Sage's BPAC stands for Business Partner Advisory Council. They're a group of distinguished VARS who meet regularly with Sage to provide feedback on product plans and discuss other important issues.
In an email sent yesterday to Sage's Mid Market channel there was reportedly a major gaffe.
The email was intended to report on the progress of the BPAC - and users could click on one of the two links to download a summary of what was discussed at Sage's BPAC meeting held February 17 - 18 in Dallas.
According to a LinkedIN group member the second link titled "View the list of Mid Market BPAC members" should probably more accurately have been titled:
"View the list of Mid Market BPAC members, their sales for the year (broken out by new, upgrade, CRM), and also take a peek at who we didn't select and why".
Oops.
The links to the email download documents were quickly redirected to http://www.sagesoftware.com but apparently not before the document made it into the wild.
A few people have asked for a list of presentations that I'm participating in at Insights 2009. Almost all my presentations have to do with Social Media and/or marketing. Sage doesn't trust me enough to give a talk on anything remotely technical.
For those who don't know me (which should be a lot of people) - I'm a full time Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 consultant from Connecticut. I've been working with Sage since it was called State of the Art.
I work exclusively with Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200. My specialty is working with "A-List" clients and working efficiently. While I have an office I outsource almost everything else (phone, email, newsletter mailing, etc). My main computer is a MacBook Pro. Most of my clients come to me after having a bad experience with another VAR. I won't take any client (no exceptions) who does not enroll in a prepaid annual phone support plan with my firm.
Here's a copy of the agreement for those who are wondering what it looks like
I'm such a terrible salesperson that I've had to compensate by (wherever possible) having clients come to me. I do this largely by communicating at least twice monthly with my client base. In addition I blog and participate in lots of Social Media - aka making it easier for people to find you.
Here's a little about my philosophy. Can you tell I did this without a script?: Here's my schedule of presentations and events I'll be participating in. Note that I'm not leading any of these events - rather I'm the "trained monkey" on a panel that someone leading the discussion points to and say's "listen to how Wayne does this" - to which I respond incoherently for five minutes then shut up:
Monday 8:30 pm - Bayou A - LinkedIn Group Meeting - Sage VARS, Employees, Alumni
Did you know there's a LinkedIn Group just for Sage geeks to hang out?
If you'd like to meet in person - come on down to this free social hour. There's no refreshments. No cheezy giveaways. Unless you want to - there's no requirement to stand up and introduce yourself (snore..).
This is just a good way to put a face to the name that you see online.
You do not have to be a member to attend - though I would encourage you to join the LinkedIn group (totally free) and participate.
Looks like I only have to field two softball questions here:
1 - How Social Media has helped you
2 - How do you manage your time using social media
Since I think they're videotaping the session I'm thinking of bringing a couple large sized notecards and faking that I'm reading (slowly, poorly and with much labored effort) my answer word for word. Who say's it isn't fun to participate at Insights?!
Wednesday 3:15 to 4:45 pm - Partner-Proven Marketing Methods and Strategies
Here's the list of questions that the discussion leader say's we'll be talking about.
SEO/Websites:
Is there a short list of things
to do to improve websites and rankings for searches?
What little things do companies
miss most when optimizing their website for search?
What are some ways I can improve
my search rankings?
Is SEO overrated and do you
have to spend so much money to have it done? How many Sage resellers
have actually closed a deal exclusively by way of inbound SEO marketing,
and how much of their total new sales was driven from SEO?
Social Networking:
What proof is there that social
marketing really works or has impact? What is the potential negative
impact?
Is there a new means of communication
on the horizon? Does texting have a place in marketing?
Has any partner had significant
success from social networking?
Events and Customer Conferences:
Are annual customer conferences
worth the investment? Are attending trade shows?
Telemarketing:
Curious to hear if anyone has
used an “Appointment Setting Company” and if so, what were the results?
These types of firms are VERY expensive so we would like to see if anyone
has used them before.
Messaging:
What is the "we can save
you money or add sales" message that works? 2009 and possibly 2010 marketing
must address the "Bottom Line" or we won't get in the door.
Are there any proven methods
of getting a marketing message to the Owner/President?
General Questions
– Where to invest?
For small businesses new to
marketing, where should we focus our marketing efforts especially when
financial resources are limited?
What is the percent of marketing
spend is required to fuel double-digit organic growth that stems from
sales to both new and existing customers?
General Questions
– What to do?
What does not work? Stop using
this method? What is the best means of identifying my most valuable
prospect? What questions, when answered, best define my best customers
and prospects.
As a very small BP, learning
what is “working” with other BP’s in today’s economic climate
to drive new sales (small Client base to sell too) is very important
to us.
What marketing promotions are
successful (CRM) in this down economy?
What is the one illusive idea
that requires relatively little effort but produces great results?
What the most proven marketing
strategies and tools are for more finding new software sales opportunities?
What's WORKING for other resellers
in the SMB/ERP arena? How are they attracting NEW business/prospects?
Any prospecting ideas that
really work?
Prospecting – new methods
that work?
Contact information is below. If you've been thinking of starting a newsletter but aren't sure what to write about, or if you just wonder about how Social Media can be used to promote your business then follow the links below and sign up for either my newsletter or Facebook feed.....
...then just DO THE OPPOSITE of what I do and you should be ok! See you at Insights 2009..
