Sage News and Discussion

Just received this. Note that it says I did NOT attend Summit. Um, excuse me, but I did. Also note: ""Sage will invest in partners that invest in Sage."" Sage Engagement and Marketing Burtt, Rick [Rick.Burtt@sage.com] To:Therese Logeais Tuesday, September 04, 2012 12:08 Therese, Following an invigorating Sage Summit 2012, I wanted to share the energy and excitement about the many opportunities for Sage Business Partners. I know you were unable to attend this year but Sage North America's CEO Pascal Houillon and Chief Technology Officer Himanshu Palsule shared a clear vision for our road ahead. Please check out the Sage Summit Keynote, We have thoughtfully made tough decisions, all of which are designed to help us reach our primary objective: To meet the current and future needs of customers. We will do this with innovation, agility and a commitment to help them succeed. Sage will invest in partners that invest in Sage. I invite you to do just that, and proactively plan for your success. Planning for success is sometimes as simple as working on the building blocks of your business: marketing, sales, services and support. Not all of the ""blocks"" need work, but it is important evaluate each based on current business conditions. Together, I would like to develop your strategy to take advantage of Sage's strategy. The outcome will be a 12-18 month plan which outlines how you will grow your business with Sage. Requested Call-To-Action Please let me know if you are interested in joining us as we plan for new customer sales growth in the coming year. If you are interested, let me know when we can schedule a planning session to begin this process. Best Regards, Rick Burtt Central Region - Channel Development and Strategy (770) 298 3829 rick.burtt@sage.com

Tha just pisses me off and they didn't even send it to me. So how much like chopped liver are you feeling right now?

Mind if I borrow this to blog (anonymously) @ThereseLogeais

Good question!

.. and what happens if you aren't interested in joining to grow customer sales?

Go ahead.

And haven't we already invested in Sage with all of the certification requirements/fees??

There are two things that catch my eye: a. ""..how you WILL grow your business with Sage"" -- not can, might, could ... b. ""Sage will invest in partners that invest in Sage"" http://erplife.com/2012/09/04/sage-will-invest-in-partners-that-invest-in-sage/

Well now I know what Rick Burtt looks like thanks to @WayneSchulz's blog. http://erplife.com/2012/09/04/sage-will-invest-in-partners-that-invest-in-sage/#more-3254

I agree. That was my take - lay out a 12-18 month plan on how you WILL grow your business with Sage. Or??

Together, I would like to develop your strategy to take advantage of Sage's strategy."" Does this sentence even make sense? ""Together"" implies more than ""I"" doesn't it? It sounds more like, ""I am going to develop your strategy for you.

Sage have tried to do these types of things in the past. This email seems a little more strongly worded and the first time that Sage has implied that only partners who invest in Sage will receive investment from Sage. I'm with you though on your thoughts - doesn't all this certification count for something? If Sage were totally up front about this they'd have come right out and said that you must increase your new license deals. I believe that's what they're getting at here...

I'm fairly certain the 12-18 month strategy will include a sales academy or two. Another ""investment"" in Sage.

And they forget how many clients that we have paying them those outrageous maintenance fees as well. But there isn't any thanks for that either...

If I wasn't so tired and in need of a vacation to recover from my long weekend vacation I might call Tom and ask his opinion on this.

Take a 15 minute power nap, give Cowboy Tom a call, then let us know his take @WayneSchulz.

I work with Rick a lot these days. He's in charge of the four (three + him) Regional Growth Managers. Their goal is to increase sales for certain resellers - services and products. They are trying to identify which partners want to participate in which product sales. I'll speak about Sage CRM because that's the one I'm most familiar with. They want to know if: 1. A partner is committed to working with a particular product such as Sage CRM. 2. If they are committed, what is the marketing plan - how are they going to identify and close incoming opportunities. 3. Are their plans working? Meaning ... if a partner is Sage CRM certified but has only 3 clients using Sage CRM out of 150 MAS clients, what is happening? Are they truly committed or just checking the box? 4. If the partner has no interest, they will attempt to make introductions to product-focused partners (such as Azamba) to do the above. 5. If the two partners together don't have a plan or execute, we can expect to a) get grief and b) eventually see Sage directly - and aggressively - marketing and selling the product. 6. If Sage is involved, they are keeping all product margins. If anyone wants to officially become affiliated with me, let me know. I have been spending the last few weeks hashing out our go-to-market strategy to help drive sales of Sage CRM. If you want to officially affiliate (not very well defined yet within Sage), it should buy some time. NOTE: The RGM's are all acting independently by region. Each has identified 75 partners to work with so they may be slowly working through their lists or they may be doing something differently than what RIck has done. @WayneSchulz - you might want to strip the date and time off that email or you may be ""outing"" @ThereseLogeais. Not that this is anything Sage is trying to keep hidden but it probably would be better either anonyous or with Therese's explicit understanding that it will come back to her.

I had a call with Roger Demers, our Regional Growth Manager after I got the same email. The ""investment"" he wanted me to make is the Fast Track for Marketing program. It makes sense that they want to know we're trying but they don't seem to understand that we aren't both trying for exactly the same thing. If they did, the pitch wouldn't be so off-putting.