With the end of the financial year for Microsoft, the focus has switched from Windows to Microsoft Teams.

Launched a couple of years ago, as Microsoft’s hub for teamwork and workspace collaboration. Teams can be compared with Slack, Hive or Google Hangouts.

During Microsoft Inspire last month, Microsoft announced that Teams is going to be a big focus for their sales strategy. At the event, they also said that Teams would be getting a few improvements, and it now has more than 13 million daily active users!

How can CSP’s take advantage of the Microsoft Teams opportunity?

I have spoken with two service providers who were approached by Microsoft to help them make a push in their region. For these CSP’s, it has been the right place at the right time, but not everyone is so fortunate.

In this blog, you will get a few simple ideas which will help you to get Microsoft Teams moving in your sales engine. I have chosen to keep this light because I have a few clients who wouldn’t be happy if I gave all the secrets away.

Join Microsoft GTM services

Microsoft has a wealth of content, and even if they haven’t fully fleshed out their content for this financial year, there is plenty of ideas and topics from Microsoft GTM that will help you understand some of the business challenges of Microsoft Teams.

Add teams into your content marketing

Blogging, podcasts, whitepapers and marketing offers are all great places to start your marketing efforts. While I am not going to give away the entire idea of content marketing here (we could write an entire business around content) but a few ideas that come to mind:

Think about the customer journey here, you need to consider all stages of the best customer journey. Below is some simple ideas of how to get your customers thinking about Microsoft Teams:

• Early – At the early stage, you want to write basic articles on the business problems that Microsoft Teams solves. Perhaps you would write an article on: “How to improve workplace customer” or “Digital Collaboration: You’re doing it wrong!”. Notice I didn’t talk about the product here? Your call to action could be a free workplace assessment; so they can find out how teams can empower the modern workforce;
• Mid – During mid-stage you will be talking about the technical side of teams. Perhaps they might be looking into security issues that teams solve, a suggested topic could be: “Microsoft Teams: How to protect your organisation with Teams.” You could even turn this into a WhitePaper which can be gated and used to farm email addresses;
• Late – At the late stage, you should be talking to people who are in the very late stages of purchasing. Think about how you will help convert them across the line. Look at cost reduction calculators, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculators. At this stage, you want to focus on how you can make the reader’s life easier; prove ROI; or how it will impact existing systems.

A few articles you can get inspiration from:

• Enabling collaboration: 3 ways Microsoft Teams is transforming the digital workplace
• Upgrade to Microsoft Teams – Part One: The Business Case
• Why Microsoft Teams Will Soon Be as Common as Outlook
• Why the modern workplace is a goal for everyone – not just IT
• Is parity achievable in MS Teams and Skype for Business?
• 19 Microsoft Teams Tips that will help and save you time
• 5 Must-Know Microsoft Teams Tips and Best Practices

Write one offer to at least four pieces of content

You should avoid getting in your customers face with offers. Think about the Jab-Jab Right Hook! Methodology for content.

No one wants to hear from someone who is shilling one product. Take a soft approach and write in a way that doesn’t try to covert on every piece of content. Otherwise, your readers will start to learn that you’re only trying to get their money, and your advice geared towards financial rewards.

Create an awesome offer

Let’s look into your goals: Are you selling Microsoft Teams? or are you using Microsoft Teams as an entry point to Digital Workplace?

Two easy ideas that come to mind:

Clients who are new to Teams:

• Provide a friction-free assessment;
• or find out how teams can help their business;
• a proof of concept (POC) is also a great start.

Clients who are already using Teams:
Many businesses are already using Teams know about it, but they aren’t using Team to their full capacity

• Give them a free showcase what teams can really do for their business;
• how they can improve teams security and governance;
• or an eBook on training staff to get the most from Teams.

Send an Outreach email

Instead of asking your customer to buy something or give them an offer, send them a link to your article. The best way to engage customers is by delighting them, rather than selling to them  Think about Thought Leadership rather than sales tactics.

Need help understanding more about Thought Leadership rather than email sales?

Contact us today and one of our experts can give you some obligation free advice.