How do entrepreneurs define success?

Adam Berezin and Jason Gumpert founded MSDynamicsWorld.com fifteen years ago when "digital marketing" was a bold new concept. They have seen the channel fully embrace the digital strategy, reaching 100,000 subscribers, 200+ customers, and 30,000 podcast listeners.

Others would say they have "made it."

Yet, they hesitate to say it themselves. They're careful not to become complacent and slow their innovation.

In our first interview, "Two Guys, One Site, Zero Microsoft Ties," at their 10-year anniversary, they explained the backstory of starting the business. Now they talk about the changes they have seen at the 15-year milestone, plans for the future, and advice for other entrepreneurs.

Q: What has changed since the 10th anniversary of MSDynamicsWorld?

Adam: "In the last five years, the shift to digital marketing has accelerated. The pandemic forced marketers to re-evaluate their strategies and not bank everything on traditional activities.

At MSDW, we have always tried to consistently reassess and enhance our marketing offerings, but we've had to take that up a notch in the last five years to further evolve with the fast-growing digital marketing needs of ISVs and VARs in the space, as well as the shifting content consumption preferences of our site members

The number of emails sent out during the pandemic was in the billions, exponentially higher than at any other time in history. For our clients, that means their prospects are bombarded by more email communication than ever.

So, we constantly emphasize that you have to be more targeted with your content to break through that noise and information overload. That means our marketing campaigns have had to become that much more targeted to be more effective for our clients.

We have come up with a lot of new programs for ISVs and VAR partners. For example, we had one webcast program, and now we have five different types of webcast programs. We brought a lot of new clients on board, and our existing clients do more with us each year. That is a testament to the fact that our strategy works."

Jason: "In the last five years, Microsoft customers and partners in the Dynamics and Power Platform space have embraced SaaS-based solutions.

I agree with Adam that the pandemic accelerated the move to a digital strategy, but the move to the Cloud has also impacted marketing. Marketers understand a new approach is necessary when companies are planning cloud migrations or are already getting ERP system updates every six months.

Five years ago, many customers still felt they didn't need to move to the Cloud. And some ISV companies were still resistant to adapting their technology to cloud-based systems. We don't see that anymore.

Now we have ISV offerings that are compatible with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, as well as legacy ERP and CRM.  

In a world of constant updates, marketers need to be trusted guides. They must provide their expertise to different roles and look at what they can offer as a service."

Q: What do you look back on as your best decisions of the last 15 years?

Jason: "Looking back, the decision to focus our business exclusively on the Microsoft business applications ecosystem was undoubtedly one of our best. This space was relatively immature 15 years ago, but we saw the potential.

We have seen the Dynamics product line evolve from purely on-premises to fully cloud-based with Power Platform, and still connected to Microsoft's larger strategy. The Dynamics channel has changed but remains healthy. That is not the case for every Microsoft or enterprise software product.  

Deciding to stay fully digital and fully committed to a niche that has proved to be quite robust has worked out well for us.

A large part of our success is due to the help we've received from people in this channel. Microsoft MVPs who've written articles and marketers who let us prove we could deliver results have been invaluable."

Adam: "When we launched MSDW, we were the only digital marketing platform available to ISVs and partners. Everybody was just relying on rented lists, Google ads, or in-person trade shows.

We built a whole digital marketing infrastructure for this channel. We had to sell people on an entirely new concept in the first few years. It was challenging, but we always had fun doing it because we believed our idea would work.

Having faith in yourself is critical for entrepreneurs. There are inherent risks to starting a business, and 15 years ago, we invested our life savings in getting this going. You must be motivated to push through when everything is on the line. I never thought there was a plan B if this didn't work. It had to work.

I am proud that we bootstrapped the whole thing. And we made the decision not to seek private equity funding even after we had a proven concept.

Likely, we probably could have accelerated our growth sooner if we had taken money from outside investors. But I don't think we would be as happy with the outcome. That's been the most important thing to us."

Q: You started your partnership 15 years ago; what has made the relationship work?

Adam: "Jason and I have been business partners longer than I've been married. We still talk multiple times a day and strategize like we did when building MSDW 15 years ago.

I appreciate that neither of us has lost our entrepreneurial spirit. Our dynamic has always been good, partly because we have different personalities. I am the much more impulsive one of the duo, and Jason tends to calm me down. It’s a great balance.

We're constantly trying to come up with new ideas, be nimble, and pivot when needed. And we are not afraid to take calculated risks.

We have a small team, and everybody does a great job. We want our team to feel that we are lucky to have them work for us rather than the other way around."

Jason: "We both came to this business at the same point in our lives. We had been working as employees at larger companies, and we were ready to make a change in our professional lives. We have the same goals and values about how we want to be as business owners. That has worked well because we've always been going in the same direction.

One of our favorite things is discussing new ideas for the site or developing new programs. We still approach it with the same energy between us as we did in the beginning.

Our business is just a bit older than my oldest child and a few years older than Adam's children. I am sure there is a metaphor there about the business growing up and maturing, but I don't know exactly what it is. Ask me again in five years."  

Q: Where do you think MSDynamicsWorld will be by your 20th anniversary?

Jason: "We are always trying to find ways to provide more data to our clients about leads they receive from MSDW so that they are as qualified as possible.

In 2023 we will be including account-based marketing capabilities with our programs. We want to give marketers more data, for example, the types of content their leads prefer to consume in terms of format and topic. We'd like to provide information identifying what stage of the buying cycle their leads are in when they hit our portal.

Our MSDW campaigns target specific roles, industries, business focus areas, and regions. We want to give our clients the tools for better targeting."

Adam: "We've always loved the idea of partnerships, but we found it difficult because our business model differed from everybody else's.

In the last two years, perhaps because of the increased digital focus of the market, we have formed strong partnerships and joint programs with PartnerTalks and ERP/CRM Software Blogs. The most recent is a joint membership offer with Dynamics User Group.

A priority going forward will be strengthening our existing partnerships and looking for new ones. We want to create a more extensive network. There are so many companies that have complementary offerings. When we all work together, it gives marketers in this channel a roadmap to find what they need."

No doubt our channel will continue to see innovations from MSDynamicsWorld.com

Adam concluded this interview by saying:

"I have a hard time recognizing our success. Call it paranoia, but I’m terrified of complacent thinking. If you work hard to get somewhere, that doesn't mean you should stop because you're there. You just have to keep on working hard. There is a lot more that Jason and I want to accomplish with this business."

Stay tuned.

By Anya Ciecierski, ERP/CRM Software Blog Editor, www.erpsoftwareblog.com

Even though I have written about CRM software for decades, I was still using an Excel spreadsheet to run my membership business.

It was a massive, complicated, color-coded Excel spreadsheet with 13 tabs. It was a spreadsheet that I hesitated to share, even with my business partner, for fear someone would mess it up. So I saved copies of it to a shared folder once a month, along with at least three other documents to track related information. Then there was the customer data in our QuickBooks billing system that I didn’t have quick access to. When one of our customers (blog members) asked a question, there was never one place that had all the information.  Everything had to be entered and changed in multiple locations by multiple people.

We looked into CRM solutions in the past, but as a very small business, we felt that every system was overly complicated and too expensive. And the inexpensive monthly services would require too many changes to the way we viewed data and take too much time to set up. What if I started using it and then realized I didn’t like it, and I’d wasted all this time getting my data in there? It just seemed too overwhelming.  So once again, I would I shelve the CRM task “until later,” and we just kept limping along with the Excel spreadsheet. But I knew in my heart of hearts that there had to be a better way.

I just wanted a solution that was simple, fast, secure, and VERY affordable. Oh, and completely customized to the way I wanted it to work.

That may sound impossible, but I am happy to say that I finally found it: P2xRM from P2 Automation.

My small business CRM solution

I’ve known Steve Pestillo, the owner of P2 Automation, for years. I’d seen the overview video of his custom CRM system and thought it looked great. I even remember showing it to my business partners more than a year ago. But we all assumed his system would be too advanced (aka too expensive) for us.

But recently Steve introduced a small-business level of his product. When Steve listened to my challenges and my goals, he assured me it could be done and for less than $5,000! According to Steve, every business has their own “x” factor in “X Relationship Management”. For us, the X we needed to track was members and subscriptions.

My company, ERP Blog LLC, owns the ERP Software Blog, CRM Software Blog and ERP Cloud Blog and provides a monthly subscription membership and add-on services to about 175 companies.

I needed a way to track:

• Blog member company info, including key contacts, dates and activities.

• Blog member subscriptions, including states they represent and amount they are billed each month.

• Prospective blog member company info, including last time I emailed them.

• Special programs, including who participated and extra billing.

Steve looked at all of my Excel documents. Then he did a mock-up of the system to show me how it would work. We made a few adjustments, and then it went online. Some of my data was imported, some of it I typed in manually.

I will admit it was a bit painful getting all of the information in there initially and getting it to the point where I was ready to trust that all the data was complete and correct. I missed my Excel spreadsheet. But I knew it was time to step up to a better system.

The best part about the P2xRM system is that it is completely custom. All I had to do was tell Steve, “I want to see this field on this other screen” or “I forgot to tell you that we also need to have a field to track this” or “It would be great if we could….” Steve and his team just made it happen. I really don’t think they ever told me that what I wanted couldn’t be done. I am sure he wished that I had thought of some of these changes earlier on in the process, but he never let me see him roll his eyes.

Going forward, I am going to work with P2 Automation to create some custom reports and even workflows.

The advantages of our new CRM system:

• Multiple people can access the cloud based system, so we all have the same information.

• It is safer than using Outlook contacts, Excel spreadsheets, or notebooks.

• There is no more double entry or information falling through the cracks.

• Anyone can answer customer questions quickly now that all the info is in one place.

• If we ever want to sell our business, having a professional system adds value.

I now have a simple, no-frills cloud CRM system that exactly fits my business, and is just so much better than running my small business on Excel.

If you want a custom CRM system for your business contact Steve at P2 Automation.

By Anya Ciecierski

ERP Blog LLC and Collaboration Works Marketing

(No, I am not an affiliate in any way, I just wanted to share. But you can tell Steve I recommended him, and perhaps that will make up for all my annoying change requests.)

The order to “stay home” is giving me much more time to write blog posts. As long as I can stop obsessively checking the news.

Like me, everyone is online. As ERP and CRM resellers, some of our customers may have more time to focus on online training and user tips. And our prospects may have time to finally dig into doing research into new ERP and CRM systems. Especially the ones that are realizing they really do need a cloud based system.

Here are some examples of companies that are putting out great blog content during this pandemic.

CRM Software Blog

• Work Remotely with Microsoft Teams During COVID-19: Tips for Success by JourneyTEAM

• In-Person Selling is Out: Guide to Virtual Selling for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales Leaders by CRM Dynamics

• Microsoft Azure: Companies Work Remotely During COVID-19 by AKA Enterprise Solutions

• Dynamics 365 Now More Than Ever! by enCloud9

ERP Software Blog         

• How to Implement a New System Remotely by JOVACO Solutions

• 3 Options For Remote Access to Microsoft Dynamics GP During COVID19 by CAL Business Solutions

• Transition Employees Quickly to Work Remotely with Microsoft Azure by AKA Enterprise Solutions

• Helpful Coronavirus Facts and Tips for Employers and HR by Integrity Data

• Microsoft Dynamics GP and Comprehensive Leave Manager Strategies for FFRCA Paid Sick Leave Act by Integrity Data

• Staying Up and Running with Document Management by Metaviewer

Events are cancelled. Travel has stopped. Now is the time to be marketing online.

If people are online reading about ERP/CRM solutions, you want to make sure that they find your articles. Of course, you can post on your own website. But as these companies above already know, joining a group a blog is a great way to get more eyeballs on your content. Think of it like posting in a local newspaper versus a national newspaper.

Not sure what to write about? Get on the phone with one of the subject matter experts in your company and record them talking about remote access, security, new features, client success stories or whatever interests them. Use my easy record, transcribe, polish method and you’ve got a blog post!

Check out the companies that are already members of my group blog sites, do you see any of your competitors on this list?

• ERP Software Blog Members

• CRM Software Blog Members

• ERP Cloud Blog Members

Interested in joining? Get details here or email me at info@erpsoftwareblog.com

Since I won’t see you outside, I hope to see you online.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Events and travel are being cancelled. Many people are working from home.

This means that right now your online marketing strategy becomes even more important. This is a good time to focus on writing and publishing blog posts, case studies, white papers and other content.

Here are a few of my tips:

1) Publish blog articles that will HELP businesses during this time, rather than add to the panic. For example, topics such as:

o   How ERP/CRM can help your employees work remotely

o   How to share information/reports in ERP/CRM to limit group meetings

o   How to use workflows/alerts in ERP/CRM to minimize personal interaction

o   How to confirm you have backup systems in place for ERP/CRM

o   How ERP/CRM can help you communicate with customers online (i.e. portals, email campaigns etc..)

o   How clients can access online training/support resources for ERP/CRM

o   Tips for being productive while working at home

2) See if you can use my record, transcribe, edit method to do phone interviews with some of your consultants who are working at home.

3) If you have extra time due to cancellations/quarantine, use it to brainstorm new topic ideas or catch up on your existing list, rewrite old blog posts, or refresh/re-optimize popular posts.

4) Take this opportunity to review and update your profiles on blog sites, LinkedIn, Twitter etc…

5) Find, evaluate and train new resources to help you going forward. Such as new writers, or my favorite outsourced Twitter manager, who may be looking for extra work.

And of course, if you haven’t already been smart enough to do this…

6) Join a group blog site so that your content gets even more exposure! Visit www.groupbloggers.com/whyblog for details.

We are living in crazy times and I hope that all of you are making efforts to stay safe, help others and use your time wisely.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Everyone says it. These days prospects are more educated and further along in the buying cycle by the time they talk to you. You need to get your name out there, and show your expertise, where those prospects are doing their research. One of the best ways to do that is with blog posts.

Good blog posts are not easy to produce. So when you and your team spend the time to write that content, you want it to be seen by as many people as possible.

You could put the blog post on your own website. Or you can put it out on the larger group blog site where it can be seen by more people.

Plus, if prospects see posts from your competitors on the group blog site, of course you want to be sure they see your content too so they know that they have options.

That all makes sense but how can you actually prove the value of your group blog membership in 2020?

1)      Referral Clicks to Your Website

When you check the analytics for your website, you can see which sites are sending traffic to your site. These are called “referral sources”. Everyone loves referrals. Those are people that read a blog post, liked something they read, and wanted to know more about us. If we had paid for those clicks it would have been thousands of dollars. (Check out referral stats from other members.)

One thing I love about blogging is that I can still get referral clicks from blog posts I wrote years ago. Those blog posts are still working for me. Every click to my website is proof that blogging is worth it.

2)      Getting Found in Directories

I realize that not every company can publish so many blog posts. But even if you haven’t posted in a while, you are still listed in all the directories. Prospects can find you based on location and industry expertise. We promote those directory pages and they get a ton of traffic. You want your company to be listed there. You want your company listed in as many places as possible.

For example, check out the ERP Software Blog: Directory by Location, Directory by Name, Directory of Add on Providers, Directory by Product, Directory by Industry

3)      Participating in Group Programs

In 2019 the group blog sites published 3 group white papers.

• ERP/CRM: 21 Reasons Millennials Prefer Microsoft Dynamics

• ERP: 7 Serious Business Risks Eliminated by Cloud ERP

• ERP/CRM: But Really…What is Dynamics 365?

Every blog member was given the opportunity to participate, free of charge, and be featured in the white paper as a contributor. These white papers are downloaded thousands of times. That is another way that prospects are reminded that your company is an expert. Plus, blog members can use personalized versions of those white paper as their own marketing piece. This is valuable because white papers are expensive to produce.

4)      Third Party Credibility

It is one thing if you post an article on your own website and say how smart you are.  But doesn’t it seem more credible when someone reads about how smart you are in an educational post, on a site that allows multiple experts to share their content? Think about it, when you are researching a purchase, where do you do your research? Likely, not just on the seller’s website. 

Did you know that our sites are constantly promoting out members on Twitter too by tweeting and retweeting? That is pushing your brand name out to more people.

5)      Prospect Feedback

This year at the User Group Summit I met more than one blog member that told me they had prospects call them and specifically tell them they had read their blog post and picked up the phone. Of course, this is the ideal scenario. These blog members have no question in their minds at all that blogging is worth it. But this type of value is harder to track. When a prospect contacts you, remember to ask them how they found out about you. Their answer may surprise you.

Next Steps….

Membership to the ERP Software Blog, ERP Cloud Blog and CRM Software Blog is simple. We don’t have a lot of confusing membership levels or long term commitments. It is one, low, monthly fee that hasn’t changed since we started the site 10 years ago. We want to make it easy for ERP/CRM VAR and ISV Partners to be able to prove the value of blogging.

Are you ready to join a group blog? Download the PDF here to learn more. 

by Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Ten years ago our first group blog site, ERP Software Blog, was doing so well we decided that CRM partners should join in on the fun. Five months later we started our second blog site. Now, in November 2019 I am happy to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the CRM Software Blog.

• We started the CRM Software Blog with just 10 visionary Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partners as members in November 2009. Currently we have 41 Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM) Partners participating.

• In the last 10 years the CRM Software Blog site has had over 2.7 million visitors.

• We’ve sent 10,162 leads to our members.

• Our most popular post, written in 2018, has received more than 19,981 views. Our top five posts have received more than 74,000 views combined:

  1. Managing System Views & Dashboards in Dynamics 365

  2. Getting Started with PowerApps with Dynamics 365

  3. Comparison of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Full Users vs Team Member Users

  4. Dynamics 365 Record Hierarchy

  5. Dynamics 365 Version 9.0 is here

• We have released seven group white papers, written with help by our members, which have been downloaded close to 8,000 times.

As I said in my post, The History of How the ERP Software Blog Actually Got Started, “What started as just a small idea has truly changed my life and my career and it is something that I am thankful for each and every day.”

We are very grateful to all the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partners that have supported the site. Together we are truly “using the power of the group.” And we’ve even survived all the name changes for Microsoft Dynamics CRM along the way!

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Leslie Vail is a legend in the Microsoft Dynamics GP community. With hard work, strong relationships and a positive attitude she has impacted everyone around her. This is the story of how Leslie built her career, and found her style. And the advice she has for newcomers as she leaves this industry after more than 25 years of “living the dream”.

The Three Words That Changed Her Life

Leslie paid her way through college by working as an engine mechanic at Sears. Lawnmowers, chainsaws, and tractors, not cars. After she received her degree in accounting, she went to work for Arthur Andersen and was a senior tax accountant for several years.  Then she worked in the savings and loan industry.

Leslie might have stayed on that track, except for a project that came along in 1993 that took her in a totally new direction.

One of her mentors at Arthur Andersen helped Leslie get involved in choosing a computerized accounting system for a high-income individual in Dallas who wanted their 30+ companies to be on Windows.  She admits there was not a whole lot out there in the midmarket at that time. She looked at MAS90 and Platinum, but the system that caught her eye was this little known software from Fargo, North Dakota that had just been released called Great Plains. Leslie is one of the few people that say she started with Version One.

Leslie selected a Great Plains reseller and arranged training for the client. But when the reseller came to install it, it was clear within seconds that he didn't have any idea what he was doing. He was so inept that the client sent him away.  Then he looked at Leslie and said, "You do this."

Those three words changed Leslie’s life forever.

The first Great Plains training tapes for VHS were $90 each. Leslie bought all of them in a panic and set out to learn the system. The more she learned, the more she realized she had found her place. Personal computers had come out after Leslie graduated from college, and she was very interested. It occurred to her that if she worked with computerized accounting systems, she could do everything she loved: play on the computer, use her degree, and get paid for it.

And that is what she has been doing for more than 25 years as an independent consultant for the system that is now known as Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Now Leslie is one of the most experienced consultants in the Microsoft Dynamics GP channel, though most people know her as “the lady in the cape.”

The Legendary Cape

The tradition of the superhero cape started as a dare.

Many years ago, at a Convergence event, her good friend, Sheila Jefferson Ross, had a crazy heart shaped balloon hat with a little balloon dog on the end of it. To win a dare, Leslie wore the hat to train during the Hands-On Lab, and a tradition was born. Every year, there as another outrageous hat. Whatever Sheila came up with, Leslie would wear.

Leslie decided a hat was not enough, and decided to add a cape. The first cape, she made by hand, was black satin with gold-metallic discs on the inside. It was heavy, and it was hot. But it stood out.

Next, Leslie had a pink hat, with LED lights and a pink feather boa, so she decided to make a matching hot pink cape. This one had a black Superman emblem with the letters H-O-L on the back, which stood for Hands-On Labs, to give the training sessions some extra promotion. At this point, GPUG was in the formative stages so the next cape included the new GPUG logo in satin.

For years, John Lowther begged Leslie to give him the gold cape. Finally, she agreed, but only if he would wear the hot pink cape with the pink hat on stage. And he did.  At the end of their joint presentation, John got down on his knee, and Leslie conferred the special gold cape on him. 

Then Leslie decided the next cape had to be even more outlandish than the others. That is when she made the cape she wears today, that will have its last appearance at the 2019 User Group Summit in Orlando.

This cape sparkles with hundreds of Swarovski crystals. The crystals were originally applied by hand, one by one, with a toothpick and glue. Then Belinda Allen told Leslie there was a way to attach them with a machine. Belinda is always helping people to be more efficient, including Leslie.

Every year, Leslie added something extra: LED lights, more crystals. The hat got fancier too: more feathers, more sequins. The capes and all those crazy hats meant that it was never hard to find Leslie at an event when you wanted to ask her a question.

Any Questions?

Leslie always has the answers to user questions or knows how to find them. First, it was on a newsgroup and then a forum. For the past few years, Leslie has become a legend on the GPUG Collaborate Discussion pages. She admits that answering those questions is like an addiction for her. She has learned a lot from the people on the forum because they ask the questions that force her to do the research and she credits the users as her best trainers.

Before the days of blogs, Leslie published books. With the late Richard Whalley, she wrote “Confessions of a Dynamics GP Consultant,” published in 2007. In 2012 she published her own 600 page book “Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications.” Writing that book took the better part of two years, which didn't make the publishers very happy, but for Leslie, helping her clients always came first.

Because of her answers and books, people started to know her name and her trademark outfits helped them find her at events. It is always a special thrill when people come up and thank her for helping them. But users are not the only ones who recognize Leslie.

The Recognition That Means the Most

Leslie was honored when she was named a Microsoft MVP. But she admits that it was a bit stressful as you don’t know the criteria, who is evaluating you and if you would make it every year.

The most meaningful award she received in her career was in 2017 as a GPUG All-Star. This was an award from people she knew, her colleagues, and her peers. And for her, that made it extra special.

During the General Session at the GP Technical Conference 2019 in Fargo, Leslie Vail was honored for her many years of service to the community. Her friend David Musgrave shared this video that was shown as part of the celebration.

Advice for New Consultants

After so many years keeping clients happy and building a reputation in the Dynamics channel, Leslie Vail is ready to retire. And she has some words of wisdom for the next generation of Dynamics consultants:

1)      “Technology moves so fast, and you have to keep up. I remember when the web client came out, I had to learn how to install it and work with it. That was outside my daily work, but I knew I had to bring it inside. It takes a lot of hours. And nobody pays you to do that. You do that so that people will continue to pay you to do something.”

2)      “I love the interaction with people at conferences, doing presentations, and seeing the same friends over and over again. But you have to spend a few years being anonymous. You need to put in the work and grow. I remember when I sat there in those big audiences at the beginning, and I thought how cool it was that Doug Burgum (the president of Great Plains) knew certain people by name. Eventually, when Doug looked at me and called my name, I thought, "Wow, I've made it.” (In 2019 Leslie was given a special certificate of recognition from Doug, now Governor of North Dakota). 

3)      “Learn the hard stuff. Be the technical consultant. Everybody knows GL, AR, AP, SOP, POP, and Inventory. Learn report writer. Learn those Word templates. They're not as easy as they look. Learn Modifier, VBA and whatever replaces VBA. You need to know enough Dexterity to understand the error messages. If you want to excel, you need to be that person that can do the imports, that can write directly to the database. Know SQL. Learn the data model. Understand how info flows from file to file, what the table names mean. In order to troubleshoot, you’ve got to understand that data model. Learn the things other people don’t want to learn.”

Living the Dream

Leslie is known for the phrase “Living the Dream.” She says it with enthusiasm. And she promises that if you do that, you just can’t help feeling better.

Leslie has been doing what she loves for more than 25 years, always looking forward to the next day. She really is telling the truth when she says she is “Living the Dream.”

All of us in the Microsoft Dynamics GP Channel thank her for her enthusiasm and wish her the very best.

Looking for the cape and sparkly hat these days? Ask Steve Erbach.

by Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwktg.com

Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

I like to be organized. And yes, I still print out paper schedules. Sometimes I just get tired of looking at my phone, I want to see it all in one place.

In true “nerd princess” style I combed through the full eXtreme365 Orlando schedule and made a list of just the important parts that apply to me as a marketer. This includes the blocks of time that I need in my calendar AND just the Marketing and Sales sessions.

eXtreme365 Orlando Marketing Schedule

Sunday October 13th

8:00am-7:00pm Registration

9:00am-5:00pm Hack-a-Thon and Exam Cram

5:00pm-7:00pm Welcome Expo Reception

Monday October 14th

7:30am-8:30am Breakfast

8:30am-9:30am Partner and Microsoft Community General Session

10:00am-11:15am Breakout Sessions

·       Strategic business development, and partner to partner strategies, including alliances

·       Making Great Firms Greater

11:15pm-12:45pm Lunch

12:45pm-2:00pm Breakout Sessions

·       What's Next In Content Marketing?

2:15pm-2:45pm ISV Showcases (NMB Solutions, MSCRM-ADDONS, PaperSave)

3:15pm-4:30pm Breakout Sessions

·       Artificial Intelligence or Automation? How to Leverage the Latest Technologies in Your Marketing

4:45pm-6:00pm Breakout Sessions

·       Practical Account Based Marketing

6:00pm-7:30pm Expo Reception

8:00pm-11:00pm Community Celebration After-Party

Tuesday October 15th

8:00am-11:00am Check In/Registration

8:00am-9:00am Breakfast

8:30am-9:45am Breakout Sessions

·       SaaS sales, Sales as a science, for ISV's wanting to drive sales of their IP in the global market

SEO has Changed. Learn About Google's Algorithms and How to Optimize Your Website and Social Media

10:00-10:30 ISV Showcase (KingswaySoft)

10:45-12:00 Breakout Sessions

·       Use StorySelling to Ensure the Customer is the Epicenter of your Demo Experience

12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch and Hack-A-Thon Results

1:00pm-2:15pm Breakout Sessions

·       Marketing Panel Ask the Experts Fireside Chat (including Anya Ciecierski as a panelist, so you should make sure to be there)

2:30pm-3:45pm Town Hall Q&A with Microsoft Executives

5:00pm-8:00pm User Group Summit 2019 Welcome Reception and Expo

Wednesday October 16th (The OVERLAP Day – get the details)

7:00am-8:00am Breakfast

7:00am-3:00pm Expo Hall Hours

8:00am-9:15am Microsoft Keynote Opening Session

9:45am-10:45am Breakout Sessions

·       AI Offerings: Understand AI for Sales, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, InsideView, Versium and More

11:00am-12:00pm Partner Solution Showcase

12:00pm-2:00pm Lunch and Expo Hall Open

12:45pm-1:45pm Breakout Sessions

·       Setting and Reporting Sales Goals

2:00pm-3:00pm Breakout Sessions

3:15pm-4:15pm Partner Solutions Showcase

4:30pm-5:30pm Breakout Sessions

5:30pm-7:30pm Expo Hall Reception

Will you be at eXtreme365? I hope to see you there!

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: www.Twitter.com/AnyaCWMktg

Users are in the sessions, and Partners are outside in the hallway on their laptops. 

About 25% of the attendees at the User Group Summit event are Microsoft Dynamics Partners. Generally speaking, they attend to host their customers, hear what Microsoft is announcing to their customers, and see the products featured in the expo. Not for the actual sessions. 

But Partners need training too. 

What if you could go to an event that is focused 100% on sessions for Partners but STILL have the chance to mingle with your customers and go to the full Summit expo? 

Now you can. Fly down to Orlando Saturday night, fly home Thursday morning, and you get it all.  

eXtreme365 is the tech event for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Partners and the leadership and sales/marketing event for all Microsoft Dynamics Partners across product lines. eXtreme365 sessions are held on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, October 13-16, 2019. (Review session list by track.) 

But most people do not realize that when you pay for an eXtreme365 registration, you can ALSO attend: 

• Tuesday User Group Summit 2019 Welcome Reception & Expo 5:00-8:00 pm

• Wednesday Microsoft Keynote Opening Session 8:00-9:15 am

• Wednesday User Group Summit 2019 Expo Hall 7:00am-3:00 pm

• Wednesday User Group Summit 2019 Breakout Sessions 9:45am-5:30pm

• Wednesday User Group Summit 2019 Expo Hall Reception 5:30pm-7:30 pm  

That means that the technical folks or business owners that come to eXtreme365 can still get the deep dive training they need plus the bonus Executive Exchange , then meet with customers, go to the Microsoft keynote and see the full User Group Summit 2019 expo hall too.   

Then they can head home, without spending the full week out of the office and without hanging out in the hallways during customer sessions.  

Don’t let your team miss out on this valuable training; register for eXtreme365 and get the best of both events.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

“Now if you had a bunch of partners all contributing content and links, that could be a very powerful blog.”

Back in 2009 Dave Foreman and I had an idea. I am so very proud that this year we can celebrate the ten year anniversary of the success of that idea.

Many people say that “internet years” should be measured like “dog years”. A lot has happened in our industry and a lot has been accomplished on our site in 10 years.

• We started the ERP Software Blog with just 14 visionary Microsoft Dynamics GP Partners as members. Currently we have 124 Microsoft Dynamics ERP Partners participating, across all product lines.

• In the last 10 years the ERP Software Blog site has had over 4 million visitors.

• We’ve sent more than 8,500 ERP leads to our members.

• Our most popular post, written in 2017, has received more than 66,000 views. Our top five posts have received more than 167,000 views combined:

  • Creating Microsoft Excel Connections to SQL databases

  • 5 Steps to a Successful Implementation of Your New Accounting System

  • Comparison of Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365

  • Cloud, SaaS and Hosted…What’s the difference?

  • Purchase Order Product Receipt and Vendor Invoice Posting in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3

• We have released seven white papers, written with help by our members, which have been downloaded nearly 6,000 times.

As I said in my post, The History of How the ERP Software Blog Actually Got Started, “What started as just a small idea has truly changed my life and my career and it is something that I am thankful for each and every day.”

Dave Foreman and I are grateful to all the Microsoft Dynamics ERP Partners that have supported the site. Our members are the real reason the site has been so successful. All of us, together, are truly “using the power of the group.”

I would also like to give a special thanks to Stacy Orr, who works behind the scenes, but has been a trustworthy assistant, and friend, to me for more than ten years.  I can not imagine doing this without her help.

The ERP Software Blog proves that one good idea has the power to change your life! So just keep brainstorming.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

How many referral leads has Microsoft sent to you lately? None? Are you sure?

 It is possible that there are leads sitting out there in your Microsoft Partner Center account and you don’t even know it.

There are 3 ways you can get leads from Microsoft Partner Center:

1.       Microsoft marketing activities.

2.       Internal Microsoft sales and service agents. (Fact: One Microsoft rep told a Partner that Partner Center is the one and only tool her team uses to match a lead from an unmanaged account with a partner – 100% of the time.)

3.       Customer searches using the Find a partner tool. When a customer is interested in contacting you, they’ll submit a request for information (RFI).

Microsoft says that “Partners with achieved competencies and quicker responses to leads will gain priority in the search results.”

Here are the steps to make sure you receive those referrals (leads) from Microsoft Partner Center and respond in a way that makes Microsoft happy, (so they will send you more leads.)

 How to Receive the Lead via Email

 When you are assigned a lead, Microsoft will send an email to the contact listed in your business profile. 

• The email comes from "Microsoft Partner Center <msftpc@microsoft.com>"

• The first email has the subject line "New customer referral requiring your attention"

• Then they send a couple of reminder emails with the subject line "Customer referral expires on {Date Here}"

 This means if you have an old email address listed, you have been missing those leads. A best practice is to assign an email that will not change such as marketing@yourcompany.com. Even better, use a distribution group email to receive referral notifications to the group, as opposed to a single person, who may miss the lead.

If you have multiple locations set up, each location can have its own email address to receive leads.

Once you receive the “New customer referral requiring your attention” email you will have 3 days to accept it or decline it. If you do not meet this deadline it expires and it is gone forever (without you getting any contact information).

 If you accept the deal, you then have 1 week to make contact with the lead and accept the deal again for further evaluation or decline it.  Once again, if you do not meet the deadline it expires and you lose the lead.

 How to View and Track Leads in the Microsoft Partner Center Dashboard

 In my last post “How to Edit Your Microsoft Partner Center Profile to Get More Leads” I told you how to log into your Microsoft Partner Center account.

 This time, log in, open your “Business Profile” and go to the “Referrals” section.

You will see the following sections:

 New

This is where customer referrals are listed when they first reach out to you (or are assigned to you). Basic customer information will appear.  You can then choose:

 • “I’m interested”. The referral will move to Evaluating, and you’ll see the full details about the customer and the offer.

• “No thanks”. You will be asked to select a reason from a drop down list. The referral will move to Archived as Skipped. Microsoft will notify the customer to choose a different partner.

• If you don’t respond within 72 hours, the referral will move to Archived as Missed. Microsoft will notify the customer to choose a different partner.

Remember, prospects often choose to send the same RFI to multiple companies at the same time. To increase your chance of success, you should aim to respond immediately, definitely within 24 hours or less.

If you keep getting referrals that are not a good fit, you may want to use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your profile.

Pro tip: If you sell Microsoft Dynamics GP, AX, NAV or SL make sure you describe clearly in your profile which product(s) you work with. Hopefully, prospects will read this before they contact you. Microsoft only gives prospects two search filters, “Microsoft Dynamics 365” or “Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL” as a group.  So if you work with Dynamics GP it is easy to get Dynamics AX leads, which is very frustrating.

Evaluating

If you indicate interest in working on the lead, the referral moves to the Evaluating stage. From this point you must:

• Accept: Enter the estimated deal value, the estimated closing date, and select Accept. Microsoft says they will use this information to help you find similar deals. The referral will move to Negotiating.

• Decline: The referral will move to Archived as Declined. Microsoft will notify the customer to choose a different partner.

• If you don’t respond within 7 days, the referral will be moved to Archived and listed as Expired. Microsoft will notify the customer to choose a different partner.

Negotiating

Once a lead is accepted, the referral is in the Negotiating stage. It’s important to report the outcomes of all deals, win or lose, because it impacts your future search results. Microsoft says, “Losing a deal is not a reflection of your capabilities.”

·         If you Won the deal, specify the details.

·         If you Lost the deal, explain what happened.

Archived

This is the dead zone. If a referral is moved to the Archived section at any stage, it cannot be engaged, and will become read-only. Microsoft archives all of your referrals of all types (won, lost, skipped, missed, declined or expired) at the end of their lifecycle.

I can’t guarantee you will get quality leads from this system, but at least you won’t miss any leads either.

Additional Resources:

https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/reach-customers/connect-with-customers

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/responding-to-referrals

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4345719/business-profile-and-referrals-faqs

Training video: Managing your referrals

 By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing, www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @anyacwmktg

Another marketer recently told me that she missed a bunch of lead referrals from Microsoft because there was typo in the email address on their Microsoft Partner Center (formerly Pinpoint) profile. Once she fixed the typo she received 3 leads in less than a week. 

If you are like me you are saying, “Wait, what? I want to get leads from there too!”

It took me some time to figure it all out, check my company’s profile, find the referral section and confirm it was working as it should. So consider this your “cheat sheet”.

How to Check Your Microsoft Partner Center Profile

The first step is to act like a customer and use this search to see how you show up for various searches:  https://www.microsoft.com/solution-providers/search

According to Microsoft: “Customer-entered keywords are matched with partner declared business profiles creating a shorter list of partners. Customers can use filters to narrow down their choices of partner based on location and customer size. Best Match category uses competencies and input from Microsoft individuals to surface partners. Most Responsive category uses data on partner responses in referral management experience to surface partners. Nearest to You category takes partner proximity from customer entered location into account to surface partners.

If your profile is not showing up the way it should, the next step is to edit your business profile.

How to Edit Your Microsoft Partner Center Profile

If your profile is incomplete or inaccurate it will be harder for prospects to find you. PLUS, I happen to know that Microsoft employees use these Partner Center profiles to assign leads too.

So it is important to follow these steps to edit, and improve, your business profile.

1)     Sign in at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us with your Microsoft account* and click “Dashboards”.

2)     On the dashboard click “View Business Profiles”

3)     From here you can choose an existing profile or choose to create a new business profile.

4)     Now you can review and edit the following areas:

Company Logo (upload)

o    Use a simple, high-resolution, and professional version of your logo, since it will be displayed as a thumbnail. You can upload your logo as a GIF, JPG, or PNG file, with a max width of 300 pixels.

Description (text box)

o    Take the time to write a good description that is brief and engaging, and will give prospects a reason to keep reading beyond the description. Remember that large blocks of text are hard to read online, so consider breaking up the text with bullets points.

Website (URL)

LinkedIn Company Page (URL)

o    This is not a personal LinkedIn page. Don’t have a business page? Create one here.

Industry Expertise (Choose up to 5 from drop down list)

o    Choose the industries where you focus. Selecting every option will just be confusing to prospects. .

Product (Choose from drop down list, limited to Microsoft products)

o    Note, the ERP options are heavily skewed toward Dynamics 365. For the other ERP products the only option is “Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, SL” as a group. Which means your profile will show that you do ALL of these products, even if you don’t……

Service Type (Choose from drop down list)

Solutions (Choose from drop down list)

Skills and Capabilities (Add up to 30 keywords/phrases of your choice. These will be shown on your profile alphabetically)

Target customer size (check boxes)

Locations (Add up to 5 locations)

o    Only add legitimate business locations.

o    When adding an email address consider creating a distribution email list so more than one person will receive referral notifications.

5)     Click the box “I accept the Microsoft Partner Center referrals terms and conditions”.

6)     Click “Publish” (Note, if Publish is grayed out go back and make sure all required fields are completed, even the logo which seems to go away when you re-login.)

Note: Microsoft says there are two other tags used in search but it seems these are added automatically, so I don’t think you have control over them.

• Competency tags are an earned designation showcasing your company’s capabilities.

• Endorsement tags are earned when Microsoft or your customers who have worked with you endorse your work. (What are endorsements? I found the answer here, although I did not think it was very helpful.)

Once you publish your profile, it will be ready to receive referrals (aka leads) within 24 hours.

So the next question is, “How do I know if I am getting referrals from Microsoft Partner Center?”

I will cover that in my next article.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing, www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @anyacwmktg

* Wait, why can’t I access any of this stuff?

First of all, an admin user will need to login and give permissions to you to view and edit these pages within your Partner Dashboard.  The two permissions are:

• Business profile admin privileges to a marketing professional in your organization who manages the customer-facing business profiles.

• Referrals admin privileges to a sales or marketing professional in your organization who engages with customers who submit requests through your business profile.

Without these permissions, you will not be able to edit the Business profile or manage the referrals.

If it still doesn’t work contact support at partner.microsoft.com/Support

More resources:

• Training video: Building a compelling business profile

• https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/reach-customers/connect-with-customers

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/create-a-marketing-profile

Pam Misialek started her career right out of college as one of the very first interns at Great Plains Software. She thought she would stay with Great Plains until it was not fun anymore, and then she would move on.

Little did she know that she would become an integral part of this product and stay with the company for the next 22 years – during many fun and not so fun times. Until her next big adventure began.

 But let’s start this backstory even earlier.

 Intro to Accounting

When she was just 13 years old, Pam’s first job was working for her neighbor’s plumbing and heating business. In the beginning, she helped with cleaning and organizing. By the time she was 15 years old, she was doing all the AR, AP, General Ledger, inventory counts and ordering. At the time, she had no idea that this was an actual profession. And she certainly didn’t realize “GLAPAR” would play such a prominent role in the rest of her life. Especially since she had a much bigger goal.

 Goodbye Space Camp

Pam wanted to be an astronaut. She applied for space camp and grants and other things that aspiring space explorers do. But after her first Advanced Calculus class in college, she realized the astronaut idea wasn’t meant to be. She took an Intro to Computers 101 class and was hooked. She switched her major to Computer Science with a minor in Business and said goodbye to the space program. And then a new opportunity opened up much closer to home.

Hello Great Plains

At that time, Great Plains Software was hiring, and they were growing fast. During her senior year in college, Pam took classes on Dexterity, the programming language of Great Plains, as part of the Academic Alliance Program. There were hundreds of applicants, but Pam was selected along with 12 others for the first intern group at Great Plains. She was going to be a developer.

Life as a Developer

Pam started working with the Development team QA testing the software. However, just before graduation, she had a minor crisis when she realized she actually didn’t like sitting at a computer all day long and she needed to change her career path again. What she liked about her computer classes was thinking through a problem and designing a solution, not necessarily coding the solution itself. After graduation, she decided to stay at Great Plains but in a new role.

The Move to Support

Pam moved to the Support Department and started doing customer support and troubleshooting for Great Plain Dynamics version 2.04. Eventually, she moved into more consulting gigs, and she was no longer on the phone. She started to travel all over the country training partners and doing two-to three-day engagements at customer sites.  Things were growing so fast at Great Plains, her role continued to change, and it stayed fun.

Pam admits that her next role was not fun, but it was a challenge, and Pam loves a challenge.

Dear Doug Letters

In her new “Customer Relations” role, Pam was the one to receive what they called in those days, “Dear Doug” letters. Customers that were very, very angry would send a letter to Great Plains president Doug Burgum that said things like: "I hate you, I hate your company. I want to sue you." Those letters would go to Pam.

She was able to get involved with complicated problems and work through the solution to make the client happy again. Pam remembers this as a very rewarding time in her career. She recalls how gratifying it felt to work with a customer who could barely even talk because they were so lividly mad. They just yelled. In the end, they gave her a huge hug, thanking her. Some even sent her Christmas cards because they were so happy with their solution.

Pam did this for several years. Then Great Plains acquired Solomon; then Microsoft acquired everyone, including Navision and Axapta. Soon it was no longer “Dear Doug” letters; it was “Dear Bill.”  Pam even handled the escalations for CRM Version 1 issues. It was a stressful time, with a lot of great stories, but Pam enjoyed being able to make a difference.

By this point, Pam had realized that instead of being in a role where someone upstream made the decisions, and it fell to her to clean up the mess, she wanted to be a decision maker.

Becoming the Decision Maker

So, Pam moved into Product Marketing. It was time to release Dynamics GP 10.0 and Pam was the Launch Manager. She admits that she knew nothing about marketing. She knew the product inside and out, but everything related to a launch was new: writing copy, building decks, giving presentations. Even the marketing terminology was a mystery to her.

Pam had already learned how to deal with angry, yelling customers, so she could handle this too.

Pam will never forget the first time she had to get up on the main stage and present in front of 1000 people. Her colleague Errol told her "Just pretend there are 20 people because you nail that."

That first launch was rough, but Pam’s determined nature kicked in, and she continued in that role successfully for many years. 

Searching for the Fun

In recent years Pam has looked at other career options, but she didn’t feel she could find one that allowed her to participate in marketing, vision, strategy, licensing and all the other aspects she was involved in with Microsoft Dynamics. After 22 years, she wasn’t exactly having fun anymore, but she felt a loyalty to the Dynamics community, so she chose to stay at Microsoft as their champion.

Then Microsoft decided for her.

A Surprise Move

In 2018 her position at Microsoft was eliminated. It was time for Pam to have some fun again. There was no shortage of offers. But Pam surprised many people by accepting the position of Director of Cloud Operations at Njevity, Inc, the creators of PowerGP Online.

She went from a 100,000+ person organization to a team of 25. She liked the direction that Njevity was going in with the PowerGP Online product and the diversity of the position – dealing with development, strategy, marketing, and sales.  It matched her vision of where the Dynamics GP community should go, it matched her values, and she could be creative, something she had not been allowed to be at work in a long time.

For the first time in decades, Pam doesn’t have to stick to a rigid set of brand rules and guidelines. The only marketing rules at Njevity are “don’t be mean and don’t break the law.” That’s a refreshing change. But marketing is not Pam’s only way to be creative.

Her Creative Side

Pam sees writing as her creative outlet, thinking beyond debits and credits and integrations. And she has not lost her interest in space and the paranormal. In fact, few people know that Pam has written several Science Fiction books.

One of those books has been published, under a pen name. (But if you discover it, keep the secret to yourself, because everyone is entitled to a little mystery.)

The Next Chapter

Pam takes her role as a leader in the Dynamics GP community seriously, and she is passionate about helping the channel think about different ways it can evolve and go to market. (Join the event Evolve 2018: A New Journey Begins)

A lot of people had an emotional journey related to Pam leaving Microsoft. But Pam is still here, she is having fun again, and she is allowed to more creative than ever.  There is no doubt that there is still so much more to add to her story.

Read more backstories.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Social Media is a great way to connect with others, share ideas and promote your brand during User Group Summit Phoenix. Sadly, this year I will not be attending, but I will be with you “remotely” and keeping up with all the news thanks to Twitter.  

 It will be a busy event for all of you “on the ground” so here are a few tips to make it easier to tweet, post and promote.

 1)     To cut down on the noise and find event influencers quickly you can subscribe to these Twitter lists or create your own.

 TWITTER LISTS:

·  UG Summit ERP MVP All Star 2018

·  UG Summit CRM MVP All Star 2018

·  CRM Software Blog Members Exhibiting at CRMUG Summit

·   ERP Software Blog Members Exhibiting at GPUG Summit

·   ERP Software Blog Members Exhibiting at NAVUG Summit

·   ERP Software Blog Members Exhibiting at AXUG Summit

·  AXUG Exhibitors at UG Summit

·   BCUG/NAVUG Exhibitors at UG Summit

·   GPUG Exhibitors at UG Summit

·   CRMUG Exhibitors at UG Summit

For tips on how to use and create Twitter lists see:

How to Use Twitter Lists to Connect with Microsoft Dynamics Partners

3 Genius Ways to Find Twitter Lists in Your Niche Industry

Why Twitter Lists are Arguably the #1 Resource for Social Selling (by Jon Rivers) 

2)       When you do tweet make sure you use the right hashtags so that all of us can find your words of wisdom (and funny photos). The OFFICIAL hashtag for the User Group Summit Phoenix events October 15-18, 2018 is: #UserGroupSummit

 You can find more hashtags to use at: Official Hashtag List for User Group Summit Phoenix 2018 – CRMUG, D365UG, AXUG, BCUG/NAVUG, GPUG

A few that I made up for this year are:

 · Use the hashtag #MSDYNCelebrity with #UserGroupSummit for all the MVP/All Star celebrity sightings you can make at User Group Summit.

· Take a photo with any of the ERP or CRM Software Blog members at UG Summit and tweet it with the hashtag #ERPBlogISV or #CRMBlogISV. One lucky tweet will be selected to win a $150 Amazon gift card from @erpsoftwareblog.

3)     Event recaps make excellent blog posts. But they will drive the most traffic if you post them immediately, while you are still at the event. (And promote them using event hashtags of course).

So after a great session, or at the end of the day, record and transcribe your thoughts on the Rev.com app. See if you can get someone back at the office to polish up the text and post them for you. Or check out this great offer from Mabbit Marketing for Summit blog writing with a rush turnaround.

Read more on this strategy: My Best Blogging Tip You Think You Have Never Heard

4)     If you are presenting a session or have a booth in the expo check out these tips to drive attendance:

Four Ideas to Promote Your Session During an Event

Here are a few more posts to get you ready for User Group Summit Phoenix 2018

 ·   Twitter Links for All Exhibitors You Will Find at User Group Summit Phoenix

 ·   Famous People You Can Meet at User Group Summit Phoenix – MVPs and All Stars Twitter Lists

 ·   CRM Software Blog Members Exhibiting at User Group Summit Phoenix 2018 with Twitter Links

 ·   ERP Software Blog Members Exhibiting at User Group Summit Phoenix 2018 with Twitter Links

 ·   Official Hashtag List for User Group Summit Phoenix 2018 – CRMUG, D365UG, AXUG, BCUG/NAVUG, GPUG

 ·   User Group Summit Phoenix is THE Event For ALL Legacy, Current and Future Microsoft Dynamics Users

 ·   Should You Attend CRMUG or D365UG for Summit Phoenix?

 ·   Should You Attend AXUG or D365UG for Summit Phoenix?

 ·   Why Attend User Group Summit in Phoenix When You Can Just Login Online?

 Have a fantastic time in Phoenix. And I’ll see you on Twitter.

 By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Do your referral partners feel confident that you value the leads they give you? I am not talking about giving them money. There are other ways to thank them. I feel that one of the best, and cheapest, things you can give them, to prove that you deserve their leads, is information.

Joe CPA: “Here is a lead for you, my client says they need new ERP software.”

You: “Thanks very much. We will follow up.”

Then what happens?

If that lead turns into a closed deal I am sure that you thank Joe effusively, perhaps even sending over a nice basket of cookies.

But what about all the stages in between, do you keep Joe up to date?

If he doesn’t hear from you, Joe might start to wonder if you ever reached the client, if the project was a good fit, if you moved forward or not. Then Joe might start to wonder if he should send you any more leads in the future. You never want Joe to think this way.

So why not just send him a quick update so he doesn’t have to wonder.

• If the deal closed, Joe can feel happy that you and his client were well matched.
• If the deal is stalled, Joe might be able to put in a good word for you.
• If the deal was lost, you can let Joe know why so he can be on the lookout for a new lead that is a better fit.

Either way, Joe knows that you value his referral.

Leads are like currency.

Your referral partners want to know that if they invest that money with you, it is going to be well taken care of and not wasted. And certainly not forgotten.

If you don’t treat the referral well, it can reflect badly on the one who made the recommendation. And if you don’t do anything at all with that referral, say you call a few times with no success and write it off, then the referral could have been given to someone else.

In my experience, people like to have information.  And it is not hard to give that information. I know you are already tracking the source of all your leads in your CRM system. So just pull a report on a regular basis and sort it by the referral source. Then put that information in a quick, friendly email to Joe.

I did a highly successful referral campaign a while back. Microsoft even gave me an award for it and sent me to Hawaii… that was awesome.  The campaign itself was relatively simple but I think a key to the success was that it included sending regular update emails to each referral source giving them the status of the leads they had provided to us.

A brief overview of the referral program:

• Identified top 10 referral sources (IT companies, CPAs, CRM companies….)
• Sent a brownie basket for each lead provided.
• If lead turned into a sale, sent a $$ gift certificate.
• Sent monthly personalized emails that included a timely marketing-related tip.
• Sent out a quarterly mailing to all referral sources that included a small “lumpy mailing” gift and an update on the progress CAL had made with the leads provided. For example, one mailing consisted of sunflower seeds and a theme of “growing”, while another featured an internally developed whitepaper, called “30 Questions Every CFO Must Ask About the Cost of Accounting Software”.)
• Scheduled face-to-face meetings with each referral source to solidify the relationship.'

Campaign Results for one year:

• Number of qualified leads generated: 22
• Cost of campaign: $2,868
• Campaign ROI: 61.6%

You want your referral sources to know that you value each and every lead you give them. None of them are going to fall through the cracks or be ignored. Joe will feel more confident referring leads to you. And over time your feedback will help him learn which leads are the best fit. Who doesn’t want a partner like that?

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

When her hands stopped working and her mind was a bit fuzzy from the pain medication my friend Brooke Webb Smith asked me to write her backstory.

After she read it, I could tell she was hesitant to share it. I think when she saw her raw emotions and the reality of her situation, in black and white, she felt exposed. She was confident she would get better, and she didn’t want people to think of her as “the sick girl”. She did tell me that she was glad her history was written down, so that she could share it with her children and grandchildren one day.

I had no idea that this backstory would actually be her obituary. And a tribute to a life that was cut short too soon.

These thoughts are hers, she just used my hands to tell the story.

“My Story: Brooke Webb Smith

To say that my whole world has changed overnight feels like an understatement.

Until recently I was balancing a (more than) full-time career, a marriage and raising four beautiful sons ages 17, 14, 8 and 6.

Or at least I thought I was balancing everything.

My body had been trying to give me signs to slow down, to make a change. But I ignored it all. I realize now that there is not a human being or animal on earth that I would have mistreated as I mistreated myself.

So God decided to slow me down.  Way down.

I don’t know why this is my course, but I feel strongly in my core that I am on this journey for a reason. My hope is that maybe someone can benefit from my story, so I want to be vulnerable enough to tell it the right way.

My name is Brooke Webb Smith; I was born and raised as a Southern girl in Atlanta, Georgia. I went to the University of Georgia and studied journalism, but my dad told me I had to get a real job and make some money.

My father knew a female executive at Coca-Cola who took a liking to me. She asked me if I had ever considered working in marketing because she felt I had the right personality and skill set. Then I lucked out. Like Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory, I got a golden ticket: an internship in the marketing department at Coca-Cola.

My father always said, “you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room; don’t try to be. But find the smartest person in the room, get to know them, and listen to what they say.”

I had heard that so many times growing up that when I got the chance for that internship I jumped on it. My natural curiosity kicked in, and I loved learning from experts. Marketing became my passion.

When the internship was finished, I bought some marketing books, took some courses in communication, and realized I could do this. 

I was hired by Vicinity Manufacturing as a marketing coordinator and started my career in the Microsoft Dynamics channel. I knew nothing about ERP or CRM. I barely knew about Microsoft. In my job interview, Randy (then my boss, now my husband) asked, “What kind of notebook is your preference?” I thought about it for a second and said, “college ruled.” Of course, he was talking about a laptop. But I still got the job.

In the last ten years, I have loved working in the Microsoft Dynamics channel. Recently I joined a team of very talented people who were launching a new product that I was sure would make a huge impact in the industry. The marketing role was a big undertaking, but I embraced it completely.

At the same time, I had the opportunity to be involved in what I call a “passion project”: building a membership-based marketing organization from the ground up.

Everything seemed like it was going well.

In 2011 after the birth of my last son I noticed that my toes were becoming numb. I didn’t think a lot of it at the time. I loved high heels. In college, I was a competitive tennis player and injured my spine. So I just figured it was some temporary discomfort.

As the months went by, the numbness continued to spread. Then tingling started. It would feel like my foot was falling asleep.  Once I was on an airplane for a business trip; when I got to the lavatory, I realized I was barefoot. To my horror, I had walked out of my shoes in the aisle, and I didn’t even feel it. I could step on something hot and not feel the touch, just the pain.

I finally told my doctor. He tested me for diabetes since peripheral neuropathy is often a symptom of diabetes, but the test was negative. Basically he said, “That’s weird, why is your nervous system messing up?”

And that started a chutes and ladders game of going to specialists. For nearly three years I went from podiatrist to orthopedist to neurosurgeon. Finally, they did an EMG, a nerve study test that clearly showed that I had severe peripheral neuropathy which is damage to peripheral nerves that results in numbness and pain. This can be caused by traumatic injury, toxins, infections… The most common cause is diabetes. But as far as I knew I didn’t have any of these triggers. Because nobody knew the cause, they could only treat the symptoms. I was sent to a pain clinic where the doctor prescribed opioids. I said “I’m 35 years old, I cannot live the rest of my life on opioids. I won’t; it’s too dangerous.”

The burning and stabbing pain started going up my legs, but I was still determined to commit fully to my career and my family.

Constant pain was affecting my moods, making me depressed; it affected my social life. Because you can’t see pain, it is hard for some people to understand how it limits you.

Then I started falling. I started having difficulty driving my car (one day my foot just stopped working; I couldn’t engage the clutch and nearly had a car accident.)

I tried Eastern medicine, acupuncture, meditation and breathing, CBD oil, Chinese herbs, and supplements. The only thing I didn’t change at the time, but I should have, was diet. I wish I had thought of that sooner as it turned out to be a root cause of all my inflammation.

In October 2017 doctors were finally was able to put a name to the disease.

My neurologist did a spinal tap and found elevated protein levels. They did CPC blood tests, an MRI, and a nerve biopsy. And they came back with a name.

CIDP - Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, an autoimmune disease much like Lupus and MS. Another more common form is called Guillain-Barre syndrome. CIDP is progressive and degenerative.

At some point in the past, I had a virus like the flu, and this disease remained dormant just waiting for the opportune time to flare up.

 The way I’ve tried to explain it to my kids is that we have antibodies that are supposed to protect us from viruses. But my antibodies are confused and attacking the wrong things. There is a fatty coating called a Myelin that covers nerves. My antibodies are basically attacking that fatty coating, leaving my nerves like live wires.

Think of an electrical cord with plastic coating to protect you. My body is taking away that coating. As a result, my nerves fail to respond properly. Instead, they respond with numbness, tingling, and severe pain. 40% of people with CIDP end up in wheelchairs as the disease attacks the brain.

When I learned all this, I was pushing my body by working ridiculously long hours at a tradeshow, trying to handle every detail and hide the fact that I was in constant pain.

I had this great job that I loved, I felt I was creating something special, and now I was being told I had an autoimmune disease. Some mornings I woke up and my feet didn’t work.

We discovered the National Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy (FPN). Studies were being done at Northwestern and John’s Hopkins, so we spoke to neurologists there.

At the same time, Randy was trying to run a company, and I was still working full time and raising a family.

I was afraid if people found out they would view me differently. But a counselor told me that I had to tell the people that were working closely with me so that if I didn’t show up, they would know that I was not just flaking out. I had to make people realize that this was not something small; this is what I would call “a big sick.”

I woke up one morning in January, and all the fingers on my right hand were numb. I realized it was spreading. Quickly. I still didn’t tell anyone; I just took that day off. Randy and I got really serious and through referrals from Johns Hopkins found a neuro-muscular neurologist at Emory here in Atlanta. She agreed to take my case.

When I went in for my appointment, I had a binder with three years worth of test results, but the doctor said, “we are going to start over.” Right now the diagnosis is still CIDP but she is also testing for leukemia and blood cancer and other possibilities, trying to determine if my new symptoms are related to CIDP or a second autoimmune disease.

I had to resign from my job in February. There was a process of having to accept the diagnosis. Every time I lose something, I can’t get it back, and it’s not curable. I had to process that, and it took me a while. Losing my career, which had become so much a part of my identity, was extremely difficult.

To celebrate my new found free time, my family went on a Disney Cruise. Instead of partying on the Lido deck I was quarantined for five days in my stateroom, then spent two days in the ship’s hospital. As soon as we got back to Atlanta, we went to Urgent Care, and I tested positive for Influenza A.

In fact, everyone in my family had the flu. My husband and I shared the couch for a “Marvel Movie Marathon.” But my symptoms were the most severe.

I started having chest pains and trouble breathing. I spent March 7-9 in the hospital because my oxygen levels were critical. It turns out that the flu caused a major flare-up of the CIDP. I went into the hospital walking on my own and came out dependent on a walker.

That is when everything really changed. 

I was released from the hospital to palliative care and pain management from home health hospice nurses. This doesn’t mean I will die in 6 months, but I have a chronic illness.

I have a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a skilled nurse, and a social worker who come to my home to help me. I also have a palliative care nurse who can give pain medication. Simple things like brushing my teeth are a challenge; I can’t even shower without a nurse’s help.

So much has been taken away so fast and it has been very tough.

The numbness has spread to my hands. Fortunately, my thumbs still work, so I can still text: a small blessing.

I am still in the middle of this flare up. There can be remission between flare-ups, but this one is so intense that I pray every day I will survive it. There are options for treatment, but it is a battle. The American healthcare system doesn’t make it easy.

At the end of last year, my doctor ordered five treatments of Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIg) to infuse my body with powerful antibodies (immunoglobulins - like little antibody Ironmen). It is the most promising treatment for my condition. (Thank you to all the people out there who donate blood platelets; I love those people).  With this treatment, the nurse, machines, and medications arrive at my house, and I am hooked up, like dialysis or chemo treatments, for five hours a day for three days. This happens every 4 to 6 weeks.

The first treatment was scheduled, and I was so hopeful. But it was denied by my insurance because of the $18,000 per treatment cost.  We tried again, and the treatment was denied three more times. My insurance company also denied my most recent hospital stay and sent a bill for $32,000.

So now we are in a waiting game. Waiting for the next step. Waiting for the insurance company to realize we have tried all other options.

But at least I have realized there is one thing that I can do to heal my body. There is so much I can’t control in this situation but what I can do is control what I eat. When I was searching for alternative remedies and learned about inflammation in the body, several people told me to change my diet. I wish I had listened, but I was taking care of myself last.

At the hospital, the nutritionist put me on Autoimmune protocol (AIP) diet – like a rigid form of Paleo. No gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, nightshades, etc.

Since I can no longer cook, Randy found a company that delivers meals based on my dietary restrictions. Right now I am trying to focus on what I can control, and that is what is getting me through.

We don’t know if this flare-up will pass or if the disease will continue to progress. At this point, our goals are to:

#1 Make sure we have the correct diagnosis.

#2 Find treatment to slow down mobility loss.

#3 Regain some of the motor skills I have lost.

#4 Keep me out of a wheelchair.

A lot of damage has been done, and it has been very difficult for my family. They don’t know if I will wake up to a good day or a bad day.

It’s hard when you are in chronic pain, but nobody can see it. Nothing black and blue, nothing bleeding.

That was hard for my husband, Randy, in the beginning, but he has become a solid partner. He has shouldered this responsibility and carried me, sometimes literally.

My hope is that this flare-up ends soon and I can begin some contract marketing work and gradually come back into a “new normal” life. Whatever that looks like.

In the meantime, we have gone from two incomes to one income; we have a son going to college, and astronomical medical bills. The financial worries are crushing.

The isolation and loneliness are bad. To move with a walker in an empty house alone is like being chained. And I look at elder care completely differently now.

So, that is my story. This is me right now.”

The Epilogue

A few weeks after the writing of this story our dear Brooke fell asleep in death. Her poor body was no longer strong enough to fight the pain. She was 38 years old.

When I got the call from Brooke’s husband, Randy, I was numb with shock. I had just spoken with her. She had sounded so hopeful.

Brooke wanted to use her illness to help other people, but she was not sure yet how to do that. I can confidently say that knowing Brooke helped me in many ways. And I know many others who also felt her impact. My friendship with Brooke taught me:

• Don’t push too hard. Listen to your body when it is giving you signals to slow down. Eat well and take care of your body before you get “a big sick.”

• Tell people. When you are sick, don’t be afraid to tell people and let them give you the support you need.

• Be curious. Brooke wanted to know more about everything and try new things. We all need that curiosity. Several years ago I mentioned her as a visionary in my post “14 Life Lessons I Learned from Strong Women in the Dynamics Channel.”

• Give compliments. Some of the things Brooke told me were the nicest compliments I have ever received. Too often, we only think it. But Brooke said it. I will treasure her words.

And the biggest lesson Brooke taught me at the end….

• Don’t wait. Don’t be too busy to send the card or make the phone call. No matter how optimistic someone sounds, when they are dealing with a serious illness, you don’t know if tomorrow will be a good day, or a bad day, or the last day.

In Her Memory

Brooke was a creative marketing professional, a colorful storyteller, a podcast fanatic, an avid reader and a connoisseur of beautiful things. She was passionate about education and the success of marketing professionals.

To honor her memory the Brooke Webb Smith Memorial Fund has been set up to inspire and educate up-and-coming marketing professionals. Consider donating at: www.bwsmf.org

I will miss this beautiful Southern lady. But I feel confident that I will see her again and we can pick up where we left off. But as my friend Brooke used to say, that story is “a whole ‘nuther bottle of Bourbon.”

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

Update: Check out the national initiative to help raise awareness on new ways to help those suffering from Peripheral Neuropathy. https://www.drugscience.org/neuropathy/

This tip is so simple it’s scary. But I rarely see anyone else do it.

First, let me ask you this, as an ERP/CRM partner, why do you put videos on YouTube? It’s not because you hope to be the next YouTube video star. It’s because you want to drive traffic, hopefully prospects, back to your website to learn more about your company and buy your product.

So the key is to make it as easy as possible for viewers to get back to your website.

My simple tip is.....Put your website URL at the very beginning of your YouTube video description. Like this:

Someone finds the video, likes what they see and they can easily click the link to take them back to the page on your website where they can get more information.

Well duh, that’s easy. But trust me, hardly anyone does it!

You don’t believe me? Even the fancy marketing team at Microsoft doesn’t do it. After you watched this video promoting Dynamics 365 Business Central, where would you click to get more information? I don’t see any links at all.  

Usually companies put their website URL on the screen at the end of the video. But most people don’t make it to the end of a video. And if they do, you and I both know that when we see that there is just a few seconds left on a video we click off, because we know that is where all the salesy stuff is.

I’ve seen people put a link to their website at the end of their description text. But that is not ideal because only the first few lines of text show up, then the viewer has to click “SHOW MORE”. And they don’t. (Some people don’t add any description text to their YouTube videos at all, which is just dumb. But that’s another, more “advanced”, tip.)

You want your website URL to be right there, BAM, right in front of them where they can’t miss it. Before they start getting distracted by your competitor’s videos that are teasing them from the sidebar.

Just in case you think this tip is TOO easy, there is one more step. This gets harder….

You need to add http:// in front of your website address to make sure that it is a live, clickable link.

I hope you still consider this to be a simple tip.

But seriously, if you are taking the time to make a video and promote it on YouTube, take an extra few minutes to write a good description, full of keywords and add a live link to your website at the very beginning where everyone can see it and click on it.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

“I'm glad I ignored the opinion of my marketing guy and went ahead and joined the ERP Software Blog.  I do feel it's the best decision I could have made.” – Rod O’Connor, Briware Solutions, ERP Software Blog member since 2015.

We’ve heard plenty of fancy marketing consultants say it before…. “Don’t post on a group blog, that will only benefit them. You need to keep your content on your own site.” Dave Foreman has a nice answer to that one. “So if someone gave you the opportunity to post on the New York Times website would you say no, because it would only benefit them? Of course not, the exposure is priceless”.

Posting on a large site like the ERP Software Blog or the CRM Software Blog is not just about traffic and leads. A very real benefit that many companies overlook is exposure and notoriety.

It took Rod O’Connor, from Briware Solutions, a long time to make the decision to join the ERP Software Blog and now he is very glad he did. In this post, Rod explains the very real benefits he has seen:

More Exposure

“When I was blogging on my website, people started to read my stuff, but it wasn't really getting out there. I was just doing it because every marketing class I went to told me my website needed content.

So at the time it was really about giving people something to read after they got to my website. When I started publishing articles on the ERP Software Blog, it was more about people finding my website because of what I had written.

I would say that a big part of winning the Microsoft MVP award was the exposure that my blogs got on the ERP Software Blog. Not just that I was writing them, but that people were reading them, and following them, and sharing them. It's definitely given me more notoriety, I guess is the word, than I had before.

One post in particular that I published on the ERP Software Blog, “My 30-Day Experiment: Can I Run My Small Business on Dynamics 365”, got a huge amount of traffic. It actually had a big contingent of readers from Microsoft, which was something that I wouldn't have anticipated. Based on that post, I had three different groups of people from Microsoft reach out to me to see what they could do to help me along with Dynamics 365. And I was asked to do presentations with Microsoft at various events as an example of a partner that was using the product.

I certainly don’t think that post would have gotten so much attention, at quite to the level that it did, if it had just been published on my own website.

I recently posted a follow up article to that post, about how my business looks one year later. That post got the attention of Jason Gumpert at MSDynamicsWorld and he turned it into a podcast interview. That's the first time one of my posts has ever done that.”

More Traffic

“A big benefit of posting on the ERP Software Blog is literally the numbers. Last time I looked I was getting more referral clicks from the ERP Software Blog to my own website than from any other source. I think I've picked up a number of Twitter followers that way too. If I was only posting on my own blog site, I don’t think I’d see those kinds of numbers.”

More Leads

“I have had a couple of direct leads sent to me from the ERP Software Blog. I haven't been able to close any yet, but I am working on having a better process to do that.

However, I can confidently say that we have gotten calls from prospects directly based on content we put on the ERP Software Blog.

Again, that 30-Day Experiment post in particular. I got a call out of the blue from a chap who was actively trying to decide to stay on Dynamics GP or not, and he had read my post, and it did turn into an engagement with him. I've got a post out there that talks about setting up the Workflow 2.0, and we've had a couple of engagements to do that for new customers. And I've picked up other work here and there just based on folks who had either read my posts or heard from folks who had read them.”

The Right Decision

“I understand that we still want to have fresh content on our website , so I do post blog articles on my own website too. I try to look at it from an audience perspective. If it's something for a wider audience, like a leadership post or more of a technical post I'll put that on the ERP Software Blog. But if it's something that's more about Briware, for example, I had one that talked about who I feel is the perfect Briware Solutions customer, I’ll put that on my own site.

Certainly, being on the ERP Software Blog is getting my posts further reach than I would have expected. I'd say it's all about exposure, because people are going to the ERP Software Blog to get great information, and to have my post included in that is valuable.

I couldn't be happier with the decision to actually sign up for the ERP Software Blog.”

If you are considering joining the ERP Software Blog or the CRM Software Blog, consider the traffic and the leads but don’t forget that it just could make you famous.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

These days Mariano Gomez is well known for being The Dynamics GP Blogster. But unlike at his first job, he doesn’t need to walk around with a bodyguard.

Mariano grew up in Colombia and went straight from college to the corporate world. His first job was as a commissions analyst for one of the largest pension funds in Colombia.  After the release of one particular statistical report, about 500 people got fired. After that, he had to walk around with bodyguards for the next six months.

The job got safer, but Mariano was still looking for the next opportunity.

One day he got an unexpected phone call.  Someone had referred him for a job as a consultant/developer. The only major requirements were that he speak English and be willing to do a training program in the United States.

Little did Mariano know that this call would set the course of his life for the next several decades.

The Trip to Fargo

The day after he accepted the job he was given a two-million-dollar budget to start working on a major project translating Great Plains Dynamics version 3.15 into Spanish and localizing it for the Latin American market. In September 1996 he took his first trip to the United States, a 16-hour journey to Fargo, North Dakota.

Mariano started his training with the GP International Team. Looking back, he knows he learned from the best, including Tom Irsfeld, an elite developer in the Microsoft Dynamics world, and Dave Gaboury, one of the “Fathers of Dexterity.”

Back in Colombia, Mariano worked as a Software Architect and a part of the Great Plains implementation team with both technical and functional responsibilities. His job also involved traveling to various countries in South America to help build up the partner channel.

Mariano’s professional career in Colombia was a springboard to move to the United States.  That opportunity came after another trip to Fargo.

The Move to Miami

Back in 1997, at a Certified Installation Specialist conference in Fargo, a Dynamics partner from Miami made an offer to build up a GP practice. Mariano accepted the challenge the following year, after much consideration. In June 1999, he moved to Miami. He worked with that partner for eight years and in that time helped build a profitable GP practice for the firm.

It was time for a change, so Mariano decided to move to Georgia and work as an independent Dynamics GP consultant. Then the market crashed.  But this crash actually led to one of Mariano’s best career decisions.

Becoming The Dynamics GP Blogster

Mariano recalls sitting with his wife, worried about where his next project was going to come from, and checking out the Dynamics GP News Groups. He started to help people in the community by answering their questions. Slowly he began to see familiar names and connect with people like Victoria Yudin, Mark Polino, Leslie Vail and the late Richard Whaley.

It was Mark Polino who encouraged Mariano to start blogging. And “The Dynamics GP Blogster” was born.

In the beginning, he blogged almost every day. He saw it as an escape during the down economy. And like most new bloggers he had no idea if people were reading his blog or finding value in it.  Mariano remembers the first time he realized that the blog had become a brand and that it had taken on a life of its own. It was at a Tech Conference in 2009, again back in Fargo.

His friend, David Musgrave, invited him to co-present a session. When he got there, GP partners walked up to him and said "Oh, this is The Dynamics GP Blogster guy. We love your blogs. Your content is amazing. You put stuff out that we couldn't even figure out with Microsoft."

Then Mariano presented at Convergence, and now he had not only partners but customers coming up to him thanking him for his content and urging him to keep writing.

Mariano has published over 1,000 posts on the site. And he makes it a point to write with longevity in mind so that the information will be useful for many years down the road. The Dynamics GP Blogster site gets roughly 350,000 visitors every year and continues to be one of the most popular resources in the Dynamics GP community.

The Dynamics GP Blogster has become a personal brand, and arguably more people recognize Mariano by that name than by his personal name, or the name of his current employer. 

Landing at Mekorma

In November 2015 an opportunity arose for Mariano to join the Mekorma team. Mekorma is one of the most recognized ISVs in the Dynamics GP market with a significant client install base of over 5,000 clients.  Mariano started as a Senior Software Engineer and is now the Manager of Product Development.

A Career Highlight

A highlight of Mariano’s career was being nominated and selected for the Microsoft MVP award back in 2008. And he has worked hard ever since with the technical communities of partners and customers to maintain the award, now in his 10th year.

Based on this experience, his advice to others in the community is to act like an MVP even without the title. He feels that if someone is selfless and has that drive to help the community, at some point, their efforts will be recognized and rewarded. And always to remember that even with the award, MVPs are just regular folks. They do all the blogging and presentations and answer questions in their spare time, in addition to their “day-to-day jobs.” It is a big part of their lives, but not the only part.

To Fargo and Beyond

The decision to begin working with Great Plains software, the decision to move to the USA and the decision to start The Dynamics GP Blogster site have all been pivotal in Mariano’s career. He gives credit to three mentors who have helped him along this journey. First, Luis Alberto Alvarez, who introduced him to his first job out of college and into the corporate world; Ed Marciniak, who helped him assimilate into his new environment and to understand the business culture as he made the transition from Colombia to the USA.  And more recently, Jay Manley who has shown him how to leverage his skills as a manager to be successful in leading a remote, distributed team.

Microsoft Dynamics is all about teamwork. As Mariano found out after his very first trip to Fargo, when you get involved in this community, there are endless and varied opportunities that can take you on the journey that lasts a lifetime.

Read more backstories.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg

How can you prove that blogging is effective?  It’s all about tracking the traffic.

Of course you can track the number of people that read your article. But I think an even better indicator of ROI is to track the number of people who take the next step and click on a link back to your website.

I recently received this email from one of my ERP Software Blog members:

“I looked at my Google Analytics today for the first time in a really long time.  In the last month and a half ERP Software Blog has referred 38 sessions to my website.  Of those, 36 were new.  That is more than any other referrer but Twitter (and doesn’t include the 6 from mobile.erpsoftwareblog.com).  By comparison, LinkedIn sent 17 and Twitter sent 65. Amazing!”

If this company had paid “Pay Per Click” fees for just these 36 new clicks he could easily have spent $180 ($5 per click) in a month. And according to SEO expert, Dave Foreman, that is a very conservative estimate. This is more than his monthly blog membership, so to me that is an easy proof of ROI.

I asked a few more of my ERP Software Blog members to share their referrals stats for a 10 month period in 2017 and the results were very impressive.

ERP Software Blog Members - Referral Stats from January to November 2017

 CAL Business Solutions

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 11 posts
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website - 2,608 (#1 referral source)
• From Twitter – 128
• From LinkedIn – 209
• Blog member since June 2009

Socius

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 5 posts
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website - 2,222 (#2 Referral Source)
• From Twitter – 374
• From LinkedIn - 1,186
• Blog member since September 2009

Crestwood Associates

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 3 posts
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website – 810 (#1 referral source)
• From Twitter –231
• From LinkedIn – 417
• From Facebook – 142
• Blog member since July 2009

AKA Enterprise Solutions (formerly Green Beacon)

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 16 posts (ERP) 16 posts (CRM)
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website – 331
• # of referral clicks from CRM Software Blog to your website – 747
• From Twitter –188
• From LinkedIn – 672
• ERP Blog member since March 2013, CRM Blog member since April 2011

Integrity Data

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 52 posts
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website - 240
• From Twitter – 245
• From LinkedIn – 240
• Blog member since November 2012

Briware Solutions

• Jan 1 to Nov 1, 2017 – 6 posts
• # of referral clicks from ERP Software Blog to your website - 191 (#1 Referral Source)
• From Twitter –165
• From LinkedIn – 42
• Blog member since January 2015

A few observations I think can be made about this data:

• The length of time a company is a blog member has a direct impact on clicks. I know for a fact that old blog posts continue to drive traffic. That is something I love about bloggings as a marketing strategy. It’s the activity that keeps on giving.
• The number of blog posts is not always the deciding factor. It is also the quality. In the case of Integrity Data, most of the posts were duplicate content, with a canonical link. While this still has value, I think the numbers show that there is just not quite as much SEO power with this method.
• Social media can be a great source of traffic. My strategy is to promote each of my blog posts on both Twitter and LinkedIn, multiple times, over a 3 to 5 month period. If you don’t have time for this, I have a great recommendation for outsourced Twitter services.

When was the last time you checked your Google Analytics referral stats? 

Here are the simple steps to find this information:

1. Login at https://www.google.com/analytics 
2. On the left side click on “Acquisition”
3. Click on “All Traffic”
4. Click on “Referrals”
5. Change the date range on the top right
6. Click “Apply”

You can save this report and export as a PDF. You can even click the “Share” button and schedule this report to be automatically emailed to you each month. This is one of my favorite Google Analytics reports.

I think that blogging is one of the most effective, low cost, marketing activities a company can do. And I absolutely believe that every ERP/CRM partner out there has more than enough to write about.  I admit that it can be a challenge to find the right writer. My favorite blogging tip can help with that. And I’m working on an offering along these lines…stay tuned on that.

The next time you are wondering if it is worth the time to write that next blog post, just think about the traffic.

If you are interested in joining the ERP Software Blog, CRM Software Blog or ERP Cloud Blog just let me know.

By Anya Ciecierski, Collaboration Works Marketing

www.cwmktg.com

Follow me on Twitter: @AnyaCWMktg