Partner Elevate’s team have spent years helping Microsoft partner channel businesses grow by more than 30% year on year. With that knowledge and understanding of the ecosystem, we know there are four clear areas of Microsoft partner performance.
We also know that the bell curve is just as real when understanding the performance of Microsoft partners as it is in any other area of performance.
So, by looking at these four areas of partner performance in a bell curve model, we can begin to visualise the current state of your business.
The performance curve helps benchmark your Microsoft business by showing where your current behaviour, focus, and business maturity sit.
These partners have highly variable performance that is more often down than up. The business is run by blind day-to-day activity, and leaders are struggling to understand which actions will truly make a difference.
These partners are stuck because of fear and ignorance, and they believe the myth that being a Managed Partner will solve their problems. The truth is that you first need to be a great businessperson with a great business before Microsoft will be interested in you.
Once you realise that you must be a great business first, you move into the amber zone. Businesses in this zone are what we call People Pleasers.
Instead of carrying real weight in a specialised area within the ecosystem, they become commoditised generalists — doing as much as possible just to break even, while diluting their relevance to Microsoft.
The key to moving swiftly through the amber zone is knowing the Microsoft game you are playing so you are well placed to play it strategically.
By knowing the game, you begin to see the untapped potential in what you could be doing better.
You become quietly confident in your ability to take decisive action, and you develop a unified approach that gives you predictable control of your business.
The key for businesses with untapped potential is not only knowing the game, but also having a game plan to execute against so you do not get stuck behind the “good enough” line.
The truth is that Microsoft loves winners and innovators, not businesses that are complacent or willing to settle.
At this stage, you can realise exponential growth for your business. You become the expert in a specific area, and that creates a genuinely happy business.
What we see at this stage is that these businesses recognise the need to have elite play.
Keep an eye out for the upcoming blogs in this series, which explain how using our 9 key accelerators can move your business forward and help you become a go-to solution provider for Microsoft.
If you want to learn more right now, download our eBook. It explains all of this and much more.