The US Partner Learning Blog

We’re excited to launch a promotion that’s taking it back to the basics: the Business Readiness Home Media Sweepstakes. Here are the details…

Register and attend our featured Business Readiness courses below for a chance to win one of these great home media prizes – the more you participate, the more you’re entered:

The Business Readiness Home Media Sweepstakes includes a ton of course to help you drive success in your business, including:

World Class Selling

World Class Selling requires the synthesis of the Art and Science of Selling and ultimately earns trusted advisor status with your customers. Receive one entry for attending each of the following World Class Selling Partnercasts:

· Partnercast: Art of Selling in Turbulent Times

· Partnercast: Compelling Communications at the C-Level in Turbulent Times

Enjoy!

The Partner Training Team

Official Rules

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. The sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 US states (includes D. of C.) 18+ who are employees of companies actively enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Network. Game ends on February 19, 2010. For full rules, please click here.

Here’s just a quick note to let you know that today we’re adding two more courses to our DevDrive training sweepstakes for developers. That means more great training opportunities (these two contain fresh content on the latest improvements to MSDN and Visual Studio 2010) and more chances to win one of our ‘high performance driving’ prizes. You can check out our original DevDrive Sweepstakes blog post for additional eligible training and offer details.

· Partnercast: The New MSDN: Overview & Partner/Customer Value Prop

· The New MSDN: Overview of Customer and Partner Value

Remember, the more approved courses you take, the closer you are to winning a trip to High-Performance Driving School. See the details and all the other prizes here!

What do you think of the training selections for this promotion? Is it helpful to have a developer-specific training promotion?

Cheers,

The Partner Training Team

Here’s a great incentive to push launch training you’ve been meaning to take up to the top of your to-do’s. Perform one of the following actions below in the Learning Plan Tool and be entered to win a trip for 2 to the 2010 NCAA Final Four tournament in Indianapolis (Fun! Can we come?) or 1 of 7 Coby 22” Widescreen LCD HDTV/DVD Combos. Each action qualifies you for one entry into the sweepstakes, so the more you learn, the more you’re entered:

1. Create a Learning Plan with a Learning Package from one of our launch products.

2. Update a Learning Plan with a Learning Package from one of our launch products.

3. Receive a bonus entry into the drawing for each course you register and attend from your Learning Plan.

Click here for quick access to all of the qualifying launch Learning Packages and the official rules.

Cheers,

The Partner Training Team

An enormous thank you to all of you who submitted Learning Curve newsletter feedback via our survey tool and Twitter! We’re in the process of remodeling the newsletter, and we want to make sure that the changes are helpful to you, and will help you and your business grow. Once we compile everything, we’ll share some pertinent stats with you and also some of our plans for improvement.

::::drum roll please::: Here are the lucky winners of our 3 Lenovo netbooks!

If you are a winner, please get in touch with us via a DM on Twitter and we’ll get your netbook shipped out ASAP.

Remember, if you’d like to submit any more feedback on the Learning Curve, you can do so here, and we’re always listening on Twitter.

Here’s to a great week,

The Partner Training Team

Have you visited the Gear Up site lately? There are some incredible FREE resources out there for anyone in the sales business. Here are some of the tools you can utilize to increase your sales, find the best license scenario for your customers, and more:

1. Gear Up eToolkit: the Microsoft encyclopedia. The eToolkit gives an outline of all our products, licensing, and programs to serve as a handy, high-level resource for you.

2. Gear Up Sales Advisors: Use the Sales Advisors to get to the heart of what you need to know as a sales professional. Single, downloadable pages that tell you why customers should care about certain products, version comparisons, target customer criteria, licensing requirements and upgrade paths, and more. Here are some of our most popular products: Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007, Windows 7, Hyper-V, SharePoint

3.  LicenseWise: Licensing a little confusing? Let LicenseWise help. Create new quotes, reference existing quotes, and find the best licensing scenario for your customer.

There are so many more great resources within Gear Up, so be sure to take some time to explore the site.

What is your favorite resource within Gear Up? Do you have any other sales resources to share?

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

The Partner Training Team

We’ve got 2 new great trainings available to you focusing specifically on Microsoft Office:

Focus your EA Renewals:  Office 21010 Sneak Peek - Have an EA you need to secure? Attend this webcast to hear how Molly McCarthy, a Sr. Product Manager on the Microsoft Office Team, tackles the tough questions around Office 2010. Molly will share her Office 2010 customer pitch, useful insights on how to overcome typical customer objections and competitive threats. Keep Office on your customer’s EA, and let this session help you!

Why Should I buy Office 2007 now? - In this 45 minute presentation, Angie Crowe Sr. Product Manager at Microsoft, addresses the customer question “Why should I buy Office 2007 now?”. The discussion gives examples of: 5 conversation starters to show the value of Office 2007 for the business issues your customers really care about today, 5 most common customer objections to Office 2007 and how to overcome them plus an incredible offer your customer can’t afford to miss!

If you need more details around the Office system, be sure to visit the Office resources on the Microsoft Partner Network site.

Let us know if you have specific questions around Office 2010 in the comments below or on Twitter - @MSLearningCurve.

Enjoy!

The Partner Training Team

Our Unified Communications Learning Advisor is excited about being able to offer you some fresh Voice sales training.  Check out these two new courses, just posted to the Partner Learning Center yesterday.

Microsoft Unified Communications Sales Training Featuring Voice

Learn about the foundations of Microsoft Unified Communications and how to effectively target and sell voice solutions to your customers. This five-module course will give you an overview of the partner opportunities provided by the Microsoft Unified Communications platform, as well as fundamental information about voice and telephony, voice solution benefits, successful selling models and sales strategies.

Selling Microsoft Exchange to Small and Medium Business Customers

Learn to position and sell Microsoft Exchange to your small- and medium-business customers in this 30-minute course. Offer your customers tailored email solutions that best suit their individual needs, whether they’re on premise, online, or a combination of both. Get an overview of both Exchange Online and Exchange Server 2010, followed by guidance on how to target small- and medium-business customers. Take advantage of tools, content and other resources to help you sell Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Online and Microsoft Partner Hosted Messaging.

Your technical co-workers can view the Voice Specialization requirements on the partner portal and find exam prep materials in the Learning Plan Tool.

If you’re still interested in Unified Communications and/or Exchange, remember the Netbook Sweepstakes that we’re running – you could be a lucky winner!

Enjoy,

The Partner Learning Team

Due to the popularity of these events, we’ve added several more to the tour. If you missed them the first time around, be sure and register NOW before the seats fill up.

REGISTER HERE.

New schedule is as follows (all events are from 9a – 5p):

• 11/30 – Marietta, GA
• 11/30 – Edina, MN
• 12/3 – Irvine, CA
• 12/4 – San Francisco, CA
• 12/4 – Washington, DC
• 12/4 – Waltham, MA
• 12/4 – New York, NY

Also, all attendees will receive a voucher towards the Windows 7 Configuring OR Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician exam.

As businesses look to drive growth, they need to increase collaboration, sharing and access to information but must do so while protecting their assets and infrastructure. Help your customers build the secure infrastructure they need to build their businesses – begin or expand your security education with the Business Ready Security Sweepstakes.

Enter now by registering for and attending any of the qualifying courses listed below. You will receive one (1) entry per course you register for and attend to qualify you to win a Dell Adamo laptop.

Business Ready Security Solution Series #1: Secure Endpoint

Business Ready Security Solution Series #2: Identity & Access Management

Business Ready Security Solution Series #3: Secure Messaging

Business Ready Security Solution Series #4: Secure Collaboration

Business Ready Security Solution Series #6: Securing Your Data

To learn more about Forefront Security, check out our Forefront page on the Microsoft Partner Network site.

Enjoy!

The Partner Training Team

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. The sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 US states (includes D. of C.) 18+ who are employees of companies actively enrolled in the Microsoft Partner Network. Game ends on December 11, 2009. For full rules, please click here

Share your story  on Twitter and you could win a Lenovo Netbook. Look for details in your Learning Curve newsletter on Tuesday.

Free Friday is back! Here are some great courses for you to get trained for free, and at the convenience of your schedule.

Featured Training for Microsoft Partners

· Why Windows Server 2008 R2 should be your and your customer's platform of choice

· Windows 7 Volume Licensing Overview

· Windows Azure Platform - Launch Update

· Introduction to Microsoft's Voice Strategy

· Business Ready Security Solution Series 1: Secure Endpoint

Enjoy – and have a great weekend!

The Partner Training Team

Interested in taking your organizations licensing skills to the next level? Here’s an opportunity to help you on your path to passing Licensing Solutions exams:

Here are some courses to help you through selling via licensing:

• Introducing the Enrollment for Application Platform EAP
• Get Ready to Sell the Enrollment for Core Infrastructure (ECI)
• Windows 7 Volume Licensing Overview
• VL Fundamentals - Introduction to Microsoft Licensing
• Overview of Microsoft Open License
• Introduction to Microsoft Volume Licensing Programs I - Why Volume Licensing

If you’re just starting to dip your toes into the licensing process, there’s some great background/getting started information as a resource to you on the Microsoft Partner Network site. If you’re already familiar with the basics, you might consider acquiring the Licensing Solutions competency.

Do you have any specific questions about licensing? If so, leave a comment below or give us a shout on Twitter, and we’ll get you connected to people who can help you out!

Enjoy,

The Partner Training Team

Here are the training and readiness courses that were most popular with Microsoft US partners in October.

1. The Business Value of Windows 7

2. Partner Launch Opportunities: Win 7, WS 2008 R2, & Exchange 2010

3. Introducing Windows 7 Series 1/5-Benefits

Labcasts

1. Windows 7 Partner Technical Training for Small & Medium Business

2. Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Ignite

3. Configuring and Supporting the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack

Web Seminars

1. Windows 7 - Networking

2. Windows 7 Professional in Small and Medium Sized Businesses

3. Volume Licensing Fundamentals-Introduction to Microsoft Licensing

Learning Packages

1. Windows 7 Technical Training

2. Windows 7 Demos

3. Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7: Better Together

Launch Wave

1. Windows 7 - Manageability

2. Windows Server 2008 R2: New Imaging, Deployment and Migration Tools

3. Business Value of selling and implementing Windows 7 and IE 8

Have you taken any of these courses? Reminder: some of them are associated with our promos, so if you attend, you could be entered to win something great!

Enjoy,

The Partner Training Team

Developers – this one’s for you! We’re excited today to launch our DevDrive Sweepstakes.

DevDrive Training Promotion for Developers

For every course you register and attend from our DevDrive developer training list below, you’ll receive an entry into a drawing for one of these great prizes:

· A trip to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, including a 3-night hotel stay, airfare for 2 and a 4-day car rental

· One of 20 Sirius | XM Plus satellite radio packages

Here are the eligible courses:

1. How-To-Guides: Application Compatibility for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2: Known Causes of Incompatibility (18 modules)
2. Application Compatibility: Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Series (5 modules)
3. Everything You Need to Know About Azure as a Developer (18 modules)
4. A First Look at Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 (5 modules)
5. SQL Server 2008 R2 Series (8 modules)
6. Windows 7 New Features for Managed Code Developers (11 modules)

Remember: each module you attend earns 1 entry to the promo, so soak up the learning and the entries as often as you can between now and December 31, 2009. You can read the full rules here.

Enjoy!

The Partner Training Team