Do you need pre-sales resources to help you close more business in Microsoft’s Q4?

The end of Microsoft’s Q4 is approaching and for many Microsoft partners this is as important as their own year-end. Why is this?

Well, obviously, Microsoft need to close as much business as possible before the end of June. As a result, in this heated period where everyone is focussed on closing deals, those partners who reach their target, and/or help the Microsoft Partner Account Managers (PAMs) and Solution Specialist Professionals (SSPs) reach their targets, will get allocated more resources (marketing money and account management people) next FY. The more you sell, the more you get from Microsoft– as simple as that! It also works the other way around – if you don’t reach your targets, they might be taken away next year.

In addition to this, many Microsoft Dynamics prospects are also aligning their purchasing to this time of the year as they know that this is when they will get the best deal or discount. So demand is high – how well can you supply?

What are the constraints to selling more?

One of the biggest issues is the lack of enough pre-sales resources in the channel. Microsoft pre-sales specialists are fantastic at what they do, but they can’t possibly stretch to support all the partners in this super-busy time.  They rely on the channel to fill this gap.  Time for you to shine!

What can you as a Dynamics partner do if you don’t have enough pre-sales people or your consultants are too busy delivering other projects? Certainly not give this once-a-year opportunity a miss.

Hire a freelance pre-sales consultant who can do customer discovery, prepare a great demonstration or RFP response and work together with your sales execs. This contractor will seamlessly join the customer meeting as part of your team. When you have won some of these deals, you can then extend the contract to use the same guy for other customer engagements or the solution deployment.

There are many skilled Dynamics professionals who are more than happy to help with your pre-sales requests. If you are looking for someone and don’t know where to start from, do register with 365 Freelance (www.365freelance.com) and search through hundreds of available independent consultants worldwide.