How State³ Created a New Industry Focus and Shifted Business Priorities

After completing the Partner Elevate Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, we sat down with Tania Armstrong, Sales Director and Co-Founder of State³ in New Zealand to hear how the business uncovered a new industry focus and created an evolutionary shift. 

State³ is a Microsoft ISV Partner. Its technology management solution was built to help bridge the gap between technical and business users. The goal is to keep the current state of technology up to date so organisations can implement change more effectively.

Tania recently completed the Partner Elevate Sales Play On-Ramp™ program for Microsoft partners and felt it would be helpful for other partners trying to create focus, determine business priorities, or expand into new industries.

What Challenges Did State³ Face With Business Priorities?

Before starting the Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, State³ struggled with prioritising the right things to work on and deciding how much weight to put behind each task.

The business needed a process that created focus and could be shared across the team so everyone had clarity around priorities and could use their talent in the most effective way possible.

How do Microsoft partners determine business priorities?

For State³, it started with finding a process that created focus, shared clarity across the business, and improved decision-making around where effort should go.

Were There Any Hesitations About the Program?

Tania knew the program was what the company needed, but was concerned about the time commitment required to work through it.

Like many businesses, State³ had experienced overload from programs before, and there was a concern that this could become just another time-consuming exercise without enough practical value.

How State³ Found a New Industry Focus

As soon as the program started, one of the first realisations was how effective it was at getting the team back to basics.

Tania came from a Sales and Marketing background, which meant there was a tendency to jump ahead. State³ had already gone through the process of identifying a target market or niche before, but the program helped reset that understanding by encouraging the team to be more discerning in the decisions they made about who they wanted their client base to be.

The process pushed the team to look at these questions from a different perspective, which created a level of discipline they had not really had before.

How do you create a new industry focus for a business?

State³’s experience suggests that it starts with stepping back, reassessing who your best-fit clients are, and being more disciplined about which industries deserve focus.

How State³ Expanded Into New Industries

One of the biggest surprises came when the team worked through parts of the course that initially did not seem relevant.

That forced them to go back and think more deeply. What they found was that while their software had been designed for large and complex clients needing to simplify their business, there was also strong potential in the Government and Healthcare divisions — something they had not seriously considered before.

Being challenged to consider our offer from a different perspective caused a real evolutionary shift for our business.

How do you expand into new industries with a clearer offer?

For State³, it came from re-examining the offer, looking at it from a different perspective, and recognising that the same core solution could solve problems in new markets.

What Results Is State³ Seeing Now?

State³ continued to win within its existing customer base throughout the program and plans to keep progressing toward dominating that market.

But the biggest and most direct result was that the business now has a narrative that speaks to Government and Healthcare divisions.

I want a board full of different logos, and we now have a path and process to make that happen across industry.

How do you create a sales narrative for government and healthcare?

State³’s result shows that a stronger industry narrative comes from clearer priorities, stronger focus, and a better understanding of how your offer applies in those markets.

Final Takeaway

For any Microsoft MSP or ISV that feels they need a reset, or wants to expand into new markets or industries, State³’s experience shows that the right process can create focus, clarify business priorities, and uncover new opportunity.

That is what made the program valuable: it helped turn uncertainty into discipline and gave the business a clearer path for growth across industries.