How Microsoft Partners Build Trust and Successful Partnerships
Customer brought you an opportunity beyond your team's expertise tomorrow. Who would you trust to deliver it with you, and would they be ready to say yes? And could trying to do everything yourself be limiting your growth? Across the past year's episodes, we heard partners describe how they combined their strengths to accomplish more together. But those relationships require work, honest conversations, clear expectations, and the willingness to recognize when someone else was better suited to the job.
Anthony Carrano:Today, Eddie, and I unpack what those stories taught us and what they could mean for your next partnership. Welcome to IAMCP Profiles in Partnership, the podcast that showcases how Microsoft partners and IAMCP members boost their businesses by collaborating with other members and partners. I'm your cohost, Carrano. And in each episode, we talk with some of the most innovative and successful partners in the Microsoft ecosystem to learn what's working and what others can put into practice. The International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, otherwise known as IAMCP, connects partners locally and globally to help them find new customers, enter new markets, and build better solutions together.
Anthony Carrano:Today, we're stepping back to reflect on the past year of conversations. Joining me are Rudy Rodriguez, principal at Dunamis Marketing, a marketing firm servicing technology companies, and Eddie Bader, former international president of IAMCP. In this first episode of our two part roundtable, we explore the lessons that kept surfacing, how partners earn trust, why specialization makes collaboration essential, and what it takes to turn a promising connection into a dependable business relationship. Let's dive in.
Anthony Carrano:Well, Rudy, Eddie, welcome to the podcast. Really excited about this episode, that we have, today as we're looking to do kind of our annual, review and, expectations and reflections. And so this is fun. Obviously, Rudy, I mean, you and I are on it, all the time. And so as always, it's always good to see you, my friend.
Anthony Carrano:And, Eddie, it's it's always a pleasure. So welcome.
Eddie Bader:Thanks.
Anthony Carrano:So we've got a lot of ground to cover, as we're kinda be diving in, just kinda reflecting on this last year's, you know, worth of episodes and just, you know, things that we've learned, insights, surprises, as well as we'll get into, you know, some some forecasts based upon things that we've listened to and observed, you know, over the last twelve months. But let's jump right in and just thinking about, like, you know, as we reflect on the, you know, this last year's worth of episodes, what surprised each of you most across these episodes?
Eddie Bader:Yeah. I think, couple things for me. Obviously, there is the the episode with Jay McBain and the the idea that this industry is gonna double in the next three to five years, where it took, like, fifty plus years to get to 6,500,000,000,000. And the next three and a half years, it's gonna double. It's it's unprecedented growth, and it's going to put some pressure on the ecosystem and partners to really step up and make sure they can participate in that in that growth.
Eddie Bader:Right? And then, you know, something else that we've gleaned, from that episode and others is, the the way we position AI and how we... And specifically how we sell it. Right? And the idea that we have to focus on selling outcomes.
Eddie Bader:Surprised to me because I thought that's the way we should have been selling all along. And apparently, that's not what we're doing. We... The collective we. Right?
Eddie Bader:The ecosystem. So to to hear that and to see that actually play out was a surprise to me.
Anthony Carrano:That's good. Rudy, how about you?
Rudy Rodriguez:Well, I've I've seen a lot of changes throughout the year. And so so to Eddie's point about selling AI, that really wasn't covered that much at the beginning of the year. People were still reflecting on things that had been taking place over the the previous year. But right about, you know, just as we got into the March time frame, April time frame, AI AI AI became really big talks. And partners...
Rudy Rodriguez:Some partners are struggling with it. When we got to Jay McBain, of course, you know, he shared an awful lot of information as to where the where the channel is going. And now that's that's a prevalent prevalent conversation. And the thing that hits you the most is how some partners are struggling with, trying to achieve their designations. Oh, sorry, their specializations.
Rudy Rodriguez:But but this is a process. It's a process that partners have to go through, get to the designations first, then move on to the specializations. But that's a... That everybody feels that they're feeling the pressure that they're going to have to invest in themselves and their companies to really help them, take advantage of the growth opportunity.
Anthony Carrano:Which lesson kept appearing across, you know, across with these episodes regardless of country, company size, and specialties? What's maybe one lesson that you guys... That really stood out to you was just kinda kept popping up over and over?
Eddie Bader:Yeah. So I don't think it was a new lesson for me. I think it was just a reinforcement of something that I think the... For those who are doing it, they realize that they need to continue doing it and expand it. And that's the, developing partnerships and maintaining partnerships.
Eddie Bader:The consistency and the the consistency of of working on a partnership, and I think maybe this is a key piece. Working on partnerships in the absence of an opportunity is just as important as working on the partnerships when there is an opportunity. Right? Because that space in between opportunities is an... Is a chance for you to develop, build more of a relationship, go find and make your own opportunities together.
Eddie Bader:And so for those who are doing it, I think they get it. For those who aren't doing it, it's time to get started. Right? And then really just figuring out who you work best with. And you don't have to have just one.
Eddie Bader:It's good to have a a few backups because the... From a technology standpoint, from a from a pure technology standpoint, there are a lot of people who you do similar things. But from a sit across the table standpoint, a relationship standpoint, people just gravitate towards different people. Right? The three of us, we have friends.
Eddie Bader:Some of our friends may overlap, but not all of them do. It's just people just gravitate towards different people. So having options in your... Kind of in your quiver, so to speak, is a good thing. Right?
Eddie Bader:And it doesn't mean that you favor one over the other. There's just maybe one partner who's a better fit in this context. So I think that's something that got drilled in over the course of the year.
Rudy Rodriguez:I think there's been a realization by by all the people that we interviewed this year that how important partnering is, you know, which makes me chuckle because I've been preaching it for thirty years plus now. Right? So and that's the value of IAMCP is partnering for success. And I think people are now finally realizing it. But I think the beauty of it is that some people have really embraced it.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I think we saw some very promising stories like the folks we ran into in Seattle, who have a group of eight or nine partners that are working together to try to drum up business for each other, and how they're working on their business relationships to make those successful. So it's really good. It's encouraging. It's encouraging. So some people start out with just one or two partners and try to stay in there because I think the word that kept coming up every time was you got to trust your partners.
Rudy Rodriguez:Okay. And so human relationships just take time to develop. But I think that partners need to do that. And you have to trust the your partner's technical expertise or communication expertise, their overall business expertise. There's a lot to learn there.
Rudy Rodriguez:So it's encouraging to see where this is going.
Anthony Carrano:Mhm. Yeah. I... If I can chime in as well. Like, the thing that really stood out was because of just, you know, just the speed of change, right, and the need for, like, deep expertise in very particular focus areas that you saw, like, a lot of specialization and collaboration were really reinforcing, you know, each other. So to the point about, like, the multi, you know, company, you know, alliances.
Anthony Carrano:Right? Whether it was the Seattle group. I know, you know, his alliance. And even then when Carlo was talking about, you know, the things that they're doing in Germany and, you know, just the the messaging about reinforcing limits, you know, the the limits of trying to cover the entire portfolio yourself, you know, but just the need, you know, for, you know you know, be great at, you know, what your area of focus, and then you're looking at, you know, you know, partnering and collaborating, whether it's with people who have expertise in, you know, in an industry or other type of technologies to cocreate value for folks. So I just...
Anthony Carrano:I mean, that really stood out to me this year. So let me ask you guys this. What conversation really challenged an assumption you previously held? And I'm really curious because both of you have a lot of, you know, deep, you know, experience in the space. So, yeah, love to hear your thoughts on that.
Eddie Bader:Yeah. I'll kinda go back to something that Rudy brought up, which is the Seattle Joint Solutions Group. I think there's a lot of people who feel that maybe partnering is maybe two two organizations, one to one. Right? And they come together and do something.
Eddie Bader:I think that challenge the the notion that you can bring multiple organizations together under an umbrella and if work effectively. Right? And and really develop a system that works for all the the partners involved. And it ties back to a theme that Jay talked about, which is, you know, any given... In the SMB space on average, a client is gonna have, like, 6.3 trusted partners that they work with.
Eddie Bader:Right? As the scale of the business goes up, maybe that goes to eight, maybe 10, you know, depending on the size of of that company. But the the thought around building building out your 6.3 or let's just say six for round numbers, of partners that you can all rely on and can build something with and then go in as a complete group to a client, I think that's very interesting. Right? So the idea and the challenge here is that it's not just necessarily one to one relationships.
Eddie Bader:There's a multiplicity of that. And you see that framework being built within the Microsoft ecosystem in terms of REO and some of the multi party private offers and things like that. So there's an understanding of that, and it'd be really interesting to see, how much more we do of that in in the year to come. Right.
Rudy Rodriguez:Yeah. What's interesting that you mentioned the 6.3 partners or that Jay mentioned those, but it's interesting. There's six designations in the Microsoft ecosystem. Six designations. So it kinda ties around that.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I think as a partner, and I think the the Redmond the Redmond group really figured it out early. Let's look at people who... Whose designations or specializations align each... Around each one of those. And so then when you're talking to a a potential customer, then you can see opportunities along that whole spectrum, not just one, not the one that you specialize in, but along each one of those.
Rudy Rodriguez:And I think there's a, you know, not that I had an assumption, but I think that that's something that I always practice was, who else do I know that I could bring in to an opportunity? Because when you're working on different accounts, if your sales team is well versed enough and they spot multiple opportunities, you don't wanna let those go by. And if you always partnered with somebody who could help you with that, you could do that. And I'm seeing the evolution of the partner channel now really evolving into that. And it's taken a while to get there.
Rudy Rodriguez:But I think that's really a really good a really good shift in in the business models that that partners are following. So they're they're following much more a true partnering approach, not just a referral approach.
Eddie Bader:And then add something to that as well, because you you hit on it, is that sometimes when you're doing one thing, you're only listening for that thing. So having somebody else in the room listening for other things, just like the three of us, if we sat in a room with a client, we had a conversation with them. I'm sure each one of us would walk away with, like, a Venn diagram. There's some stuff that overlap that we all heard, and there's some stuff that only Rudy heard, only Anthony heard, only I heard. Right?
Eddie Bader:And that stuff is valuable, especially in the... In really not just... I'm not focused on, like, selling stuff, but just understanding what the customer is actually saying and what they actually need and what their outcomes... What they're trying to accomplish was just tied to their outcomes. So it's really important.
Eddie Bader:I think I think we're gonna see... I'm hoping we see, like Rudy, I'm hoping we see more development in that area.
Anthony Carrano:So, you know, one of the things that was kind of a re... Reoccurring, you know, aspect to this was around trust. Right? And that's that's been that's been a mainstay for... I know it's not only as long as I've been, you know, doing the podcast, but just part of IAMCP hearing that about how guests repeatedly, like, you know, shared how they connect successful collaboration with transparency, reciprocity, reliable delivery, and just overall honest, you know, conversations about capabilities and and expectations.
Anthony Carrano:And then even just, you know... I mean, I'm just thinking of, you know, just the various individuals where they've even talked about, like, the strongest relationships include a willingness to address problems together, and really, you know, to to protect the customer experience. So it's kind of a lean into my questions, alright, you know, about this is what have you, you know, observed, or something like the earliest reliable signals that a partnership has a trust problem, not merely a performance or a communication problem?
Eddie Bader:You know, that's that's a good one. What I will tell you is that in... For me personally, because I've had experienced this is you hear things that are said in conversations. Right? Not in front of a client, just in front of the people that you're working with.
Eddie Bader:And this can be internally to your own group or amidst a group of partners. And you hear something and they're like, I know we're talking about specific signal... Signals, but, you know, your spider senses start tingling. Right? You know, like, hey.
Eddie Bader:I just heard something that I don't agree with or doesn't align with me. You can't ignore that kind of stuff. And if you if you want to avoid problems in the future, you have to really push that conversation forward and and have it and just realize, hey. Is this the right place for me or not? Because those little things, those little tinges in the back or, you know, those little hairs raised on the back of your neck, they're not for nothing.
Eddie Bader:If if you hear something that just doesn't jive, you need to address it and address it as soon as you can, because those things can... Over time, those things will become bigger. In my opinion, they will become bigger and they'll become problematic.
Anthony Carrano:So don't ignore your spidey senses. Right?
Eddie Bader:That is 100%. Because, you know what? Just... I can't refer to a specific thing, but it's like, hey. You you know it when you see it or you hear it, and it makes you like, hey.
Eddie Bader:That's like step back and like, did I just hear what I I heard? You you can't... Don't don't question your instinct.
Rudy Rodriguez:You know, one of the things that... About trust, there's another word that needs to be tied in there, that's communication. Communication with with your partners, communication with your customers, communication with your internal teams, really trying to understand what somebody said sometimes. So to Eddie's point about your spidey senses, you know, what did they mean by that? Also, if, you know, if you've identified what the business relationship is going to be and who's in charge, who's in charge of the program, you know, you have to designate who the prime or the leader in a project is going to be and understand the rules.
Rudy Rodriguez:I know I used to call them rules of engagement. And whenever I partnered with people, always had rules of engagement. This, you know, this is how we communicate. So you set those boundaries. So you understand.
Rudy Rodriguez:So if if your partner is communicating with a client, and you're not there, does that partner give you that information that they shared with the customer? And then you can ask your questions back of them. So you're always in tune with what's taking place. When those gaps start taking place, somebody has starts having meetings and such without your without your knowledge. Boy, those spidey senses do go up.
Rudy Rodriguez:And and as a partner, have to not... I won't say use the word confront, but you have to address those immediately and say, hey, what happened here? How does that... How does it affect the total solution? How does it affect the partners involved in this?
Rudy Rodriguez:And someone has has to navigate that, and and both partners have to navigate that to make sure that you maintain the communications and the trust levels to make sure there's no misunderstandings because it can lead to a misunderstanding with a with a client and as well as a misunderstanding within partnership partnerships. So it's just careful, thoughtful communications and documentation of all those so people have access to that information.
Eddie Bader:And I think the multiplicity of partners as we've been talking about where it's not just two partners, it's more than two, the issues can be exponential. Right? Because now you have so many people to make sure you include in the loop, and none of them can feel like they're outside of that loop because that will create tension within the partnership. So it it adds it adds, capabilities. It also adds complexity.
Eddie Bader:And, yeah, you just need to understand that and and manage it.
Rudy Rodriguez:I remember the person who taught me a lot about partnering always said, I don't like surprises, so don't make any for me.
Anthony Carrano:Well, let me ask you guys this. What behaviors, and this kind of fits within this, would you say maybe turn a promising connection. Right? You know, as you're evaluating, you know, partners, obviously, you know, you're putting your reputation on the line. You know, customers are facing more complex choices.
Anthony Carrano:Right? And so, you know, just the the idea of, you know, going back to trust. Right? Trusted introductions and and and collaboration are incredibly valuable. What behaviors would you say, like, turn a promising connection into a dependable business relationship when you're evaluating, like, you know, you know, your your partners, whether it's a, you know, p to p or it's a it's a multifaceted approach?
Eddie Bader:I think you have to be aligned. Right? Aligned in the way you the way you view the the customer or client. You have to be aligned in the way you do your work. And I can give you an example.
Eddie Bader:It's not tech related, but I'll give you an example. I'm doing some remodeling on a house. Somebody very close to me, known for ten years, like family, love them to pieces, Recommended a flooring guy. I was gonna go with somebody else originally. He recommended this person.
Eddie Bader:I saw the work that he did in his house. I liked it. I ended up going with them. Complete disaster. Because I made some assumptions about how that person was gonna do their work and they...
Eddie Bader:And it was my fault for not verifying that. But in that partnership, in the partnership between me and the flooring guy to get the outcome that I wanted was a a nice looking place and remodeled. There was a gap because he was looking how to do it the cheapest way, and I was looking how to do it with the most quality done right the first time at the best price I can get. And those two things, even though we ended up with a finished floor, those are two different ways to get there. Right?
Eddie Bader:So being clear about your approach and and really being clear about what you won't accept as as... And it's not just getting the floor done. It's how it gets done and how you want it to look underneath the the hood, so to speak. I think all those things are really important. It just set the expectations and make sure you align top to bottom.
Eddie Bader:And if you don't, make sure that where the discrepancy is, you're okay managing the difference. I think that over time, that candidness with one another, that ability to talk to each other and say, hey. This didn't... We talked about this. This didn't match up.
Eddie Bader:We need to fix it, and we can't let that happen again. You have to be able to have those conversations if you're gonna if that relationship is gonna last and thrive in the future.
Anthony Carrano:So I know, you know, obviously, is... Gives us the foundation. Right? Now as we're talking about, you know, deciding what each partner contributes and, you know, clearly, one of the things that... And just, again, a reoccurring, you know, theme in the podcast as well as part of a...
Anthony Carrano:You know, we you know, we hear echoed, you know, throughout IAMCP is that a good reoccurring strategy is to to know your strongest capability. Right? Communicate it clearly and bring in complementary partners. So let's talk about, like, how specialization makes collaboration essential. When...
Anthony Carrano:What customer need or technology capability should most Microsoft partners, you know, based on your own internal, like, reflections and observations and just observations over these episodes, should, you know, most Microsoft partners stop trying to build or deliver alone, and what's the cost of refusing to specialize?
Rudy Rodriguez:It's a big question.
Anthony Carrano:Lot of words in that question, man.
Rudy Rodriguez:So it was. Yeah. So, you know, the refusal to to specialize, this is something that, you know, for those of us who have been in the channel for a long time, you know, when when I started out, you know, computers were just hitting the market. So you you you could be a jack of all trades just learning because the... There was not that much to go.
Rudy Rodriguez:As the networking phase came in, the software as a service phase came in, the cloud came in, that just added layer upon layer of complexity to the types of solutions that you had to have. And one of the things in eval, you know, you have to evaluate your own business. Where where where do I invest my resources in my team to be able to deliver these types of services? Because the era of specialization is so so great now. What is the areas that you specialize in?
Rudy Rodriguez:Is it cybersecurity? Is it networking? Is it in application development? Is it in in data governance? What is it that you're trying to do?
Rudy Rodriguez:And you can't promise a client that you could do all of those. You may have, you know, if you build a large enough organization, you could build teams around each one of those. And that's what we used to call it. There was a practice or a department within our companies. And...
Rudy Rodriguez:But as... If you're an SMB partner, what are you specializing in? What is your what is your vertical specialization? Because you have to understand not only the technology, but the business workflows that you're trying to address today and the outcomes that you're trying to get to. It's not just about dropping a desktop on somebody's desk.
Rudy Rodriguez:It's it's... We're well beyond that. That was way back in 1983. You know, now we're at the phase where you're doing this much more for them. So what is it that you're...
Rudy Rodriguez:Do you understand the scope of of the of the project that you're working on and the solution that's required and the technical skills and and business skills that are required? And you have to address it along all those lines where you will fail. Eddie, what are your thoughts?
Eddie Bader:Yeah. So I'll give you two analogies, and I promise neither will be about food because I tend to lean towards food. But... So I'll start with this. My cousin used to say a bachelor's degree.
Eddie Bader:You get a bachelor's degree and you know a little bit about a lot of things. You get your master's and you know a lot about a few things. And when you get your doctorate, you know everything about one thing. Right? And you go up that ladder and bachelor's less expensive, master's more expensive, and doctorate's the most expensive.
Eddie Bader:But you also... The the pay is commensurate with the effort to get to those levels. Right? The other thing... And and there's a there's a purpose for for learning all those things.
Eddie Bader:Right? The other analogy is... And I've said this for years now. It's... Is the medical system.
Eddie Bader:They have it down. Like, those... That's a machine. Right? When you go to primary care, primary care evaluates you.
Eddie Bader:If you have a ear, nose, and throat kind of situation, you get referred to the ENT. No questions asked. I can take care of... I know my lane. You're beyond my lane.
Eddie Bader:I send you somewhere else. I'm still in the process. I'm still managing process, but you're gonna go over here. If it's heart, you get cardiologist and so on and so forth. Everybody does their specific thing, and it's all coordinated.
Eddie Bader:And in my head, I kinda go back to that joint solutions group. It's like, you know, who's who's the primary? Who's the primary caregiver? Who's taking in, you know, the initial intake, looking at what they can solve, and then decides who... Which specialist to pull in.
Eddie Bader:There's there's a reason why you specialize because the complexity of what you're trying... What you're working on Now, it was bringing it back to technology. Things are changing more rapidly than they've ever changed before. So keeping up up with it and and breaking new ground in those specific areas requires more effort. So to try and do that in multiple disciplines is very difficult.
Eddie Bader:So specializing is important and then just being the best you can be and just being, okay. Hey. I need this. Oh, that's Anthony. Well, I also need the op.
Eddie Bader:That's Rudy. Right? Is it... You're you're you're part of that list where if somebody thinks of that thing, that specialization, you wanna be the... You know, in the group of three or five that you think of first.
Eddie Bader:Like, oh, that's... I I won't even give it a second thought. I'm gonna refer you to that person. If we could build that trust, if we could build those systems with our own... Our own ecosystem, I think we'd be wildly successful because then everybody could just focus on what they do best and somebody manage, manage it altogether, and everybody could thrive at a level that I don't think we've reached, but is actually possible.
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Anthony Carrano:Let me ask you guys. What from the stories that we've heard, what impressed you most about, you know, some of the alliances and the, you know, the... With these stories that we discussed? And what would be hardest to replicate?
Eddie Bader:There's been a bunch of stories. I kind of, I gravitate to the stories where there is a community impact. Right? And in some of the stories that have been submitted, in partnering stories, right, and award winners where they've actually, brought in locals to help deliver the solution, you know, really cool, stories.
Anthony Carrano:Like Ronelle.
Eddie Bader:Exactly.
Anthony Carrano:The health care transformation.
Eddie Bader:100%.
Anthony Carrano:The youth mentorship piece was pretty awesome.
Eddie Bader:Yeah. That's exactly what I was
Anthony Carrano:Yeah. Sorry.
Eddie Bader:What I was talking about. No. No. No. No.
Eddie Bader:No. It's... I'm glad you named it.
Anthony Carrano:Not trying to steal your thunder, bro.
Eddie Bader:I was not naming it, but, yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. The the effort that went in and the the mindfulness that went in to include people to to find a way to do business and do good at the same time, those are always big winners for me. And, you know, there is a there is a market, you know, like the nonprofit market. A lot of people stay away from that and sometimes stay away from education because they don't think there's any profit in it. And it's not always...
Eddie Bader:I I... One, I do think there is money in it. It's underserved-
Anthony Carrano:Well the episode with Justin totally, you know
Rudy Rodriguez:Absolutely.
Anthony Carrano:From Elevate totally, you know, opened up that conversation.
Eddie Bader:Yeah. But there's not only, there's not only money in it, but there is more than money in it. Right? There is some long term good that you can do. Those are always, you know, those are always my favorite, to be honest.
Anthony Carrano:Rudy, how about you?
Rudy Rodriguez:You know, I I just, I agree with the the example that you're giving. And there... There's there's some others that just just really shine because there was a there there's there was a I'm trying remember, I think it was Michiel Van Vliet who told us this from EMEA. He said, if I try to remember, community value goes through contribution. And so one, if you have, I remember that that comment that he made in that, you know, how they work together, but every partner has to contribute towards a solution, every partner.
Rudy Rodriguez:And so if you adopt that spirit, you know, one of the things that happens in the technology world is you get focused, I got this project, I'm gonna make so much money, I got to move on to this and we get stuck in the numbers game. But one of the things that makes you successful as a business person is taking a look at the big picture and say, what are the issues that I'm trying to solve? Or what are the business issues? And how can I continue to do good? And that's one of the great things about the IAMCP.
Rudy Rodriguez:We always talked about, you know, participation in the community and giving back to the community. So you gotta look at the good. And you you know, when you implement a technology solution, I know partners that can say, hey, we help this business achieve this. That's part of the good that Eddie's talking about. There's social good as well that comes about.
Rudy Rodriguez:But really, how am I... What are we doing to really help this? It's much more than implementing a technology. You're helping a business succeed. You're helping an end of an individual department succeed.
Rudy Rodriguez:And and you're contributing to people's efficiency to to a lot of a lot of growth for organizations and, you know, as well as their profitability. So it continues to build good throughout the community. And so I think that's part of what Michiel meant is community value grows through contribution. What am I contributing towards? How am I helping my community?
Rudy Rodriguez:And so don't just look at it as a project, but look at everything that you do as a community.
Eddie Bader:Mhmm. The mindset of leave it better than you found it goes a long way. You know what I mean?
Anthony Carrano:Mhmm. Mhmm. Well, I think for me, the thing that really stood out, you know, this year... And maybe it's because it was involving, there was, you know, it wasn't just, you know, partner a and partner b, but it was, you know, partners, you know, a, b, c, d, e, and f. Right? We heard a few of these different stories. It was just the level of, you know, intent... Just the amount of intentionality, right, and structure that went into it.
Anthony Carrano:Just, you know, not that it's been, you know you know, haphazard, you know, forever, but it just seemed like there's just a just a great level of intentionality and structure that went into the ones where we got some really successful and and amazing stories. And I I don't know. That was a a thing that really impressed me.
Anthony Carrano:What stood out in today's conversation is that strong partnerships take deliberate effort. Build relationships before you need them, communicate openly, and know when to bring in someone whose expertise complements your own. A big thank you to Rudy Rodriguez and Eddie Beta for helping us reflect on those lessons from the past year. In part two, we'll explore what these changes mean for your business. How do you turn AI capabilities into measurable customer value?
Anthony Carrano:If AI makes delivery faster, how should pricing change? And how can partners turn reoccurring customer problems into repeatable offers? We'll also share the decisions partners should make now to prepare for the year ahead. Until then, consider one action. Reach out to a partner you trust and talk about, you know, what you can accomplish together.
Anthony Carrano:We hope you enjoyed this podcast and find it useful and inspiring. If you did, please subscribe, rate, and review us on your favorite podcast platform. One of the best ways to partner for success is to join IAMCP, a community of Microsoft partners who help each other grow and thrive. IAMCP members can find and communicate and connect with other partners locally, globally, and access exclusive resources and opportunities. So whether you're looking for new customers, new markets, new solutions, IAMCP can help you achieve your goals.
Anthony Carrano:To learn more, visit the website at www.iamcp.org. I'm Anthony Carrano. This has been an IAMCP Profiles in Partnership powered by Dunamis Marketing. Thanks for listening. We'll see you in part two.
