After having completed the Partner Elevate SalesPlay On-Ramp Program, we sat down with Tania Armstrong, the Sales Director & Co-Founder from State³ located in New Zealand to hear about how she uncovered a new industry focus and created an evolutionary shift for the business.
State³ is a Microsoft ISV Partner. Our technology management solution was created to help bridge the gap between technical and business users. Our goal to ensure that the technology current state is always up to date to help organisations implement technological change.
I recently completed the Partner Elevate Sales Play On-Ramp™ program for Microsoft partners and thought it would be helpful for partners that might be trying create focus, determine priorities or expand into new industries.
What was the business challenged with?
Before embarking on the Sales Play On-Ramp™ program, State³ struggled with prioritising the right things to work on, and then determining the weight we should be putting towards those tasks. We were looking for a process that created focus, that we could share across the business to give everyone clarity around our priorities, and make sure we were using our talent in the most effective way possible.
Any hesitations about the program?
I knew this program was what our company needed, but I was conscious of the time commitment required to work through the program. Sometimes we just get overloaded with these types of programs and they cease to be helpful.
Tell us about your journey, any surprises?
As soon as I started the program, I firstly realised how effective it was at getting me back to the basics.
I’ve been in Sales & Marketing my whole career, so I tend to jump ahead when working through things. We have been through the process of identifying our target market or finding our niche before, but the program helped us reset our understanding by being a bit more discerning when making decisions about who we want our client base to be. The program encouraged us to ponder these aspects from a different perspective, which created discipline that we didn’t really have before.
Probably most surprising, was working through the course and feeling as though some aspects really didn’t apply. This encouraged us to go back and really think about it. What we found, was that while our software is designed for large and complex clients who need to simplify their businesses, that we also had great potential in the Government & Healthcare divisions. We hadn’t considered this before.
Being challenged to consider our offer from a different perspective caused a real evolutionary shift for our business.
What I also loved was the momentum calls. I’m an extrovert who is quite chatty – and I loved hearing peoples stories and sharing the journey with them. There were other ISVs and MSPs on the calls and it was great to hear the variety of experiences and share our learnings too. It’s always nice to know that others are experiencing the same pain points as you might be – and that it’s just a part of the journey.
What results are you seeing now?
We continued to win our existing customer base throughout the course of the program, and will keep progressing towards dominating that existing market.
The biggest and most direct result is that we now have a narrative that speaks to government and health divisions.
I want a board full of different logos, and we now have a path and process to make that happen across industry.
Your advice to Partners considering the program
To any Microsoft MSP or ISV that feels they need a reset, or are looking to expand into new markets or industries - I encourage you to get involved in this program today so you can open up new opportunities in the way we were able to.
