yeah, we got it makes it really difficult to partner. And I think we said here too, is like I and I’ve worked with billion dollar independent software vendors as an example, that they have a different perspective, that sort of, there’s maybe a little bit more hubris working with Microsoft should care about us, Microsoft should do this for us, Microsoft should bring us leads of understanding how to work side by side, build that shared vision and value that you talked about. And then aligning for success, which I think sometimes is is an art and a science in itself. Lane Sorgen  27:38 Yeah, I like that. So Vince Menzione  27:41 I love we could talk all day about partnerships I love we were gonna have to get together in person and have a beverage and talk more about this. I’d love to see you again in person. Soon. But you know, I’m also fascinated with the career journey, the work that I did at Microsoft supporting earlier in career professionals. And the work I get to do here with Ultimate Guide to partnering and helping some of those early in career professionals understand how someone like you achieve such great results and success in your career. So I want to ask you, Elaine, I mean, you were you were a senior leader at Microsoft, you’re in a very, very senior role acquisitive, was there a pivot point? Was there an inflection or something that happened along the way that whether was a spark or a mentor that got you to this spark? Or got you to this point in your career? Yeah. Lane Sorgen  28:27 I’ve watched over the years, I’ve watched the videos. So go back and watch some of them. So I need to think about a couple of these sorts of questions. It’s a lot easier to talk about generative AI, because you’re living in everyday some of these thinking about so I was glad to have that. When I’m working with prime professional development in any form, coaching or helping whenever there’s some things that I’m always focused on. And those are, those few areas are typically are those, those pivotal points, we are the sum of our experiences. So at my age, like you’ve had a lot of them. So I’ve tried to think of ones that that I think are still shaping today. So that’s kind of how I was thinking about this question. So there’s, there’s one, one event that I think about every day, it’s part of everything that I do every day. It was pretty early in my Microsoft career, I just accepted a role as a VP in the SMB, SMB business. And because of the timing of accepting that role right behind that was our US subsidiary leader pulled together the VP level people. There’s like 25 people and I went to the meeting, and I felt like I was in a different country speaking a different language. I knew my business no one is doing, I didn’t know how to engage. It was literally I was I was probably more uncomfortable in that it was a three day session in that meeting, and then I’ve ever been in my life, Mister, I gotta, I gotta figure out what this is. I just I’ve never spent the In the time, amongst leaders thinking about leader things, and a big group of people, many of which had had quite a bit had significant years of experience over over mine. So I said, Okay, I gotta get a mentor. And they went to a guy by the name of Mike Hart. And at the time, he was the, essentially the CEO of the US subsidiary. Now I picked him specifically because I was watching the room trying to figure out at read lips, or whatever. And I noticed that when he spoke, he was very succinct. And he was the one person understood. And I looked around, and everybody nodded their head when he would speak. So I asked him to mentor him, mentored me, and I told him what I was experiencing. And I’m, I’m an extroverted shy person, which is kind of a weird thing. So I mean, I’d love to be around people, but speaking sometimes can be very scary for me. Okay. Especially. So I told him about it. And and he said, ln is really simple. He said, there are three times, right, there are three situations where you need to speak, and you always have speak if those three situations happen. And if they don’t happen, then nothing’s don’t speak. Okay. So he said, Vince Menzione  31:08 I want to know what the three with the 330s are. I’m excited. Lane Sorgen  31:12 So he said, he said, first of all, you got to know what is the intent of the event or the meeting, whatever. So read your background nurse, which I hadn’t done, okay? That’s so understand the leader or the group or the mission, what are they trying to achieve? The three times you speak are if somebody in the room is actually speaking and contributing and providing information that is incorrect, or is going is taking the meeting off in a direction that’s unproductive relative to what you’re trying to do? Then you need to speak up to bring it back onto on to on track. Okay, one vote. The next one is when when someone speaks, and it is valuable, but it needs some additional to make the point such that everybody in the room can consume it and understand it. Alright, so sometimes this deciphering it or explaining it. But if you have the you know, the information that that can form, then you need to speak right then because that’s progressing and moving in the right direction. And then the third one, any, any I remember vividly smile big. When he said this. He said, When you are the subject matter expert, and you have information that most of the people don’t, that needs to be in the room to make great decisions and you speak. And I said, Why are you smiling? He said, Well, there’s 20 Something people in there, you’re one of three people that are focused on SMB speak on SMB stuff and don’t say a word or talking about enterprise stuff. Okay. i That’s sort of the fun part of it. But it was a nice little element. And so I’ve now taken, I don’t think I could have done it, I couldn’t have done that job, but couldn’t have done any of the jobs. Since this. And it was a good, least 15 years ago, I couldn’t have done that without that basic premise, because I would not have been able to be a contributor and leaders. And I think that’s the most profound thing. And I think about it, even when I’m with friends in a group of people. Vince Menzione  33:08 This is this is a life lesson lane. I love what you watch for me worrying. Yeah, and it’s for me as well, like, I think we’re gonna, we’re certainly going to share this in our show notes. So it’s speak up when you can contribute to the information that’s being shared, speak up when the information being shared, is directed or where the information is taking the meeting in the wrong direction. And the third one was Lane Sorgen  33:33 when you’re the subject matter expert, and you have insight that needs to be brought into the discussion so that the decision or the design or whatever is the intended outcome of meeting needs to have that information to get the best answer for response. Vince Menzione  33:51 I love that. And I also love what you had to say is like, if you’re not the subject matter expert, don’t speak up. And I was thinking myself. Yeah, because your credibility is at stake. If you start speaking on a subject that you have, that you’re ill informed on. People will not take the information that you share that you are well informed on. They won’t take it as legitimate, I guess. Yeah, that’s right. Great. Exactly. All right. I love this. I love this is really good. Good information. Like, Lane Sorgen  34:17 I’d love that story. I feel like it happened to this morning. It’s so fresh for me still. 34:22 Yeah. Vince Menzione  34:23 So this is a favorite question on my mind. And I want to take you out a little bit of a journey. Yeah, yeah. So you’re hosting a dinner party, and this dinner party could be anywhere in the world, we can decide where that is. After you can, you can tell us where you want to host it. But you can invite any three guests right from the present, or the past to this amazing dinner party. I’ve even had one or two guests pick somebody in the future to invite to the dinner party, which takes it in a different direction. Yeah. Who would you invite to this amazing dinner party and why? Yeah, Lane Sorgen  34:58 I saw some questions on this. So Well, first of all, I want to have it at your house because like I said, I’m, I’m a extroverted Shy Guy, and you do a really good job with questions. And so I want to bring them there let you ask good questions, because that’s, that’s what I want to experience with them. That’s, that’s okay. First one is George Washington. I love talking to leaders and and just learning from their experiences, especially if they’ve had some unique experience. And I figure George Washington forming of us, I’d love this country. I think learning what that was like, at that time would just be amazing, right? You could ask one question. And it would be, I mean, it would be consuming the home dinner table. Plus, it’d be introduction, since I was little bitty kid like the second grade, and heard that he had dentures made of wood, I’d love to see what would teach look like. That’s the case, one, two, this, this came up in a at a dinner with a couple and then our, our children who are in their 20s, two weeks ago, I was in this great restaurant, and they were they had this playlist, it was all hip hop. And it was noisy, it was a happening place to be on a Friday night and two generations, everybody’s loving the music, most of the music’s 10 to 12 years, new or newer. And about every, like eight song was Michael Jackson. And I thought about it. And it was Michael Jackson from way back. I thought, how interesting is that? I mean, I think he’s going to be pop common stuff into perpetuity. And so I don’t know what I would ask them. But I would love to tell my friends that I had dinner with Michael Jackson, right? Just, I can’t really think of something more interesting. And then the third one was a little more difficult. I think it would be Taylor Sheridan. So he’s the guy that wrote Yellowstone, and was at 83. And it’s a Texas guy. So I now live in Texas. So that’s kind of interesting. What I’d like to I don’t I’d like to talk about him is how, where does, how does he get to a creative state? So we’re all creating, writing is not my forte. So it’s what I mean, it’s not the writing. Where does he? Where does he get this? Like, I don’t think I can get there without some serious drugs. It would be nice. I mean, I think all of us would like to be more creative. When I go to somebody that seems to be creating these kind of setting a trend, but he didn’t follow a trend. And what he’s creating Vince Menzione  37:32 is done some amazing work, right, both Yellowstone and is it 1847? What is the name of the other show? Lane Sorgen  37:38 1800? Something like that, yeah. Vince Menzione  37:44 Well, if we have it at the house, we’re gonna have to invite actually one of the stars of Yellowstone, and I’m forgetting his name right now. But the gentleman who’s married to the daughter on the show. Lane Sorgen  37:56 What’s his name? Call something cold? Yeah, Vince Menzione  37:59 he lives in Stuart, which is just north of Jupiter, Florida here. My Jeep from the same dealer that he bought his truck. So that’s how I found out he was here. So But George Washington, Michael Jackson, I’m gonna I want to know what the question is. You were gonna ask George Washington, though? Is there one specific question you want to ask? Lane Sorgen  38:19 I don’t know. That’s kind of why I was saying I need you there. But what I really wanted, I really would like to understand, how do you show up as a leader, this is going to be put in and be the president. i That’s That’s, that is something that is just totally incomprehensible to me. Right. Maybe the same question as what was the pivotal thing that set you up from this time in your career? I don’t know. And, and I’d like to understand, like, are they the same? Are they essentially saying leadership treat traits at a different time? Or was it different than? Vince Menzione  38:54 Yeah. And there was no precedents? Right. George Washington came in. There wasn’t ever a President of the United States. Right. We they were under the role of the king before that. So right, every everything was new, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. And like, what are you thinking like in terms of like, how do you lead? I think, to your point, that would be a fascinating conversation. Lane Sorgen  39:16 Yeah, yeah. Talk Talk about leading through ambiguity. That’s probably one of the best cases of that ever. Vince Menzione  39:24 Yeah. And I’d love to know what he what his thoughts were on some of the other leaders surrounding him. That would be amazing. I wish we could go back. Right. That’s it. That’d be a lot of fun. Lane Sorgen  39:35 I wonder if George Washington ever had any tequila that would be disinteresting to see Yeah, like shared interest stories, right. Vince Menzione  39:42 I’m sure they had they had spirited beverages. It was probably something that came over from England. Well, Elaine, you have been an amazing guest. I am so feel so privileged and grateful to have our friendship and to have you come along today. On Ultimate Guide to partnering, but any closing words of advice for our listeners, this is a time we talked about the headwinds, the top tectonic shifts, and how they can optimize for their success. Lane Sorgen  40:11 That’s kind of a hard one, I think I’ve said shared a lot of things. I’m gonna go back to an old default that I’ve, I heard one time, and I’ve, I’ve used it ever since. And there’s, there’s a lot of decisions going on. And like, in any practice, what are we going to do to adopt AI? Right? I mean, are we think about the new measure of work, it used to be ours? What if we’re using AI to build software? Right? I mean, there’s a lot of decisions that need to be made, and how do we have conversations. And the old phrase was, if you ever are in a case, where as the leader of the company, or a leader, a company or an individual as like, I don’t know what to do next, or I don’t know what to do with my time right now. I would just say, go spend time with the customer. I mean, I’m gonna tell you, I’m two years into this company. And I had a lot of those events and times where I felt that way. And and so if the answer is always somewhere in a conversation with the customer, I don’t know if that’s kind of what you’re getting at. But that’s really how I’ve figured out what we’re doing and how to participate and how to contribute and and then how to play a role in those decisions that we have. Because you don’t want to just make a bet without having really high confidence that the customers are interested in what it is that we’re going to try to do. Vince Menzione  41:36 Yeah, I love what you have to say the customer at the center. Some have referred to it as a customer centered mindset. Right. I love that. I love that lane. And with that, I want to thank you again for being such an amazing guest. Lane Sorgen  41:50 Thank you. i It’s been a blast. I’m I’m really proud that you gave me a chance to speak today. It’s been great fun. Vince Menzione  41:57 So good to see you again, my friend. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Lane’s origin as much as I did. And chances are if you’re as excited as I am about the opportunities in store, then you’re going to want to join us November 13, through the 15th in Dallas, Texas, as we launch our first live in person event, ultimate partner live the Americas Summit. We’re bringing together leaders from Microsoft, across the field organization for small, medium and corporate accounts, the Microsoft global partner solutions leadership team, and the marketplace team, all converging in Dallas to help share valuable insights and help you double click for success in fiscal year 24. Don’t miss this unique opportunity. Secure your seat today by visiting our website, Ultimate Guide to partnering.com or the ultimate partner.com. I hope to see you in Dallas this November. I hope to see you in Dallas, my friend in November. Announcer  43:09 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partner. We’ll catch you next time on The ultimate guide to partnering

Microsoft America’s GM for SI & Advisory Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Do you want to learn how to engage as a solutions partner with Microsoft’s Americas organization, reaching over 6000 enterprise customers in the Americas business? Are you interested in learning from a 25-year Microsoft veteran how she organizes her team for success? Do you want to know the four principles you must apply now as a partner leader? To set up your organization for success in fiscal year 24? Then you’ve come to the right place. What to Expect Sarah Steiger, who leads the Americas Global SI and Advisory Partner Business for Microsoft joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering. We talk actionable steps for your organization’s success in fiscal year 24 and how to thrive in the Americas partner ecosystem. Why Listen? If you aim to: Engage effectively with Microsoft’s Americas org Learn key leadership principles Prepare for fiscal year 24’s opportunities Then this episode is a must-listen. In Sarah’s Words Sarah Steiger is the General Manager of the Americas Global SI partners within the Global Partner Solutions Americas organization. She and her team help customers achieve more and drive digital transformation strategies through the top twenty Global SI and Advisory partners. Their primary focus is enabling these partners to build successful, profitable businesses that capitalize on the latest technological advancements while leveraging Microsoft products and services to benefit commercial companies, educational entities, and governments across the United States. What You’ll Learn Episode Highlights: Leading Americas global SI and advisory partner business for Microsoft.0:00 Partner development and alignment in Microsoft.3:14 Microsoft organizes its partners into different categories, including SI (System Integration) partners, ISV (Independent Software Vendors), LSP (Licensing and Service Providers), and distribution partners. The company has a structured approach to engaging with these partners, with partner development managers and technology specialists working closely with managed partners to help them execute go-to-market strategies and validate their technology solutions. Unknown Speaker: Partners build practices with Microsoft, invest in AI factories, and leverage Salesforce to drive alignment and revenue. Unknown Speaker: RPMs are coaching to think like Chief Revenue Officers, focusing on partner success and execution plans to drive revenue and profit margin. Partnering with GSIs for AI and cloud services.9:31 Microsoft invests in GSI partners to accelerate AI adoption and drive customer transformations with Azure and 365. Satya Nadella highlights the shift in customer demand for integrated AI solutions, with a $600 billion total addressable market opportunity. Microsoft invests in its partners through the AI cloud partner program, providing onboarding, skilling incentives, and CO selling to capitalize on the opportunity. AI partnerships and resources for Microsoft partners.13:52 Microsoft is providing partners with tools and resources to help them scale their businesses in the AI space. Building successful partnerships with Microsoft.17:14 Trust is key to successful partnerships, as demonstrated by Microsoft’s account executives (AEs) having a broad perspective on customer accounts and leveraging CSU resources to help select the best partner. Best partners bring unique value to the table by demonstrating their superpower through specific examples of success in their industry and providing new information that Microsoft’s sellers don’t know about the customer. Partners must have a growth mindset, adapt to changing sales strategies, and collaborate with Microsoft for successful CO selling. Unknown Speaker: Keeping the customer at the center of sales efforts is crucial, ensuring solutions address their needs and problems. Partner success in Microsoft’s fiscal year 24.22:50 The importance of mindset in partnerships, specifically growth mindset and honesty, to build trust and avoid misunderstandings. The need for partners to align with their corporate values and prioritize people, as they are the foundation of culture and growth in today’s fast-changing environment. Microsoft is investing in the marketplace, making it easier for partners to scale and grow their businesses. SI Partners may struggle to understand the value proposition of marketplace, but new availability of multi-party private offers could provide an angle for them to explore. Partner success in the enterprise space with a focus on SMC.28:01 The company is prioritizing its strengths and focusing on 18 key plays in the enterprise space, while also investing $700 million globally in the SMC customer segment. The marketplace piece is super important to drive solution-to-customer and partner-to-partner activity, and the company is hosting an event in Dallas to showcase its investments in the SMC space. Sarah reflects on their career path, highlighting their love for learning and sales, and how they found the most fun job working with partners. Sarah shares her experience in aligning goals with partners, finding satisfaction in co-selling and helping partner leaders, and learning something new every day. Partnering with Microsoft, dinner party guest picks.33:03 Sarah invites Billie Jean King, Oprah, and David Bowie to a dinner party, admiring their impact and personal journeys. Unveiling Ultimate Partner LIVE—Dallas, TX, Nov 13-15, 2023 Ready to decode Microsoft’s recent game-changing investments in #Marketplace, #SMC, and #GenerativeAI? Are you looking for actionable insights and a success roadmap? Are you looking to network and have bi-directional engagement with Microsoft Executives, SMC sellers, GPS and Marketplace Leaders, and other Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program partners? Your solution has arrived: Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit. Announcing Ultimate Partner LIVE – Dallas TX – November 13-15 2023 Ultimate Partner LIVE – The Americas Summit I’m beyond excited to launch our first LIVE event. Consider this the “double-click” from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference to provide the prescriptive guidance and executive engagement to align, leverage, and scale your Microsoft Partnership. This is a one-of-a-kind, unique event that will help you crack the code. Ultimate Partner LIVE| Americas 2023  Why Attend? 🎯 Are you geared up to exploit the $50B Marketplace opportunity? Do you have a Marketplace Transactable Offer, not just built but with effective marketing and sell-through support? 💼 Have you designed an impactful co-selling plan for Small, Medium, and Corporate Accounts – SMC? Are you even sure where to start? 🤖 And let’s not overlook the game-changing potential of Generative AI, especially with innovations like Co-Pilot. Join Us in Dallas – November 13th to 15th Graciously hosted by Microsoft at the Las Colinas Campus, this event is designed with mainstage keynotes, breakout sessions, and individual boardroom sessions. The event will begin with registration and a social at 4 PM on November 13th, hosted by SMC Leadership. On November 14th and 15th you’ll experience: Deep-dive sessions that build on insights from Microsoft’s Inspire Conference. A unique assembly of 300+ participants, including Microsoft executives from GPS, SMC, and Marketplace. A confluence of industry experts offering prescriptive guidance through real-world experiences, frameworks, and best practices. Interactive Experience: Bidirectional keynotes Hands-on workshops Breakout and boardroom sessions Networking: Connect with Microsoft Executives, SMC Leaders, GPS, and Marketplace Experts. Meet some of the SMC Field Organization looking to engage with partners. Engage with award-winning partners: ISVs, SIs, LSPs, and CSPs. Walk away from these two days ready to implement your 2024 partner plan! How do I sign up? Limited Early Bird Pricing is now available. You can secure your seat today for what promises to be a transformative experience. https://cvent.me/8DN9bP?RefId=Company+Website I look forward to hosting you and seeing you in Dallas, TX, November 13-15! Vince Menzione Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. A Word from AG1 Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos UGP Sarah Steiger Audio Wed, Sep 20, 2023 10:22AM • 37:47 SUMMARY KEYWORDS partners, microsoft, customers, ai, business, americas, talk, smc, accounts, organization, marketplace, solutions, change, success, year, sellers, sell, focus, drive, investments SPEAKERS Vince Menzione, Announcer, Sarah Steiger Vince Menzione  00:00 Do you want to learn how to engage as a solutions partner with Microsoft’s Americas organization, reaching over 6000 enterprise customers in the Americas business? Are you interested in learning from a 25 year Microsoft veteran how she organizes her team for success? As a partner leader? Do you want to know the four principles you need to apply now? To set up your organization for success in fiscal year 24? Then you’ve come to the right place. Announcer  00:30 This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host, Vince Menzione. Vince Menzione  00:50 Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and today I will Sarah Steiger leads the Americas global si and advisory partner business for Microsoft. And Sarah and I have an engaging conversation on the Americas partner business, the role of the ecosystem. And now partners of all types need to align for success with the incredible opportunities in store this fiscal year. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion as much as I enjoyed welcoming Sarah Steiger. Sarah, welcome to the podcast. Sarah Steiger  01:30 Thank you. I’m so happy to be here. It’s been a long time coming. But I’m really looking forward to this, Vince Menzione  01:35 I am so excited to finally welcome you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering you lead the Americas global si and advisory partner business for Microsoft. And I’m so looking forward for to our conversation today. Sarah Steiger  01:48 Absolutely. The group that I’m with, we’ve had a lot of changes recently. And our new focus for this fiscal year is so exciting because we’ve actually come together as the Americas. And so that’s a big change for us this year. And so for me, my team, I lead the top global SI Partners global and advisory across the Americas. And so what we do is we really focus on helping them innovate and realize value by adopting Microsoft solutions on behalf of their customers, to help them transform their business. Our main focus is on commercial accounts, mainly enterprise. But we also focus on state and local across the Americas. And our top enterprise accounts was about 6000, I would say across the region. So my team of PDM. And I we were dedicated, as I said to the top global partners, working to help them focus around our core tenants of alignment, simplicity and focus. And it’s just been so exciting this year to see us come together as the Americas, Vince Menzione  02:48 we had Nina Harding on the podcast, this was just as Microsoft announced the changes and bringing together the Canadian business and the Latin American business. Under this America’s umbrella, I was hoping you could double click a little bit more for our listeners on how your team is organized for success. Sarah Steiger  03:05 So we have been learning so much about the different cultures, the different languages, and just the different ways of operating across the regions. And that’s both within Microsoft and then also our partners. So in many cases, our partners might have been organized by North America. And we were only talking to them about their US business. And now that we’re getting in, under the covers, we can see that we’ve got much better alignment with the way we’re organized, and the way they’re organized, it really is allowing us to be able to simplify the way that we engage with them the conversations that we can have, we’re also identifying a ton of best practices that we’re seeing. So for instance, there’s some best practices with one of our partners in financial services organizations in Peru, and Brazil. And we’re actually able to bring that not just to the US, but also introduce it into Canada. And so really breaking down those barriers, we hope is going to unlock even additional greater productivity both for us and our partners by being able to have common conversations. Vince Menzione  04:05 And a lot of our listeners don’t understand the complexity of the hybrid model and Microsoft or the this Matrix Model, if you will. So as you look, if you’re working with a very large scale, si or advisory partner, there are resources at the global organization, the global partner organization that support the build with and manage the growth of that partner and then you localize it in many cases. But then you also have a group of partners that you manage individually in the Americas business is that the way you’re organized Sarah Steiger  04:36 so we think of worldwide is really being the enablers and the help and support with the build with and they also set the strategy. And then for us in the Americas we were considered the field. So we’re focused around execution. So that’s selling with that’s executing on the go to market strategy that we come up with at the beginning of the year. So we’ll work hand in hand with the worldwide team to create a global partner development plan at the beginning of the year, and I’m speaking on behalf of the managed partners that we work with. And so for Si, there’s about 200 or so managed partners in the US. And there’s probably about another 50 or so considered managed partners in Canada and Latin, that are just SI Partners. And then similarly, there’s a couple 100 ISV, and then LSP, distribution, telco service partners. So basically the way we structure that GPS organization is by partner type, so that we know how partners want to show up to their customers. And we’re enabling and going to market with them in that manner, right in that fashion. So we find that that works best. So we have partner development managers that will engage in the managed partner space in typically a one to one to a one to seven ratio for the manager partner set. And then we also have a team of technology specialists. So we’ll have partner technical specialists. And we also have some CSAs, some cloud solution architects that could work with them in validating their technology solutions tied to our go to market offers around our cloud. And they really work to help make sure that they’re getting to that last mile of the partner being able to execute with our customers. And they’ve got all the latest and greatest from Microsoft, Vince Menzione  06:21 I think about the three buckets being the build with right so your team of PMS are building with and the technology specialists come on board to help drive that function. You have go to market resources that you tap into across Heather Dagens organization that helped to drive that go to market motion. And then you also talked about the sell with so your team is also intimately involved in the sell with bringing the partner into the various Microsoft calls, oh use or operating units. And those could be geographical, they could be vertically focused. Is that right? Sarah Steiger  06:51 So we work across the US or organizational units? And you’re exactly right. They’re they’re split by geography, or by vertical for some of the key verticals that we focus on. And then in Canada and Latin America, they’re more geographic focus, but within the geography, they’ll have industry verticals. And yeah, the PDMS job is to understand the partner’s sales organization, and what are the key priority industries that they are focused on as well as top customer names that they may be interested in, and then map marrying that up with our Salesforce. And we know that we can be quite complex, there’s a ton of of sellers that we’ve got across account execs, the stew, the CSU, all the different resources. And so our PDM has really helped our partners navigate that. But really to try to drive that alignment and affinity, because sell with is really the most important function that the PDFs are driving with the partners. Vince Menzione  07:46 Yeah, and I heard you talk about an a number of what I’ll call named accounts. So you’re you have a level of specificity that maybe didn’t exist before, right, because partner development managers were responsible for all things but maybe not accountable. For the revenue number. It sounds like you’re double clicking on the revenue number. Now, Sarah Steiger  08:04 we’ve definitely evolved, I would say in recent years, and like I said, we were relying on worldwide and a lot of the partner self service resources that exist and that are getting enhanced with machine learning and a variety of other things that to rely on them to do the build with side so that we can really focus on execution and on the sell with side. And so for sure, we’ve been coaching RPMs, in recent years to really put on the hat and think of themselves as the Chief Revenue Officer of their partner. So what does the partner need to be successful? What are the partners goals from a business perspective? And what can we do through Microsoft solutions to enable that in order to make sure that they’re going to see the best value, the highest revenue, the highest profit margin with Microsoft, by doing the cell with execution plans that we want to work with that one? Vince Menzione  08:55 Yeah, I love this focus. I think this is spot on, especially from the time when I was enroll. We were all things to all organizations, and it was really tough to delineate the success of the program. So it seems like you’ve really nailed it in. Yep. So we’ve been you mentioned a little bit about practices and building practices with these partners. It seems that both some of these large s eyes and advisories and Microsoft have been leaning in on investments. I’ve heard the term AI factory use recently for one partner. But can we talk in talk a little bit more deeply about this, like what are you seeing on your side? And why the most recent investments? Sarah Steiger  09:33 The why is the pace of change and transformation with cloud services is moving so quickly in the marketplace, especially now with generative AI and all the things that have come out in the last, you know, few months. And we need si partners to help us really realize that value across the marketplace. So these partners are vital in helping our customers understand all these tech innovations and what can they do to transform their own own business? is. So what I’m seeing is partners are taking advantage of the Azure migrate and modernize investments, we have a new investment called Azure innovate, especially for analytics and AI, where we’re funding pre and post sales, implementation assessments, proofs of concept. And these motions are happening incredibly quickly. And we also, especially in the global si space, we’ve signed several billion dollar plus commitments with them in Microsoft Cloud and AI to reshape professional services across business critical areas and use of AI solutions. So we know that that’s the tip of the spear. And we’re developing these early access partnerships, around 365, copilot, open AI service and with Azure to pilot these technologies, where these GSIs are doing it for themselves internally, and bringing together the increased capabilities of these tools through their experiences, and insights. And then as well bringing them to the customers. So we’re seeing them build and deliver, go to market solutions for our customers in the enterprise space, that really are showcasing Microsoft technologies and helping to accelerate AI adoption, we’re investing in our GSI partners, as you mentioned, with the strategy and their go to market plans. And then like I said, making sure that we’re aligning their Salesforce with our sales teams to accelerate sales and customer time to value. And one thing I should point out is, and I know you know this, and many of your listeners, probably that our sellers are compensated based on consumption of our cloud technologies. So we’re really relying on these partners to help us show the way with generative AI, and then drive those implementations of customer transformations, or we’re not going to be successful, Azure is not going to be successful. Vince Menzione  11:46 I have been talking about these tectonic shifts we’ve all been seeing right, we had discussion about the pandemic accelerating the transformation. Satya talked about seven years of transformation in seven months, we saw these economic headwinds over the last 18 months. And hopefully we’re coming out of that time. But we’ve all been asked to do more with less. And now, this decade of the ecosystem where customers are asking us to bring it all together. What roles do you see your partners playing here? Bringing it all together? For the customer? You talked about AI specifically? Does this create opportunities for more partners, to partner with your partners, in fact, to bring a whole solution to a customer? Sarah Steiger  12:24 Yeah, that’s an excellent point, I definitely think that there’s an opportunity for more of that partner to partner activity. And I’m hearing that from my partners as well. I mean, for me, you talk about tectonic shifts, the biggest shift that I’m seeing is the interest and activity that we’re getting, not just from the C suite, but from the CEO and the board level executives, they’re now aware that AI can empower them to achieve more, whether it’s their internal operations, or on behalf of their customers. And so this has mentioned the open AI service. For us, we’re seeing that’s been the fastest growing for in Azure history, we have over 10,000 customers that are using this service already. And so we introduced the AI cloud partner program, to really invest in our partners to enable them to capitalize on all of this opportunity. The GSIs are amazing, they’re big, and they’re bad. But they they can’t scale to the demand that’s out there, we see a over $600 billion total addressable market with these cloud services. And we’re seeing our best partners get all the benefits of this cloud partner program. That includes onboarding, skilling incentives, as well as CO selling. And I think that that’s true for everybody in the partner ecosystem that this this is just a once in a generation opportunity that we need everybody, all hands, everybody rowing in the same direction in order to be able to take advantage of Vince Menzione  13:48 it pointed out something here, I think anybody recognized how quickly this was gonna happen. I think a lot of people were caught off guard, right, maybe maybe a little flat footed when it really took off the way it did in November, December timeframe. What are you doing to help that scale you discussed like, how do you help these partners scale their businesses? And what is Microsoft doing alongside them to help scale? Sarah Steiger  14:10 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the first thing we’re doing, I think, is being as transparent as possible with making tools and use cases etc, available. So there are several co pilot solutions that I would encourage everybody to take a look at GitHub, co pilot, security, copilot, et cetera, customers are already working with them. partners should be to learn them, live them, apply them to your own business, and then you’ll learn for opportunities for you to help customers unlock that value. We have a ton of partner resources that are on our AI for transformation partners website. And then also right now from an enablement perspective, we’re running a co pilot bootcamp series of different enablement programs that are happening now. And we’ve also seen that when partners are taking advantage of these resources and are coming up to speed, they’ve had tremendous success in host In person customer events around Gen AI, and they share specific use cases that are really making it real for these customers and talk about all the other issues that are related to incorporating AI into your business environment, risk, compliance, security, privacy, operational, all of those things. I’ve actually got my event later on today is is with a top partner and our top enterprise accounts. So we’re seeing momentum, like I haven’t seen since the late 90s, in terms of people showing up for inter in person events, hybrid events, like never before, it’s been great. Vince Menzione  15:34 Yeah, I’ve been hearing the same sentiment, right? The C suite is involved in a bigger way than ever before. It seems such an exciting time at Microsoft. So the things you mentioned earlier, the boot camps and the like. Those are available to all partners, right. So some of those things we talked about are not just for the global size, but that’s Sarah Steiger  15:52 correct. Yeah, absolutely. There’s, there’s so much that’s available for everybody. Like I said, we can’t do it alone. So absolutely, we want to make it make as much available for everybody in the ecosystem to take advantage of Vince Menzione  16:04 Yeah. I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens, and now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity, and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D. And five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. Check it out. Great. So Sara is the ultimate guide to partnering. So I need to ask I asked every guest this, what do you see from the best partners? What attributes do you believe leads to a successful engagement? Sarah Steiger  17:23 Yeah, I think what I usually tend to coach partners on in the first thing is trust partners, we know have deep relationships with their customers and deep understanding of their accounts. And oftentimes, our sellers don’t know that or don’t fully appreciate that. And so the biggest thing, again, in CO selling is to make these connections, seller seller, partner to Microsoft, and build trust and understand that we’re not we’re not in it to compete with these partners, we want to be collaborating with you. We know, on our side, the best partners, I’ve seen, know that our account execs have a very broad perspective on the customer perhaps broader than what the partner has visibility into. And that the AE also was leveraging the stew this CSU other resources that in some cases can have five to 10 year relationships with these accounts. So they can be tremendously influential in helping that account, select the best partner to engage with. So to me, I think it comes down to it you could call it trust, you can call it honesty, what have you, we need to be honest with each other around what are our objectives in a given customer. Oftentimes, back in when I was in my consulting days, we would do an MOU, right? We would we would start by saying what do we want to get out of this relationship? What what’s our role? What’s your role? And so you can be that formal if it’s a huge deal, and you need to do that. But I would just I just sum it up by saying trust, I would say trust, that’s one of the best things that I’ve seen. And then the other thing I would say is, there’s so many partners out there, it can be really difficult for our sellers to know what’s the unique value that each partner provides. And what differentiates your part you as a partner. So I like to talk to partners about what’s their superpower, right? Can you give specific examples of what you’ve done? Have a brand? What is your superpower? What are you known for? What do you want to be known for? And can you give specific examples of success in a like industry, etc, with customers in order to demonstrate your superpower that really helps cut through the noise when you’re trying to work with sellers. I’ve also seen many of our best partners have industry subject matter experts that can help explain the business impact to customers. That really resonates with us, because oftentimes we don’t have that deep industry expertise that we know our partners do. And then last thing I would say is when you’re talking to our sellers, I’ve seen our best partners really bring insight so I always coach them to say if you’re coming to a conversation, bring some information that we don’t know about our customer, right? What can you tell us that we don’t know? That will help us lead to value and impact for that customer. And that’s gonna be the other thing that that’s going to make you remembered. And it’s going to make you sticky with the account teams. Vince Menzione  20:07 So golden nuggets here, right? First of all, trust. Without trust, we don’t have partnership, it’s a transaction. So I trust us enter the room. And you talked about candid and open communications as part of interest, right? I like to say we need to have deliberate conversations, right? And it’s okay to you have to put your cards on the table and explain like your your point of view, a lot of partners hide back, kind of hold their cards close to the vest, and don’t share as much they don’t trust as much of Microsoft, there’s always that sense that Microsoft is going to take my account you, you share the reasons why that doesn’t really happen the way Microsoft scales. But it also can help help a partner out quite a bit. You talked about that brand, that superpower I love the term superpower, I like to talk about the shiny quarter like the in the bucket of shiny quarters, like what makes you stand out differently. You also brought up the industry expertise and the fact that Microsoft has been traditionally a horizontal company going across many different vertical industries, and looks at its partner ecosystem to help drive that vertical specialization. And then insights right, so help me better understand my customer. Because I think about an account executive is almost the quarterback with of this large team of people that are assembling around the the account in these very large enterprise accounts. They don’t may not have the same insights that a partner might have. And the customer might say things differently, or maybe be a little bit more candid to the partner about their position with Microsoft than in front of Microsoft. Right. I think there’s some really great, some really great examples here. I’m going to feature these in our show notes. So this was absolutely just golden. Sara really enjoyed that part. So what about the partners that don’t get it? Right? What do you wish that you had said to them? Now? If you could? Sarah Steiger  21:54 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I guess I would say so. I’ve been in the partner space for a bit. And I guess I would say that partners have to have a growth mindset, right? Microsoft, we adopt a growth mindset, things are constantly changing. And we’re constantly changing. And so I think partners have to have a growth mindset in terms of thinking differently, of how they sell with us. Selling has evolved so much over the years, and especially now. And as you pointed out about the the quarterback, we are a team sale. And so I think collaboration is also super important in CO selling with us, there can be ample opportunity for miscommunication. So we need to make sure that we’re agreeing upfront, and having that constant communication and collaboration. I think it’s also important to keep the customer at the center, right, making sure that you’re starting with what are their needs, how are we solving their problem, and that always can kind of bring you back if you kind of stray from that course. But being able to adapt as we change, right, we change every year. And so being able to recognize it for what it is, and just have that growth mindset. And just just being thinking differently. I think that’s the first thing. And then the second thing, I would just reiterate again, that that being honest, right, knowing your objectives of what you want to get out of a pursuit. And if you want to build long lasting relationships, I’ve seen partnerships fail, if you’re not clear and upfront with your objectives of what you want to get out of a specific account or specific deal. And we know it’s a big playing field. So sometimes we’re going to compete, and sometimes partners are going to compete sometimes we know, partners have their choice and hyperscalers. And so if we keep the relationship honest and straightforward, and we focus on the desired outcomes with the right expectations, I think that helps avoid misunderstandings and, and keeps us efficient so that we know when we’re going to market together and we’re not wasting time. And I think also it helps build build trust over time. Yeah, Vince Menzione  23:46 I love what you have to say here. So again, golden nuggets in terms of what successful partners look like. I want to double click on mindset. I talk about growth mindset. I talk about how Satya changed the culture. I’ve had Dr. Michael Gervais on the podcast four times. He’s coming back actually in a couple of weeks now. What do you think partners can do specifically around mindset that they maybe don’t do today? And I’m kind of I don’t know if you have the answer for this, but I’m actually looking forward for our partners to understand Yeah, Sarah Steiger  24:15 I mean, I, I spend a lot of time thinking about people thinking about my people, and thinking about maybe some of the softer skills. And I think in the US, we went through some pretty intense coaching by Brene Brown a couple of years back, and we we do a lot with Michael Gervais, too. And for me, I take all of that stuff to heart. And so I think mindset really starts with what as a partner, what are your corporate values? What do you believe in what’s true to you? And I would hope people is somewhere on that list. Right? And if you value integrity, right if you value success and winning, but not at all cost, right. And if you value people keep bringing people along with you, then I think that, to me, that’s those are some of the foundations of culture. I know it is super challenging in this environment, because the ability to manage change and manage through uncertain times is also a core skill that we all have to have these days. And I don’t see it ever, ever swaying from that. And so I think against knowing that change is a people business, you can’t evolve, you can’t grow, you can’t have growth mindset, if you don’t get your people on board. And so that’s why I always end up coming, everything comes back to people to me, and I feel like you have to just really keep that up front. Vince Menzione  25:38 We are so aligned here i, we could go through my principles. And we were like, we’re like talking through them. Actually, when I talk about agility, and commitment and alignment and vision and value and all the rest of that. I just love what you have to say, Sarah, for our listeners today. I want to go back to the big announcements that inspire it was just a little over a month ago, right? Maybe it’ll be closer to two months by the time this airs. But how can partners best align for success now that we’re in Microsoft fiscal year? 24? Sarah Steiger  26:07 Yeah, so we did make some huge announcements, I would say my takeaway after having digested a lot of that is, this is the year of Microsoft marketplace, we’re making tremendous investments, we’re not alone, all the hyper scalars are doing this, it just makes good sense for the marketplace, no pun intended, it just makes good sense for the ecosystem, and makes great sense for the customer. And it helps Microsoft scale. Right? It will help us grow our business. And it’s just where we have to be now. And one of the things back to what you were suggesting before about perhaps partner to partner. So when I think about systems integrators on the one hand, it’s like, well, there there are people are their IP. And so what’s what’s the play for marketplace, because certainly in the ISV space, makes all the sense in the world to be to be plugging marketplace. I’ve been talking to SI Partners and and really just scratching my head myself to figure out what’s the what’s the incentive, what’s the value prop there. And we have new availability as part of these announcements of multiparty private offers that I think is is an angle in right I think on the one hand, there can be the work that SI is may already be doing with large partners such as SAP, VMware, Adobe, and also smaller ISVs. And in particular industries. So the area that I would explore if you don’t think you have a traditional marketplace solution, or you weren’t all about IP cosell before, is this new availability of multi party private offers, right? Today, it’s only available in the US and Canada. But we’re spreading soon to the UK, and then hopefully Latin and globally. And so having a transactable offer and marketplace really helps unlock the partners, cosell benefits. So l partners, I would say need to have a marketplace strategy, whether it’s for your own IP or more. So exploring kind of this multi private multi party private offer option. I would also say coming out of the announcements in the enterprise space. In the Americas, we have around 6000 enterprise accounts. And so prioritizing your strengths, what industries accounts and accounts you focus on, what’s your differentiated value, what we did this year in terms of our focus is we had 52 solution plays last year, oh my goodness, we have narrowed, simplified, focused down to 18. And I think that we’re, that’s helping customers I’m sorry, that’s helping partners aligned to the 18 key plays. And then the last thing that was an announcement coming out of that is all the investments we’re making in the SMC customer segment, which is the next tear down of commercial below enterprise. We’ve got six solution areas that are infused with AI across all of this, and an SMC in particular, we’re making $700 million globally of an incremental investment, just in that customer space. So our what we call SMC is still a huge playing field. There’s plenty of cloud native customers there. There’s plenty of customers that other businesses would consider enterprise. So I would say, Don’t neglect looking at the SMC segment don’t all be chasing after enterprise because that’s a crowded field. And there’s tons of benefit tons of business to be made in the SMC space. Vince Menzione  29:19 I think it’s a field the diamonds actually I’m glad you brought this up. First of all, the marketplace piece, super important multiparty offers super important to drive that I’ll call the whole solution to the customer. Right It helps it helps the partner to partner it objectifies the partner to partner activity, right? We take this solution, we add this professional services, we might add a third piece to it and we make it available to a customer. You talked about SMC two and I want to spotlight this because we are hosting an event but a little shameless plug for our event, but we’re gonna host an event in Dallas November 14 and 15th with the SMC organization and with the marketplace organization and GPS comm all coming together to support exactly what you’re talking about here. So this It’s just, yeah, I could have gotten a paid you to say what you just did. Sarah Steiger  30:03 I’ve always I’ll be waiting for that check in the mail. Yeah, no, you’re absolutely right SMC is is on fire. And that’s going to be a tremendous event. Like I said, we’re pouring so many investment dollars into that. We’re getting really smart around how we go to market and how we automate our engagement model there. So yeah, that’s going to be a really timely, well, well timed, and really effective event, I’m sure. Vince Menzione  30:28 Thank you, sir. I’m hoping to see you there. So we’ll talk some more about this. So I would like to pivot. As you might know, I’m fascinated by the journey to success. And you have had several senior roles at Microsoft. I’m interested to know was there like a spark? Or a pivot that set you off on this path to success? Sarah Steiger  30:48 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I guess, I guess I would say two things. First, I consider myself a lifelong learner. I love to learn, I love to listen, listen to your podcasts, listen to other podcasts, you know, read, I’m a huge reader. So I’d say I’m a lifelong learner. And at the core, I’m a seller, right? All most of my career has been in sales, he spent a little bit of time in consulting, delivery, but most of its been in sales. And I would say pretty early on, when I was at Microsoft, I reached a point where I realized that I needed to be more intentional about managing my career. And it became obvious to me that Microsoft is so dependent on the partner ecosystem, we can’t survive without our partners, we put them first that I figured that’d be a good place to build my career. That’s where we’re going to invest. And also, at the time, I, we were creating a new organization, which you will know which was SMS NP, which is kind of like a combination of what’s today global partner solutions and SMC. So it was partners and customers in that that customer segment. And I got tapped on the shoulder by someone to say, hey, help, let’s go start this up. It’s gonna be a blank sheet of paper, we don’t know what we’re doing. Anyway. So I joined the first partner field organization. And I think that was the spark that really kind of set me on my path. And I’ve done a bunch of things. I’ve moved around within Microsoft, so on and so forth. And then, two years ago, I guess, I’d still been working with partners, but I was doing it actually, in our ISD organization, which is a whole other podcast, I was looking for a change. And I did some reflecting. And I remember that I think that job working with partners was really the most fun job that I had. And so I pursued a way to come back to the partner group. And here I am. And I just love the challenge of aligning our goals with another company. And watching that company, those partners succeed. And the satisfaction of working with partner leaders, like I said, is kind of wearing the hat of a chief revenue officer on behalf of them, and helping to co sell I just find to be super satisfying. And I learned something new every day. So it’s been great. I Vince Menzione  32:51 love what you have to say here as a as a partner leader who started off in direct sales as well like the end that path. You said, it’s so much more fun working with partners, and building business together. Right. I just I love I love what you have to say here. Yeah, yeah. So I have a favorite question. And I love asking this to almost all of my guests. But Sarah, you’re hosting a dinner party, and this dinner party could be anywhere in the world, we could talk about that as well. And you can invite any three guests from the present, or the past to this amazing dinner party. Whom would you invite? And why? Sarah Steiger  33:26 Oh, my goodness. So this is a fun one. And I spent a little bit of time thinking about it. I talked to my husband, I talked to my kids. And they all had very interesting dinner guests that they would invite to their parties. And I think if you asked me today, I think what one thing that kind of popped into my head is I have the privilege of going to the US Open earlier in the week. And I would say Billie Jean King, would be the first one that I would invite, because she’s just such a force just on and off the court. And such a role model. And it has really changed the lives of so many people change the sport, got to pay equity, did all of these amazing things. So I think she would be really interesting just to hear her stories of all the things that she’s gone through. And then second, I would say Oprah, again, iconic. I think she’s met everybody in the world. I think she’s gone through all of her own personal journey and personal arc. And now it’s reached a stage where she’s all about giving back. And she’s such an influential force, that I would love to talk to her about how she makes her choices of what she chooses to get involved with or not not get involved with. And then I feel like I’d have to round it out. So I have an athlete, I have somebody in media. I think I would go with a musician next. And unfortunately, he’s no longer with us. But I think I would add David Bowie to that list. Because, again, iconic an artist, not just a musician or a rock star or whatever you want to call him but kind of that an enigmatic personality and I think he would have a really interest perspective. So I don’t know what the dinner party would like be like if you throw them all together in a room be a little eclectic. But anyway, that’s my list. Vince Menzione  35:07 Well, I might bring dessert. Is that okay? Because I would love to meet with all three of them. I mean, that was there is always welcome in our house. Yeah, I would normally bring drinks, but I think dessert might be more appropriate here. But we’re tennis family as well. So I love watching the open this time of year. It’s yeah, great event, and Oprah’s extraordinary. And I’m a big Bowie fan as well. So I would love meeting David. That’d be awesome. Yeah, yeah. So sir, you’ve been an amazing guest. I so enjoyed having you here today. Any closing words for our partners on how they can optimize for success this year? Well, first Sarah Steiger  35:43 of all, thank you again, for having me, it’s been an honor. And a lot of fun, I would say I guess I would just summarize by saying Microsoft is a partner first organization. And these days, partners have never been more vital to our success. So we sometimes might not always be the easiest to navigate, or the easiest to work with. Which is why I appreciate you Vince in this podcast, because I think you’ve chosen to take this step in your career and really help guide all of our partners and how best to work with us. And so that’s a tremendous service for us. So thank you for that. And then lastly, I would just say again, to any partner out there, focus on your superpower, right? We can’t be all things to all people. Just be clear and laser focused on driving what your superpower is, is your brand message when you’re looking to team with Microsoft. And when you’re looking to engage with customers. Vince Menzione  36:32 I love that focus on your superpower. Sara, thank you so much for spending time with us today in your very busy schedule as Microsoft kicks up. Its fiscal year 24. Thank you. Sarah Steiger  36:43 My pleasure. Thank you. Vince Menzione  36:45 I so enjoyed having Sarah Steiger as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering. If you’re a partner working with Microsoft, I hope you learn from this discussion as much as I did. And chances are you want to learn even more, which is why I’m hosting my first live event in Dallas, Texas, November 13. Through the 15th. Come to our website, Ultimate Guide to partnering.com or the ultimate partner.com. And learn more. I hope to see you in Dallas, November 13 through the 15th Announcer  37:20 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partner. We’ll catch you next time on The ultimate guide to partnering

Microsoft’s CVP for America’s Partner Business Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Are you prepared for an in-depth look at key updates following the Microsoft Inspire conference? Interested in hearing from Nina Harding, the leader of Microsoft America’s Partner Business GPS, on pivotal changes and announcements? As you strategize for Fiscal Year 2024, don’t miss our upcoming episode of “Ultimate Guide to Partnering.” Nina Harding, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft America’s Partner Business GPS, joined us for an exclusive interview the day after the Microsoft Inspire conference. This deep dive focuses on Microsoft’s latest announcements and how Nina is organizing her team for success in FY24. This conversation also marked the launch of our first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems.” Catch the full video interview at UltimateGuideToPartnering.com. I’m confident you’ll find this dialogue as insightful as I did in hosting Nina Harding. In Nina’s Words Nina Harding is the Corporate Vice President of Global Partner Solutions for Microsoft America’s Business. Nina and her organization are responsible for empowering partners to unlock more for our customers- more agility, more efficiency, more innovation, more of whatever their goals are. They are transforming our US partner ecosystem into a strategic asset to drive digital transformation. Microsoft’s America’s Partner business includes strategy, management, partner sales, and overall partner ecosystem health. To maximize the benefits our mutual customers realize from their investments in technology, the team works with US partners to develop strong practices aligned to Microsoft’s workload and industry priorities. The organization is comprised of Partner Management, Channel Sales, Go-To-Market (GTM), and partner-facing Technical Specialists and Architects. What You’ll Learn Episode Highlights: Intro: 0:00An exclusive interview with Nina Harding, focusing on Microsoft’s new announcements for FY24. Nina’s Expanded Role: 1:42Nina discusses her broader responsibilities in the Global Partner Solutions organization and the exciting landscape of the new Americas region. Innovation in Latin America:Partners are driving ingenuity in Latin America, and borderless business is aiding speed and agility. Co-Selling Methodology: 6:00The shift towards consistent partnership experiences, transitioning from channels to an ISV organization. Marketplace Momentum:Redefining how sales are compensated, internal team alignments, and the advantages of Microsoft’s marketplace. Channel Opportunity: 16:42By 2025, $45 billion will flow through major marketplaces like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Insights from Canalys. Partner Strategies:The importance of customer success stories, and two key imperatives for ISVs and digital natives: skill development and client conversations. Closing Notes:Nina’s commitment to partnership excellence and what it means for the industry. Don’t miss this insightful conversation as we unpack the future of Microsoft’s partner ecosystem A Word from AG1 “Winning with Ecosystems” – Now OnDemand Ultimate Partner’s first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems” Is Now Available OnDemand Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS partners, microsoft, customer, marketplace, business, making, ultimate guide, organization, ecosystems, isv, ag, opportunity, isvs, incentives, focus, isps, market, nina, ai, solution SPEAKERS Nina Harding, Announcer, Vince Menzione Vince Menzione  00:00 Are you ready for a deep dive of the most important announcements coming on the heels of the Microsoft inspire conference? Do you want to hear the perspective of the leader of Microsoft’s America’s partner business GPS on the significant changes and announcements Microsoft just made? And do you want to know where to place your bets as you gear up for fiscal year 24, then hold on tight. As you won’t want to miss this next episode of ultimate guide to partnering. Announcer  00:32 This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host, Vince Menzione. Vince Menzione  00:51 Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and today I will Nina Harding is the corporate vice president of the Microsoft America’s partner business, GPS, and joined us the day after the Microsoft inspire conference for this exclusive interview and deep dive on Microsoft’s announcements, and how she’s organizing her team for success in fiscal year 24. This interview kicked off ultimate partners first live digital event, winning with ecosystems. And the video of this interview is available at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion with this incredible leader. As much as I enjoyed welcoming Nina Hardy. Nina, I am so excited to welcome you to our first live digital event winning with ecosystems. So glad to have you today for this chat Nina Harding  01:52 events. Thanks so much for including me and this opportunity to connect. Vince Menzione  01:56 So so many exciting announcements the last couple of days coming out of the Microsoft inspire conference, I’m eager to have this discussion on your role mission and the priorities for the partner business. But first, some big announcements as your role is just recently expanded from the US global partner solutions organization. I was hoping you could tell our listeners or viewers a little bit more about that. Nina Harding  02:20 Yeah, well, it’s definitely an exciting time we at Microsoft are looking at how can we accelerate the business much faster? How do we make sure that we’re showing up for all our partners with advanced clarity and knowing who to engage how to engage and making sure that it’s a predictable way to engage. So as a result, we started looking at what’s the best way to go about doing that. And we started to look at, well, maybe we should show up as the Americas. So we are bringing Canada, the US and Latin America together to create a new region that we’re referring to as Americas. And that is going to bring the chemistry that diversity of thought, really some of the best practices that we’ve seen in different markets together and take the best of all of those, and the experiences that you our partners have had with us, and then standardize across the Americas. So it’s a little bit more predictable and easy to engage with us. Vince Menzione  03:23 Such a massive announcement such a massive business, in fact, right the Americas region, I was in the US partner business many years back, which at the time represented roughly in round numbers around 45% of the total business. But I think this is this gives an opportunity to drive Call Best Practices at scale with you in the organization. Do you agree? Nina Harding  03:44 Oh, absolutely. There are there is such ingenuity that’s happening in Latin America, and a lot of our partners are helping to drive that. And the conversations we’ve been having with our partners as well. I’ve done a number of focus groups in the last of what, eight months since I’ve been here. And it allows us to think about what are some of the best ways to engage whether it’s in the SMB, SMC market, all the way up to enterprise? And how do we spend less time focusing on setting up new ways to do it, but rather making sure we’re setting up more ways for partners to engage with us doing that. And so this elimination of some of these artificial borders in a way, allows us to move faster with greater agility. And quite frankly, a lot of our partners are already working across these borders as well. But most importantly, for our customers, customers are expanding. People no longer just do business within the confines of a single country. Think about a lot of companies, they might have manufacturing somewhere and they have help desks and call centers somewhere else. So what this allows us to do is to show up more effectively for customers across these borders, and energize together, you did mention the best practices, right. And I refer to it almost as like centers of excellence. The other thing that I think is kind of cool for our partners is we can think about it from a go to market perspective, right? What are the campaigns? What are the sales plays that we’re driving? And how do we bring more partners along with us to those effective markets and land them in the local markets, but with more energy, as we’re consolidating that, but then also, how do we show it for our partners, technically, with our technical force and capability, whether it’s on the architectural side or involved in an individual deal? Now, we can look across the experts of all of Americans to show up for each partner the way they need us to show up. And that’s pretty powerful, too. Vince Menzione  05:53 Yeah, it sounds it. And another theme I hear you say here is consistency, and execution, right? Not doing this one off thing. And partners have always craved this consistency from Microsoft. Because having to deal with multiple regions, multiple geographies, multiple vertical businesses, it always seemed to the partner from their lens, as if they had to show up differently. Or perhaps the practices were different from region to region or from vertical to vertical. So I think you are solving for this here. And you know, partners have been so critical to the success of Microsoft, I go back to what I call the 1981 Boca Raton moment, when Bill Gates licensed the operating system to IBM, it started off the movement, we created a channel, we now have an ecosystem and a massive ecosystem over 470,000. Microsoft partners out there hopefully, many of them are listening to us and watching us today. But let’s talk about cosell methodology, because this is an area where Microsoft has excelled. But, you know, candidly, many times partners felt that it wasn’t necessarily as a creative to the business as they would have liked. Can we talk a little bit more about CO selling and some of the methodology and how you’re applying maybe some new practices, best practices to this. So co Nina Harding  07:10 selling I think is really at the crux of what our partnerships are about, we have to one trust each other to we have to have open dialogue and conversation. And then we have to go out there and sell together. And selling together means that we really have better expectations of each other, we know what we’re doing together. And that means not just from the global partner solutions team, but what does that mean with our field sales organization. So I’ve been spending a lot of time trying to unpack that since I’ve been here at Microsoft and have had some wonderful feedback from partners, sometimes not always the wonderful feedback, but the needed feedback in order to kind of initiate the changes. So you’re spot on Vince, when you were talking about, we’re starting to look from the outside in, how do we make co selling easier. So it starts with one showing up and organizing ourselves internally, the way partners see their business. So one of the changes that you’re hearing about is that my organization will shift will have a channels organization for those partners that sell with us, we’ll have a services organization, for those of you that are building incredible implementation or change management or advisory services. And then we’ll have an ISV organization focused on those that are capturing their IP packaging it and bringing it out to market, just even that simple change helps us line up better together on the value proposition. And then we move through that. And for example, with our ISVs we look at micro ecosystems by industry or by solution area. And all of a sudden, now engaging with Microsoft isn’t just about engaging with Microsoft. It’s also the community of other partners with whom you can work and signaling where you have that expertise, but doesn’t stop there events, if I can just share, like I’m excited about that. Right. That’s just the beginning, you have to line up. So we all know where we are. But then what we’re also doing is we’ve spent a lot of time looking at our sales sellers out there, right, our field, kind of scratching the surface on like, how do we make it more friendly and easier to engage. So what you’re also hearing about is this huge push towards marketplace, and we’re actually compensating our sellers differently on how they work with our ISV partners and making sure that they’re driving those transactions through the marketplace. We’re also we don’t end there. At Microsoft, we also talk about our we call it emsam Our Microsoft selling methodology right? And here in stage two where we’re really trying to net out what are the specifics of the opportunity? That’s when we’re inviting partners in Nice, more universally now, and the saying, Hey, isn’t this the point not down the road when we’ve sold the deal. But isn’t this the point that we find our trusted advisors, our services partners, invite them into the opportunity, and acknowledge that system driven as well, right. So we can track that. And even perhaps offer to our partners the ability to build out what we call like a consumption plan internally, so that we’re working together on the outcomes we both want. All of those things are things that I think are going to really help evolve how we look at cosell and together, Vince Menzione  10:47 this is pure music to my ears, I have to tell you having been inside Microsoft and been at a global ISP billion dollar ISP, trying to navigate the CO selling methodology. First of all, you I’m gonna unpack a few things you said first of all, you cover the the alignment or the resources in the teams internally to support the what I’ll call the partnering motions, right? You discuss that, specifically around service partners or on channel partners, and ISVs. One of the other things you touched on, which I believe has been overlooked by not just Microsoft, but just the entire industry has been each of these ISPs. And I think there’s roughly let’s use the number 20,000 ISPs that are some size and significance within your purview. Not necessarily managed, but within the purview. But those ISVs all have their own ecosystems, you just call them micro ecosystems, right. So they have a entire ecosystem, if they’re in the healthcare space is an example that is surrounding that solution, complementary solutions, services, all those things that come along with it. And I think we have looked, we’ve been kind of myopic, in our view, as an organization, I say we, because I’ve been very close to Microsoft here. But what you’re saying is we’re going to look more holistically at the micro ecosystems, we’re then going to get the field organization better engaged. And I think I’ll just be a little self critical on Microsoft, you put a lot of resources on that function previously. But maybe it took the onus or the pressure, I’ll use that term on the seller to do the do the work. And the real work is thinking strategically about the customer. Ultimately, the customers making the decision here. And bringing those partners in early and often into that process is what I believe I heard you say, Nina Harding  12:32 Absolutely, it’s incredible what we can do for the customer, the innovation, thinking outside of the box, I mean, customers are demanding a lot more of all of us today. And they really want someone is that is their trusted advisor. That’s how helping them innovate. And with the introduction of AI, and all of our worlds, this is a is a transformation that a lot of our customers are going through. And we want to do that with our partners. Vince Menzione  12:58 So we’ve spoken with Jake Swenson and Dan Rippy, led a session on marketplace moment, I like to refer to it as right because it is somewhat of a shift in mindset towards how we go to market. But I was hoping you could share a little bit more you talked you touched on marketplace, is the America’s chief partner officer, I was hoping you could share a little bit more your perspective on the value and benefits of marketplace. Nina Harding  13:26 Absolutely. I think marketplace is one of the most powerful go to markets that all of us have together collectively, it is the place where all of our customers can come to learn about all these technologies, these offerings that are available to them. It’s now also where we’re going to ask our sellers to go right. So that’s a really important motion as well for everyone to understand that. That’s where the sellers are going to go as well to include and introduce offerings to our customers. Our engineers are also working really hard. We’ve We’ve been listening. And there are so many great ideas, suggestions, even opportunities for improvement from all of our partners, we’ve been listening. And so we have the engineers going at a million miles, really trying to deliver on that promise and those ideas, because it’s about that customers experience at the end of the day, and how together with all of you, we’re creating this value proposition for the customer. If they make their bed on Microsoft. You’ve made your bed on Microsoft. Look at the plethora and the energy and the dynamic solutions that are out there. But most importantly, if the customer is buying through the marketplace as well. They’re also able to decrement their customer cloud commitments. That’s really powerful. So now All of our ISVs also have access quite honestly, to something that’s energizing that customer from a financial perspective as well. So I am excited about all of that. And then you have to connect it back to partner center, right. So as connecting it back to partner center, we’re now also able to enable our partners to surface all of their marketplace opportunities with our sellers. And once again, hopefully to better drive co selling. Vince Menzione  15:32 Yes. I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens, and now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vin Sam, that’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M check it out. You know we talk about marketplaces. Canalis says that by 2025 We’ll see $45 billion go through marketplaces 80% of that will go through the big three, Microsoft, Amazon and Google Cloud. So just an amazing opportunity. And I’d like to like pinpoint I have a point of view here on marketplaces. And I think you, you said it, but I want to bring it together. And that many times there’s many organizations coming together on behalf of the customer solve for that solution, right there is an ISV, maybe even multiple ISVs, a channel partner who maybe would typically manage the customer relationship. And then a services partner and the marketplace, opportunity allows you to bring that all together in one solution, one token, if you will, to the customer. And it’s not as easy as click, try buy. But in a way, it gives you the object objectification, if you will, of the solution, it makes it easier to burn down that agreement, Nina Harding  17:37 you’re spot on events. I mean, we’re doing so many eight figure deals. It’s amazing right now, through the marketplace. So it’s not just for small transactions. Small transactions are effective right there. They’re point point solutions just when the customer needs them. But you can also transact these massive deals like you’re talking about Vince, right, where all the collective partners come together as being one of those partners as well, right. And so an ISV can also bring in their resellers into the deal, and put together custom offers for the client. It’s pretty powerful. And so keep those ideas coming from all the partners, because we’re certainly listening. And we’re certainly innovating around that to meet the needs and demands and how we all show up better for our clients in the end. Well, and Vince Menzione  18:28 this is a big change, right? So in fact, I got up on stage in the early days the cloud at a channel event and said, You need to come along with us. And I feel the same type of rallying cry needs to happen for the channel along with marketplaces, what would you say to the large channel resellers if you will, or even any other partner that might be hesitant to jump in. Nina Harding  18:51 So with our resellers and our channel partners, right, it’s a critical function that you can see that we’re now organizing just to make sure that we have explicit, I would say, dedication and focus on our channel partners. This has always been sort of mixed around in the organization’s before and now we have strategic intent around them. When I think about our channels, partners, making sure that you’re starting to think about some of the innovation that’s coming out and the adoption and are you in a position where you really can sell and talk about things like copilot and AI and the value proposition. They’re making sure that you’re bringing all the innovation as a plus for your business as you’re out there on the forefront, representing the products, selling the products and innovating with the customers. I think you’ll also see some new incentives coming out which is pretty exciting, as those incentives are really focused on rewarding you for the hard work that you’re doing. Some of them can And from suggestions. And some of them just make sense things like making sure that we’re rewarding you for the new customer additions that you’re bringing to the table versus just for the contract. Those are, that’s pretty exciting. So all of those things might make sense for our channel partners. Vince Menzione  20:17 I’m glad you broken up incentives, we’re going to have a workshop session just later in this event today, to talk about go to market and those incentives specifically to fuel the growth. But what do you see from the best partners? Now you’ve been around your Microsoft before? You spent a lot of time in this ecosystem? if you will? What do you see from the best partners working with you and your organization? Nina Harding  20:40 So first, I am a believer of us being curious, and being at the forefront of the learning in the adoption, and really making sure that you’re skilled and you understand the latest and greatest, so that I know is an investment. The second thing that I really see are the partners that have made the move to marketplace. That’s important. And it’s going to be even more important as we move forward. The third thing is this relentless focus on customer success, I think we’re in an age where we’re imagining what technology can do for all these companies. So capturing the customer success, telling the impact, sharing the impact, that you’re having, not just focused on the pipeline all the time, but focused on the impact it’s having, and letting that customer voice represent your brand. That’s incredible. So I look at that. And then coupled with that, I think is this relentless focus on making sure that your customers are not just executed against, but they’re satisfied. They’re delighted. So having a responsibility of looking at the customer success, not just at the beginning of the project and at the end, but during the course of the project, and then coming back for more and genuine. Vince Menzione  22:03 And how do you get there? Is there a specific thing that partners need to think about? There? Nina Harding  22:09 We are, we’re we’ve just announced some investments around AI, and some new initiatives. So I encourage you guys all to really take a look at those and embrace those and see if they are pertinent and relevant for your business. AI is an exciting thing, it is the number one topic that all of our clients are wanting to explore what does this mean for me, right, there’s a lot of both excitement and a little anticipation around it. So being responsible and understanding what we can offer together and doing that in a way that unlocks innovation versus being something that you feel a little bit scared by. That’s really important right now. So that’s the first thing I would really encourage you to do. And if you’re not already on the marketplace bandwagon, it kind of get there fast. So really making sure that your packaging of that IP that you’re making it accessible, easy to understand, is really important. And then the third thing, I started talking about it just having the customer stories, but maybe taking a look and putting in for your company, a way to really measure the impact that you’re having with your customers. How does that show up? How are you showing up? And having open conversations with your clients? Just like I’m trying to have with many of our partners today? On what what can we or do we need to do more of, so that you develop a skilling or an investment plan within your company, to be more present to be a driver of satisfaction with your clients. Vince Menzione  23:53 I hear satisfaction clients satisfaction quite a bit here in this conversation. I hope those who are watching and listening in here that as well. You have been an amazing guest. And you know, I am so excited to finally get this opportunity to be with you, for our listeners for and for those who are watching today as well. What are the imperatives that you would say to them to deliver their most successful results? It’s now day one of fiscal year 24. Right? What do we need to think about as partners to drive the most incredible results? Nina Harding  24:29 So let me break it down. Because I think it’s also about making it very clear by what type of partner the behaviors are driving what matters to you, right? So let me do what we’re at how are we’re reorganizing the team as well. If you’re an ISV. Think about the innovation that’s happening in the products. And where can you take advantage of that to transform your products to deliver that for your clients? You can look at it from a security perspective. Have an AI prospective, even sort of some of those smaller, puts intakes, but then making sure that you’re making it to marketplace, because you want to be part of those customer max. And, and that is incredible, there is a whole fluid cycle. And you want to be part of that momentum versus left behind. Right. So those those are the two things I would focus on for our ISPs and digital natives, for our size or services, partners and advisory partners. It’s about skilling right now, talent, being able to have those conversations going to the new frontiers of technology and feeling like you can actually advise, you can be at the forefront, and you can guide the clients through that. So there probably is some investment right now, in skilling retooling, making sure that your folks are ready to shine and help imagine the future with their clients, accelerating those cloud transformations really thinking about that they have to migrate first in order to take advantage of everything that we have in the future. So I really would encourage you there. And then for the channels partners, you’re you’re gonna see a lot of focus. And I would say incentives around the SMC SMB business. So really trying to make it crystal clear. And really, I would say profitable for all of our partners in that arena. So think about that. Think about your value proposition, how you’re showing up, how you’re differentiated? Are you looking at particular industries? Or what is your play in those areas. And lastly, for the device partners, right, we need to just to make sure we have all the sockets for Microsoft Cloud. So super, super excited about all those areas. I’m Vince Menzione  26:56 so happy to see this all come together the way it has. And you mentioned SMC. And we have Kevin P spear coming on for a later Fireside Chat. But I know that this is a massive opportunity for partners and probably one that they haven’t tapped in to the field organization in the right way. Would you expand on that just a little bit? Nina Harding  27:17 Yeah. Well, Kevin, Kevin will give you a lot of the details here. But what I will say is, from a partner perspective, from a GPS perspective, we’re putting a lot of investment, we’re infusing and energizing this space to make it really what it needs to be for our partners. So making sure we have the right tools and visibility of resources, fueling go to market campaigns, making sure that there are ways for partners to tap into some of the core sales plays that were driving, and then translate that into the SMB SMC space. And that instead of it being something that you maybe just download, and take a look at, we’re actually energizing and creating those motions and putting the rocket fuel I would say into the tank. In this arena, you’ll you’ll see us lining up resources, funding incentives. This is something that we want all of you to be on the road with us. We’re working at warp speed, because this is this is an opportunity that is immense for all of us. Vince Menzione  28:24 So our participants should stay tuned for that later session. There’s a lot more we’ll peel back on. Nina, you have been incredibly, I’ve been an incredibly exciting guest. And I’m so excited for this opportunity to spend time with you. Understanding and unpacking the priorities of you and your organization. We have to have you back, we have to have you back again. I want to I want to unpack on the career journey, want to spend more time with you getting to know you and how you’re leading this amazing organization, and shaping this incredible fiscal year 2024. But I want to just first thank you for your time today, your incredible time being here with our partners. Nina Harding  29:03 Vince, thank you, thanks for the opportunity. And also thank you to all the partners for trusting me, giving ideas, please keep the ideas coming. Hopefully you’re seeing some of the reflection of those ideas. And we just want to keep innovating. We want to be your partner of choice. We want to we’re very committed to the business. And let’s go, let’s go out there and delight and change the market. It’s an exciting time for all of us. Vince Menzione  29:32 Let’s go. I love that. Nina, thank you so much for your time today. Nina Harding  29:36 Yeah, you too. Thank you. Vince Menzione  29:38 Nina was just such an amazing guest. So much excitement coming out of Microsoft inspire this year around the transformation around transformative technologies like AI, marketplaces, and the major focus on small, medium and corporate accounts. I want to thank you for listening to ultimate guide to partnering. If you liked today’s episode please hit subscribe. And if you’d like to stay ahead of all the excitement coming from our organization, including a live event we’re hosting November 14 and 15th. In Dallas, Texas, please sign up for our newsletter at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and look for our sign up page coming to you soon. So hope you stay tuned and join us as we hope to help you become the ultimate Mark. Announcer  30:29 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to Partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partnering.

Head of Hyperscaler Business Development and Alliances – Microsoft at VMware Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Are you a partner looking to tap into the massive opportunity to partner with hyperscalers like Microsoft? Are you struggling to achieve your greatest results and wish there were easy answers? Do you want to learn from someone who has dramatically impacted the success of one of the world’s largest technology partnerships? Then you have come to the right place. Neeti Gupta, the Head of Hyperscaler Business Development for the Microsoft Partnership at VMWare. VMWare is one of the largest independent software vendors, an ecosystem juggernaut. Neeti divulges her strategy for transforming VMWare’s monumental partnership with Microsoft. She unpacks how she leveraged key principles for successful partnering, discusses why she is optimistic about Microsoft’s pivot to Marketplace, and offers actionable advice that could fuel your partnership growth in Microsoft’s Fiscal Year 24. In Neeti’s Words Neeti Gupta is an adept ecosystems and platform partnerships professional with a proven track record in leadership and strategic initiatives. As the Head of Hyperscaler Business Development and Partnerships at VMware, focusing on Microsoft partnerships, Neeti has demonstrated her ability to drive business growth and foster strategic partnerships. Her strong leadership skills and a strategic mindset have been instrumental in negotiating significant agreements and achieving noteworthy industry awards and business milestones. Neeti possesses strong business acumen and a comprehensive understanding of cross-functional domains and was named CRN 2023 Women of the Channel. Neeti’s educational background includes degrees in Comparative Media Studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Business Analytics from Harvard (US), and Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, De Montfort University and School of Planning and Architecture (India and UK), complementing her practical experience and providing a holistic perspective to her work. What You’ll Learn Neeti’s Mission & Role at Vmware?2:20 How do we tie in with Microsoft?10:05 The scale of the ecosystem.15:54 What to do differently to drive incremental results?21:15 Invest and hire great experts.25:32 The importance of thinking like a CEO. 31:40 Where do we go from here?37:50 Hold the Date – November 13-15 – Dallas, TX I’m excited to preannounce my next event in partnership with Microsoft, stay tuned to my website next week for more details to come. A Word from AG1 “Winning with Ecosystems” – Now OnDemand Ultimate Partner’s first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems” Is Now Available OnDemand Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos UGP Video Podcast – Neeti Gupta v6 Wed, Aug 30, 2023 3:16PM • 42:28 SUMMARY KEYWORDS microsoft, vmware, cosell, partnerships, partner, marketplace, people, work, organization, internally, team, ultimate guide, ag, drive, talk, focus, navel gazing, ecosystem, craft, conversation SPEAKERS Vince Menzione, Announcer, Neeti Gupta Vince Menzione  00:00 Are you an organization looking to tap into the massive opportunity to partner with the hyperscalers like Microsoft? Are you struggling to achieve your greatest results? And wish there were easier answers? Do you want to learn from someone who has dramatically impacted the success of one of the world’s largest technology partnerships, then you’ve come to the right place. This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast, Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host Vince Menzione. Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and today I will needy Gupta, the head of hyper scalar Business Development for the Microsoft partnership at VMware, one of the world’s largest independent software vendors, and an ecosystem powerhouse in their own right. In this episode, Didi shares her secrets to transforming this massive partnership, how she’s applied some of the principles I share for successful partnering, why she’s bullish on Microsoft’s pivot to marketplace, and advice you can take to grow your partnership in fiscal year 24. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion, as much as I enjoyed welcoming needy Gupta, Neeti Gupta  01:31 needy. Welcome to the podcast. Hi, man, thank you so much for having me on your podcast today. I’m really excited to be here. I am so excited to welcome you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering. You’re the head of hyperscale or business development for the Microsoft partnership at VMware. And aren’t we worked at Microsoft at the same time. So it’s so great to welcome you today. Thank you so much. So for our listeners, maybe the one or two people out there that don’t know you personally, can you describe for them your role and responsibilities at VMware? Absolutely. So I’ve been at VMware two years. I am the Senior Director for Public Cloud partnerships at VMware with a focus on hyper focus on Microsoft partnerships. For VMware worldwide. I have a small team of all women team that manages this relationship. And the way we think about our role for organization that’s VMware is that we are the CEOs of the Microsoft business for VMware, which means we manage this relationship end to end. We scale, of course, we scale through our cross functional teams. And my responsibility includes managing this great team of business development and partnership leaders, we forge and maintain any agreements between the two companies. We identify cobuild efforts, like ones that we’re doing with AI ml now. And we also craft effective cloud GTM strategies, like goes out incentives and novel route routes to market like the marketplaces. So there’s a lot, but this is the end to end. And that’s what managing the mix of partnership in an ISP looks like? Vince Menzione  03:14 Yeah, I think it’s really great for our listeners, many of which may not really understand like what goes in on in a large organization, like VMware, you have several different product categories or groups. And you have you have a team of people. And I noticed that you mentioned a women led team or a team made up of women maybe want to dive in a little bit more on that as we get further in the conversation. But tell us what goes into the roles like how do you separate like roles and responsibilities on your team? Neeti Gupta  03:43 Yeah, so we, obviously with Microsoft manage this relationship globally. So we have focused on what we call Americas, then EMEA and APJ. But then we also have dedicated focus on causal and marketplace. And that was much needed. And then we also have focused on doing the agreements, which I do primarily, as well as on the cobuild motion, kind of finding the right people across product management, as well as engineering as well as our our office of the CTO and making sure that they all come together and make the partnership successful. So that that’s part of the charter. So I would say summarize it as kobold goes out, go market and all those things coming together. Vince Menzione  04:32 I love the way you separate that cobuild co market cosell together. And you know, I do a lot of work as well in the ISP community in which the independent software vendor community in which you live as well. And you built a formidable cosell relationship with Microsoft. But it wasn’t always that way. Can you tell us about that journey? Neeti Gupta  04:52 Yeah, it’s actually a really good journey. And I was reflecting on this just a few days back. So I started at Veeam With two years back, and when I took this role at VMware, we had just started our cosell journey with Microsoft. And as you know, when that Microsoft started the coastal program, and structured it in 2017, right. And fortunately for us, my colleagues had already spent a little bit of time and investing in building a few fundamentals, like the data integrations were there when I arrived. And I’m really grateful for those prior colleagues that they had done that foundation work, because that gave us a kickstart what had not happened was that there was no focus, right? There was no structure. And to drive focus and structure, we had to do three things. So I think number one, we had to make sure that cosell or joint selling with Microsoft was seen as an important part of the relationship building with Microsoft. And I don’t think many people in the organization’s an ISV organization see it that way. And that’s a problem, right? So you have to kind of explain and educate and make sure that we are focusing on the course and program. And there is the compensation and how the sales teams are measured is all tied together. So pulling that together was kind of part of that journey. The second thing is kind of also clarifying that cosell is part of the VMware Cloud go to market motion. So we had to educate our executives and talk about the program and how that has impact on VMware as revenue and help the sellers understand that. So there was a lot of this kind of work on what I call the sales enablement. And that’s the third piece of this puzzle. But we had to really get focused on how cosell is part of driving what I call a data driven sales, engagement enablement, right. So we are able to actually look at what is in the pipeline, we are able to now look at what we have been able to close. And then we are able to share that with each of the regional sales leads. And also the seller, just like these are the accounts we’ve made some traction on. And if you can’t measure, then it’s hard to drive that behavior as well. So I think those were the three things that we had to really pull up our sleeves and do. And also the focus was because we have a first focus lead for cosell at VMware. Right? She goes and drives that end to end reporting, make sure that people know about the program. And then when it goes out, the word itself becomes confusing, then we kind of use the language of joint selling and what does that mean? And go in and kind of sell it that way. But it’s constantly framing, right? It’s it’s kind of what is in it for the sellers? What’s in it for VMware? What’s in it for the partnership? Vince Menzione  07:58 I want to dive in a little bit because what I thought I heard you talk about was some of the well, let’s say the internal challenges, right? It sounded like you need to get leadership involved, get that executive commitment, the conversation internally, maybe about changing the approach and why co selling was additive to the selling efforts of VMware. And if I understood you correctly, and then also using data to drive the conversation to say this is how many more at bats we got. I’ll use my terminology here right? More at bats we had we had a greater velocity or deal close win ratios, right. These are the things that cosell people don’t often understand. Like, why should I do this is so much extra work. Right? What were the challenges from your side? And what did I uncover some of them here or were there others? Neeti Gupta  08:48 Yeah, I think those were the key, right, I think kind of telling the story of why cosell was the most important one. And I think that’s what I was saying that how the way we reframe that was, with this notion of that causal is important part of the relationship building with Microsoft. If we don’t do causal, the partnership kind of fizzles through, right, because the resources that we have on the partner development side, the partner marketing side, as well as the technical specialists that we get as part of our kind of team at Microsoft, who helps us do all the things on a daily basis and help us navigate the 300,000 people at Microsoft comes with this tie in with the program. Right. So I think that is not clear internally. And that was kind of important part of making sure that hey, if we need to build that relationship with Microsoft, this is the gateway, right cosell program is the gateway. And I think that kind of building on that is that for VMware, it’s important because we are trying to get to that cloud go to market motion, which is very he honed in for the VMware products. But what about products that we jointly sell with Microsoft? So how do we tie that? With? You know, how do we go about doing that? And how do we do that with our sales teams, and our customer success teams. So that tie in didn’t exist in a formal structured way? We did a bunch of things that allowed us to do that. Vince Menzione  10:23 And for our listeners that don’t understand this, you also have what are called first party offerings, are they still refer to that as first party offerings? Microsoft has a nomenclature around this. But it’s an offer where VMware and Microsoft stand up an offering that is sold by the field team at Microsoft. That’s correct. Neeti Gupta  10:40 That’s correct. So we have both first party solution, which is Azure VMware solution. And as well as we have our third party solutions, which, again, that nomenclature is confusing. By the way, I’ll tell you what that means, means something when I go and have a conversation with Microsoft, but when I turned back, and my team goes and has a conversation internally, our first party that that that different sellers don’t see that difference, right? Because we compensate our sellers on both the first Microsoft first party and third party offers, as long as they are selling any of these joint solutions, we are good. And same for Microsoft, right? We have that tie in on the sales compensation side. So make sure as you lead with Azure VMware solution, which are the Microsoft first party solution, we tie in all these other solutions that we also joined these, Vince Menzione  11:33 you know, you kind of stuck on something here is I call it the decoder ring, right? Because you you brought many years of Microsoft experience into VMware, and I think you’re able to translate internally some of that language and methodology back to your organization. Neeti Gupta  11:47 Yeah, I think that could be the other title, which partnerships people could have as the chief translator officer. You’re constantly doing the translation of not only just cultural nuances, but also the acronyms and abbreviations that are used across two organizations. And often, you know, we find ourselves doing that is, this is what the Microsoft team man, this is what the VMware team meant. Now, let’s kind of can we get to that next step? Because I think there’s the translation is not happening properly. And we can move to the next step. But yeah, I think that’s exactly what our role is, many times. Vince Menzione  12:31 Well, and in addition to being a call on Microsoft expert, because you spent many years at Microsoft, and understood coming into VMware, how to make that happen, how to build the cosell methodology, you also leaned on some expert guides to help you with your methodology and improving it. What was that experience? Like? What worked and what didn’t work and some of the improvements that you made? Neeti Gupta  12:54 Absolutely, I mean, we my team constantly relies on experts, that are both VMware experts, as well as Microsoft experts. And in fact, we have actively reached out to a lot of leaders I fortunately had to work with at Microsoft who are running some consulting firms right now to kind of engage with them. As you know, our friend, Aaron helped us with the causal, kind of making sure that the operational nitty gritty of day to day work that needed to be done could be done. And we had to outsource that, right, that that’s not something a full time resource on my team could have managed because of the large scale, like, we have 1000s of leads in the pipeline that have to be managed across multiple business units at VMware. And so we needed that, you know, support. We also reached out when we were working on messaging and positioning, and how do we go talk to Microsoft sellers, we engage a lot of experts, right? Our friend, Larry, and they came and helped us create those superpower slides, so that we could have that conversation. And internally, again, you know, we’ve been engaged with the VMware enablement team, make sure that we’re doing the translation internally, as well. So it takes a variety of consultants and experts to make this work. And if someone thinks I can just do it, and I’ve heard these stories in the partnership community that, you know, a new leader comes in, tries to do it everything by themselves. And no, you can’t like especially if you’re talking about to large organizations, you need other translators to help you with this job. Vince Menzione  14:37 It’s so true. And I want to dive in a little bit more on this too, because you kind of struck on this right? What do you believe to be true but is overlooked in partnering with Microsoft? Neeti Gupta  14:50 Yeah, I think this is a realization I had when I was at Microsoft that Microsoft business model is partner led, right so it is an ecosystem strategy. GE at the core of their business model, and I think once you recognize that, and that’s not the case for other public cloud vendors, right, they are still learning those, that that aspect of the business model. And once you kind of dial into that what it means and you can tap into the ecosystem, you know, Microsoft has an NG, someone gave me this number, like 5 million partners. So if you’re able to figure out how to start scaling your business through not only the connection with Microsoft directly, and the Microsoft sellers directly, but also engage this ecosystem that Microsoft has from a professional services, vendors for system integrators, the other ISVs, and are able to start packaging some of your solutions with other, you know, customer value added opportunities. I think that scale can be immense. And I would say that even at VMware, we just barely starting this, to scratch the surface. As we brought in the marketplace agreement, we did that marketplace agreement, and started kind of really deep going deep into how we do this. Vince Menzione  16:11 And you know, what you were alluding to here, I mean, the VMware has built a very strong we Skoll channel back in the day, right? So yeah, you have a strong capability, which is now an ecosystem supporting VMware. And how does that overlap with the Microsoft ecosystem, it’s pretty, pretty closely aligned. And Neeti Gupta  16:27 it’s happening is pretty close. I mean, majority of VMware, system integrators, as well as resellers and distributors are the same partners. And that’s an advantage, which we take, we know we have been taking advantage of as well, because we know that these same partners would want to do business with both companies, it’s just a matter of now making sure that their internal VMware teams, talk to the Microsoft Teams, you know, the work that we need to do. But once that work is done, and I know I make it sound very easy. But once that work is done, then it starts kind of really getting the scale motions, move faster. Vince Menzione  17:10 Yeah. And it’s, that’s not easy work, do we can spend a whole podcast episode talking about that, both internally within your organization, getting the teams to talk together. And then on the Microsoft side, getting those different teams that manage the different partner types talking with one another, Neeti Gupta  17:25 I think that’s the the beauty or the curse, whichever way you want to look at f large organizations, whether I think that’s the job as well to make sure that we can coordinate in connect the dots where those dots are not connecting. And when it’s done effectively, and in some cases, we have been able to do that it really drives the business forward, you know, in a scale and the way that is, you know, people don’t don’t that can be done, Vince Menzione  17:54 you touched on it. And I want to appeal back on it right now or amplify the conversation because of Microsoft’s inspire conference, just it’s almost a month ago, there was a lot of buzz around marketplaces. In fact, I called it the marketplace moment, because Microsoft made some big investments. Let’s talk about marketplaces. And are you bullish on them? Neeti Gupta  18:16 Absolutely. I would say yes. 100%. If you’re not on Azure Marketplace, or any marketplace that these cloud vendors have, then you you’re going to lose out. I’ll tell you why. I mean, two years back, when I started, the first thing I did was, hey, do we have an Azure Marketplace agreement, if now, let’s go do that. And that meant I had to build a business case, make sure that we could tell the story of why marketplace was important. And then do the DDoS agreement negotiations with Microsoft to make sure that we were on Azure Marketplace, right. And then after that, there was a lot of work on making sure that each of our business units had solutions that can meet the requirements of Azure Marketplace could be listed. And then on the other side, on the buyer side, making sure the customers knew we were listed. And we could drive campaigns and kind of make that connection. And then we had a way to get the pipeline get the private offered in close those deals. And in fact, last year, the largest marketplace deal was VMware as deal, right? Wow. Exactly. So I think we are definitely looking at marketplace as a way to generate more revenue for a company. It is also a place we have a lot of learning to do as well as Microsoft has a lot of learning to do, as you kind of as Microsoft launch, as you know, when it’s launched the MPO program. And there’s a lot of work on you know, making sure now each partner, Microsoft partner and VMware partner knows about this program can go and take advantage of that and especially we have all the listings that we already have, and then internally making sure that we continue to To create continuous innovation, and continue to list more solutions that we can also bring to the Azure Marketplace, as well. Vince Menzione  20:09 And for our listeners that don’t know what MPO is, that’s the multi partner offer that Microsoft now allows. Were before it was only the ISV partner, the VMware partner, as an example. And Microsoft selling to a customer. NPO allows VMware to leverage that ecosystem, and bring those partners whether it’d be called channel partners or s eyes, whatever category is used, and then cosell together, right? And then everyone wins in that equation. Would you agree? Neeti Gupta  20:43 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously, proof is in the pudding, we want to see revenue. And we want to make sure that we can get the education that’s needed. And so that’s some of the work that we’re doing with Microsoft right now. Vince Menzione  20:56 So you get to sit in an enviable spot. Right. VMware is one of Microsoft’s top partners, and you have done an amazing job driving incredible success. Congratulations on all the work you’ve done, achieving top partner status and all the awareness that you’ve built within your organization and at Microsoft. But what about the other organizations that you see out there the other independent software vendors that are looking to achieve top cosell status or drive incremental results? Why do you think that so many don’t achieve these great results? And what would you tell those that would like to achieve top results to do differently today? Neeti Gupta  21:34 Yeah, I think I have three things that I can share from my experience. One is build a great team, I’ve had a lot of ISVs, who, you know, have reached out to me and they say, we’ve had one person while one person is not going to get you through what you really need to drive write it. And I’m not saying you need to hire 40 people or 50 people just to manage the max of relationship. But you do need to have dedicated focus, especially if you aim to scale from Geo because time zones become a challenge, right? And then the cosell program and the marketplace programs, they require dedicated focus, the CO building requires dedicated focus. And if you are like VMware, you have multiple agreements, you need someone who could be paying attention to that, right. So I think that’s the number one kind of build a great team and hire good people, because that just kind of makes that scale possible. And the other thing is don’t do navel gazing. And what I mean by navel gazing is just look at what you and you want to do. And I think that’s part of the puzzle. But you have to understand the Microsoft playbook. And if you don’t understand the Microsoft playbook, you’re never going to get the outcomes that you want. Because you will constantly be saying, This is what I want, this is what I want. And Microsoft is going to say, well, there are millions of other ISPs who also are saying, This is what I want. But this is these are the things you know, for our fiscal year, and Max is very structured, right? So they set the strategy, then that’s what they execute across the year. So if you miss the window of planning, and you haven’t gotten some of your ideas in with Microsoft, then don’t expect them to make that changes, once July hits, right. So then go into execution mode. So I would say, understand the Microsoft playbook. Don’t do navel gazing. And then And then the third one, which we touched upon, is hire great experts to complement some of the work you need to do. But you may not have the expertise in house or even on your own team, and then leverage your cross functional teams. I mean, they’re a great resource. I can’t tell you how many people have raised their hand and say, hey, I want to do a project with you because I want to get to know Microsoft and take advantage of that. So I think those are the things that if you really want to drive, and these are software skills, right, I’m not talking about the mechanics of what you need to do to get to the core sell and get your IP cosell in do all of that work. I think these things are the levers that we used, which are more on the softer skills side but are equally important. Vince Menzione  24:23 I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago I found athletic greens and now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D, and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase, go to drink, ag one.com forward slash Vin Sam, that’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M, check it out. So hire great team hire. In other words, also invest I think is what I heard you say don’t just have one person, especially if you’re a larger ISP. And you’ve got a big organization supporting a billion dollars, ISPs are driving a lot of revenue through their, their systems. And then you mentioned the navel gazing, I really I really like because I see so many ISPs that are more in the I’ll call it it’s a scarcity mentality, or that there’s a mindset around Microsoft needs to do things my way. Yeah, as opposed to aligning to Microsoft, which is what I think I heard you say, and then hire great experts as well, because you’re not going to have all the resources or all the answers yourself. In your case, you’re talking about 1000s of transactions, integrating across Microsoft’s partner center, your CRM solution back and forth, lot, there’s a lot of data going back and forth. There’s a lot of handling that needs to happen. So you need the tools to do the job. Right? Neeti Gupta  26:27 Exactly. Especially if data is not always clean. So you there is that manual work? That still happens? Because some of them like, Okay, we’ll just buy this tool and make this tool is going to make it all work. And I was like, no, no, no, that means you haven’t really done the job. Because the tool is not when you make it work is the people who actually even now and you know, when the data becomes really clean the and then you can get to that point where you are just able to do the, the automation of those through those tools. So it’s a combination still. And that’s the reality. Vince Menzione  27:01 And the other piece I heard you say earlier I want to reiterate is you’ve got to do the internal selling within your own organization, right, you’ve got to, you’ve got to set the stage as the you’re the Microsoft expert internally, I would say at VMware, help the leadership really understand why they need to invest, why they need to do things a little bit differently to support the journey, because it’s good for both organizations. Neeti Gupta  27:24 Yeah, I think some of these lessons are also applicable to other cloud providers as well. So some of the things we talked about today are not just how you can manage Microsoft, I think I’m also starting to see that as I talked to my peers who are managing other cloud vendors, it’s similar, right? It’s just different cultures. And of course, that is still a piece of kind of understanding what makes these other cloud providers tick. But the fundamentals of the building blocks remain the same. Right. And so I would say, some of the things ideas we’ve talked about here are applicable, as ISVs, manage, you know, participate in other ecosystems as well. Vince Menzione  28:08 Yeah, I think what you said is, is right on here, right, specifically, this is not just a Microsoft conversation, this is a hyper scalar conversation. And you and I both know that the way that these other organizations have built out their programs and their strategy and their partnering teams. I mean, it all goes back to I always talk about the Boca Raton moment like Microsoft created the partner ecosystem many years ago, it was the first one to have a co selling motion. And others have played fast cat catch up, some of even surpass them in some areas, and marketplace in particular. But they all play from a very similar playbook, there might be differences. But culturally, and some of the necessary things you need to do are the same no matter who you’re working with. Neeti Gupta  28:51 Exactly. That’s exactly true. And so if you can figure it out, working with one hyper scalar, I think you could at least use that playbook at 80% of that playbook with other Aqua scalars do Vince Menzione  29:07 such a great car, we could spend all day here. And you know, we’re gonna have more conversations together. Anita, you know that we’re going to talk more about the future. And you’ve got such a great story to tell. And it can help so many of our partners out there to better understand how to be successful here. But I also want to talk about you and your career journey. You’ve had an amazing career. And I love to learn from you like was there a spark that set you off on your path to success? Neeti Gupta  29:35 And I think we touched on that a little bit. And when when I had just started working at Microsoft, you know, I started on the product side. And there was a moment where I realized that the business model of Microsoft is partner partners. And that was kind of a spark, if you will, when I realized that if I want to take my career, any In the future, and you know, you’re talking about 15 years back, right that, that amazing in that and you know, partnerships was not a domain then right? I said, if I really want to do well, in my career, I do need to understand the craft of partnerships, because that’s how Microsoft is making money. And that’s how every vendor in future is going to be able to scale their business, because they won’t be able to go on this journey alone. And I think once I had that realization, I then actively look for experiences. And some of it was just, you know, I fell into those jobs, but I was actively seeking those experiences to hone my craft. Because once you get better at what you do, then you can apply it, especially because they are not, I mean, there are some certifications now. But back in the day, there was no one teaching you partnerships really no, nobody was even talking about partnerships, as it was you were learning by doing. And I think that has served me well. And I think that has helped me get the roles that I’ve been doing now. And I’m really excited, because every day I can hone my craft. And I can do it even better. Vince Menzione  31:16 You know, you touched on this. But there was a time when partnership was not exactly the most glamorous role in the organization, right? It was a place where sometimes you put people that weren’t necessarily successful, I inherited some of those folks. And you know, that was one of the things I feel I brought to Microsoft was getting top sellers, to become partner leaders, because they brought that skill set that was so much needed in the role. Neeti Gupta  31:40 Absolutely. And I think, you know, as we’ve done different roles at Microsoft and elsewhere, I’ve learned that you truly have to be the CEO for that relationship. And you have to think left to right, you know, sales, marketing, product engineering, customer success, user experience, they’re all kind of parts of the playbook that you need to make that partnership successful. And the moment you start thinking like a CEO, I do think that it kind of just changes the dynamic of the partnership and the relationship, whether it’s one on one or three way, four way relationships, I think you have to kind of start looking at I am the owner, and I have to kind of figure out how this end to end journey works in what will build a relationship that will help us accrue to the revenue potential that hasn’t been unlocked. Yet? And I think so that that thinking has definitely helped me. Vince Menzione  32:41 Yeah. And I, you know, I know that from some of the work, I’ve seen some of the work that you’ve done, I mean, you’re driving relationships at the CEO level of both organizations, right. So that requires a set of skills, and executive presence and executive set of skills to drive that. And I think that’s something often missed in the conversation. Neeti Gupta  33:00 Absolutely. Totally agree with. Vince Menzione  33:04 So this is a fun question. I love to ask almost every single one of our guests now because it’s so much fun to dive in here, needy. So you are hosting a dinner party, and you can host this dinner party anywhere in the world, you got to ask any three guests from the present, or the past to join this amazing dinner party? Only three, though? Whom would you invite? And why? Neeti Gupta  33:29 Yeah, I think it builds on something that we were talking about earlier. And I would say the three people that three amazing women that I would invite to the dinner table would be my mom, if very famous architect named Zaha Hadid, also, Oprah Winfrey. And I’ll tell you why. My mom because she has taught me the value of hard work and being persistent in pursuit of a mission or a goal that you set for yourself. And I don’t I do think that trade comes from her. She and she She’s been an amazing mentor supporter. She’s the one who’s probably going to watch this video, or the pot hear the podcast, I’m so grateful for some of the skills. And the second one is the I admire her for the love of her craft in the amazing work in the field of architecture that she’s done. And I think the key thing is when you know what craft you want to focus on, and it can be anything. And then you can really pursue it with that passion and that commitment that she was able to do. It just yields amazing results. And so that’s why I think you know, she would be the other person on my dinner table. And then the last one, giving back to the community. So once you found a craft and you get really good at it. And I think Oprah Winfrey kind of is that example. Then giving back to the community in, you know, really thinking about what have I learned? How can I tell, share that and bring other leaders on that journey with me, is kind of her. So I think if I apply back to what we do, you know, you have to have some kind of grit. It’s not for the faint hearted you and I joke about that, right? This is not for the faint hearted. And you need some passion for this craft. Because every day you will have different challenges. And as you’re only going to get better as you can work through those challenges. And then lastly, you know, you have to give back to the community. And this is what this podcast is really about, right? You’ve looked we’ve learned you and I’ve learned a few things that we can now share so that not everyone has to learn partnerships the hard way. Yes. These are the people I would bring to my dinner table and why Vince Menzione  36:01 this sounds like a wonderful, first of all, I’d love to meet your mom, I’m going to come by and bring dessert or something I need to come by Zaha Hadid Yeah, how I pronounce it. Yeah. And then Oprah. I mean, Oprah. I mean, we all know Oprah, I mean, just the amazing story of her success, but also where she came from her roots and her background and how she overcame so many things to then give back, as you say, just really terrific. cigniti as Microsoft enters its fiscal year 24. Right? It is month, two now, we all know Microsoft summer, right? So it’s really just kicking in, right. But as a Microsoft leader, what new habit or mindset Are you embracing? To accelerate your path for this successful new fiscal year? Neeti Gupta  36:47 Yeah, I think one of the things that I’ve been talking to my team about is also mindfulness. And, you know, we all have very active minds when you work in partnerships, because you have, you’re constantly thinking of all these ideas and things and how you can move the business forward. But I found that stepping back, writing things down, doing some self reflection on what you’ve done, and just helps thing to do things better. Yes. And I think when applied to partnerships, it’s a very powerful tool, which is, I don’t think many partnerships, leaders use that tool effectively. And I would encourage everyone who’s kind of starting this new year with Microsoft, thinking of what’s the new habit, it’s every few weeks, I would say every six weeks, write down what you’ve been doing, share it with people at Microsoft, your contacts, share it with internally, and just kind of get into that habit of reflecting on, hey, we did this, what can we do better? Where do we go from here? Which will, it will because we just don’t go go go. And I speak from experience. I’m like that, like, I’m just on the move. But the more I’ve been able to practice that, you know, mindfulness in different ways, I’ve been able to even do better. So I would leave you with that thought. Vince Menzione  38:10 I think it’s it’s an incredible thought we talked about meditation as a as a mindfulness practice. Before we started recording today, that’s I know another area. But what I think I internalized from what you just shared, is that you need to you need to sit back and also be grateful for the results that you’ve achieved apps at the same time, you know, ensure that you are headed in the right direction, right? If there’s any course correction, I like to refer to agility as being a skill that we all need to have. But then you’re just taking that time out. Otherwise, you could end the year and be in the wrong set of results, I guess. Neeti Gupta  38:47 Yeah. And sometimes it’s forced in organizations. But I think as a leader, the more you can do it yourself and make time for that. The better it is, and the some of the tools, you know, writing things down, whether you’re journaling, whether you’re just, you know, writing notes to yourself, whatever works for you, just reflecting on what’s been done and using that reflection with the team as well. What have we achieved? Where do we need to go and create a routine around that. So six weeks quarter, whatever works for your teams, I would highly encourage that we found some good, good nuggets from that, which we were not able to do when we just were on the move constantly just doing things and not stepping back. Vince Menzione  39:30 So just one more question here. So do you ask each of the people in your organization to do it as well? And then you do do a one on one with them? How do you share that information? Neeti Gupta  39:41 So one on one, I one of the things is kind of doing a very structured one on one with the key stakeholders. I know it’s project management one on one, but not many people do that. So you do a 360 and you just go to interviews and say hey, this is what we’re seeing. What do you think and getting that feedback and then kind of consolidating that and then stepping back and saying this is what I’ve heard from the organization, is this what’s needed to be done? Or is there something else that we need to go influence? And then go do that round of one on ones again? Right. And so that’s, that’s a constant three feet 360 kind of feedback loop. Every leader, whether it’s partnerships or not, it needs to constantly do it, because then you know, what’s happening in the business, where people’s heads are at and what you need to do to influence them. Yes, yes. So I think that’s why I said, step back, write things down, engage in the way that’s most most productive. Vince Menzione  40:42 So many great nuggets today, so much great advice, learnings, and sharings that you’ve given with us today. needy, I want to thank you so much for being such an amazing guest. So glad to finally welcome you to ultimate guide to partnering. And thank you for joining and sharing with our listeners today. Neeti Gupta  41:01 Yeah, thank you, Vince, thank you for everything that you’re doing for the community. This is a great podcast, and I’ve learned a lot. So I’m very grateful for what you’ve been able to bring to the community. Vince Menzione  41:11 Thank you so much. So there you have it. Another amazing guest joins Ultimate Guide to partnering. And I hope you enjoyed this interview as much as I did. Odds are if you’re a technology partner, executive, and hearing my voice, chances are you too, are looking to accelerate your success through partnerships. I mean, let’s face it. We all have seen partnerships that look good on paper, but never live up to their expected results. There are a lot of reasons why partnerships fail. And at ultimate partnerships, we help you get it right by applying a proven set of best practices and framework that’s used by leading partners working with Microsoft, and other technology giants. If you want to learn more, follow the link in the show notes, or visit our website at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com. Announcer  42:07 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partnering. We’ll catch you next time on The ultimate guide to partnering

Google’s Public Sector Partner Leader Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Are you eager to explore the fascinating world of innovative cloud capabilities and their impact on the public sector markets? Are you looking to learn how one of the big three hyperscalers took a unique approach to solve the strict compliance requirements of government security? Are you ready to tap into the opportunity to partner with Google Cloud’s innovative public-sector business? Well, whether you’re a seasoned partner executive or a passionate entrepreneur ready to tap into new opportunities, you come to the right place as I welcome Troy Bertram, the Executive Managing Director of Google Cloud’s Public Sector business. In this episode, we discuss Google’s partner-led and partner-first approach to the Public Sector, the company’s extraordinary commitment to building this business, how it uniquely reached the highest levels of compliance and security to support the most stringent government customers, and why partners need to consider Google as they build their business strategy. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion as much as I enjoyed welcoming Troy Bertram. In Google’s words Troy Bertram, Executive Managing Director at Google Public Sector (GPS),  joined Google Cloud in 2022 to build and lead our Public Sector Partner Ecosystem team, where his teams manage the sell to, through, and with relationships with our System Integrators (SI), Reseller, Distribution channels and Independent Software Vendors (ISV) / SaaS vendors building solution on Google. He brings more than 25 years of experience from government and transformative technology companies. Bertram joined Google from Telos Corporation, a cyber security company, where he served as Sr. Vice President of Sales and Business Development. He previously held a CRO title at Saildrone; an autonomous ocean vehicle and sensor platform company; and a general manager position at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where over eight years he built global business development and partner channel sell to, with and through teams that supported commercial enterprise, government, education and non-profit customers around the world. Before joining AWS in 2013, Bertram spent over a decade at Dell Technologies, building and leading multiple sales, services, operations, merger and acquisition, and business development teams. Bertram is a veteran of the U.S. Army, where he served as a communications officer in the 82nd Airborne Division. He earned an MBA from Saint Edwards University and a BS in Business and Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota What You’ll Learn Google’s Public Sector Partner Ecosystem Mission. 2:22 Google public sector is a mission-oriented partner organization focused on partner outcomes, aligning with partners with human capital and investing in partner development. State and local government is part of the mandate of the organization. Google is the third dominant hyper-scalar in the space, and is excited to be leading the organization at this time. The organization is not new from a human capital perspective. They have a great footprint in their commercial regulated industries, including insurance, energy, gaming, financial services. How did you get started in the cloud space?7:59 Troy and Vince talk about the challenges of competing in the public sector cloud market and the need for service parity. Nine months to 12 months is a challenge to bring technology to bear to support government missions. There is always a lag and continues to be a lake when you have separate clouds built for a unique, discrete customer environment. Five key areas of focus, mission outcomes, empowering everyone to innovate. Focusing on the user and innovation.13:05 The state of Wisconsin is focused on improving the mission of the educator, the tax examiner and the adjudicator for benefits in a timely manner. Innovation comes from everywhere in the organization. Innovation comes from everywhere. Good ideas are not isolated to a boardroom or senior leaders. They come from every piece of the business. The best partnerships are partner first. Partner segmentation in government.17:19 Partner segmentation in government, regional and national systems integrators, independent software vendors, social and economic disadvantaged partners, and federal and global partners. Partner ecosystem from a large Google partner ecosystem. Google Cloud is the cornerstone of the answer to how to make money as a partner with Google Cloud, and the challenge is Commit to a spend dollar problem.21:06 The commit problem, committing to a spend dollar is not fiscally responsible to a three year, five year, annual fiscal cycle in government. The public sector subscription agreement. The best partners are those with engineering and tech skills, understanding the technology and how to apply it to partner and customer requirements. How to get momentum with partners. Google’s strategy in generative Ai.25:23 Insight Minnesota and Deloitte are partners in Google technology to produce outcomes, giving back to the partner community. Google is partner first, telling partner stories with customers and partner outcomes. Google’s strategy in generative AI. The long game is making sure the answers and technology derived can really meet mission outcomes. How Google is helping with common data exploration problems. What’s coming in the future of the company?30:23 Applying AI and what is coming in the future. They are just getting started on the problem set. How to connect with a partner today. The spark that got him on the path to this amazing success in his career, and why he is passionate about this customer set. Why he’s passionate about helping veterans. Who would you invite to your dinner party?34:57 Advice for partners on building their business this year.39:36 Google Leaders Featured on Ultimate Guide to Partnering https://theultimatepartner.com/episode/179-precision-partnering-with-google-cloud-unlocking-a-30-billion-opportunity-for-tech-leaders/ https://theultimatepartner.com/episode/182-how-google-cloud-is-helping-isv-partners-drive-customer-success/ https://theultimatepartner.com/episode/183-how-does-google-clouds-partner-engineering-drive-the-use-of-ai-for-good/ Come Join Us – The Ultimate Partner™ At Ultimate Guide to Partnering, we bring you the leaders in this industry, the best in the business from the leading tech organizations and the hyperscalers, who drive the greatest influence and impact to our world of ecosystems. With this exciting new Masterclass Series, Ultimate Partnerships becomes The Ultimate Partner™ More than just a new look, Ultimate Partner is doubling its commitment to helping YOU become the Ultimate Partner by getting it right. Do you want to be The Ultimate Partner? Visit our NEW website. Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® -, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS partner, government, google, technology, cloud, public sector, building, days, customers, business, outcomes, working, ai, mission, great, troy, ag, organization, services, hockey puck SPEAKERS Vince Menzione, Troy Bertram Vince Menzione  00:04 Are you eager to explore the fascinating world of innovative cloud capabilities and their impact on the public sector markets? Are you looking to learn how one of the big three hyperscalers took a unique approach to solve for the strict compliance requirements of government security? Are you ready to tap into the opportunity to partner with Google clouds innovative public sector business? Well, whether you’re a seasoned business owner, and Alliance strategist, or a passionate entrepreneur ready to tap into new opportunities, then you come to the right place. Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide department, where technology leaders come to optimize results through successful partnering. I’m Vince Menzione euros and today I welcome Troy Bertram, the Executive Managing Director of Google clouds public sector business. In this episode drawing I discuss Google’s partner led and partner first approach to the public sector, the company’s extraordinary commitment to building this business, how it uniquely reached the highest levels of compliance and security to support the most stringent government customers and why partners need to consider Google as they build their business strategy. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcome Troy Bertram. Troy, welcome to the podcast. Troy Bertram  01:42 Thanks, Vince. It’s great to be here and excited to talk about our mission outcomes for our customers in education and government. Vince Menzione  01:51 I am so excited to welcome you finally, as a guest and ultimate guide department. You’re the Executive Managing Director of Google’s public sector partner ecosystem. Your role is so exciting and your mandate is so important. So I thought we’d start there. Google set up this group just about a year ago. So I was hoping you could take us through the organization’s mission and your role as a separate operating unit under alphabet. And it is the only one under the alphabet Google umbrella. Troy Bertram  02:22 We are part of Google Cloud. Thomas Kurian is our CEO and Karen de has joined us this past year to lead Google public sector. Our charter is unique in that we are mission oriented outcome to support the US government and educational institutions. My team’s mission, we’ve been added since May of last year. And it was to build a world class partner organization focused on partner outcomes. We go to market through partners 100%. It’s aligning to our partners with human capital, and investing in partner development manager, partner engineers that augment our sales and our engineering teams and builders that are building to JW c, c, and c to we which is national security, three letter intelligence agencies and Department of Defense outcomes. But that experience in building to those very stringent requirements permeates all the way down and through educational institutions like tier one r1 research institutions, or all about local school districts that are challenged through the pandemic, to deliver student outcomes or help students connect to technology in a world where cybersecurity attacks are happening daily. And yet we need continuity of government and continuity of education is state and local government also part the mandate of the organization. Yes, our sled business as we refer to it as state and local in education. And that is a single team. My peer leads that business and Brett Mitchell, and that is really where our deepest Google relationships are. While we may be new, as a business unit supporting government, especially federal government, at the cleared national security level, we’ve been in the education business for decades. So the academic institutions, all the research institutions, right that falls under let they have connection connective tissue to the government agencies, Vince Menzione  04:37 when you start talking about things like CGS, which is Criminal Justice Information Systems, that ties federal law enforcement back to local state and local law enforcement as well. So it makes perfect sense that you brought this all together as one cohesive unit. And as you know, I’ve interviewed several Google leaders recently, in fact, we got to meet back in May at an Troy Bertram  04:58 amazing time. piece of property on the wharf in New York City where we got a chance to connect with many of our ISVs as well, Vince Menzione  05:07 was such a great forum. And it was striking at that time, Google made some very significant announcements around AI. And you’ve been seeing from Google that you’ve been on a tear, you’ve been playing this fast catch up, as I’ll say, the third dominant hyper scalar. And you’re no stranger to the space. So tell us why you’re excited to be leading this organization at this time. Troy Bertram  05:32 Every one I speak with 100% is positive on Google. They want our products and our services, they’re super excited about our commitment to public sector. In we’re working to turn that positivity into help with accreditation, and driving revenue through our partners, we need to get more training, we need to get them more familiar with our products and services. Because you mentioned and we fully acknowledge it, we’re playing catch up. The great part is we’ve got amazing technology and footprint in our commercial regulated industries, whether it’s insurance, or its energy sector, or gaming or financial services, great strengths of product and services across the alphabet portfolio. Now is the time to apply that those learnings, the partnerships the technology into government in a big way. We’re also not new, from a human capital perspective, in 2013, when I was at AWS as employee 45, helping the first migrations in the first workloads in the government, it was all around what is cloud? And how do I know I’m secure? And and I really liked my servers, and I want to see the blinking lights, when can I visit your data center? And the answer was, you can’t. That’s the intent of public cloud, in security of the cloud and in the cloud. And things like gov clouds became a thing. Well, the reality is nowadays, Gov cloud isn’t needed anymore. That was built because you couldn’t get physical and logical separation, approved through FedRAMP and get an A to Google’s approach, because we could learn from those that came before us is we don’t need or have a gulf cloud, per se, up to the Aisle Five accreditation level. We got to not spend and build those large facilities. We focus time and energy on the engineering efforts to get that accreditation on our commercial cloud, which is unique. It’s novel. But it’s also one of the things that makes me so excited because we can scale differently in this second decade of government, public cloud computing. Yeah, I want to peel Vince Menzione  07:58 back on this a little bit. Troy right. So when you were in AWS in your role, I was in Microsoft, in my role leading the public sector partner business, we were kind of bookends if you will, at that point, because Google really wasn’t in the space yet. And yeah, we were standing up Guf clouds, we stood up a gov cloud on the Microsoft side you had on AWS, let’s I’ll call it what it is. We were sort of playing catch up to you at that point. But we had to set up in these discrete data centers we had everything had to be separated. And one of the challenges that we had, you had as well. And both of those organizations still have is the catch up on the technology side, right. So tell our listeners why that’s so unique, what you’ve done at Google. Troy Bertram  08:38 Yeah, and what we both found at either one of those other cloud providers is classification of data. Whether you’re a commercial company like a Raytheon, Lockheed, or Boeing Defense, or you’re a financial services company in the US, and also my experiences at Amazon Web Services, was that our remit there was global public sector in nature. So whether it was working with Canada, on protected B and C, or IRAP. In Australia, what’s now become sovereign cloud requirements across Europe, or the emergence of a G Cloud contract vehicle that’s Now in its ninth or 10th instantiation in the UK is global governments all at the same challenge. They want or have data sovereignty requirements. They also are governed by laws and regulations that really set the rules of the road of how government buys and partners can sell. But what we really saw was in gov cloud requirements, or in migration and movements to the cloud is commercial companies. Yours at the time in Microsoft or mine at the time in Amazon, we’re launching products and services at such a rapid rate, but not considering the security and compliance requirements for government. So you had a service parity problem, that was always something was launched at AWS reinvent. And still, today is a challenge nine months later, 12 months later, working through the accreditation, to bring that amazing technology to bear to support government missions, there was always a lag and continues to be a lake when you have separate clouds built for a unique discrete customer environment. That’s why our approach is unique. And it’s different. And it’s setting a pathway for service parity across all of the new products and services. When you build for that security paradigm in mind. It ultimately drives that organizational agility, it strengthens the brand. We think it is the long term strategy of bringing AI or transformative tech to market. It’s much beyond compute and storage. It’s about outcomes. Vince Menzione  11:09 What you said is so telling right now we’re seeing tectonic shifts, right? The technology is evolving so quickly, right now, we can have nine months to a year of lag time as you bring out technology. So this approach is just astounding to me, as somebody in the tech sector, probably for our listeners and partners as well. You know, we also talked about the way you set up the organization. And we were just talking about your board and your sounding board on Sunday, you share a little bit about where you’ve been the last few days with your meat. Yes. Troy Bertram  11:38 So we hosted in Austin, Texas, our quarterly board meeting, and just some amazing energy focused on our board, bringing decades and really centuries of experience in government, whether it’s a former two term governor in our state and local business, or it’s a current university president, or a four star Special Operations Command or Air Force, Space Force Commanding General, or a Surgeon General that really understands health care from the perspective of serving our veterans. And as a veteran, something that’s near and dear and passionate to my heart is how do we help not only those men and women serving in uniforms of all types, you mentioned, sieges, first responders, police force, or active duty or National Guard in when you ask about state and local government, really the tie ins to state and local start at our National Guard level. So how do we work across in pull the customer experience from our board of directors and made sure that where we’re going that first and foremost, it’s about supporting mission outcomes. It’s about empowering everyone in the organization to innovate. And it really goes to five key areas. It’s focused on the user. What do we need to do to improve the mission of that educator, or the mission of that tax examiner, or the adjudicator for benefits to make sure that their pain benefits in a timely manner? There’s a out on YouTube, you’ll find a recent quick snippet few minutes from the state of Wisconsin that says how they use Google technology to adjudicate benefits that were mountains of paper piles, that now citizens can get paid for their citizens services and benefits in days versus months. That’s delivering a Citizen Service outcome. But it’s focused on the user. It’s think 10x. How do we think about where we’re going and make technology 10x Better delivered 10x better outcomes. It’s really think that exponentially. Its launch and iterate, which is what we’re doing with partners, we’re launching, AI, we’re building we’re iterating thinking about problem solving with them, we default to an open architecture. So if the computer storage is on prem, or it’s in somebody else’s cloud, that’s fine. Let’s work with new data where it resides. This isn’t about just moving data around. It’s about using the data, harnessing making decisions. And then innovation comes everywhere in the organization. So talking with the board around what are the needs and wants of a governor in managing his or her state? Are they really fundamentally any different than the special operator out at the tactical edge? No, the mission is different. But ultimately, how do you harness technology to have better outcomes? Vince Menzione  14:56 So you mentioned five things I focus on user think tenant next launch and iterate. Innovation was fourth Troy Bertram  15:03 default to an open to fall to architecture, right? Everything we’re building is an open architecture. And then the innovation comes from everywhere. And it’s important to me that we always ask that question of innovation from everywhere, across our organizations, Good ideas are not isolated to a boardroom, or to senior leaders. They come from every piece of the business. Many of our commercial companies that are supporting traditionally Small, Medium Business or large enterprises, why was in New York, when we met is talking to those innovative ISVs that may not know how to work with government, right? They’re scared of the contracting process, or the routes to market? Or how do I get started, or I’ve heard about this in detail, or a site sibor, we always start. And so our job is cultivate that partnership and their technology, work with the founders work with the CEO. They’re helped through the routes to market, but also it’s connecting to contract vehicles. Because at the scene of the day, every technology company wants one thing when they come into government to know how long is it going to take? And how do I get there? Because they believe and I believe that it’s a consistent revenue stream of customers that need and want our technology. But getting to a contract vehicle, and the path to revenue of how do I make money in the cloud? Or how do I make money with Google is ultimately what every single partnership is about. So that innovation comes from everywhere, it’s tapping into innovation and non traditional pockets of government, and bringing those technologies to bear. Vince Menzione  16:57 You know, you mentioned at the beginning of our conversation that you are a partner first organization, what do you see from the best partnerships that you work with? Troy Bertram  17:06 I’m actually going to start with answering the question on one of the most important things that we do, because every body thinks of the word partnership, and they envision something different. So it’s galvanizing on a few terms in government. And it’s really partner segmentation. We have regional national systems integrators, they’re focused on a region where they’re focused on a horizontal there may be in transportation, or they’re in education, they’re in ad tech, right, clearly defined what their mission outcomes are and who their customers are. Then there’s our ISV population, our independent software vendor SAS providers that build great tech that are looking for how do they use our partner ecosystem to accelerate those routes to market, then we have small social, economic disadvantaged partners that the government Small Business Administration, identifies as a day service disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUBZone women known historically, black college diversity areas that are routes to market and contract vehicles are very important, especially in civilian government agencies. So clearly working to curate work with those small businesses that can’t become large, right, by cap by statute, they are exactly where they want to be. And where the founders started those company, we have to curate them from a large Google partner ecosystem and give them unique support to help them grow their business. And then we’ve got the federal systems integrators and the global systems integrators, the Accenture’s, that Deloitte, the CGI is of the world or our national scale partners that have been working with our customers for decades. We know them from your Microsoft days, I know the movie, on my Dell days, it’s CD W, it sets a chai, it’s insight, but it’s us thinking about working with them differently than if I can elaborate on exactly what I mean, I think it’s the cornerstone of the answer to how do I make money as a partner with Google Cloud? And the challenge is that historically speaking, the consumption based economics of cloud have really been hard. It used to be in the days when we were selling hardware or partnering with companies that were you built your ship, you invoice and a salesperson knew exactly what their margin at a partner they were paid on, and you got paid in 40 five to 90 days from the government. And then you looked at, okay, what’s the lifecycle of that software license or that hardware license? Cloud flip that dynamics upside down in the public sector? Just 10 years ago with the award of the C two s contract vehicle. So partners had to learn along the way. But my experience globally is that government wants a solution. 80% of that bid is Ford services. It’s for human capital, it’s for come implement, run, operate something 20% is for infrastructure. But if that systems integrator that prime contractor can’t get right, what the consumption is going to be over three to five years, that’s their biggest risk is why they were reluctant to scale in government. How do you price that? How do you bid and win and manage to profitability over three to five years, there’s things called enterprise agreements or EA is right, we have that too. It’s called a commit. Problem is that just committing to a spend dollar, it’s not being fiscally responsible to a three year five year annual fiscal cycle in government. So we’ve done the public sector subscription agreement that our teams did the engineering are working to a government specifications, pass that through our distribution partners care software at TD senex, with a single SKU from a fixed price, or a duration of the contract where they can use them leverage any of our Google tech. So we innovate, we launch a new product, it comes out in our commercial regions meets government requirements, customer can use that they can innovate. We want them to, we want them to innovate new products, services outcomes, because that way our partners can expand. They can renew contracts, they can upsell, but it’s delivering what the government’s always wanted in a unique way. And that’s tell me how much this is going to cost. I need a firm fixed price board so I can budget for it. Vince Menzione  22:10 And it sounds like you’ve simplified the process, you’ve been able to achieve that objective, which is so hard in the in the cloud space, as we both know, Troy Bertram  22:18 we have COVID was the catalyst, because eight and local governments needed a solution. Now I need a COVID. Tracker, I need to modernize my government services because I need driver’s license motor vehicle registration, I need this implemented in two days, two weeks, how much is it going to cost me Give me a fixed dollar amount. Because I have a budget I need to know. We learned a lot through COVID. And now we can bring that to bear across all government. Vince Menzione  22:51 So let’s dive in on the right type of partners, the best partners, the ones that you see that do the best results within your business. And this goes back to your Dell days and your AWS days, what do you see from the best of the best? Troy Bertram  23:04 Those that have engineering? tech skills, right? It’s understanding the technology and how to apply it against either partner or customer requirements. And thinking about what pieces parts components of that solution, very few of our customers will ever have only a single piece of technology in their procurement. It will be multiple ISV solutions. So keeping it simple, across the partner landscape book, here’s what we do. Here’s the problem. This assaults, not speeds and feeds, the best partners talk about problems and outcomes. And it starts with technical expertise. But then it focuses on the sales motions. Who is the customer? What problem are we trying to solve? And then how do we get momentum starts with a single referenceable customer, if the customer will tell the story. That is the best sales motion you have, because government our taxpayer dollars are not spent on innovative, groundbreaking new technology, right? So how do we speed up that innovation cycle? We find the customers that can break down that cycle, accelerate, and then we help them tell their story. Every educational institution wants to talk about the innovation that they have for their student outcomes. It’s now law in many states state of Texas here my home state is for community colleges. It’s now a lot to report on student outcome because of the volume of federal and state money. So how do we help them do that? It’s a data problem. And then how do we find forums and off of which to help our partners tell those storaged I’m looking forward to our next conference here in a couple of weeks in San Francisco, where my panel that I’m presenting on is not about Google speeds and feeds or tech, that a customer on stage from the state of Minnesota, man, it’s awesome. You’re on stage from the state of California, talking about how they worked with partners. And in this case, Insight Minnesota and Deloitte in California, in Google technology to produce outcomes. That’s us giving back to the partner community of the best thing that Google can do is our advertising footprint our market share is telling a partner story. And I am not going to put out a press release a wind wire, or any blog in the public sector, without the reference to a partner, because we’re partner First, there’s a partner on every deal, we’re going to tell those stories with customers and partner outcomes. And that is a different way of thinking about accelerating the business. Vince Menzione  26:05 I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health. And well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens. And now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day, it covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity, and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D, and five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase, go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M, check it out. So exciting. We’re going to provide links in our show notes to that session. I believe viewers can watch it right remotely, you don’t have to physically at the Troy Bertram  27:17 start of the next partner sessions. So it should be open to all registered partners. So Vince Menzione  27:24 generative AI, right. It’s been on the top of everyone’s mind these days. And we talked about the event in May and some of the information and also the Google IO event that took place simultaneously. Some believe that Google got a later start than the other guys. And I was at that event in New York with you, as we discussed and heard from your leaders. What is Google’s strategy in generative AI? Well, we definitely Troy Bertram  27:48 didn’t get a late start, right? We’ve been in AI for a long time. When we think about the culture of innovation, it’s in our principles. It’s absolutely Google principals about an amazing world class commercial brand that we have bringing innovation to government. Examples of that include generative AI, and it’s really around the long game is making sure that the answers and technology derived can really meet mission outcomes. It’s one thing for you or I to go ask for a sample of a planet trip for me. It’s another for us to make, you know, very informed, long term decisions that have Canaves national or regional impact through only technology. And so when we think about the human experience, it’s the culture and procurement barriers that exist in government, that lock government adoption of Peck, how do we help break those down? So our long game is working with our federal government and our state government on AI principles, both ours and theirs, about how tech will be adopted, and then it’s finding better ways to do mission support. But we are doing that today, through applied AI and machine learning, right? Whether it’s enterprise search for government, it’s conversational AI, it’s see AI call centers, that ocean in the local language of a citizen, that English may not be a first language. How do we help with the Common Data Exploration problems of I’m searching a website, but I don’t really get the answer because it’s stagnant. It existed forever, or it’s got pointers to five other government agencies. That tech exists today to give me the answer I’m searching for without redirecting me to another site. What is Google search? That’s the extent One of Google searches every one of us. That’s where we go. Right? We’re looking for answers to Open Data Set problems. And whether it’s automated document processing, I gave the example of Wisconsin taking a mountain of data, automating it to make real time decisions, or multilingual chat capabilities that exists now, across website. That’s applying AI. What’s coming in the future, super excited of Wilkin we go with large language models. But we’re just getting started on that problem set, Vince Menzione  30:37 some really exciting things happening in your world. And I if I’m a partner, I’m going to be pretty excited about potentially working with your organization. Try how can they more effectively work with your organization? If I’m a partner listening or watching today, what can I do to enlist in role be part of your world? Yeah, Troy Bertram  30:56 in half, I think we should also post my work contact information, because it starts with a conversation, right? It’s that, here’s what we’re good at. Here’s what we don’t know. Here’s the addressable market, we’d like to start with. And I start every conversation with oftentimes backing up that partner conversation that starts, I want to connect with your field sellers. Okay. But let’s use a analogy to building a house. If the law means not in place, you move into that house, you transact that first transaction, and it doesn’t go well. That second, third, fifth transaction doesn’t scale. Let’s get the plumbing in place first accreditations into our partner programs, connect the contract vehicles. Then we run sales plays, we do outbound calls, then we get sales 101. At that point, that’s when we connect to regional sellers on the ground with a solution in a contract vehicle. We meet the customers together, then we market, we blog, we talk about on stage, the solution, then we get scale, we do the plumbing first. And it starts with contact us work with us aligned to a partner development manager and a partner engineer on our team so that we can get you to the appropriate technology intersections. Vince Menzione  32:30 So let’s just shift gears here. As you know, I’m fascinated with the career journey. You’ve had an incredible career. Was there a spark that got you on the path to this amazing success that you’ve had in your career? Troy Bertram  32:43 Yeah, I get asked this question oftentimes in mentorship sessions of how to think about a career journey in mind really was I didn’t find technology as my career path. Right? It found me. But it does go back to why I’m passionate about this customer set. And as we were talking about before we started university of Minnesota, and ROTC was my Pathak, both of my parents were educated. My sister and I graduated high school the same day, and we were both going off to college, or to Berkeley in I myself to University of Minnesota and an ROTC scholarship. It was a way to fund college. And through that experience, and some amazing mentors that had get a career to service to the US Army. One of those mentors, his name was Brian sing Bush. He has since passed away, but he was a special operator, and a sniper during Mogadishu. But I thought I wanted to be an infantry officer. And over multiple conversations and mentor ship sessions, he’s a toy. The next conflicts hopefully don’t involve humans on the ground. Right there. Need military intelligence officers, communications officers or signal officers, right. It’s going to be through the advent of technology. And he helped steer me towards the pathway that was the start of my career. I spent time as a signal officer first deployment, or really, for my first assignment is 21 years old. I’m in Korea. So I really got the perspective will greet 18 months of the global landscape and the networking architecture that ties our world together. And then at Fort Bragg. I had a career direction change jumped out of an airplane one night. The result didn’t go well ruptured discs in my back. And was that change in career direction? Why I’m passionate about helping our veterans and those servicemen and women that are transitioning. Maybe it was planned for them. Maybe it wasn’t. Vince Menzione  34:57 So I have a favorite question. At This is what I love to ask, especially my special guests like you. You’re hosting a dinner party, and you could have this dinner party anywhere in the world, we could talk about that. And you can invite any three guests from the present, or the past, to this amazing dinner party. Who would you invite Troy? And why? Troy Bertram  35:20 Having listened to multiple of your podcast, this is a question I thought about for a while, because I think it’s fascinating. But I’m gonna start off and say I am in sales, after all. So I’m going to try to upsell and say, three guests. It’s not enough. That’s just, that’s just the small round table. Let’s think about you know, expanding that a little bit. I want to keep it intimate. But I’m asking for six. Vince Menzione  35:44 So all right, we’re gonna make the table larger, Troy Bertram  35:47 we’re gonna make a table. So as we’ve talked about my history and background, I think, a hit from a military perspective, a Dwight Eisenhower, right now one of only five generals that ever reached five star and is known as a historical tactician, but he also went on to be President of the United States. On the politics side, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, distinguished gentleman, right one has an amazing legacy of preserving the union, ending slavery, creating the possibility of freedoms in the US, and Ronald Reagan for all the work pre Cold War, in changing the economy. I have to as a big sports guy, it has to be her Brooks, I got to meet Coach Brooks, as a young hockey player, I skated on the ice with him as a coach in Minnesota. We all know, I believe in miracles and the 80 Olympic team, by Sid pharmacy, setting a goal working hard, and then capitalizing on a few breaks. I mean, beating the Russians is what we all know and think about in the Olympics. That was not the gold medal game. I like to remind people all the time, that was another game to play the next day. Imagine how hard that is when the greatest accomplishment that nobody believed you could do wasn’t for the gold medal, you have to go play the next day. And you had to come from behind again, I doubt Tiger Woods as well. Not because of the legacy. I am a golfer my son’s on the high school golf team. But I’m fascinated by the PGA policy board assignment this week, right of taking a player, it’s in the latter stages of his professional career. But that is really leading a global set of golfers that either want to or desire to be PGA professionals, or today, in that big business, have a policy board and all the global implications that it has in that transition also to the Polit, the political environment, I think that will be a fascinating one to watch. And then the other two people I’d add Joe Rogan podcaster. I’d love to Vince Menzione  38:16 have Joe Rogan here on the podcast, on a moral level, bring iCast gear with me now. So Troy Bertram  38:22 literally, and fellow austenite, right as Jove moved to Austin, but why I think that is that the narrative changes of how technology, right, this platform that we’re on today, the ability to take journalism, and change the paradigm of how we’re delivering from paper to television, to now the power of the internet, youtube, anything I want to do or learn about, it’s now on YouTube, right? In an amazing Google property. It’s also why and how our global network was built out. It was to support all the Google and alphabet properties. And then the last one that’s near and dear to my heart. So the sixth person I’m bringing, I’m going to bring my son Tanner, because this experience is about the next generation. And I would not want him to not get to have the experience real hand from sports, military entertainment, in some of the best policy and military minds that we’ve ever had. I love that question. No. And it was a fun one to think through of curating that table. Because there’s a lot of great choices out there. Vince Menzione  39:39 Well, you know, we gotta do Tiger Woods is down here at Jupiter, so we could host it in Jupiter, but your choice on locations we could decide and then certainly I would want to at least come by I have to help you make a bigger table so maybe you could fit it out the person. I certainly would love to be in this room. What a fascinating Congress events Troy Bertram  39:57 look at you upsell into I love it. That’s what partnerships are about, you know, that’s what Fox leadership’s are about. It’s a given get. Vince Menzione  40:05 So that leads, it’s right. You’ve been an amazing guy. So excited to have you share your story today, spend some time, I’m gonna have to have you back. I’m looking forward to spending more time with you in the future. But what advice do you have for our partners that wishing to build their business this year? This again, this has been a year where we’ve seen some headwinds, but it’s still the most exciting year I remember. And And again, we talked about working with your organization. But what about building their business Troy Bertram  40:31 this year? Yeah. It is about slowing down. To speed up, we used to talk about that all the time in the military to go faster. Sometimes you need to slow down, get really concentrated, keep it simple. understand who you are, as a company, what technology you’re really great at delivering today, what your business model is, and have a vision of where you want to go. But I use a prop all the time for my teams. Last year on stage I talked about it. It’s a hockey puck, it is clearly identifiable. It’s one inch by three inches weighs six ounces, made of galvanized rubber. If you’ve never played hockey, you know what it is, you know what it’s used for? All of our programs, all of our offerings, all of the routes to market have to be as simple to identify and understand as a hockey puck. And if they are, then when we present them to customers. There’s an aha moment. I know what to do with this. I know how to buy it. I know how to measure its success and get repeatability. So it does go back to keep it simple, to go faster. And think about a hockey puck with everything we do. Because it’s identifiable, and I get how to then take and work with you as a company, or I endeavor to make my programs as simple as that hockey puck. If I don’t, my ask some partners, raise your hand, tell me, this isn’t what I need. And we’ll iterate and we’ll change and we’ll adapt. Vince Menzione  42:14 I love this advice for any person working in the business sector. But especially working with you in your organization. Troy, so great to have you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering. I so enjoyed our time today. Troy Bertram  42:26 Yeah, thank you very much look forward to talking to you soon in the future. And also hopefully at next here this month or at our public sector event in Washington DC in early October. Vince Menzione  42:40 Really looking forward to it. Thank you so much joy. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Dry was just an amazing guests such an incredible public sector leader, a disabled veteran, partner and business leader at Dell, AWS and now Google Cloud. If you want to see Troy’s session at next, or attend his event, follow the link in the show notes. I want to thank you for listening and joining ultimate partner. If you liked today’s episode, please hit the subscribe button at the top of this podcast. And if you’d like to stay ahead of all the exciting announcements and excite coming to ultimate guide to partner please sign up to our newsletter at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com. And stay tuned as we have so much more planned ahead to help you achieve your greatest results. Thank you for listening. And thank you for following the ultimate guide department.

Microsoft’s VP for Partner GTM, Programs & Operations Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® In a world where technology constantly pushes boundaries, the recent Microsoft Inspire conference set the stage for groundbreaking announcements, including the emphasis on artificial intelligence and the renaming of Microsoft’s partner program. I had the privilege of hosting an exclusive interview with Julie Sanford, Vice President, Partner GTM, Programs & Operations, to kick off our first LIVE Digital Event, “Winning with Ecosystems.” Julie Sanford reveals Microsoft’s game-changing moves at Inspire on this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. In Julie’s Words As Vice President, Partner GTM, Programs, & Operations within Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft, Julie is responsible for the end-to-end go-to-market strategy across Microsoft’s commercial services partner ecosystem. The team combines the go-to-market strategy, programs, and platforms to accelerate growth and improve partner experience across all partner segments. Before her current roles, Julie was GM of Global Industry Product Marketing and was responsible for Microsoft’s Industry GTM across priority industries and Microsoft industry clouds strategy and GTM, including Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, Microsoft Cloud for Retail, Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, and Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing. What You’ll Learn In a world where technology is constantly pushing boundaries, the recent Microsoft Inspire conference set the stage for groundbreaking announcements in artificial intelligence. I had the privilege of hosting an exclusive interview with Julie Sanford, a prominent figure trailblazing the partner business. This interview discusses the exciting developments empowering partners to win with ecosystems. Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program: A Game Changer The highlight of the conference was the launch of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program. Julie revealed that this move was driven by overwhelming customer demand, making it clear that AI is the way forward. This program opens up possibilities for partners to capitalize on Microsoft’s AI offerings and enhance their businesses. With a focus on seamless onboarding, skilling, and go-to-market incentives, it’s an opportunity like no other. Unleashing the Potential of ISVs Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) won big during the conference with many exciting benefits and incentives. From specialized AI applications to increased investments in Azure Migrate and Modernize, Microsoft lays the groundwork for ISVs to thrive. Access to GitHub co-pilot, funding for assessments and proof of concepts, and personalized support is a game-changer for those venturing into the AI landscape. SMB and SMC Segments Microsoft is significantly emphasizing the Small and Medium Business (SMB) and Small Medium Corporate (SMC) segments, recognizing their untapped potential. With customized investment portfolios and deliberate strategies, Microsoft is paving the way for partner-led success in these segments. The Microsoft Marketplace Moment Julie disclosed some remarkable developments in the Microsoft Marketplace. The availability of multi-private-party offers and the integration of “transactable” offers with co-sell benefits are transforming the game for partners. The conversation with Julie Sanford at Microsoft Inspire left us inspired for the future of AI. With the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program revolutionizing the industry, ISVs reaping unprecedented benefits, and a sharp focus on SMB and SMC segments, the opportunities are boundless. Microsoft’s marketplace advancements are also set to boost partner success. Nicole’s Inspire Blog Post A Word from AG1 “Winning with Ecosystems” – Now OnDemand Ultimate Partner’s first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems” Is Now Available OnDemand Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering®, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS partners, microsoft, ai, investments, year, announcements, marketplace, customers, program, excited, launch, ag, isv, smc, julie, smb, segment, inspire, specialization, making SPEAKERS Vince Menzione, Julie Sanford Vince Menzione  00:04 Are you ready for a deep dive with the most important announcements coming on the heels of the Microsoft inspire conference? Do you want to hear the perspective of the leader of Microsoft’s partner go to market programs and operations on the significant changes and announcements Microsoft just made? And do you want to know where you need to place your bets as a partner leader gearing up for fiscal year 24? Then hold on tight as you won’t want to miss this next episode of ultimate guide to partnering. Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host and today I will Julie Sanford, the Vice President of go to market programs and operations for Microsoft’s global partner business and joined us the day after the Microsoft inspire conference to kick off ultimate partners first live digital event winning with ecosystems. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming Julie San. So excited for this opportunity to have you Julie Sanford kick off our exciting event winning with ecosystems. So happy to have you here today. Julie Sanford  01:22 Thank you for having me. Vince Menzione  01:24 So we’ve got quite a bit to talk about. The Microsoft inspire conference just ended. And Microsoft has made major investments in artificial intelligence over the past several months. AI was a big topic at the Inspire conference. There have been several AI specific announcements made during the keynotes, most notably the launch of the new Microsoft AI cloud partner program. What drove the decision to make this change? Julie? Julie Sanford  01:52 Yeah, I’m so excited about this announcement. And really, it was our customers. The customer demand we’re seeing just put that in perspective, our Azure open AI service is the fastest growing service in Azure history with more than nine and a half 1000 customers using the service. And so the Microsoft AI cloud partner program is how we’re going to invest in partners to enable them to capitalize on all of the opportunities that Microsoft AI presents. And really, it’s anchored on in the industry’s broadest technology stack. As you know, the Microsoft Cloud and AI is infused across that entire cloud platform. So we couldn’t be more excited to be able to launch this new program. Vince Menzione  02:31 Such an exciting time. This announcement comes less than a year after the launch of the Microsoft cloud partner program. In fact, we had Dan Rippy here to discuss that launch a required partners to take significant actions to participate in the new program. What will partners have to do now to meet the Microsoft AI cloud partner program requirements. Julie Sanford  02:53 So as you know, Vince, we talked about this probably this time last year, where we were introducing the Microsoft cloud partner program, which was over a decade since launching our NPN. And what we really want to make sure is that our partner programs are always meeting the needs of our customers and making sure we’re investing in our partners to meet that customer and market demand. So this is really just the next generation of the partner program to make sure that we’re again meeting our customer market demands. The good news for partners is it’s absolutely seamless for them. There’s no action for partners to take to move to the new program, we’ve moved all of our existing partners into the new program effective immediately, and partners will maintain their existing benefits and designations. And partners will get all value of the benefits of the previous program plus access to the new offerings and benefits specific to AI, including onboarding, skilling go to market incentives, and CO selling Vince Menzione  03:49 so much more to talk about there. But during her keynote, Nicole diesen talked about the new investments in Azure migrate and modernize. Can you tell us more about that? Julie Sanford  04:00 Yeah, I’m so excited about these investments. So first, I’ll talk about increasing Azure migrate and modernization investment, we’ve increased that by 300%. To help more partners migrate customers to the cloud so they can be aI ready, managed ISVs, who meet eligibility requirements will qualify for this incentive. The second big announcement that Nicole made was a new AI offering. It’s called Azure innovate. And this is over $100 million plus investment. And this is all about helping partners win and onboard customers into analytics and AI. And so these offers work together to really help increase deal velocity and reduce time to market. So it’s things like funding pre and post sales activities, such as assessments and concepts. And then we’re implementing this right within partner center. And the investment we’ve made for partners can activate as quickly as possible they can go from nomination to customer approval in just minutes. Vince Menzione  04:56 So really amazing investments. They’re such a big commitment. On behalf of Microsoft towards this area, can you walk us through the other AI specific benefits that are available to partners? Julie Sanford  05:07 Sure. So first, we’ve talked a lot about our specializations in the past. And right now with the new launch of the AI apps in Microsoft Azure specialization that brings us to 35. And so that was an announcement we made during Inspire. And we have already 200 partners that have earned this specialization, enabling them to showcase their expertise to customers and Microsoft sellers and partners can access the Azure migrate and modernization and the Azure innovate investments we just talked about by earning this specialization or any Azure specialization for that matter. In addition to the specializations, we are launching an era of AI campaign in a box, so partners can leverage that in their demand gen efforts. We have an AI transformation playbook, which is all about guidance from skilling to innovation, from marketing to selling for partners. And then we’re really excited about the security copilot design Advisory Council that’s available. Vince Menzione  06:06 I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens. And now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D. And five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M check it out. What impact will these AI announcements have on ISPs or independent software vendors? Julie Sanford  07:15 Well, another big headline at Inspire was all about ISV success and the general availability. And that will continue to be the pathway for ISVs to access all of the Microsoft AI cloud partner program benefits. And so as I said, it’s in general availability, some of the new benefits include gaining up to $126,000 of guidance resources for a full year, eligible partners can access additional Cloud Credits, including access to get how the co pilot, which is a huge announcement we’re really excited about we have we’re launching new demo and sandbox environments and up to 50 hours of business and technical consults to help build and publish applications in the Marketplace. And then of course, all of the sales and marketing benefits, including marketplace for awards, help accelerate deals through the marketplace. In addition to that we also launched in public preview the new ISV designations and this is to support both industry and horizontal IP applications. So we can make sure that we’re surfacing those partners offerings in context of the industry they serve. So just a huge amount of investment going in with our ISV community this year. Seems like you’re building Vince Menzione  08:25 out that ISV house we talked about before when you’re on the podcast. Yeah. So where should partners go to learn more about these offerings and get started. Julie Sanford  08:35 So we’ve pulled all the resources together, and so they can go to our AI transformation for partners website. And I believe we’re sharing the link right now. And then of course, I would encourage everybody to read Nicole’s inspire blog, it was chock blocked with all of our announcements and investments that we’re making this year. Vince Menzione  08:54 So in addition to all this AI news, and new partner program announcements, the other big announcements at Inspire were really around marketplace, right? I’ve been calling it the marketplace moment. There are really amazing things happen here with regards to marketplace. Can we talk a bit more about the Marketplace announcements? Sure. The Julie Sanford  09:11 way we’re talking about this to partners, and internally at Microsoft is this is the year of Microsoft marketplace. And so we’ve made significant investments in the platform. One of the new features and capabilities we’re most excited about is the availability of multi private party offers. We’ve been asked for that for a while now. And so that’s launched and lived in the US and it’s going to be a followed up with Canada and UK and then expanding globally beyond that. So we’re really excited about the new platform capabilities. And then another big change we made is that having a transactable offer on the marketplace is what is going to unlock partners opportunity to access cosell benefits. And so you know the message I would want all ISPs or any partner that’s building IP, that they really should have a marketplace strategy As part of their go to market, and we’ve got onboarding and resources available to help partners every step of the way, Vince Menzione  10:06 some really great things happening here. With regards to marketplace, we have some other sessions, we’re going to be talking about marketplace. We’ve got to tackle IO as a partner for this event. So there’ll be a lot of content and go do’s for partners on how to land that. So, Julie, I understand that you’re rolling out a new differentiated investment model this fiscal year, can you talk to us more about what drove you creating this new model, and the emphasis you’re making this year, specifically on the SMC, and SMB segment, and for partners that don’t understand that, that is small, medium corporate accounts and small medium business segment. So tell us more about that. Yeah, Julie Sanford  10:46 I would say this is one of the most intentional planning sessions we’ve had at the company. And what we wanted to do was start with our solution plays, as you know, we go to market through the lens of six solution areas. And obviously, AI is infused across all of those. So we go to market through a set of solution plays. And we talked a lot about those last year at Inspire. This year, we were laser focused on simplifying, so we could make sure we put the investments behind what matters most to drive most customer impacts. So we’ve moved from 52 solution plays to 18 solution plays. So that’s where we started. Then as we went through each solution play. As you know, we serve as strategic enterprise customers all the way down to SMB. And we wanted to make sure that we were being deliberate and what that sales motion looked like on how we land, the solution play with every customer from again, strategic enterprise all the way to SMB. So we took a step back, our sales process here at Microsoft is something called an SEM, it allows us to go through stages from engage all the way through to driving consumption. And we took a targeted approach by segment by sales play, and by Ensign stage. And we really focused on what the unique differentiator was that partners can drive for our customers and help extend the reach and scale of Microsoft. And then that informed where we were going to start making our investments in different investments, whether that’s pre sales assessments or proof of concepts, or helping invest in actually the migration that happens on the back end. So it’s a very deliberate and customized investment portfolio this year. And, you know, you’ll hear this from Jeff York session, as you know, our incentives is growing faster than revenue. So really significant investments here. The other piece that we are really proud and excited to talk about, is on top of all of the investments, we are going to ensure we’re making a commitment this year that any change management will impact partners, we’re going to make sure from disclosure to implementation that we’re having a six month lead time for that. And that’s just something we’ve heard loud and clear from our partner ecosystem that we just have to do a much better job at that. So I would say, on top of the differentiated investment model, we want to make sure as we’re rolling out any change that we’re giving our partners the appropriate amount of time to implement any change that’s required. And then you also mentioned SMC. So for us, SMC and SMB is primarily a partner led and partner closed motion. And so the majority of our investments this year will be made within that segment. So I think over 75% of our portfolio investments will be made into SMC with very discreet accountability into the SMB segment. So I just think this is a huge leap forward for us and making sure that we are not duplicating first party Microsoft investments, and we’re really making sure that we’re optimizing the value that our partner ecosystem brings to Microsoft to really help us scale to 100% of our customers Vince Menzione  13:47 globally. I love what you share here, around SMC and SMB specifically, because I think that a lot of partners don’t recognize how big that opportunity is. And in fact, many organizations consider enterprise accounts, what are corporate accounts at Microsoft, and the fact that you’re layering in these additional incentives, and working more closely, to bring the sales process together with the partner to execute and help, it really helped drive the customer success? It’s outstanding. It’s really outstanding, Julie, now, we’re Julie Sanford  14:17 really excited about it. Vince Menzione  14:19 So great to have you today. So great to have you share this intimate conversation with our viewers at the event, taking it down to how they can implement and drive their greatest success in fiscal year 24. And thank you so much for making the time during your busy schedule right after inspire Julie. So thank you so much. Great to have you here today. Julie Sanford  14:41 Well, thank you so much for having me. I mean, this is a really important platform. And we just wanted to make sure we took the opportunity to just drive continued clarity with your audience. So again, just huge. Thank you for having today. Vince Menzione  14:53 Thanks so much. I hope you enjoyed that discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming Julie Sanford. And we’re so honored to have her kick off our first live digital event, winning with ecosystems. So many great announcements coming from the Microsoft inspire conference, and the incredible focus on both AI and marketplaces to driving your success in fiscal year 24. Don’t miss the opportunity as well. And listen to the session that I recorded with Kevin peace Kurt, the president of Microsoft’s s MC, small, medium and corporate business, as Kevin is committed to doubling his partner business for this incredible and huge segment of Microsoft. Follow the link in the show notes or go to ultimate guide to partnering.com. And you can watch each of the sessions from our first live digital event, winning with ecosystems. Thank you for listening. Thank you for following thank you for supporting the ultimate guide to bartering

Hubspot’s Leader for GTM Strategy for Ecosystem Joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Excited to welcome Barrett King, Hubspot’s Leader for GTM Strategy for Ecosystem joins Ultimate Guide to Partnering us to help you as a Partnership Leader think about Outcomes. Barrett joins us to share, not only his mission and the vital importance of his role at HubSpot, but all the other amazing work he’s doing to nurture our partner led growth and ecosystem led growth strategies for organizations like yours. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming, Barrett King. In Barrett’s Words Barrett is a highly motivated and results-driven professional with over 10 years of experience in building partnerships and executing go-to-market strategies for SaaS companies. He is skilled in identifying and cultivating new business opportunities, driving revenue growth, and establishing successful sales channels. Additionally, he’s adept at creating and implementing sales and marketing plans that drive customer engagement and retention. He has a proven track record of exceeding sales targets and delivering results in fast-paced and competitive environments while remaining committed to providing exceptional customer experiences and fostering long-term relationships across the business What You’ll Learn Barrett’s Role at HubSpot (1:10) How to Build a Partner Program (6:12) An Unconventional Path to Partnerships (14:23) Partner Muscle & Principals of Successful Partnering (18:44) Start with a Shared Vision for the Customer (23:59) Co Selling as Part of the Process (27:55) Advice for Partners listening (31:40) “Winning with Ecosystems” – Now OnDemand Ultimate Partner’s first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems” Is Now Available OnDemand Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® -, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos Barrett King2_RevisedV2 Tue, Jul 25, 2023 12:12PM • 36:59 SUMMARY KEYWORDS partners, customer, partnerships, hubspot, years, organizations, market, restaurants, work, build, conversation, business, talk, bricks, bit, ag, terms, platform, solution, shared SPEAKERS Vince Menzione, Announcer, Barrett King Vince Menzione  00:00 How a non traditional path to technology can lead to successful outcomes. My next guest and ultimate guide to partnering is hub spots global go to market strategy ecosystem leader, Barrett king, and he joins us to share with our listeners not only his mission and the vital importance of his role at HubSpot, but all the other amazing work he’s doing to nurture our partner led growth and ecosystem led growth strategies for organizations like yours. I hope you enjoy and learn from this discussion. As much as I enjoyed welcoming, tired King. Announcer  00:40 This is the ultimate guide to partnering the top partnership podcast. In this podcast Vince Menzione, a proven partner sales executive shares his mission to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. And now your host, Vince Menzione. Vince Menzione  00:59 Welcome to or welcome back to The Ultimate Guide to partnering. I’m Vince Menzione, your host, and today I will bury King Barrett. Barrett King  01:10 I’m just beyond pumped to be here and I love your energy. Thanks for having me. Vince Menzione  01:15 Thank you, I am so excited to welcome you as a guest on Ultimate Guide to partnering. I recently got to be a guest on your amazing show outcomes, which by the way, I love that name. To me, it’s all about outcomes. And I love the work that you’re doing about our shared passion on partnerships, and successful outcomes and partnerships. So welcome. Barrett King  01:35 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’m fired up, have a conversation excited to get into with you. And I think what you’re doing is truly unique and special as well. So I’m glad to join the conversation. Vince Menzione  01:43 I feel equally about the work that you’re doing. So you have a very senior role at HubSpot, which is an organization that I have admired from the outside looking and you’re the global go to market strategy ecosystem leader. And we featured your colleague Kelly Sarabhai and as a guest here on the podcast. But for our listeners who may not know you and your role, can you tell us a little bit more about that your role and mission at HubSpot? Barrett King  02:10 Absolutely. So let’s go HubSpot first HubSpot to lay the stage is a platform company with a CRM that stacks on marketing sales, customer service and a website solution to that that toolset. I’ve been here for the better part of eight years in and around the partner ecosystem, which is an eternity for those of you that are thinking that is a long time, it is a very long time. And for the last year of that that timeline, I’ve been fortunate to be responsible for how we think about acquisition, and how we think about going up market with partners of tomorrow. And so my core responsibility is specifically to look at who are the right partners for us to continue to engage with how do they align to the things that we’re trying to do as an organization helping millions of companies to grow better, both from a product perspective and then certainly from a go to market lens in terms of how we cosell together how we co service together how we deliver as much value as possible to our end customer. And so a lot of my time is spent cross functionally with marketing and sales with product, certainly with my own team members in the partner community trying to figure out who those partners are, how we engage them, and how to make them successful. You know, finding a partnership is sort of step one, but how do we onboard? How do we set them up to long term, deliver value both to our customer and certainly ROI for themselves as well. Vince Menzione  03:21 So as you describe that, I think about the broad reach of ecosystem, right? And I think about all the different types of partners, you and I were having a conversation a little bit earlier. When I think about HubSpot and Mar Tech, I tend to lean towards agencies, but that’s only one component right, the long tail. And HubSpot has been incredibly successful there by the way, checkbox. And also you you’re probably looking at some of the other partnership relationships. Some of them were strategics ISP, the ISP, maybe even large strategic to HubSpot. I’m not quite sure. But tell us more about that. Barrett King  03:58 I think what we did and have done has been very interesting in terms of a journey. Obviously folks around the community have have seen what we’ve been able to develop and execute over the last Gosh, it’s been like 1718 years now that companies around, our ecosystem started out through and I’ll shout out Peekapoo to here, he’s the brilliant mind behind this. And I’ll tell the story my way he would laugh and say it’s not how it happened. But as I understand it, or maybe perhaps believe it to be he was observing that some of our most successful customers are working with marketing agencies. And so through that observation, he engaged with those folks and found that what they were doing was packaging pricing, selling our software as a part of their as a VAR solution as a part of their platform to help a company grow. So we asked we’ll help you with your email marketing, but you’re going to use HubSpot as the platform the system of record if you will for us to do that work. What’s been interesting about the journey is that as we evolve to go from we are an only a marketing platform to we have the sales tools and then a CRM to serve a solution to help services obviously deliver better value to you know, obviously the CMS and the website solution being a part of it now operations are more of a Reb ops tactical platform. On top of that, each of those evolutions in our product required us to think differently around how to enable our partners to grow with us. And so for a long tail part of that timeline, our partners came along for the journey exclusively, only those partners so they were SMB and mid market and lower enterprise size marketing agencies and sales agencies, really SI is to some extent, that evolved alongside HubSpot. And as you continue to evolve that that ecosystem and grow the business, you do see the diversification across the way that we go to market with other organizations. So you mentioned Kelly was on Kelly does a lot of work with our application partners are our partners. So we think differently around, you know, who are thinking really, what are the other solutions that add value to our customer base, and we build a mechanism there, that’s Kelly’s world, certainly, we think about the up market, in terms of what are the other types of organizations that are working with the customers we want to engage with tomorrow. And conversely, the customers that are engaging with us that are larger than our kind of historical ICP, you know, those customers are bringing their own partners to the table as well. So there’s this thing that’s happening as we evolve our business and how we deliver value to our customer base, that we see different types of organizations wanting to work with us. And so I think kind of the land the plane and the story, fundamentally, what we’ve done is keep our ears turned on to what the customer needs. And I think, you know, when folks ask me things like, how do I build a partner program and go back to like, sort of square one, I always start off with what are your customers missing that you need to go and deliver right now? Is it software support is it go to market support is it in our case, it was delivering the the tactical solution itself, both in terms of moving somebody out of the platform, your more traditional si mechanism, but also the ongoing thing, if you will, of doing bunny ears with the thing that you would do with our tool, which is email marketing, or blog production, content production overall. So the marriage of those two intersections both in terms of what we could deliver and value. And what these third parties can deliver in value to our customer, became this nice little triangle of value as I always kind of describe it. Customer comes to us works with a partner gets more value customer goes to partner finds HubSpot through that relationship gets more value. And so the more we can build that flywheel that mechanism, obviously more effective we are at achieving our mission. Vince Menzione  07:11 Yeah, and I and as you’re speaking about this, I’m thinking about CRM as an example of this, right, because that wasn’t the original intent of the platform. But yet it has become a significant part of the business. And now you’re in new markets, right? You’re, let’s say competing with a Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics. And there are partners surrounding those ecosystems or platforms as well that become natural extensions of the HubSpot partner ecosystem. Barrett King  07:39 That’s part of what you don’t hear, that’s the less glamorous part of growing ecosystem, because your as your own product, go to market changes, and you look to tap into new, certainly revenue streams, like I want to be transparent about that, you know, we’re a software company, we’re trying to grow our revenue. But also, I think, as a product of that, it’s important to remember our core mission, which has helped millions of organizations grow better. And so as we diversify product to solve more customer problems, the businesses that help us solve those problems, they themselves diversified. And so to your point, if you’re listening to the customer base, and the customers that are coming from, you know, specifically CRM, so you’ve got dynamics, you’ve got Salesforce, you’ve got others, when they’re moving from those platforms, or even exploring that move. They’re typically saying, and we’re working with X or Y business, they’re the ones that helped us think about this, or they’re the ones that have always helped us with our technology, solution, architecture, whatever it is, those companies become the next frontier in terms of how do we work with folks tomorrow to ensure again, ultimate goal, our end customer successful, and at the same time, helping to develop the partners that have been with us throughout this journey, being intentional around developing content and enablement and certainly training and certifications to ensure that the customers and the businesses that have already partnered together our existing partner ecosystem that are already close to the problem and have already worked through it, have an opportunity to come together with a new solution whenever we’ve built that point, and also go to market effectively on situs. Vince Menzione  09:00 It’s a fascinating case study, you mentioned be Kabuto. I mean, he’s, he’s an amazing, I think what he did was you described it right, in terms of how HubSpot got it right, early, right, going after that, that martech market. And then this evolution, like, I wonder now, as you’re discussing this with me, like why are or is it inbound that’s creating the need for the client relationship management solution? Or do clients come in that way as well? And they’re not maybe be more tech organizations? Barrett King  09:32 I think it’s both Yeah. I mean, I think there’s a part of what happens when you go to, you know, the the world if you will, and you say like, Hey, we have a CRM, but what you’ve already done, I’ll sort of, you know, toot our own horn here, but like, you’ve already built a great marketing platform, and people understand that you’ve got what I think is world class technology around marketing. They pay attention, and I think as a product of that attention that you receive, if you’re not careful, you could very easily Well frankly, kind of screwed up right you could say We want to go head to head with Salesforce, we want to go head to head with Salesforce, does it make sense? There’s no reason to they do what they do very well, they have an exceptional product, we solve for a different market segment, everyone’s aware of that. So we have to really nail is, well, how do you take a CRM that, you know, is still evolving and growing to meet customer needs? And how do you ensure that both the, you know, initial go to market success is present? How do we go and put a message out there that is aligned to the right customer base, but also the other end of the spectrum, which is now that we’ve got this messaging in the market? How do we ensure that that it’s being serviced properly, that’s being delivered properly, that we are kind of finishing the swing on our commitment in that sense, and I think that’s where the 20 year enrollment comes from. I do think some of its inbound like you are going to see and, you know, companies that that change their messaging, when they’ve got reached like we do, you do see an influx of interest to understand what that next thing is for us, obviously, with CRM. You know, the other end of the spectrum is like when we think about what partners then pay attention. I mean, I can say anecdotal, but I’m sure if any of your audience works, you know, a Salesforce partner works at a Microsoft partner works at any other platforms partner, you’re gonna hear the same thing that we have heard from our end, which is like, there’s this other tool that helps my customer, I’m gonna go explore it. And so I think naturally, it’s the inbound mechanism. And it’s just the general interest of the customer base brings to those other ecosystems around exploring, you know, different solutions. Vince Menzione  11:23 I’m so excited to announce our continued partnership with ag one. Many of you know, I made taking a green drink supplement, part of my health ritual for over 21 years now. And it has made all the difference to my health and well being over six years ago, I found athletic greens. And now their product ag one became my go to supplement. Ag one is the first thing I take every morning to power my day. It covers all of my nutritional bases, supports my gut health gives a boost to my immunity, and energy levels. If you want to take ownership of your health, try ag one and get a free one year supply of vitamin D. And five free ag one travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M. That’s drink ag one.com forward slash Vince M check it out. So I want to dive into your background a little bit you and I had had a previous conversation about not have not having the traditional path to technology certainly, for all right. I thought it’d be fun to spend a little time here on your personal journey Barrett. Sure. Barrett King  12:42 Yeah, give you the quickest version possible. But so I, I’ll date myself, I’m 38. I went to school in the kind of mid to late 2000s. graduated high school in 2003. found my way to a state school for a little period of time, totally bored out of my mind ended up at an art school in Florida. super interested in the work that we were doing. And I have a digital arts and design bachelor’s degree, which basically means like I made pretty cool, awesome shit. And then I graduated college and said, What do I do with my life? You know, and it’s 2008. And the market crashed. And so I ended up actually going into restaurants because it was frankly, the only thing I could do. And I was super interested in the idea of like that level of customer service, that level of really frontline customer engagement. That’s how I would describe it as now then it was like this is a cool job. It’s in the city. You know, I moved back home after college, like what do I want to do with my life kind of moment. And I spent I think was about two years in the space. I was also volunteering at my high school to give back a little bit in the media department and just help. And then at night, I was working with a fashion photographer, because I wanted to just do the work that I enjoyed, which was like photo editing and layouts. And I was building magazines. And it was just interesting time. And then I was burned out because restaurants are delightful and wonderful, but an incredibly grueling career choice. And I knew that it wasn’t forever. I left the industry and went into technology for a brief period of time. And then 2010 happened and everyone got laid off again. So I got laid off, and found my way back into restaurants did that for a few more years, opened a few restaurants around Boston just really enjoyed that time in my life. It was very exciting. It was fun, that Gosh, what a grind. It was a lot. And so this is, gosh, about 10 years ago, 11 years ago now, I got out of restaurants full stop. Like I just I literally walked in one day, I was a gem of a spot general manager of a restaurant and just said I can’t do this anymore to the owner. I’m done. I’ll give you my notice. I’m gonna go figure out what’s next in my life. Matt, who’s now one of my best friends a couple weeks later introduced me to a guy who had a tech firm that was selling to restaurants. They were Google backed, and he wanted somebody to come be his sales guy, quote, unquote. What was interesting is up until this point, anything that I had done, you know, had always been specific to people and always been about relationship development and sales to some extent. And so when I joined this startup, I could tell the story of sales and I can tell the story of having restaurant background it was exactly what they needed at the time. I was it was a lightning moment like Right Place Right Time and it struck. But when I look back in height So what I realized is I was actually developing partnerships, because when I was in restaurants, I was a hospitality manager, I was going out to the local businesses to fidelity to whoever else was in the area, and developing these partnerships in terms of what you’re gonna run all of your events through us. We’re gonna do all of your catering, we’re gonna run all your holiday parties. And through that I was, and I look back now I can say this, but I was cultivating partnerships, but I didn’t call it that, because it was just business development. And then it kept going. And when I got into this next, this first, you know, real tech opportunity in terms of the startup, then I was literally developing partnerships, because I was going to, initially one off restaurant operator locations and trying to sell this tool that we had built, it was unique, it was interesting was a category creator. And it was well received, but it wasn’t working at the volume we needed to. So I changed my go to market and I said, I’m gonna go look for large, multi unit restaurant groups, or I’m gonna look for organizations that partner with those folks. And what I ended up doing is working with the initially the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. And then from there, I parlayed that into the National Restaurant Association, which meant I was building partnerships, to say, let us be your premiere solution for this specific thing we did for restaurants. And both of them said, yes, that increased our distribution significantly. And I had not at the time realized again, I was building partnerships. So to land the plane, I joined HubSpot about eight years ago, I was building a book of partners in the beginning and did very well very quick at a time when we were sort of figuring things out. Because we redesigned the program, and was asked to be our first set of sales, training and super fortunate to go and own partner sales training for a couple years, I got to build a program to help other folks joining the business, learn how to partner with organizations, super introspective, really interesting time, my life, I get to travel a bunch and learn a ton about just, frankly, how to work with other businesses. And from there it went, I sort of jumped back into the sales side of it, managing some of our top partner accounts, and helped to build a few of HubSpot stock partners over the next four and a half years. And again, it was interesting, because I parlayed my training and development experience back into how do I help partners grow, spent a bunch of time doing that. And then in the last couple of years, moved over to our corporate team and took the lens of partner to that group helping to figure out how do we go up market with partners, and now again, for the last year, building actual go to market strategy. And so to sort of coalesce all of this into one statement, what I think about when I describe my weird, kind of wacky wandering career is that, you know, throughout my timeline, I was adding Lego bricks to my Lego mat. So I think what the mat is like that green Lego mat that we all have on your kids may build their house on or whatever, right? Yeah, that green Lego mat is like when you graduate college, that was like the last bit of primary education, whatever that is like your your associate’s or your doctorate. And then you might have a couple of Legos on there, you might have a few bricks, if maybe you had a focus, I was a, you know, math major, or I was a lawyer, whatever you want to be. And some folks take those bricks, and they keep playing the same color, the same shape, and they make their stack very, very tall. And they’re very happy with that I was the opposite. I covered my mat in every type of Lego I could get my hands on, and I never organized it, it was just this pile of bricks. And what I learned as I get older and I got further my career is I could actually start to reorganize those bricks, and stack them in a way that would let me go and stand on top of them. And so now I think about as having a pyramid. And what I can do is draw from those different brick colors and shapes, those different experiences, to bring together into conversations and into moments where I need to solve a problem, all of that context that background, those experiences to a place where I don’t know how there’s like kind of disarray of bricks, but I have a bit of a tower. And it’s more of a pyramid. And that’s okay, because I’ve got some range, a little bit depth and width across it. And so when folks asked me, How did I get here, I sort of laugh generally and genuinely and say like, I don’t know, I just solve problems. That’s what I enjoy doing. But at its core, it’s always been about relationships with people and developing that dynamic that I now know as partnerships. Vince Menzione  18:44 I think about your your stack of bricks, and I go okay, there was some there’s some core DNA there around partnerships, right, there’s something about your background, your where your passion, I feel like we have a shared passion here on this. And it propelled me in this direction as well. And then as you laid the bricks that DNA had had helped really assemble where they stood, right, you didn’t go straight up a stack like the you weren’t an attorney, you weren’t an account and follow up exactly. People that do those jobs for 30 or 40 years. Like I don’t know how they do that, right. And I love having all these different experiences, and then bringing it all together. And that’s what you’ve done, right? You’ve taken you’ve taken some, you’ve built some core muscle that you’ve taken freely from each job to the next each role to the next. And that core muscle is strengthened over time. And that’s what you’re, you’re sharing that that shared experience in that core muscle now and what you’re doing is why I read it. Barrett King  19:35 Yeah, I think you’re spot on. And I think being conscious of that as the most important part. You know, it’s really easy to go and say, I did this as a moment in time. But the more you can take, you know the thread of what took place and pull it forward, the more interconnected the whole thing becomes. Vince Menzione  19:50 And that muscle keeps getting stronger and stronger. It’s it’s there. Exactly, yep. So we have this shared mission, right. And I love what you’re doing. on the podcast, tell our listeners a little bit more about your podcast because I want them to listen. And we’re gonna put a link to in our show notes. Barrett King  20:06 Well, it’s great. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, so the show, it’s called outcomes. And it is about conversations with operators that had been there and done the work and have a story to tell about it. You know, what I did is I, you know, frankly, I selfishly wanted to have conversations with really smart people like yourself, right? It’s while you’re on the show, I want to learn from them. And I realized the further I got down these conversations in the beginning, the more I realized that I could help others by sharing that as well. And so I’ve really focused on easy to consume super tactical outcomes, like the show was called, From operators that have a bit of a context of a story of background to share. And it’s, it’s short, it’s meant to be 10 minutes or less. In terms of the clip, most episodes that I record tend to be between 17 and 22 minutes in total. And it’s cutting into pieces. So when you’re running between meetings, or pick up, the kids are waiting for your show to start, like you can take seven to 10 minutes, and you can listen to an episode and get something to take away with it. Vince Menzione  20:58 I love it. I love the fact that it’s bite size. And Barrett King  21:02 simple. I don’t want to look, I don’t have an hour, I wish I had an hour to sit down and listen to something and learn I don’t I’m a dad, I’m a husband, I’m busy with work, I’ve got hobbies, I’ve got 1000 things going on, my friends always laugh and say I don’t know how you do all of that. And I still fit in a little bit of time to learn. And I do that through micro content as I describe it. So I want to sit in that niche and help people very quickly and tactically learn something. Vince Menzione  21:23 And I want to do the same here, we’re gonna do in a little bit longer format, obviously, I tried to keep it under 30 minutes. But you know, when you have as Ultimate Guide to partnering, I believe there’s a set of principles around well make successful partnering, and I’d love to hear from you. If there are a set of principles that you follow, or things that you believe are aren’t taught to people out there about what makes successful partnerships, Barrett King  21:45 I think it’s people first, you know, it’s really easy business to get focused on KPIs and and you know, all your goals and your revenue. And I just I like to start off and keep it really simple and say we’re two people all trying to make a living, we have a family or friendships or otherwise, what are the human parts of this, that really anchor in what we’re doing this for? I do think ROI is important. I do make it about an outcome, not to repeat the show title. But it really is about an outcome in that sense. And what I mean is like, you know, your, your earliest conversations with this prospect, this potential partner, you know, should be about, why are we doing this? Now, you know, what does, what is the investment look like? Certainly, and like, what’s the goal that we have, in terms of how you, as a business, choosing to work with me are going to win and vice versa? How am I going to win as well, I think the third piece is like have something specific, not just in terms of a goal, but it’s measurable. And it might feel obvious, but I’ve talked to a lot of partnership, folks, in my last couple years in the business, and everyone always talks about, it’s like usually like, how do we sell more, right? Like, that’s great, I get that you want to go in and sell more. But it can be more than that. Why don’t we go to market together and change the world? You know, like, well, let’s keep it really distilled down in simple. I think measurable is the best way to describe that in terms of having some sort of a core KPI. And the other thing is just really, you know, building some sort of a cadence in the conversation. So like, how do you want to be communicated with what’s the best way to to establish a dialogue with somebody because, you know, there’s, I had Blake Williams onto my show is a very long time ago, one of my earliest guests, and he made a comment about, you know, your best partners own your customers trust, you get an opportunity to borrow that trust, add something to it, and deliver it back to them through those partners and I just rember sitting there and hearing him going Wow, man, that’s, that’s so smart. That’s powerful. That is super powerful. I appreciate that comment. And, and I think anchoring in, you know, the value is the most important. So I’ll talk about that value triangle earlier of like who we are, who are the businesses adding value to our customer? And how do we work with those folks to create this kind of momentum. HubSpot calls it a flywheel, and in the business itself, I think with the partners themselves, it comes back to shared value, shared outcomes, shared experience, and creating a mechanism to deliver that in a cyclical way, and continue to try and grow that opportunity. That’s the best foundational way to build a program. I love Vince Menzione  23:59 what you have to say here, but shared shared vision and values super, super important. Like why are we here together? Like what are we trying to solve for what’s the better together? And you know, you talked about KPIs. And I like to apply OKRs John Doerr talked about OKRs, he applied them to Google. Google started, and now everybody’s using OKRs. But specifically, like when we get together when we have that Cadency, you talked about, like, are we taking a look at what we’re trying to do? And aspirationally? What are we trying to do? Right? So maybe maybe on a marketing side or branding side, it’s like, how do we show up together in the market? Like, what’s that going to look like? Is that going to be like our two leaders up on stage together, talking about a shared vision for success for our, our common customers? Or is it just going to be some KPIs around marketing? Specifically, right? Barrett King  24:46 I think it’s what matters to the customer. You know, like a lot of what I hear folks talk about is what’s in it for me, obviously, naturally, we’re human beings. I think if you can focus each of those dialogues on what’s in it for the customer, you’re doing the right thing. You’re asking the right question, anchoring in We talked about performance over time, too, it’s really easy to focus on 100 feet, right on our feet down the road, what’s in front of you? I think, for me at least, that’s why you hear QBR a lot, you hear these kind of bigger perspective conversations. I think having a daily, weekly, monthly focus is valuable. I think having a quarterly check in is important. I think having a yearly and multi year intent is probably the most valuable component of a true longtail value partnership. Vince Menzione  25:27 I am so with you on this the three, you know, at least three years out, like what’s the vision for Barrett King  25:31 the future? Yep. Vince Menzione  25:34 So I’m going to ask the opposite or the inverse of this question. Right. So we talked about what makes successful partnerships, what about the partnerships that have failed that you’ve seen fail? Like, was there a Kryptonite that got in the way of those partnerships? Barrett King  25:46 Yeah, this is probably the easiest one for me to answer because it, it’s one of the more common themes that comes up. So I will just call this person a leader of a partner program, I’ll just keep it super, super neutral. I somebody recently say to me, when I think about kicking off like this next stage of growth, one of the things I really care about is that our partners drive as much revenue as possible. Like sort of smiled, and I was like, okay, cool. And what are you doing for that revenue? And, and they were like, Oh, we’re just gonna, we’re gonna help them grow their businesses, like, Oh, you’re gonna have like a consulting arm of that organization? And they were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, they’re gonna use our software to grow. It’s like already, like, you’re just looking for them to sell your software, you don’t really think about that. The me statements, the obvious, is a early sign of problem. That’s sort of like the shakiness in the relationship, the all about me components, they’re going to do this for me, even as the way you talk about it. In fact, Joe Riley was on my show on point. And we talked about language and the impact of specific word choice. When he talks about the dynamic you’re establishing with a potential and then obviously a partner once they work with you, and how often and I would describe this diagnostically. But, you know, SAS organizations, for example, that work with partners typically want some sort of an output from that relationship. And what they need to focus on is the first piece, which is, by working with us, the SAS organization, these partners gain X, Y, or Z value. And if you can look at that and draw correlation between the investments those partners make with you, and the outputs of that resulting value, then you win. So then, let’s take the opposite of that. That I think is the kryptonite. I think when you hear organizations talk about me, me, me, and I don’t build the infrastructure, the education, the sharing, it’s necessary to enable those partners to win alongside it’s really easy to do the like the kind of churn and burn thing you see a lot of companies do they come in hot, sign a bunch of partnerships. And then those partners don’t get true fundamental value beyond maybe the first six to nine to 12 months, and they turn out. And then two years later, when they burn through 1000s of partners, that organizations as well, what are we doing wrong, we made all about you, and you didn’t take away education, you didn’t spend time helping those companies or listening to them or caring about them. That’s the other side of this equation that I think ultimately, when you can anchor in, you avoid that pitfall that kryptonite moment, Vince Menzione  27:55 I think about CO selling in that respect, right? When you make it about truly co selling as a part in this, and I’m going back to like the old channel models too. And I think about this, like we’re gonna lob off a little piece of our business. And we’re gonna give it to a partner or a group of partners to go after like, we’re gonna give New Zealand and Australia and let them make Hey there because we don’t have we don’t want to even focus there, and then hope they do something like sell for us. Yeah. And I think about that mentality, that mindset that you described, that can apply geographically, it could apply to just in general about the approach you have to partners. I love what you have to say there. So I love asking this question and sort of a way to get at, like what makes you tick and who you admire, but you’re hosting a dinner party bear, and you can host this party anywhere in the world. And we discuss locations in a while here. But you can invite any three guests to this amazing dinner party from the present or the past. Whom would you invite, and why? Barrett King  29:00 Well, I have to invite you, they ultimately you’re going to provide a really awesome perspective on hyper scalar and and all of that if we talk about partnerships, right? I can say I would invite someone like even Dharmesh he always comes to mind when people ask me a question like this Dharmesh was the co founder CTO of HubSpot. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant human being really smart in terms of how he built HubSpot technology stack. I like him from an investment perspective. I think he’s got something interesting to say there. You know, if we’re talking purely professional, I would go a different route if we’re talking about the most entertaining an interesting conversation possible. I think then it starts to open up the aperture quite a bit more. I would probably bring in like an actor or actress somebody like maybe like Leonardo DiCaprio. If I wanted to go with somebody like kind of funky and interesting and maybe a little bit weird. Or like Glenn Close, who’s had an incredible career and a long devotee to her. I could go the other end of the spectrum and say like someone like Elon Musk because he’s got a real fascinating way of thinking about you know, certainly anything technology centric could go controversial. I’d say like Joe Rogan, who’s got like probably one of the most, I think it is still the number one podcast in the world and has been plethora of like interesting guests that have joined. I think for me, you know, when I think about that dinner party, you’re gonna laugh, perhaps, but I go to the food first. Like, I’m sitting here saying, Where are we like, hopefully, we’re on a mountain top overlooking a valley with like, really, really good, you know, high quality wine around the table, and some incredible craft cocktails. Funny, I don’t drink anymore, either. But I just think about that as like a poor part of it with food that was been curated by somebody who, like took the kind of mindfulness of building something from scratch, they planted a head of lettuce, and they cultivated it and they grew it, I think, what, for me to really anchor in your question, what matters is good conversation with good people, and good food to fuel that dialogue. And so I could bring people from past present and future to that in a variety of of lenses to curate the most interesting conversation possible, but it anchors in, you know, where the experience happens and how we consume, you know that that entire kind of front end back to back timeline. Vince Menzione  31:12 I’m all in you said I’m invited. So I’m sitting here on the top of the mountain, I’m thinking to myself, we were either in Napa. Yeah. We weren’t in Napa Sonoma. Or maybe we’re like in Italy, or the south of France, like Barrett King  31:25 Italy first? Yeah. Yeah. That was my first choice. In my head. I pictured something. Yeah, there’s like some grape vines growing over the top of the trellis that were sitting under our old like wrought iron table. It’s very natural. Vince Menzione  31:36 I’m ready to go back. And we’re having that conversation. So let’s plan it. And I also have not been drinking, I gave up drinking. I haven’t shared this on the podcast. So I’m probably going to share this for the first time. But I gave up drinking almost almost a year ago. Barrett King  31:49 About a year actually, I think, I think July is a year I go back and forth. My wife, I think, a year, August. Yeah. Yeah, I just, it’s funny, I won’t have to spend time on this. But I, I have a young kiddo, he’s, he’s four and a half my wife and I have had an interesting last couple of years, kind of pre and through pandemic times. And what we realized one day was that didn’t really love how we were feeling. And it was just started with, like, Let’s do, I think I said, I’m going to do two weeks. And she was like, you know, sure, she didn’t really drink a lot. But it was just a part of, you know, for everyone, I think through COVID, but just part of our lifestyle. And then a week to three a month, two months, we started to work on our we had a really great gym regimen, we have a fitness that we kind of center, if you will, that we built in our basement. So we’ve got a space there. And then we looked at what we were eating start to improve that. And I’ll tell you I’m those of you can see me right now I was 25 and a half pounds heavier in November of last year. Wow, wild, I had no idea that much weight on me. And yeah, and so I feel better than I ever have. I’m sharper. And that’s why I can talk about going to Italy, I wouldn’t even consume the cocktails, I might have a sip of wine just for the principle of being there. But it’s the food and conversation that would drive through, Vince Menzione  32:58 it would be hard not to at least have a sip or two. Or two, we could talk about all the amazing non alcoholic beverages out there as well. But that we could say that maybe we’ll have another episode where we just talk about Barrett King  33:11 my journey, we’ll do food and beverage. And there we go. I love it. Vince Menzione  33:14 I love what you’ve been an amazing guest Barrett, I really love what you have to say about partnerships. I just think as an overall human being and the work that you’re doing, and just delighted to get to know you a little bit better. So as we wind down the conversation today, and this has been a year we we’ve seen a lot of headwinds, right, we talked about COVID kind of accelerated a lot of things going on in the tech sector. And then the last year so like these economic headwinds, where everybody’s trying to do more with less organizations are pulling back funding, or they’re holding on to the cash that they raised in the last round. What advice do you have for our listeners on optimizing their success for the remainder of this year? Barrett King  33:52 I think it’s, it’s probably more simple than, well, I’m going to make it sound more simple than it is. And that would be first and foremost, to listen to your customers. there’s anything else that I’ve learned in the last couple of years, really the last like five or 10 years of my career, it’s that your customers will tell you what you are not doing well. They’ll tell what you’re doing. Well, you got to ask the right questions. And so I think keeping a very clear pulse on your customers, everyone wants to listen to the market with the market saying what’s, you know, CNBC put up this morning, okay, those are perhaps indicators of what may or may not happen far down the road. And by far, I mean, like that could be hours away. But what’s happening right now in your organization, your customers will give you feedback on if you’re a leader, marketing sales, CES, CEO, CTO, whoever you should be meeting with your customers every single week. And you should supplement that with partnerships. If you don’t have a partnerships mechanism in your business. You’re missing out. No, I’m preaching to the choir with you. I know we’re on the same page. There’s a lot of leaders I’ve talked to they’re saying our partnerships the way of the future. I think, inbound, think outbound, you’ve heard folks use the term near bound. I don’t think it’s a word. I think it’s the way people want to buy. I can appreciate terminology to be clear, but I think what’s happened and what I’ve observed is that people have become more educated, they’ve had more access to information, they’ve had more access to each other. And through that shift in the way buyers behavior has evolved, it’s more important than ever that we actually specifically, listen to them, not try and do the you will buy you should use etc. I think the way that you win in 2023 and a half, to the kind of end of the 2030s will be my guess is probably like a seven to 10 year journey here. You invest in the businesses that are already close to your customer. And certainly as partnerships, you listen to those customers and through that listening, look for ways to adapt, and evolve and overcome, and try and really enable the best possible outcomes, the best possible experience and ROI and value for those customers staying close to the problems they have, obviously, and engaging with the businesses that are already around them, helping to solve and provide solutions. Vince Menzione  35:52 Yeah, I love what you have to say. And we could go on about why that’s so important, like the surround of the customer, and the trust. And the five seats at the table is Jamie McBain likes to talk about right because it isn’t just one person influencing it’s it’s how we organize around solving for the customer. And being part of that conversation helping to drive that mutual success or the that set of outcomes that the customer wants is just so critical. It’s brilliant. Yep. Super, super excited to have you Barrett and to continue our friendship. Thanks so much for joining today. Barrett King  36:26 It’s been a pleasure. Thank you. It’s been fun. I look forward to next conversation. Vince Menzione  36:29 Take care, same year. And we know we’re going to talk about next time. All the things. Announcer  36:35 Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Guide to partnering with your host Vince Menzione online at Ultimate Guide to partnering.com and facebook.com/ultimate Guide to partnering. We’ll catch you next time on The Ultimate Guide to partnering

With Microsoft Inspire only a few days away, I’m bringing back this fantastic episode to help you better understand from a Microsoft Partner’s Chief Brand Officer. If you wish to hear from this amazing leader, please join us on July 20th for his panel session where he will teach us about effective brand marketing with Microsoft and the Ecosystem. Our First Live Digital Event – “Winning with Ecosystems” Register here – https://www.learninglibrary.tv/ultimate-partner/3620042 What you’ll learn in this episode: Why Brand and Brand Storytelling are critical to his success. Why Technology Organizations struggle to invest in successful Brand Marketing What Technology Partners need to do better or differently? Where Technology Organizations need to align for success. About this Episode I find that technology organizations often struggle to invest in successful brand marketing. They are not crisp on their value, brand, and delivering it effectively. It is why I’ve invited one of the best in the business, to help by showing us how it is done right. My guest for this episode of the podcast is Dux Raymond Sy, the Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint. In this episode, Dux and I discuss why technology organizations struggle to invest in successful brand marketing and the steps that technology organizations can take to drive an effective brand story. I was delighted to welcome Dux back to the podcast, he is a dear friend and now a three-time guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering. Quite a bit has happened since we last spoke, AvePoint became a public company and launched its own Partner Strategy with Jason Beal, who was a guest earlier this year. See link below. This episode is exclusively for technology organizations looking to drive greater results through effective brand, marketing, and brand storytelling. It was great to have Dux come to visit this platform again. I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I enjoyed welcoming back Dux Raymond Sy as a guest on Ultimate Guide to Partnering®. Listen to other episodes featuring AvePoint Leaders. 105 – CHANNEL FOCUSED STEPS FOR AVEPOINT TO BECOME A PARTNER-LED COMPANY 76 – OPTIMISM FOR UNPARALLELED OPPORTUNITY FOCUSED ON A BETTER WORLD. 48 – ONE PARTNER OF THE YEAR’S PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL TRANSFORMATION. #15: @MEETDUX DISCUSSES SOCIAL MEDIA BRANDING, WITH DUX RAYMOND SY. Links & Resources About AvePoint: https://www.avepoint.com/about Connect with Dux http://linktr.ee/meetdux Dux’ Shift Happens Podcast: https://www.avepoint.com/blog/shifthappens/ Dux Spotify Playlist Link to the Transcription of the Podcast. Rate & Review – please, this helps more listeners find us! Learn more how Ultimate Partnerships helps technology organizations optimize partner results. Ultimate Guide to Partnering Linked In – Stay tuned as I’ll share details around our new offering for you. Subscribe to Ultimate Guide to Partnering on Apple, Spotify,  Google,  Audible,  SoundCloud, Stitcher, Player FM, almost anywhere you get your podcasts! About Vince Menzione. Follow or reach Vince – Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Ultimate Guide to Partnering Facebook. Drop me a line – vincem@ultimate-partnerships.com. This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Ultimate Partnerships. Ultimate Partnerships helps you get the most results from your partnerships. Get Partnerships Right – Optimize for Success – Deliver Results – Ultimate Partnerships.

An Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Guide to Microsoft Inspire For this Microsoft Inspire special edition, I’m joined by two industry friends, Per Werngren and Rob Fegan, for a chat about the renowned event and what to look for this year from Microsoft. What You’ll Learn You will hear from two industry veterans about how they prepare for the big Microsoft Inspire Conference, what sessions they are most eager to view this year, and what’s in store for Microsoft’s new fiscal year. Exclusively Sponsored By “Winning with Ecosystems” – An Ultimate Partner LIVE Event. I’m excited to announce Ultimate Partner’s first live digital event, “Winning with Ecosystems, ” on July 20. A production with LLTV and in partnership with Tackle, this event will feature Microsoft and the leaders leading this movement to Cloud GTM and Ecosystem Led Growth. As a unique “companion event” to the Microsoft Inspire conference, you will learn how to apply the principles and learnings to achieve your most outstanding results in FY24. Registration is limited; SIGN UP before it’s too late! On becoming, The Ultimate Partner™ At Ultimate Guide to Partnering, we bring you the leaders in this industry, the best in the business from the leading tech organizations and the hyperscalers, who drive the greatest influence and impact to our world of ecosystems. With this exciting new Masterclass Series, Ultimate Partnerships becomes The Ultimate Partner™ More than just a new look, Ultimate Partner is doubling its commitment to helping YOU become the Ultimate Partner by getting it right. Do you want to be The Ultimate Partner? Visit our NEW website. Why Ultimate Partner? Over six years ago, I embarked on a mission to empower partners struggling to navigate the complex world of tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and AWS. Today, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of Ultimate Partner, an extraordinary media, events, and advisory company dedicated to transforming your Cloud Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and fostering Ecosystem Led Growth. Having witnessed the industry from multiple perspectives – leading a $4.6 billion Ecosystem at Microsoft, spearheading partnerships for a billion-dollar company, and hosting 200 episodes of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® -, I’ve gained invaluable insights and crafted a manifesto of principles to guide your success. In an era defined by tectonic shifts, such as the global pandemic, economic headwinds, and the rise of AI, the role of hyperscalers has become increasingly critical. With investments of billions of dollars in ecosystems, technology, and customer acquisition costs, they have secured over $200 billion in customer commitments to durable cloud budgets. We stand on the precipice of a marketplace moment where simplifying and streamlining economic models associated with co-selling and ecosystem-led growth will shape the decade ahead. Yet, as vendors and organizations demand more from us while resources diminish, we ask, “Where do we go? How do we navigate these seismic shifts? How do we thrive during this decade of the ecosystem?” If you’re a partner, you’re likely grappling with these questions. The watering holes of the past no longer offer the guidance required to transform into a Cloud GTM and embrace Ecosystem Led Growth. That’s why Ultimate Partner exists – to be your trusted compass amidst the noise. Transcription – by Otter.ai – Expect Many Typos SUMMARY KEYWORDS microsoft, partners, fy, business, conference, rob, microsoft cloud, strategies, event, great, fiscal year, session, inspire, good, talking, excited, share, focus, ecosystem, align 00:05 I’m excited to welcome to Industry friends and Microsoft experts for a discussion on the upcoming Microsoft inspire conference. Bear Warren grin. You’re the founder of the iamcp and a five time worldwide president and a successful entrepreneur and CEO of identities. So welcome. Thanks for yours. And Rob, you’ve been in the Microsoft ecosystem for over 15 years and lead a successful firm, then vido focused on helping partners achieve their greatest success with Microsoft. And I love all your your LinkedIn posts and advice you give to partner so so happy to have you on board as well. 01:27 Thanks for watching. I’m looking forward to our call today. 01:29 So why should partners watching or listening today attend Microsoft Inspire? 01:35 Well, as you kind of mentioned, travel is light. It is easy to travel to this conference. And the fee is not excessive, because it is free. But the true value lies in the content and the content will be awesome. I would say that the keynote the first day. When Satya sets the scene together with Jensen alto, Nick of the Sun is the most important session. That session will give you a guidance for the rest of the conference and help you prioritize but also help you navigate your own companies year ahead, serve this conference is a goldmine for knowledge has always been will always be. 02:19 Yeah, as Paris said, I think this is a goldmine for partners. But for me, it’s really about their Microsoft is sharing their focus and strategy for the upcoming fy 24. And what we can do as partners is we can translate that into sales tactics into solution plays and sales motions, where we can turn those strategies and those ideas into actual solutions for our clients. So I’m super excited for the conference. And like Carrie said, it is just an absolute goldmine of information for partners. So I encourage everyone to 02:51 attend. Yeah. So Rob, specifically for you? What areas are you most excited about as we move into fiscal year 24? 02:57 For me, in FY 24, I think that Microsoft has made some really big investments in the Microsoft cloud partner program. And that’s something that I think is really helping partners set themselves apart. It’s really letting them differentiate themselves in the market. So I’m excited for that I’m excited for what partners can do to translate the strategies from Microsoft through their solution designations and their specialties. So for me, that’s a big part of FY 20. 03:25 I’m glad you mentioned that Rob. In fact, this week, we rerelease the episode we did earlier last year with Dan Rippy, where we talk specifically about that. So I want to put a link in that for our viewers and listeners in the show notes. But how about you pair? What are you most excited about? 03:42 Well, first of all, it is important to see how the new Microsoft cloud partner program is progressing. The house is under construction, it is not finished. But there are several rooms that are finished. And I like those rooms. And hopefully the new rooms under construction will be equally good. And by that I mean that we will probably see more tailored stuff geared to partners that felt that they were not part of the first face will probably see more support for ISVs. And the cloud partner program. Well, it has been evolving for two decades, and I’m pretty sure that it has continued to evolve. And it is important to pay attention to what is happening so that you can navigate your own firm and you can navigate your relationship with Microsoft and make sure that you’re well aligned, like healthcare. That is something I like. And if I would single out one session like out of the blue, it is F s 401. I did some prep work. It is called Microsoft cloud partner program. The road ahead. Let’s pull light Natori Yeah, 04:55 really great points here apart from keynotes. 04:58 Yeah, and it’s not session is on two Tuesday and I’m excited as well pair to join that session. So thanks for sharing. Yeah, 05:05 you know, some so many great sessions. Thank you both for providing that information for our viewers today. You know, we had been talking about this, I’ll call it the tectonic shifts we’ve been seeing, right, we had COVID, we’ve had these economic headwinds these last 18 months or now, these last 18 months or so, what are you seeing the best partner is doing differently now than they were perhaps a year 18 months ago? 05:28 So for me over the past 18 months, what I’ve seen the best partners should do and make a shift from is talking speeds and feeds or talking about the technology and really focusing on the business problems. How are they revolutionising their customers business processes. And I think that is where the real goal is, in terms of helping your clients as a Microsoft partner, find out how you can reengineer their business process, how you can streamline the business process, and I think the person that have done the best and made the biggest steps forward in the Microsoft ecosystem, are those that can really envision the change they can bring to their customers in terms of business process, business reengineering, and then align the technology that helps to achieve that, versus coming at it from the technology first standpoint. 06:15 Yeah, really great points about standing out in this ecosystem of 470,000 partners, working with this Microsoft field organization, right. 06:25 I’ve always been a big fan of recording and revenue. So I see that more partners are embarking on this road, trying to shift from selling hours per product based hours, and sell recurring revenue services. That is good for profitability. And it is good was for enterprise value. I see that to answer more successful except as Rob said, they are focusing on business problems and not so much on technology. Of course, technology is an enabler to solving these business problems. And they are also paying attention to a certain industry. So they build knowledge about an industry that also makes it easier to partner with Microsoft. I also see that the successful ones are less sentimental. When it comes to coding. They are embracing power platform and other low code, no code platforms, and are open to try out GitHub co pilot coding will never be the same as before and as good for profitability. 07:31 What about the organizations that struggle here? Some organizations come to Microsoft expecting maybe results or an unachievable? What guidance do you have for them? 07:41 Wilson did JFK that said, Don’t ask what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country did better Potter’s they don’t ask Microsoft what they can do for them. They instead make a case what they can do for Microsoft. And that Microsoft loves that that makes pottering so much better. 08:00 I love that point there. Rob, what about you? 08:03 That is such a great point. And for me I share with partners that are struggling is there’s really three things in my mind that you have to align with Microsoft first is mindset, you really have to have the mindset to work with Microsoft and think of a win win mindset. It’s not just you as a partner winning, she was a partner, your client and Microsoft need to win in this engagement. So that’s the first thing I share with them as mindset. Next is messaging partners have great messaging to their clients, but a lot of partners Miss messaging to Microsoft and really sharing with those peers at how am I helping you Microsoft and get aligning that message. So that resonates inside of Microsoft. And then finally is the mechanics, you really have to understand the mechanics of working with Microsoft. And that includes the Microsoft cloud partner program. It includes Microsoft Partner center, you need to leverage all of those components to really work seamlessly with Microsoft. So again, it’s mindset and messaging and mechanics that you really need to focus on to execute at the field level. 09:04 So what’s some of the advice you have for our viewers and 09:06 listeners as they go into Microsoft’s fiscal year 24. Vince, my main piece of advice for Microsoft partners heading into FY 24 is really to understand and align their business with Microsoft’s FY 24 priorities. And we’ll see those priorities come out in the Inspire event. And then I know you’re hosting an event on July 20, where I think we’ll get to even go deeper into those priorities and understand what those priorities are and how we as partners can align our business and our strategies and our tactics to Microsoft’s larger vision for FY 24. 09:45 I’m glad you brought up that event. Rob. We are hosting. Microsoft’s will call it the unofficial after party. It’s a companion event to the Microsoft inspire conference on July 20. We’ve got some of the leaders from Microsoft coming in To help our viewers better understand, like what they just heard, how do they take that and I’ll use Microsoft parlance here landed in their business. And then we have some of the practitioners and experts coming to help you as a partner better understand how to take that and make it relevant to your business strategy for success in fiscal year 2024. Pair, what do you think? What are you What is your advice departments, 10:26 I think that identify what waves of change that there will be this fiscal year, find one of these waves, and focus on that many Potter’s tried to do a little bit of everything. And if you want to be successful, find one thing, focus on it and specialize on it so that you become master on it. And that will help market communication because everyone wants to do business with someone that is best in a field. And that also opens up for partnering with others. When you’re specialized, there is a need to partner with others that are specialized in other areas. And that is good for customer satisfaction. And customer satisfaction is good for profitability. So we as your event are attentive, what is the main things that you will talk about, I know that your cannot reveal all your wonderful guests. But this give us a hint? 11:25 Well, first of all, we’ve got several executives from Microsoft coming. I’m calling it the red carpet, they’re coming in after the event, right? We’re doing these fireside chats. And you’re going to hear from them specifically, how to take what you heard the last two days, the 18th and 19th. And applying it to your business, you’ll hear directly from Julie Sanford, who’s the CMO for the partner business, you’ll hear from Kevin P skirt, who runs the SMC business, which is a massive $70 billion business and Microsoft. And you will also hear from the leader of the marketplace organization, Jake Swenson and from Nicole Harding, who is the partner leader for the Americas. So each of them will share specific highlights and things that you need to do now, leading into fiscal year 24. We’re also joined by some of the top practitioners in our partnership with tackle IO, we’ve got some of their leaders coming in to help organizations better understand how to implement marketplace strategies into their organization. We have two workshops, a co sell workshop, and a go to market workshop. And we have a spotlight session on AI specifically, to help partners better integrate AI into their business strategy. So lots of great learnings that will be shared uniquely the day after the Inspire conference. So I want to thank you both. So great to see both of you, my good friends, pear and Rob and I’m excited to share more with each of you watching today at our live event, our live digital event winning with ecosystems, July 20 11am. Eastern time, I hope you join us there and pear Rob will be coming in for the after party at the end of the event and open for questions and giving advice back to us partners. They’ll share some of their best learnings coming out of the Microsoft inspire conference as well. So hope to see you all thank you for joining the ultimate guide to partnering. Today I’m excited to announce ultimate partners first live digital event winning the ecosystem taking place on July 20. We’re all be joined by Microsoft and the leaders leading this movement to cloud go to market and ecosystem led growth. This will be a companion event to the Microsoft inspire conference where you will learn how to achieve your greatest results in 2024. Please follow the link in our show notes. To sign up for this exciting event. You’ll learn about the speakers and agenda that are shaping up to help you achieve your greatest results. Thank you for joining us