Posted by Tina Hanson, Partner-to-Partner Lead for the Microsoft U.S. Partner Team.

Tina Hanson (Parkhouse) 2011

When I have the opportunity to meet Microsoft partners at events and briefings, I always ask about their use of Microsoft Pinpoint and whether they will share with me their candid feedback about it. Over the past several months, I have been delighted to hear from partners stories about how Pinpoint has increased their business opportunities with customers and contributed to their company’s success, without having to invest time or money into a standalone marketing campaign.

Here are three real-life stories of Microsoft partners who have recognized incremental revenue and new customer prospects all because they took advantage of Pinpoint.

Success Story #1: Power to the Profile and Customer Reviews – Strategic SaaS

  • About the partner. Strategic SaaS, headquartered in Houston, Texas, provides a broad portfolio of Software-as-a-Service solutions (SaaS) based on Microsoft Online Services, including Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync, Microsoft CRM Online, and Windows Intune. The company is also a Cloud Accelerate Partner.
  • How they maintain and maximize their Pinpoint profile. Don MacNeil, a managing partner of Strategic SaaS, says, “If we just threw something on our profile that described our company in a factual approach, and if we didn’t take those extra steps to add search criteria and customer reviews, we probably wouldn’t get very good results. Pinpoint gives you that instant credibility, if you have the right approach to it. By demonstrating the passion and power of your solutions, you can generate equally powerful leads.”
  • The importance of customer reviews. The company’s team of IT specialists helps customers evaluate, implement, and support the latest SaaS technology. In the words of its customers, Strategic SaaS is “there when you need them,” “very knowledgeable,” “a rare find,” “caring professionals,” and “fantastic.” These sound bites constitute merely a sample of the rave reviews that Strategic SaaS features on its Pinpoint profile.
  • Download and read the full Strategic SaaS Microsoft Pinpoint success story.

Success Story #2: Expand your Pipeline through Pinpoint-Generated Prospects – PEI

  • About the partner. PEI is based in Boulder, Colorado, and is a technology consultancy and services provider specializing in several areas of technology that include virtualization, unified communications, networking, infrastructure, disaster recovery, compliance, and more. They have several silver competencies and are a member of the Small Business Specialist Community. 
  • How Pinpoint has generated new customer prospects. Andrea Leonhardt, marketing associate for PEI, was recently interviewed about how PEI has successfully used Microsoft Pinpoint. “I would highly recommend Microsoft’s Pinpoint tool,” Leonhardt says. “The prospects that we receive through Pinpoint are high quality and 90% of the time they result in business. We have received about 7 customer prospects through Pinpoint in the last couple of months and we have projects under negotiation or closed with almost all of them.”
  • How Pinpoint compares to other marketing tools. “PEI utilizes several lead generation programs and tools, and Pinpoint by far is the best. It is a great tool for us to be able to showcase what we can do as well as have our customers leave feedback about how we are doing.” When thinking about marketing PEI in 2012, Leonhardt elaborated, say­ing, “We have plans at PEI to expand our services profiles on Pinpoint and hope to keep seeing high quality leads coming our way.”
  • The importance of customer reviews. “Our goal right now is to get our customers to voice their opinions about us so others can see what great work we have done for them. Thank you Microsoft for making my job that much easier!”
  • Download and read the full PEI Microsoft Pinpoint success story.

Success Story #3: Pinpoint Leads to Business Conversations – Team Venti  

  • About the partner. Team Venti is based in Austin, Texas, and is a minority-owned software, services, and training organization focused on Microsoft-based technology solutions. Team Venti’s offerings include Microsoft SharePoint consulting services and training, as well as services and training for other Microsoft technologies like .NET, BizTalk Server, Lync, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Online Services, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Systems Center, Visual Studio, and Silverlight.
  • How they use Pinpoint as a marketing tool. Team Venti is currently getting about three customer prospects a month from Pinpoint. As a young company still building their client base, these leads provide the visibility they need to grow. “Our participation in Pinpoint has started a number of conversations,” says Charlie Ramirez, Managing Partner at Team Venti. “Even when the leads don’t necessarily lead directly to sales, which they sometimes do, they can lay the groundwork for conversations on future projects.” He adds, “In addition to customer connections, Pinpoint is also a great resource for finding top companies to partner with. Pinpoint has opened a lot of doors for us.”
  • Winning against the competition. When Oracle bought Sun Microsystems and discontinued support for the Windows Server operating system running on Sun server hardware, it left one of their high-profile global clients in need of a new vendor to support their servers. These servers were a critical component of a hundred million dollar contract the company has with a public sector client. The Oracle representative searched Microsoft Pinpoint as a courtesy for their global client and found Team Venti as a potential support vendor. “The key factors in their attraction to our listing were our proximity to the customer, our targeted focus on Microsoft technologies and having a good profile that clearly demonstrated all of this and included the listing of our packaged services,” says Ramirez.
  • Download and read the full Team Venti Microsoft Pinpoint success story.

If you have a great story about how Pinpoint has helped you connect with customer prospects, I’d love to hear it. Our Success Stories sweepstakes runs through June 25.

Pinpoint Pointers Presentation Series

Whether you are new to Microsoft Pinpoint, or have had a profile up for a couple of years, watch these presentations for information that will help you write a compelling profile that gets noticed and generate demand for your solutions.