How to differentiate your partner business in the crowded world of Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM VARs

I have been focusing on the Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM platform and its market since 2005 and it has always amazed me how some partners do not differentiate themselves when pitching to prospects. I currently help a number of Dynamics clients and end users with their programmes and solutions, and part of my role includes advising them about choosing the best Dynamics partner to work with. For small and medium size business (SMBs), choosing the wrong partner could result in wasted time and money that takes months or years to recover from.

Microsoft Dynamics partners that have not bothered to specialize their services or solutions will approach all their opportunities in a similar way. These firms bid for projects across all industries without deep subject matter knowledge in any prospect's industry. They typically start by asking: "What would you like to have?". While perhaps what I call the "Blank Canvas Approach" may be acceptable for some large enterprise customer, it certainly does not help SMB customers. (Even further, I argue against this approach for all types of customers including enterprise ones, but let us start first by focusing on the SMBs.)

To ask an SMB or start-up to explain in detail how their sales process or customer service operations work is an unrealistic expectation. While some SMBs could have a very well-defined process, the majority will be considering Microsoft Dynamics 365 for exactly this reason: To get a streamlined, pre-defined, and mostly system-automated set of processes for their sales or customer service operation. Approaching such customers and prospects with a blank canvas and asking them to come up with their process would ...