Jul 5, 2018
I was chatting with another Dynamics 365 partner the other day. He
was talking about his existing customers, and how once deployed,
configured and tweaked etc., he did not do much follow-on work with
them. He was however, spending tremendous effort trying to get new
customers. I thought, "I think you are missing something
here".
Opportunities
It is pretty easy, when focusing on new customer deployments, to
forget about those past customers, who already deployed and are
using business solutions. But, due to the pace of advancement,
there is probably almost as much opportunity for partners with
their existing customer base, as there is with net new customers. I
understand that Microsoft is always driving net new seats, and you
need that to stay relevant with Microsoft... but that is far from
your only avenue for revenue. Granted, it is also not in your best
interest to go convince a customer to spend money of dubious value
just because you want/need it either. But there are quite a few
opportunities for win-win here. Let's unpack this.
If it ain't Broke, don't fix it
There are still a large number of legacy customers utilizing
on-premise deployments. For many, their interest level in a
migration to the cloud has not been very high. Initially it was all
about security FUD, then it was about not seeing enough value to
justify the cost of migration. Today, both of those arguments are
complete bullshit. While you can make a nice piece of change
migrating your on-premise customers to the cloud, their ROI on that
investment will probably be among the highest you can offer them.
On the Cloud, Now what?
Presumably, most of your customers have already made the migration
to, or they started out on, the cloud version of Customer
Engagement. But they could have actually done that about 6-7 years
ago by now. Sure, they would have had to upgrade several times
since then, but that does not mean they are taking advantage of
everything there is to offer. In fact, it is less likely that your
existing customers are up-to-speed, than your brand new ones. Your
existing customers, who signed up a long time ago, stopped paying
attention to what is happening, and are instead focused on their
own business/industry. Remember, while Dynamics 365 may be
incredibly important us, it is not nearly as important to our
customers. It is really your responsibility as their partner to
make them aware of opportunities to further enhance their
businesses with Dynamics 365. You do this by making them aware of
both whole new capabilities, or more efficient new options for
accomplishing things they are already doing. In addition, you need
to be communicating features that they are using, that are being
deprecated.
Feature a Day
I would not be surprised, if un-bundled, there was not a new
Dynamics 365 feature being released for each day of the year.
Fortunately, or maybe not, we get them in waves. The first thing we
all do is to try and absorb them, so we can explain their value to
our new customers. At the same time, we should be identifying those
features that an existing, but maybe quiet, customer could get
value out of. For half of the methods you used two years ago in a
customer's deployment, there is a better way to accomplish that
today. Is it worth the cost to change? That is what needs to be
determined, for each customer, based on how they are using the
product.
No Budget
I hear you, customers do not have any budgets for "enhancements". I
call bullshit again. If you can demonstrate to a customer some
"enhancement" that will increase their efficiency or effectiveness
to a degree that their gain is more than their cost... they'll find
the budget for that. Across your older deployments, if you can't
find 10 things that would meet that threshold... have your customer
call me, because you don't deserve to be their partner.
Greener Grass
Okay, I know I said that Microsoft cares about Net New Seats, and
of course that's true. But there is another metric that this
directly effects, that they care equally about... churn. Churn is
customers who cancel. While net new seats are important, it's
pointless if you lose one for each one you gain. I can't count the
number of Salesforce.com customers who moved over to Dynamics 365
because of some cool features that we have... that in fact...
Salesforce also has. But the customer was unaware. Needless to say,
I didn't mention it. Today, between everything that Microsoft
brings to Business Solutions, from within the product, to across
other connected Microsoft products, I can't think of a single
feature or capability, that Salesforce has, that we don't have an
even better answer for. Do your current customers know that?
Some Examples
Unified Interface, App Designer, PowerApps and Flow... four new
things, that within each hold tons of opportunities to exceed the
threshold I mentioned above. There are many, many more, but these
are no-brainers. I think the number one reason these are not
presented more often to existing customers, is that not enough
partners are even up-to-speed on them. If you are in this business,
you need to be up-to-speed, as hard as that is to do. Otherwise,
again, you don't deserve to be your customers' partner. These are
some good example of things to enhance and extend, and add value to
your customer deployments. But how about whole new things?
New First-Party Apps
When you did that customer deployment a few years ago, were they
thinking about Marketing? At the time, in the first-party arena,
you had little to discuss, but today with Dynamics 365 for
Marketing, there is a whole conversation to be had. What about
Field Service... what about Project Service... My guess is that a
significant number of your older deployed customers are not only,
not using these, but are probably not even aware of them. Whose job
is that? Are you waiting for them to call and ask you?
Third-Party Apps
ISVs are not static. Every day there is a new ISV solution being
launched to solve one of your customers' problems. In addition,
existing ISVs are hard at work, advancing their offerings to be
better, faster and more capable. Your customer has even less of
chance of discovering these, than the first-party apps, that they
probably don't know about either. Unless you are making them aware.
My Suggestion
If you are not already, take about 1/3 of your new client
generation motion, and redirect it towards your existing customers.
In my opinion, there is no possible excuse for any Dynamics 365
customer to ever leave Dynamics 365 for Salesforce.com, or leave
their current partner either... except a complacent partner.