Alliance For Channel Success Sessions Scheduled For July Microsoft WPC

New York NY – The Alliance for Channel Success, combining the IT channel experience and expertise of five industry veterans to create powerful sales, marketing and strategic planning support for solution providers, VARs, and integrators, today announced that they have been selected to deliver six high-powered sessions at the upcoming Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada this coming July.

The Alliance is comprised of IT industry veterans Ken Thoreson of Acumen Management Group, Jeff Hilton of KnowledgeCircles, Eric Rabinowitz of Nurture Marketing, Eric Frantzen of B2B Contact, and Howard M. Cohen of The TechChannel Partners’ Results Group.  “Between us we’ve probably met and worked with most everyone in the IT channel,” comments Hilton.  “But perhaps most important,” adds Eric Rabinowitz, “is that together we represent the most comprehensive set of business , strategic marketing and sales management skills I’ve ever seen.”

The WPC sessions include:

50 Marketing Tips in 50 Minutes – Alliance for Channel Success
Session code: BL12P

Hear from a panel of marketing experts in this fast-paced session covering proven best practices and actions to help business leaders grow and manage their businesses. Topics include: Setting strategic marketing strategies, planning, how to build an integrated marketing campaign, tactics including email, online, direct mail, event (live versus webinar), social, nurture, and telemarketing. How to get buy-in from management, list management, creating meaningful content, gaining and keeping credibility, improving the hand-off between marketing and sales, marketing cloud applications, and mobile marketing will also be discussed. Each panelist, a marketing expert, will focus their comments on their area of expertise. Participants will be given a URL to download free case studies, e-books, templates, and samples of all topics discussed. The panel discussion participants include members of The Alliance for Channel Success http://allianceforchannelsuccess.com , a consortium of partners who work together to help each other's companies grow and demonstrate the true meaning of partnering.

Client Relationship Management for the Technology Professional – Howard M. Cohen                                   
Session code BL20i

With clients seeking to interact with more knowledgeable technology professionals and competition, making it difficult to justify commission expense, more partners are turning to their technology professionals to manage relationships with clients. In this session those technologists will learn about effective client communication, including reading subtle paralinguistic cues, and how to earn the trust and respect that long-lasting, productive relationships are made from.

Round Table LIVE! Solved — WPC Partners' Most Pressing Marketing Issues
Session code: BL31P

For the last six years, Nurture Marketing has been facilitating a bimonthly Marketing Round Table Discussion Group at the Microsoft New York offices. More than 600 partners from 24 countries have participated in person, or via live broadcast. One of the highlights of these meetings is the hour-long discussion where Microsoft partners bring their most pressing marketing issues for discussion and resolution. Our WPC session includes members of the Alliance for Channel Success (http://allianceforchannelsuccess.com) and will be led by the Microsoft Marketing Round Table facilitator Eric Rabinowitz and include noted panelists Ken Thoreson, Howard Cohen, Christine Bongard, Erik Frantzen, and Jeff Hilton. Questions will be taken from the audience, live tweets, as well as from a LinkedIn poll of Round Table participants from our six-year history accumulated in the several months before WPC. Hot button topics included marketing cloud solutions, mobile marketing, social marketing, and how to gain the attention of the decision maker.

Taking Advantage of a Recovering Economy: Understanding the Role of Leadership and Sales Management Ken Thoreson
Session code: BL36

Are you ready to participate in the recovery? What is the role or action points for leaders in a recovering economy? Based on 14 years of consulting with partners, the sales management thought leader, Ken Thoreson, knows that leadership is the lynchpin that drives successful organizations; sales leadership sets the tone and the culture, and drives the organization to greater levels of revenues and profitability. In this session Ken will cover many tips and recommendations including: 1) Why it is important to build your hiring plan for the next 18 months (employees may be leaving?); 2) Increasing the effectiveness of individual salesperson strategy sessions to increase your win ratio; 3) Increase the culture building and also building belief in your offerings and your organization—learn to lead with vision; 4. Rethinking sales compensation models, especially with a cloud practice; 5) The need to increase the focus on brilliant execution at all levels of the organization.

Lead, Motivate: How to Protect Your Organization From Fatigue - Ken Thoreson
Session code: BL41

After three tough years, is your organization mentally ready to finish the year? In this jam-packed session, Ken will discuss the role of leadership in a partner organization and how leadership can impact fatigue. The session will cover the steps required to build a sales-focused culture and high-performance teams. In this session, Ken will review why communicating expectations and vision is critical, and why metrics/scorecards become necessary to manage the organization. Ken will share his experiences of consulting with partners during the past 14 years and tactics used to improve culture. Learn the concepts of building a common focus, belief, and commitment at all levels of your organization. Leadership and communication of vision are critical elements in maintaining an individual's or an organization's momentum. We will cover the role, strategy, and tactics for successful leadership during challenging environments.

Marketing Cloud - Howard M. Cohen               
Session code: US04

The secret to success in cloud services depends more on marketing than any tech strategy ever has.  Optimizing your opportunity for recurring revenue requires record levels of new-account-acquisition as well as far deeper penetration into your existing customer base.  This session focuses on how to identify your best markets, build your offerings, craft cloud marketing messages that resonate with prospective clients and allay their fears, clearing the path to a longer-lasting and far more lucrative relationship than ever before.  Many Microsoft partners have already built excellent cloud offerings and are now finding it difficult to market their new programs, while many others are just starting to create their cloud business.  Even if you’re still on-the-fence about cloud, this session will help you understand how to identify and embrace your cloud market and enjoy success in attracting them to transition to cloud with your services. 

2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference

The 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is coming July 8 - 12, 2012 in Toronto with more than 15,000 attendees from 150 countries attending.  For more information about the conference visit http://www.digitalwpc.com.

About The Alliance for Channel Success
The Alliance for Channel Success brings together five of the most effective, successful, experienced channel executives in the industry.  Each brings their own unique contribution to the team, all of which combines to provide the best possible support for channel partners’ and program owners’ success.  To learn more, visit http://www.allianceforchannelsuccess.com. 

SOURCE: The Alliance For Channel Success