Welcome to the 80th episode of the Ultimate Guide to Partnering.

For this milestone episode, I was delighted to welcome a former colleague, Natalie Singh, the Enterprise Channel Director for the North East Region, State and Local Government, and Manufacturing in the One Commercial Partner organization at Microsoft. 

Natalie has spent over 20 years in the technology industry, with Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.  She is known as a visionary who has consistently taken an innovative approach to achieve objectives, manage, and motivate people while focusing on customer and partner satisfaction and financial results.  Natalie is recognized as a progressive leader and has received numerous awards and commendations within her tenure at both HP and Microsoft including the Microsoft Circle of Excellence Founders Award in 2015. 

Natalie graduated from Yale University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering.  Natalie also has Business Administration certification from Georgetown University and Advanced Business Certifications from The Wharton School of Business.   She currently resides in Maryland and is actively involved in community service.  

I invited Natalie as a guest to discuss her amazing career journey and to help Microsoft partners better understand how to engage in Co-selling with Microsoft.

In this episode Natalie and I discuss: 

* The role of her team as Enterprise Channel Managers (ECM's) focused on the account teams.* Attributes of some of the best partners in her portfolio.* How she is leading her team and the amazing innovation they are seeing now from Partners. * Her perspective as a Multiracial and Black Woman in technology at Microsoft.* Her Career Journey.

WORK OF HER TEAM AND HOW PARTNERS CAN BE MOST EFFECTIVE

* HER TEAMS FOCUS - Her team leads effective partner field integration between Microsoft sellers and partners. Partner field integration encompasses everything from lead sharing to co-selling events, integrated account planning, and fostering a deep trust-based and lasting relationship between our field sellers and our partners.* HOW THEY ENGAGE - Engagement includes building demand, from planning, sharing sales leads, accelerating partner to partner empowered selling, and delivering marketplace lead commerce for customer transformation. * THE BEST PARTNERSHIPS - A sense of urgency and purpose. This also includes Clarity, Preparation, Focus, and Perspective. In addition, these partners bring a level of enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and are invested in the partnership. * WHEN PARTNERSHIPS FAIL - They try to be all things versus playing to their strengths and not knowing where Microsoft plays a role and executing on it.

HER PERSPECTIVE ON THE BUSINESS DURING THIS TIME  

* PLATINUM LINING - "Despite the fatalities and struggles, there has also been good that has come out of this time. I've seen many acts of kindness where people help people out. We have each been blessed with perspective and a level of peripheral vision."* LEADING WITH EMPATHY - "It's okay to not be okay. It's okay to not have an immediate answer. It opens up to a level of really seeing people and hearing people and a level of empathy for the fact that everyone is going through something."* TRANSFORMATION OPPORTUNITY FROM PARTNERS -  "I see a feeling from our partners that we're all feeling is that sense of we need to do something for our greater good to make sure that we are offering solutions that are propelling us forward and making sure that we are really focused on the needs of our customers, examples include specific COVID offers related to vaccine management or solutions ...