eXtreme365 Orlando Schedule at a Glance for Marketers

In true “nerd princess” style I combed through the full eXtreme365 Orlando schedule and made a list of just the important parts that apply to me as a marketer. This includes the blocks of time that I need in my calendar AND just the Marketing and Sales sessions. Check it out here:

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How to Make Sure You Don’t Miss Out on Referral Leads from Your Microsoft Partner Center Profile

How many referral leads has Microsoft sent to you lately? None? Are you sure? It is possible that there are leads sitting out there in your Microsoft Partner Center account and you don’t even know it. There are 3 ways you can get leads from Microsoft Partner Center. Here are the steps to make sure you receive those referrals (leads) and respond in a way that makes Microsoft happy, (so they will send you more leads.)

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Astronaut, Accountant, Author – The Backstory of Pam Misialek

Pam Misialek started her career right out of college as one of the very first interns at Great Plains Software. She thought she would stay with Great Plains until it was not fun anymore, and then she would move on. Little did she know that she would become an integral part of this product and stay with the company for the next 22 years – during many fun and not so fun times. Until her next big adventure began. But let’s start this backstory even earlier. Back to the days of space camp, Dear Doug letters and science fiction novels……

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An Easy Way to Show Your Referral Partners That You Value Every Lead

Do your referral partners feel confident that you value the leads they give you? I am not talking about giving them money. There are other ways to thank them. I feel that one of the best, and cheapest, things you can give them, to prove that you deserve their leads, is information. This is what I mean....and how I know it works.

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The Backstory of MSDynamicsWorld – Two Guys, One Site, Zero Microsoft Ties

Everyone in the Microsoft Dynamics channel knows MSDynamicsWorld. Since its launch in 2008 MSDynamicsWorld has grown into the world’s largest Microsoft ERP/CRM news and information resource.

But if you think this site was launched by seasoned Microsoft executives with deep channel connections and vendor funding, you couldn’t be farther from the truth. Ten years ago two young entrepreneurs, Adam Berezin and Jason Gumpert, knocked on the door of this channel with no direct relationships and no connection to Fargo or Microsoft. And they made it.

This backstory includes “the worst sales job ever”, crashing a Harvard alumni meeting, the opportune meeting of two very different people and a whole lot of cold calling. 

Find out what made MSDynamicsWorld what it is today.

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Our Channel is Small So You Better Be Nice

“Treat others as yourself” or “What goes around comes around.” No matter what quote you prefer, the point is the same. The way you treat people now can have an impact on you later. Either positive or negative. And I think that is especially true when you spend your career working in a software channel like ours.  Recently I had a similar issue with two companies. But the outcome of each was very different. And this is what I learned.

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You Say You Bought That Image But Can You Prove It?

I trust you. I bet you properly licensed that copyright protected image you have on your website. But the real question is, can you prove it? As some people have found out the hard way, if you can’t prove it, you are in trouble. If you get a letter from a lawyer saying that you have a copyright protected image (or song) on your website it is up to you to prove that you purchased it. And sometimes that is easier said than done. Here are a few real life examples and few tips to protect yourself.

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4 Ways to Help People Who Hate Upgrades

I hate upgrades. I will ignore them for as long as possible. I just want to do it the way I know how to do it. Even if a “better” way exists. Eventually I lose the battle, and change is forced upon me. After verbally abusing the new system for a few weeks, I get used to doing it a different way and forget the drama. Then I even start to like the new system. Until the next upgrade….

So I have empathy for companies that are faced with upgrades to their ERP and CRM systems. Here are a few simple steps I think ERP/CRM partners should take to make upgrade-haters like me more comfortable with the inevitable.

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3 Marketing Tips I Wanted To Tell Restaurant Owners in Albania

I just can’t stop thinking about marketing. Even on vacation. A large part of my vacation time is spent in restaurants, so I often want to give unsolicited marketing advice to restaurant owners. This happened recently in Tirana, Albania. But since I don’t speak Albanian, I will share in a blog post instead. And likely it will be more appreciated this way anyway. Here are three marketing lessons I learned that apply to Microsoft Dynamics partners too.

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Don’t Assume Your Clients Know Anything

“I just assumed you knew.” Have you ever gotten a tip that you know will save you a lot of time and hassle? If the tip comes from a stranger, you are grateful. If it comes from someone who should have told you before, you are annoyed. Learning to put yourself in someone else's situation and anticipate their needs is a skill. But I think it is a skill that can be developed. And it is something that will make your company and your employees really stand out from the competition. Things that seem obvious to you may be very new to someone else. This is why you should not just assume they know.... 

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Are You Willing To Hire For Appreciation Rather Than Experience?

I believe that the best workers are the ones that sincerely appreciate having a job that fits their unique life circumstances. They will do anything to please their employer and keep that job, because they know it will be hard to find someone else to accommodate them. Who are these people and where can you find them? Here is my unusual advice.

 

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Who Owns Your Website – Marketing or IT?

“The Website is Down!” Those words send chills down the spine of any marketer. Everyone starts looking for someone to blame and finally asks the question -  who is responsible for keeping the website running, Marketing or IT? Sadly, many times the IT department dismisses the website as just a “pretty marketing thing”. And the Marketing department assumes that IT is taking care of boring things like security and backups. That is a big mistake.

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My Best Blogging Tip You Think You Have Never Heard

I feel like I tell this tip all the time.  Yet every time I say it people are still amazed and act like they have never heard it before. So, I’ll just keep saying it. This is the fastest way to write a blog post.  Ready? 1) Record 2) Transcribe 3) Edit. I have done it hundreds of times. Here are my specific tips to make it easy.

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12 Hot Topics for Microsoft Dynamics Marketers in 2017

What topics are “hot” with Microsoft Dynamics marketers this year?

At the start of each year my marketing group makes a list of the topics we are the most interested in learning more about. Then we vote and assign one topic to discuss in our monthly call.

Hearing the experiences, opinions and questions of other marketers that are with you “in the trenches” has proved to be enormously valuable. This is what we will be discussing in 2017.

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14 Favorite Marketing Tools Our Group Loves

The best way to find out about new marketing tools is to ask other marketing people to list their favorites. At the end of the year I asked a group of top marketers in the Microsoft Dynamics channel what tools they had loved in 2016. I admit that half of the answers were programs I had never used before. Perhaps there is a new tool on this list for you too.  

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8 Ways the ERP/CRM Software Blogs Help Dynamics ISV Partners Get Found

It is all about being found. If you are a Dynamics ISV partner you want your brand to be found, and known, by prospects and by partners. So, you need to make sure that you are taking advantage of all the opportunities you do have to be known within the Dynamics channel and market. Here are 8 ways the ERP and CRM Software Blog sites help you do that.

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6 Tips to Help Your Product Stand Out on Microsoft AppSource

AppSource is THE place to be found these days. Pinpoint and Partner Center are so “yesterday”. Microsoft AppSource is the new “in” club where all the cool kids can be found. Once you are in, you have to “dress for success” to get noticed. The AppSource developers spoke to Dynamics CRM/365 partners at eXtremeCRM and gave several tips on how to improve your listing.

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From Front Desk to Back Office to Center Spotlight: The Making of a GPUG All Star

I met Amber Bell in 1999 at a San Diego based company that sold a product then known as Great Plains software. I worked in sales; she worked at the front desk. Today she is a GPUG All Star. Everyone loves a “rags to riches”, “pulled themselves up by the bootstraps”, “American Dream” type story. Amber Bell proves that with enough hard work, goals and personality anyone can be an All Star. And I am honored to have watched her journey, from front desk to back office to center stage spotlight.  This is her story....or at least my version of it.

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