It’s official, I’ve been nominated and accepted by Microsoft as a P-Seller for Project (formerly called Virtual Technology Specialist)! I’m extremely excited to be considered among the elite in the Microsoft Partner Community, and I look forward to learning more about the program and helping businesses find value using Microsoft Project.
One of the first questions I had during this process was “What is a P-Seller?”
I’ve located this text, which explains the program:
"The Microsoft P-Seller (VTS-P) is a select group chosen from the elite in Microsoft’s partner community, whose focus is to augment Microsoft’s internal Technology Specialist team. Their primary role is to communicate the value of Microsoft Solutions to customers and to provide architectural guidance for Enterprise Integration solutions. The Microsoft P-Seller program was designed to create a deeper relationship with Microsoft Partners, the Product Teams at Microsoft Corporate, and Regional Microsoft Offices, in order to provide highly skilled solution specialists to Microsoft customers. It is designed to enable a high performance team of partner-based resources to deliver pre-sale activities and resources to empower customers and help them meet their solution and integration needs."
Here are the 3 key points to keep in mind about the P-Seller role:
Figure 1 : overview of the P-Seller role |
1 - Contributes to MS sales and pre-sales technical support capacity:
The Partner Seller (P-Seller) is a Microsoft Partner resource acting as an extension of the Microsoft sales team in the capacity of sales and pre-sales technical support. The appropriate P-Seller has the ability to position, demonstrate, design and implement Microsoft solutions.
2 - Provides subject matter expertise for key technology areas:
Designed to help Microsoft scale out its sales and technical pre-sales efforts by enabling Microsoft partner resources to help drive and accelerate pipeline velocity and customer deployment.
3 - P-Seller resources are deeply integrated into Microsoft’s sales team:
P-Sellers engage wth AM/OM/SSPs on Sales Opportunities providing SSP and TSP deliverables which include -Sales & positioning presentations, Technology & Strategy briefings, product demos and technical follow up. P-Sellers are provided access to the same demo content and presentations as Microsoft SSP's and TSP's.
I now get access to information on the Microsoft corporate network such as knowledge bases, technical articles, training materials, and other resources. I also get guest access to Microsoft facilities, and priority for participating in Microsoft marketing events.
This is a really great opportunity, I'm proud to be a part of this elite community, and I look forward to all that comes from it.