1. Smart Partner Marketing Workshops
Trainer Guidance
See the Presenter Guide for class / workshop setup
Smart Partner Marketing Workshops

2. Foundational Marketing: Advocacy
Trainer Guidance
Discuss goals for this workshop
Ask students: What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish?
Also describe your goals for the students
Our goals? Help partners increase their marketing skills to flourish in the cloud era
Foundational Marketing: Advocacy
This workshop will guide you through marketing in the cloud era by introducing modern marketing concepts and techniques that will be the foundation of your marketing efforts. We will focus on how to use marketing to grow your business. To do that you will define, revisit, and refresh who you are selling to, who you want to sell to, and why they will want to buy from you. This workshop is the first in this series of hands-on workshops. It and all the others are designed to be actionable. In our time together today, we will be using a combination of learning and practice to help you gain the skills and knowledge for you to take action and move forward with your own marketing campaigns.

3. Topics in this workshop
Trainer Guidance
Omit any items not on the agenda for the workshop you’re presenting
Describe each item.
How to tell your story
Content marketing
Advocacy
Build your marketing plan
Cloud challenges & opportunities
Buyer personas & best clients
The buyer’s journey
Competitive differentiators
Value propositions & elevator pitches
Cloud challenges and opportunities – The current environment and why marketing is so important
Buyer personas & cloning your best clients – Who are you selling to and who do you want to sell to?
The buyer’s journey – Understanding the client lifecycle – the steps to a sale and after the sale
Competitive differentiators - What makes you different? What makes you stand out?
Value propositions & elevator pitches – What do you have to offer prospect and clients? What is your Wow factor?
How to tell your story – Getting your messages and content right for your audience
Content marketing – Using content to nurture prospects and clients along the buyer’s journey
Advocacy - Making clients the focus of your marketing
Build your marketing plan - Putting this all together
During this session we are going to focus on the strategic and tactic plans to deliver results. Bottom-line, if marketing is not delivering leads it’s not doing its job.  

4. How to use this workshop
Trainer Guidance
Describe workshop event to students
Draw their attention to the workbook
Some worksheets will be used in class
Some will be used on your own off-line
Some will need input from your staff
You will learn concepts and ideas today
We will practice using some of them as well.
Don’t stop there. Continue to use the workbook after class to take action
Class learning & practice
Workbook after class
We will use some of the worksheets in the workbook together, while some you’ll use after the class to create your own comprehensive marketing plan. In some cases, you will want to get input from your staff to complete the worksheet activities. These worksheets build upon each other. The information you derive from each worksheet will help complete a piece of the information needed to develop plans and take action. The worksheets are not complex or difficult. But you will have to think about the items the worksheets call for so you can create the marketing plans that work best for your business.
Digital marketing skills

5. Advocacy
Showing what you have done for your clients

6. Advocacy: Make your clients the heroes of your marketing
Trainer Guidance
Introduce advocacy as the final stage of the buyer’s journey. Make your clients the focus and the heroes of your marketing.
Advocacy, the final stage of the buyer’s journey, exemplifies the telling of your story from the point of view of your clients. Advocacy is the willingness of clients to speak positively on your company’s behalf, formally and informally. Advocacy is important. It is the time when clients are most likely to promote the services they are using, or make referrals to brands or partners. According to IDC’s 2015 Cloud Marketing Barometer Survey, marketers for cloud software companies plan to attribute 9% of their total marketing budget to marketing activities aimed at buyers in the advocacy stage of their decision-journey.
Advocacy: Make your clients the heroes of your marketing

7. Advocacy is the cherry on top
Advocacy is the cherry on top. It is the fruition of the engagement and satisfying experience you provide to your clients.
Trainer Guidance
Read quote out loud. Focus on client experience.
Ask audience if they have case studies or video testimonials from clients.
If they do, you can ask how well they work.
Making them the hero, the focus of your marketing, shifts the conversation from We to Them. It is evidenced by the shifting of your relationship from supplier to trusted business partner.
This doesn’t just happen by accident. It happens by success. When you diligently listen to clients’ needs, provide solutions to their needs, and deliver exceptional client experiences, they want to help you succeed.
Advocacy is such a wonderful opportunity for you, and for them as well.
Imagine the impact and impression left when your client publishes a case study in a trade publication for their industry or vertical market.
How many new prospect leads might something like that generate?
When analyzing content gaps, consider creating content that uses client success stories. An example is a case study featuring your client describing how you solved their problems and how much they like working with your company. Powerful!

8. Advocacy as a strategy Exceptional client experience
Trainer Guidance
These are some of the ways you may have great clients participate
Advocacy as a strategy
Exceptional client experience
References & testimonials
Case studies and client success stories
Speaking at community and industry events
Press releases and publicity
Participate on advisory boards
Why are partners spending almost 10% of their marketing budget on Advocacy?
Advocacy is a powerful inducement to doing business. Prospects want to do business with partners that have a history of success. Rather than counting on attracting advocates by circumstance, creating a strategy around advocacy makes more sense. Your first step is to create a culture of excellence. Look at your products and services from the clients’ point of view. It’s not enough to have a great product, you should be looking at the complete client experience from the first contact as a prospect throughout the entire client life cycle. Do you have a standard greeting on the telephone that all employees are required to use? Do you have consistency in your relationship, from the questions you ask, to the way you present your brand? Does your culture exude client service? If there is a problem, is it resolved quickly efficiently with a set of urgency reflecting the impact it has on the business of your client? Get together a team of employees and discuss how you can create an exceptional client experience. The impact will be profound.
As you attain examples of exceptional client experiences, document success stories so all can see. People want to be part of success, by reading your success stories that will relate to your success and want to be part of your team and eventually an advocate, what Ken Blanchard calls a “Raving Fan”.
Advocates have many ways to show their appreciation. They can agree to write a testimonial, be a reference, provide referrals, agree to deliver a speech with you at a conference, post positive comments on social networks, join your advisory board, and attend an event you’re sponsoring or producing.

9. References & testimonials
Trainer Guidance
The difference between references and testimonials
References & testimonials
Reference:
A customer who is willing to talk with a prospect about you, your solution, and their experience with you
Testimonial:
A short written statement attesting to the quality of your service or product, and their experience with you
Acme Marketing helped us…
What is the difference between a reference and a testimonial? A reference is provided by another company that has experience with your services that is willing to spend time with a prospect, explaining their business experiences with your company.
A testimonial is a written statement attesting to the high quality of your service and/or product.

10. Trainer Guidance
Testimonial example
Testimonial example
“Acme Marketing helped us take an already functioning marketing program and add structure, focus and discipline to its raw edges.
We have been executing the plan they helped us develop and are now seeing our business grow.”
– Kevin Abel, CEO, Abel Solutions
Here is an example of a testimonial. The person writing the testimonial describes how they were helped and the success they are now enjoying as a result. Powerful!

11. How to get references and testimonials
Trainer Guidance
How to get, and overcome objections to references and testimonials
How to get references and testimonials
Simply ask
What to do if client time is an objection?
What to do with an inexperienced client?
Overcoming legal objections
Job not warranting a reference or testimonial?
The easiest was to get references and testimonials is to simply ask your client. The worst answer you can get is no. But no may not be the final answer. Your client barriers may be concerned about the amount of time these may take, legal issues, or perhaps they believe the project may not be worthy of a reference or testimonial.
If their objection is time, tell the client that you will keep reference telephone calls to a maximum of 15 minutes and you will provide the agenda and questions for review before the call. This way the call will be orchestrated and reduce the potential time exposure by reducing tangents. For testimonials, offer to write the testimonial for them but give them the right to edit and change the testimonial in any way they choose.
Some clients may be inexperienced in providing references and testimonials and might fear that it’s outside of their area of responsibility. Coach them through the process. Have them speak with their manager or in larger companies their HR departments. Most companies have a process to follow when granting references and testimonials, encourage your client to find out how things work in their company.
Legal objections can come up from time to time. You’ll hear a client say that “their legal department does not allow references or testimonials”. In this case you need to clarify what is not allowed. For example, employee references are rarely permitted but a company reference can be different. Remember a company reference is an honest discussion of the facts of your relationship. For a testimonial, perhaps an endorsement that includes the company name is not permitted but a general description of the company without mentioning your client name may be permitted. For example, you might say, “A Major Software and Hardware Manufacture” instead of Microsoft.
A more difficult objection to overcome is if the client doesn’t think that you did a job worthy of a reference or testimonial. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. Use this as an opportunity to understand what went wrong, and to correct the problem. Once the problem is corrected revisit your ask.

12. Case studies What is a case study? How many do I need?
Trainer Guidance
Here is an example of a case study from a partner
Case studies
What is a case study?
Description of the client company
Challenges they faced
Your solution
Results and business impact
How many do I need?
You can’t have enough
Case studies are important and you can never have enough of these valuable credibility tools. The simplest of case studies have 4 parts:
A description of the client company
The challenges they faced
Your solution, and
Results and business impact.
You should consider 1-3 case studies for each product and vertical markets you serve. For example, if you service dental offices with Office 365 installation and support and also CPA firms with Office 365 installation and support, you should consider having 1-3 case studies for dental offices and CPA firms. Prospects want to see that you have successful experiences with the type of work you’ll be doing for them.

13. Case study elements Trainer Guidance
These are the components of a case study
Case study elements
What are the key elements of a good case study?
They usually begin with general items such as the partner’s company name & logo, their product name, contact information and case study title.
Next comes a description of the client company’s business. This is particularly useful when selling to other companies in the same or similar industry.
Then describe the client’s business challenge or opportunity. This portion naturally flows into describing how the partner addressed it and what products or solutions were used.
Very importantly, the results section describes the impact to the client’s business.
Quotations from the client add credibility and validation of the partner and their solution. This is very useful when selling to prospects in both the same and in different industries.
The overall effect is that a well written case study can be used effectively in many different selling solutions.

14. Case study best practices
Trainer Guidance
How to prepare clients to participate in a case study
Case study best practices
Ask for a case study as part of your contract
Should be a natural part of your project
Ask at the start of a project
Be prepared to ask several clients
Show examples
Be prepared for a longer process than expected
Here are some best practices about how to prepare a client for participating in a case study.
At the start of an engagement, consider including a case study as a requirement as part of your contract or statement of work. If the client objects you may want to offer a small discount if they agree to provide a case study after the successful completion of a project.
Throughout the project, acclimate the client to the prospect of granting a case study. Say things like, “we should include this pain point when we do the project case study”. Once again, a case study becomes a natural part of the project not a favor that is granted at completion or months or years down the road. By preparing at the start of a project for a case study, it will make it so much easier for a client to provide one.
But sometimes the answer is “No” for the same reasons as we discussed for references and testimonials. The answer is to be prepared to ask these “no” clients to provide a testimonial. Have examples ready so they see what a finished product looks like and how it reads. Be prepared for the process to take much longer than you’d expect since in many organizations the approval needs to go to a higher level that might not know you as well. Do a good job and you’ll get more than your fair share of case studies.

15. Speaking opportunities
Trainer Guidance
Getting speaking opportunities
Speaking opportunities
Why are speaking opportunities important?
Positive Exposure
Thought Leadership
Credibility
Venues
Live audience
Community events
Online: Webinars using tools such as Skype for Business, WebEx, Go-to-Meeting
As much as they can be intimidating, they are important opportunities to get positive exposure about your brand and your company and to establish the speaker as a thought leader in your industry. Once again it’s about establishing your credibility by having your advocate co-present. People like to do business with experts. If you choose your venues carefully, you should find yourself speaking in front of a group of prospects. A speaking engagement can be in front of a live audience or online as part of a broadcast webinar. A webinar utilizes software like Skype for Business, WebEx, or Go to Webinar to broadcast the event over the internet.

16. Free publicity opportunities
Trainer Guidance
How to get press coverage
Free publicity opportunities
What is “the press”?
On-line and physical media
Newspapers, magazines, blogs, articles
The press looks for positive stories
Innovative new products
Unusual and brilliant solutions
Client success stories
Community & charitable activities
What is Public Relations - PR and how should I think about using it?
The press - On-line and physical media such as newspapers, magazines, blogs, and articles, offers many opportunities to get your message out to your target audience for free. They are always interested in positive stories about Innovative new products, unusual and brilliant solutions, client success stories, community & charitable activities in which your company participates. Ask your advocate if he or she would willing to be included in a press release about your products and solutions or their success story with your company.

17. Publicity best practices
Trainer Guidance
Press releases are easy ways to get publicity
Publicity best practices
Include quote or two from client
Expect a no, ask more than one client at a time
Use the standard press release format
Headline
Who, what, when, where, why, and how
Short and to the point
Applicable to the audience
Make it as easy for the reporter as possible to use your press release
What are some best practices for press releases? Try to get a client to provide a quote or two in a press release. Expect the approval process to go high up your client organization, especially in larger organizations where they may go to legal counsel or to the “C” level. Once again, expect that many of your clients may say “no” so ask more than 1 client if approval is important.
Use the standard press release format – shown on the next slide, which includes writing a compelling headline, write the copy as it would appear in news story (Who, what, when, where, why, and how), short, to the point, and double spaced. Make it applicable to your audience and provide links, contact information and references making it as easy for the reporter as possible.

18. Press release example Trainer Guidance
This is the format of press releases. Review each section
Press release example
Here is an example of a press release. There is a standardized format all press releases tend to follow. Look at each section.

19. Trainer Guidance
The next activity is to identify clients you can ask to participate in case studies, testimonials, and other forms of advocacy
Individual activity
Identify clients for potential case studies, testimonials, and more

20. Identify potential advocacy clients
Trainer Guidance
Students can do this activity in class
Identify potential advocacy clients
Use the worksheet, list 5 clients thrilled with you
List the persons who benefit directly from your service
Score 1-5 the likelihood that the identified person might agree to the following:
Create a testimonial
Be interviewed in a video
Act as a reference
Write or contribute to a case study
Tweet about your company
Provide a referral
Share a speaking opportunity
Provide a LinkedIn testimonial
Participate on an advisory board
Classroom activity: Call to action at the end: Using the worksheet (next slide) Identify and ask the clients with a 5 score to do the tasks. For those clients with the lower score, ask what is preventing these clients from achieving a “5”.

21. Worksheet: Identify potential advocacy clients
Trainer Guidance
This is the worksheet they can use
Worksheet: Identify potential advocacy clients
Client company
Contact person
Likelihood: Scale 1 – 5
Action (Testimonial, Case study, etc.)
Use this worksheet to identify and score the likelihood of your happiest clients participating in various advocacy related activities.

22. Review Advocacy focuses on the client’s success
Trainer Guidance
Review what was covered in this section. You can add other items to this list.
Review
Advocacy focuses on the client’s success
Great experiences should lead to them advocating
There are many ways for them to participate
These are very powerful tools to use with prospects
Identify and ask clients to participate

23. Partner resources to use
Marketing helpdesk: your marketing questions to the workshop developers
Smart Partner Marketing
Microsoft value props partners can use
Marketing planner tool
Partner Marketing Center Ready To Go Marketing
aka.ms/pmc
readytogo.microsoft.com
ModernBiz campaigns
aka.ms/modernbiz
Workshop feedback and questions