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Partners can leverage their relationships with existing customers to generate new sales opportunities that match their business offerings with the support of a Microsoft subject matter expert (SME).

Note! The SME Collaboration Model targets FastTrack Ready Partners because they have access to SMEs.

The Concept - SME Collaboration Model

1. Create a target list of customers with:

  • Under deployed M365 workloads (less than 40% AU)
  • Microsoft products (i.e. Copilot)
  • VAS opportunities

2. Schedule a webinar with the goal of driving intent and awareness for the targeted workloads, products, and opportunities. 

** Or integrate with existing Go to Market efforts.**

3. Meet and collaborate with FastTrack SME’s to build high value content for your audience.

4. Execute the webinar

5: Follow-up with customers to:

  • Accelerate sales pipelines
  • Deepen existing customer relationships.

What's in it for you? Applying the concept

  1. Collect usage incentives for your CPOR claims.
  2. Increase customer confidence by co-presenting with Microsoft engineering resources.
  3. Increase customer perception by hosting a collaborate event with Microsoft resources.
  4. Provide your customers with high value technical information on Microsoft M365 products and drive more workload intent.
  5. Create new value add service opportunities with your customers.

Next Steps

1. Connect with your sales/marketing teams about any current webinar series your company is hosting and let them know SME resources are available from Microsoft. 

  • Ask if they are interested in implementing our SME collab model.

2. Talk to you Partner Success Manager (PSM) to help align Microsoft SME resources for any upcoming events.

3. Measure event success and share learnings with your PSM, for example:

  • Total attendees 
  • Number of new customers
  • Number of new opportunities with existing customers
  • Total revenue generated 

4. Use the model for other workloads that align with your business priorities and high margin services.  
 

Keywords: SME, collaboration, webinar