13:40 Ryan and Ian kicking it off—Ryan is our Field Marketing Manager for North America; Ian is one of our Audience Marketing Managers. One of them screams so loud into the mike that it shorts out my speaker backstage. :-)
13:42 Ryan welcomes 367 new partner locations to the CPLS program, but also takes a moment to notice all the missing faces from last year. Challenges we face: 75% of It organizations restricting travel; 50% freezing IT capital spending; 40% reducing staff; 57% cutting IT training spend. IDC says ILT spending will be flat for next several years.
13:47 I’m laughing backstage… Ryan and Ian are leading the audience through mental math exercises about growing your share of the market; lots of “ka-chings!,” “boo-yahs!” and sound effects.
13:50 Heart of the session: why focus your marketing and business on career development? More than 65% of students (according to MTM) take training for self-improvement, not because their companies told them to. More than 83% of students say they pay for training themselves or influence it significantly. More than 80% said given the right offering they would take additional training with six months! More than 90% of your students are ready and willing to endorse your training.
13:51 IT Managers say 40% or more of their training budgets went unspent last year.
13:52 “The Individual is your greatest advocate.” Probably the thesis statement of this session.
13:53 What motivates individual customers? Getting a head start; landing a great job; building focus; expanding expertise; being a leader. Ultimately: becoming indispensible, so valuable to their company that there’s no way they’d be laid off.
13:55 Announcing Career Campaign—all about certification. (pin drops.) Not really—all about training and certification. (applause)
13:56 Focus on employed; unemployed; underemployed… acknowledging the partners in the room who have already successfully served all of these audiences.
13:57 Attendees shouting out unemployment rates in their countries (prompted by Ryan). Sounds like an auction… Ryan: don’t forget to focus on the vast employed majority—help them become indispensible so won’t join the ranks of the un- or under-employed.
13:59 What is Career Campaign? will guide customers through the learning track that will enhance their employability, advance career, and boost efficiency. Will include a combination of special offers, career paths, and clear guidance. Will be embedded in other product campaigns throughout Microsoft.
14:04 Ian showing an old Adidas ad from 1974, focused on a product, then a current one focused on outcomes. We’re doing same thing: Second Shot was very product-focused (Ian accepts responsibility, it was his campaign :-)), but Career Campaign is outcome focused—all about becoming indispensible rather than buying a product or service. Pretty cool ad, you’d have to see it to appreciate.
14:05 We will provide guidance in the form of learning plans, “career arcs” and soft skills. Simple, direct one-to-one mapping of learning plans to job roles. Career Arcs are org charts of all possible job roles in IT. Customers can look at arcs and determine which roles are right for them, and which skills are needed. Career Arcs will be targeted at small, medium, and large orgs. We will partner internally and externally to provide “soft skills” content like resume building, interview skills, etc. True focus on helping individuals further their careers. (Personal comment: I love this)
14:07 Preview of Career Ascent tool that shows customers individualized career paths complete with job descriptions, salary info, and lead generation for CPLS
14:09 Win7 Offers by job role: bundled MOC course + free Win7 Ultimate (!) + exam for MCTS: Win7 Configuration and another one for MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7
14:11 Timing for bundled NFR/ILT/exam offers: Q1: SQL Server 2008; Q2: Windows 7 and Windows Sever 2008 R2; Q3: SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio
14:13 We’ll provide you with Career “event-in-a-box” with presentation decks, whitepapers, proof points, testimonials, and hand-outs; role-based flyers; career-based roadmap; and new: individual influencer kits that your students can use to help spread the word and value of the CPLS within their organization.
14:15 18% of CPLSes already have a “soft” career message on their web site, focused mostly on value of investing in skills in a tough economy. You can do more: resume writing assistance, career guidance, counseling, interview coaching, job placement assistance and more.
14:16 Ryan recognizing partners doing great work in this area already: Directions Training, New Horizons Orlando, Netcom, CTU Solutions
14:20 We will also market to hiring managers this year—we’ll make sure they know why they should hire certified, certify their people, and send their people to CPLS. Will also have a “time to upgrade” campaign to encourage them to upgrade their teams’ skillsets.
14:24 Wrapping up presentation—give us feedback! MSL Unplugged coming up next at 15:00
Stay tuned for news and announcements throughout the show!