Alinea Partners

Diversity is an asset.

We’d know, because Alinea Partners is diverse at its very core.

When I founded the company almost 16 years ago, I wanted to delight our customers by tailoring our services specifically to their needs. If Alinea Partners was to fit my vision of success, I’d have to find and work with unique, talented people with many different backgrounds and experiences.

I’ve found them.

Since then, diversity and inclusion are the backbone of our community.

We are from all over the world.

Austria. Germany. Hong Kong. Hungary. Italy. The Netherlands. Russia. The USA. And many more. We offer our core services in +20 languages.

We have many different skillsets and backgrounds.

Sales. Technical. Channel development. Marketing. Languages.

And we work with many different clients and their channel partners.

To mention a few: Cisco. Ingram Micro. Microsoft. Motorola Solutions . O2 (Telefónica UK). Wirehive. And perhaps, you.

We’ve created an atmosphere where we bring out individual strengths to push for results that support our clients with greater impact. We've done that together. And we couldn't have done it if not for our differences.

Diversity is in our DNA. Is it in yours?

How to master your customer service game?

Not too long ago, I met Mark Copeman, creator and writer of Helpdesk Habits. Without having met before, we immediately spoke the same customer experience language. At our in-person meeting in Vienna, I convinced him to order his first ever schnitzel and he in turn convinced me to create a light version of Alinea Partners’ Customer Experience Assessment program with him.

We didn’t regret either decision.

The program we’re rolling out assures that your customers are absolutely delighted with your Onboarding and Customer Service experience and is based on our global scientific methodology. Customer service can be exceptional for clients and service reps or very frustrating. Make sure you do a proper job delivering the best experience for your clients.

The key to that is: don’t stress your reps or clients by compensating for a process that doesn’t work. Get your customer service right and stay on top of your game.

Find our program here: https://buff.ly/301NTIt

And find details on our full Customer Experience Assessment here: https://buff.ly/301NTYZ

Let’s do this together ! And on to the next schnitzel.

You get what you give.��

Many years ago, as I hadn’t yet acquired the experience in my professional and personal life that I have today, I had a chance and I took it. At this time, I managed all emerging marketing markets for a big multinational, which included Europe, the Middle East and Africa.��

I was in a great place in my career. I felt at home at the company and loved working with my clients. I was not at all thinking about leaving my job.��
Little did I know that in just six months, I wouldn’t be working there anymore.

��A woman who worked for me, told me her husband, who worked for another big organization, was looking to hire someone with marketing experience. She asked me if I could tell him what skills he should be looking for in the candidates. After we talked, he said: “This is great, but the reality is that there's only one person who should be doing this job. And that's you.”��
And I... said no.

��I had a great thing going on in my current position. But as he kept persuading me over the next few months, I couldn’t help but laugh and join the company. This was just one of many opportunities that opened more doors for me in the future.��

So take chances. Take risks. Try your luck. You might be investing in your future!��

"I had nothing to lose and everything to gain."
Hear the story of Julia, an entrepreneur and owner of the jewelry store Lea y Paola.

Almost 3,5 years ago, my mom and I founded a contemporary jewelry shop called y Paola. At the time, my mother crafted the jewelry and I, while still in university, set up an online shop to sell the pieces: https://buff.ly/3pvPII0.

I also shared our jewelry on Instagram: https://buff.ly/37Z9KVH. Before I knew it, our followers were skyrocketing. Lea y Paola grew like crazy and within 2 years, I decided to give up my job and work full-time for our own company.

And now we’re here.

I’ve been working only for Lea y Paola for 1,5 years now and I love being my own boss. My mother creates the designs, we work with independent suppliers from Europe who produce our jewelry by hand, and I’m responsible for the operative part and communications with our customers.

One of our long lasting customers is Hobson, who ordered a few of our pieces for the holidays. I always try and give our buyers the best possible. So, when the occasion occurred to delight her, I seized the opportunity and offered one of our items to her as a holiday gift.

Like Leahanne, I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year!

Does improving customer journeys make you a Super Star?��
Perhaps not, but it sure was the funnest introduction I had to an event in a long time!��
Back in May, I participated in the Tech Data Practice Builder Live Event of Tech Data. Along with 7 other business experts, Alinea Partners advised viewers on how to prepare themselves and their businesses for now and the growth waves once the crisis has passed.��
In my presentation, I focused on the benefits of a great customer experience. How can you improve your customer acquisition, even in a digital and remote sales environment? If that’s what you’re wondering, I’m happy to say you can watch a recording of the event at the link below.��
I had a great time participating and recommend watching all other speakers at the event. In times like these, sharing knowledge is more valuable than ever! Therefore, I also gave out a checklist for companies that want to know what best practice looks like in customer experience. Let me know when you’re interested.��
Tune in @2:01:40 to see and hear me talk like a Super Star according to Fiona Challis who managed this great live event: https://buff.ly/3iDGUwS.���

An inside look at today’s Azure Acceleration video shooting🎞

Such an amazing team to work with!

We can’t wait to share the contents with you!🎉

A sneak peek of the Azure Acceleration video shooting from today👀

We show you just how easy it is to talk about Azure without getting too technical😅

We will have some amazing content for you coming soon📲

Put your money where your mouth is!
 
Something I learned mid-career as a Marketing & Channel Development Manager, is that very often, budgets can grow with some creative thinking and alignment.
 
Even though I and my colleagues thought we were spending our budgets as effectively as possible, we either weren’t reaching goals or weren’t reaching them fast enough. We then started to expand our thinking in how to optimize our budgets.
 
Here's just one example.
 
A company with different technology partners, usually has access to different budgets. Those will be spent in a silo, trying to achieve certain goals. These budgets come in different forms: coop, incentives, rebates and more.
 
When we aligned all of our budgets together in a single pool, against one single plan, it became much easier to make calculated decisions based on:
 
- Must do’s (prioritized for funding)
- Nice to do’s (should be funded if possible)
- Don’t do’s, as these things will probably not move the needle on your goals (shouldn’t be funded)
 
From my experience, the success rate is much higher when looking at your total access to funding. What is your experience?
 

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it yourself.

Not too long ago, I was asked to describe my company structure to a layperson. It got me thinking about the time an acquaintance of mine made me laugh with a similar question:

“Now explain your organization to me again, because I always think it’s just you, your computer and your cat, doing these programs all over the world.”

Although I don’t have a cat, he did have a point.

Alinea Partners daily assesses and transforms channel partners in IT and telecommunications. We back all of our work with years of continued research in order to validate our programs. Moreover, we bring exclusive multidimensional views of many markets, especially the Microsoft market.

We do this by capturing the voices, stories and experiences of first and foremost potential buyers. Why would they choose to buy from you? Or why would they choose not to?

Of course, I don’t do this all by myself (and my non-existing cat). I have a great team of entrepreneurs who work with me based on clients’ needs and their skillsets. This way, we’re able to offer you the right fit for the right project.

That's us in a nutshell. How would you describe your company to someone new to the industry?

Are you making the difference?

The difference between mediocre and ‘fine’ service, and the kind of service that makes your customers want to come back time after time (after time)?

It’s easy to say yes without thinking twice. But if you really think about it, and as you may have experienced more than once yourself, great customer service can be hard to come by.

That’s one of the very reasons I founded Alinea Partners 15 years ago. I wanted to be the change I was looking for. And so, we do things differently. We think differently. And we distinguish ourselves by taking care of our customers in different ways.

A new train of thought, you’d say.

As many, we insist on high quality in everything we do. Delighting our customers on a daily basis by going the extra mile is no exception for us. No, we will not bait and switch you to more junior people. No, we will not invoice before we start delivering. Yes, we’ll do that extra call with your customer and yes, we’ll have that extra meeting with your stakeholder. Because we want to make sure that they understand the value they are getting and making changes as a result.

Not accepting anything but great quality is what differentiates us. What is your differentiator?

Don’t underestimate the science behind in-the-moment buying.

Do I buy?

Or do I leave?

That split second, that blank space between buying and leaving, that’s what it’s all about. With our Sales Experience Assessment program, Alinea Partnershelps companies understand why their customers might say ‘no’ instead of ‘yes’ in the moment that matters.

I’m particularly of this program, because gives companies the information needed to increase revenue significantly. And, we’re the only organisation in the B2B space that currently does full sales process secret shopping (700+ globally) to get a better understanding of buying journeys. It’s an outside-in, status quo look at the most important minute of buying. You don’t get that from promotor scores or customer sat surveys.

Every single day excites me by doing all these amazing Sales Experience Assessments. I love helping our customers find their strengths, competitive differences, fix weaknesses and improve their customers’ buying and onboarding experiences.

What gets you excited about your job?