By Paul DeGroot [bio]
Posted: Jan. 10, 2005

• Chart: Going to Market in 2005

The following is the full text of an article published by Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm focused exclusively on Microsoft strategy & technology. Each month we make one or more key articles available to non-subscribers.

New Approach Needed

For much of Microsoft’s history, the company’s marketing calendar was determined by major product launches. Between updates of Office, Windows (server and client), important server applications (such as SQL and Exchange), and new developer tools, the company had a ready supply of significant product advances to furnish market momentum.

Many of these products have matured, however, and major updates are stretching out to five years (as with the Windows client and SQL Server), leaving the company with fewer opportunities to blow its horn. In calendar year 2004, for example, none of Microsoft's main product lines had a major release, and in 2005 only a developer tools update and a long-overdue SQL refresh will appear. Other major products will receive only service packs and interim updates that provide less dramatic marketing opportunities.

The GTM Solution

GTMs address the lack of new product releases on which to hang marketing campaigns by identifying a strategic issue facing Microsoft and constructing a framework for addressing it with broad-reach advertising, sales tools for partners and the Microsoft field sales force, and customer and partner incentives.

Although the GTMs may sometimes seem artificial, they nevertheless have the salutary effect of aligning the company’s diverse and often independent product groups with its most important business goals. (For a list of the company’s 2005 GTMs, see the chart "Going to Market in 2005".)

A GTM is how Microsoft addresses a particular "customer pain" in a given year, although in some cases the pain addressed is also Microsoft’s. For example, the Operational Efficiency and Productivity (OE&P) GTM for 2005 is aimed primarily at corporate IT professionals and addresses the high proportion of IT resources (approximately 70%) spent simply maintaining current systems, with the object of giving IT departments more time to implement new systems or business processes. But the campaign also has as one of its major goals the migration of millions of remaining Windows NT 4.0 and Windows Server 2000 servers to Windows Server 2003. Meeting this goal is critical for creating more demand for other server products, such as Exchange 2003, and for competing with Linux.

A GTM can be subdivided into more specific scenarios or related to other GTMs. The OE&P GTM contains two scenarios, Increased Operational Efficiency (IOE), which emphasizes Windows Server 2003 and related management tools, such as Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), and Connected Productivity Infrastructure (CPI), which emphasizes the Office System and SharePoint from an IT perspective.

The CPI scenario complements (and overlaps with) a CPI GTM, which is aimed at less-technical end users than the OE&P GTM. The theory in this case is that the CPI GTM drives demand among business users for greater productivity, while the CPI scenario in the OE&P GTM better equips technical audiences to meet that demand.

Although Microsoft freely discusses its GTMs with analysts and partners, they are not presented to customers in their bare form. Customer marketing uses a more user-friendly tag line such as (in the case of the OE&P GTM) "Do More With Less."

Organizationally, a GTM is typically owned by a particular product group. The OE&P GTM, for example, is managed primarily by the Windows Server team, and sales of Windows Server are its main goal. However, the GTM also incorporates related operations-oriented products, such as SMS and MOM, and productivity-oriented products, such as SharePoint Portal Server.

GTMs also map to the competencies that are part of the Microsoft Partner Program. For example, the OE&P GTM is aimed primarily at partners with the advanced infrastructure competency and secondarily at partners with competencies in information worker solutions, learning solutions (such as training), licensing, OEM hardware, and security solutions.

What’s in a GTM?

The basic components of a GTM include the following:

A broad advertising campaign is aimed at the target audience to raise its awareness of specific IT problems, such as operational complexities that limit an organization’s ability to respond to new opportunities, and Microsoft solutions, such as server consolidation and management tools. This campaign generates sales leads as customers order marketing CDs or visit special Web sites to learn more about the issues. Some advertising campaigns feature partners whose products complement the GTM or who have experience in deploying related solutions. Microsoft also produces marketing collateral, such as brochures, case studies, and direct mail and e-mail campaigns that partners can put their own logos and messages on.

Specific marketing tools are aimed at customers who have expressed interest in learning more about Microsoft solutions. They include assessment tools, such as return-on-investment calculators, operational efficiency assessments, or security worksheets, that help customers quantify the potential gains from a Microsoft solution; seminars, either sponsored by Microsoft or partners (who can use a Microsoft-supplied "seminar in a box"); Webcasts featuring Microsoft and partner experts; case studies that illustrate how companies solved similar problems by using Microsoft solutions; and, for larger partners, Microsoft-subsidized consulting engagements, such as proofs of concept, that outline solutions in detail.

Training, consulting offerings, and evaluation products help interested customers better understand how a proposed solution solves a customer’s specific requirements and the steps required to deploy it. Hands-on labs, either at training sessions or delivered online, let customers explore solutions at their own pace.

Solution Accelerators and Project Guides aid customers who have committed to a Microsoft solution in deploying, configuring, and managing the solution, minimizing the likelihood of a bad experience or an overbudget project for both customers and partners. Partners who sell to enterprise partners can also tap Microsoft Consulting Services to speed deployments.

Promotions and incentives. As part of a GTM Microsoft sometimes offers special incentives to both customers and partners, such as special upgrade opportunities or partner rebates when they sell certain products.

At various stages of the process, customers will also be exposed to additional Microsoft products. A customer who expresses interest in Windows Server 2003, for example, might be encouraged to evaluate SharePoint Portal Server, which builds on the Windows SharePoint Services that come with the Windows server; Exchange 2005 for updating their e-mail capabilities; or SMS and MOM for managing a server infrastructure.

Although GTMs are generally too broad to address specific vertical markets, partners with a vertical focus can still take advantage of many features of a GTM and customize some parts of it for their key customers.

Measuring Success

Microsoft often has specific metrics for a GTM’s success. These metrics help focus partners and the Microsoft sales force on the most important outcomes that the company expects to realize, and can include the following:

• Year-over-year increases in sales (frequently broken down into unit sales and gross revenue) of particular products
• Gains in market share
• Declines in the installed base of old products, such as Windows NT 4.0 or Exchange 5.5
• The number of partners involved in the campaign
• "Attach rates" for related products, such as the proportion of Windows Server 2003 sales that are accompanied by SMS sales.

Partner Involvement

Partners play a critical role in GTMs because Microsoft itself does not have (and does not want to create) the sales resources to engage the millions of potential customers for its products. The company says it is investing US$100 million in advertising for just one GTM—CPI—and that three-quarters of the total budget for that program will be spent on partner-focused activities.

The company estimates that approximately 70% of the revenue involved in partner-led sales to enterprise and midmarket customers will accrue to the partners themselves, in the form of billings for consulting, deployment, migration, and ongoing management, giving partners a significant incentive for involvement.

Microsoft also quantifies the market opportunity for partners, such as its scale and potential revenue, identifying likely market segments (e.g., professional services firms in the United States) and their potential spending on new systems.

Larger Microsoft partners—global ISVs and systems integrator partners, for example—are specifically invited to participate in GTMs that are relevant to their products and services and are featured in some of the Web sites and other marketing material. (However, GTMs with a broad, horizontal focus might not have a specific set of partners.)

Smaller partners get less direct support from Microsoft, but the company makes a significant effort to give them many of the resources they need to be successful in pursuing and engaging their own customers. One example: a new marketing site for partners lets partners design a mail-out postcard or an e-mail marketing campaign that combines a Microsoft-designed sales pitch with the partner’s logo and a custom message for customers. Microsoft will print and mail or e-mail the marketing material (for a fee) to a distribution list uploaded by the partner. Customers can be receiving the partner’s postcards within two weeks, or e-mail within two days.

In return, partners are expected to take any required training, to align their own sales efforts with the focus of the GTM, and to provide feedback to Microsoft on customer wins.

GTM Limits

While Microsoft is putting considerable energy and money into GTMs, they are not a perfect solution.

Connecting a given GTM to a partner’s business requires some study. The titles are vague and easy to confuse, not only within a given year but from year to year—for example, what’s the difference between 2005’s CPI Scenario and its CPI GTM, and how are they different from the Communication and Collaboration GTM of 2004?

Refined annually, GTMs may not provide the continuity that customers and partners need. Ultimately, GTMs are designed to fit Microsoft’s business priorities, and partners who find a GTM useful one year may find its successor program, if there is one, a less-suitable match for their business.

Microsoft also risks "GTM inflation" as various parts of its own organization apply the approach to their own priorities. Some national subsidiaries and regional offices are using the GTM term to refer to local sales initiatives, often in the absence of the tailored marketing or partnerships that mark the global GTMs. As a result, the term could lose meaning.

Nevertheless, the considerable effort that Microsoft puts into designing a GTM and accompanying market research and tools makes this approach difficult for partners to ignore. GTMs are a useful antidote to Microsoft’s product-oriented culture. They get various ducks in a row—Microsoft’s business priorities, the company’s sales force, its product groups, and its partners. Their solution orientation encourages both the company and its partners to think on a broader scale, and they provide explicit guidance for partner involvement in the company’s marketing initiatives.

Resources

The Microsoft Partner Program is described in "New Partner Program Readied" on page 32 of the July 2004 Update.

A partner engagement site, at which partners can get more information about how to get involved in GTMs, is at partners.microsoft.com/pep. Partner registration is required for access to this site.

Microsoft Marketing for Partners, through which Microsoft Certified and MBS partners can create postcards, brochures, and e-mail campaigns that use Microsoft marketing collateral customized with the partner’s logo and message, is at www.mspartnerdirect.com.

Global ISV partner relationships are described in "Global ISV Strategy Focuses Microsoft Resources" on page 26 of the Jan. 2005 Update.

Specific training for partners in technical and marketing issues is described at www.msusapartnerreadiness.com.

Archived Webcasts that describe GTMs in depth can be found at www.msusapartnerreadiness.com/webcast/salesrecordedwebcasts.asp.