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getting 8 people to service 30,000 parnters is nothing compared to getting <1000 partners to service 4.1M busineses - that is the reality for UK SBSC members

My boss, Steve Clayton recently noted how hard the job that the team I am part of has.  We are responsible for working with, understanding and helping all UK partners, irrespective of size.  To this end, he as written an excellent article "30k divided by 8 just doesn't work".

This got me thinking, the ratio we have here is 1:3750 (PTS to Partners), but in the small business space where we have less than 1000 in the UK, to the 4.1M UK small businesses, we start to see a ratio of twice that at the moment, so while we feel pain, it really highlights just how difficult it is in the partner market.

At the same time, it shows that for each partner, working together in community is very sensible as the number of times you are likely to compete with a fellow partner is a rounding error on a percentage.  To this end, Susanne Dansey wrote an excellent posting http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/7 discussing the community and this was followed up by http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/8 and then http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/9. All of them crackers and worth the read.

So, when struggling with a customer, find your local parnter group - http://www.sbsbpi.co.uk and get some help.

Or leave a message here on the forums

 

ttfn

 

David

 

P.S.  I really need some sleep, so off now.


Posted Tue, May 23 2006 1:46 AM by David Overton

Comments

Susanne Dansey wrote re: getting 8 people to service 30,000 parnters is nothing compared to getting &lt;1000 partners to service 4.1M busineses - that is the reality for UK SBSC members
on Tue, May 23 2006 11:36 PM
Don't be afraid to change the way you traditional work and try something new. The community offers a platform for you to approach these opportunities and there are many proactive members who will already testify about their success.

Microsoft UK have been very supportive of our activities but it only really works if we all 'get it' and sites such as David's and sbsbpi.co.uk (amongst others) clearly demonstrates that times are starting to change.

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