Biz Apps Partner Podcast: Kevin Pritchard on Building Trust, Customer-Centric Growth

Welcome to the “Biz Apps Partner Podcast,” a weekly video series designed to decentralize intelligence about how partners can scale their Microsoft practice by having short, to the point discussions with Microsoft leaders in product, engineering, marketing, partner management, programs, and more.

In episode 26, John Siefert welcomes Kevin Pritchard, VP of Product and Growth, Fidesic AP. The two discuss Fidesic AP’s approach to supporting customers, how to form customer-centric relationships founded on trust, and the value of LinkedIn and other social media platforms for maintaining these relationships.

Key Takeaways

• Overview: Although it rebranded to Fidesic about five years ago, the company has been part of the Dynamics community since 2009. Kevin explains that his role involves overseeing the company’s product and growth, which he sees as closely related, focusing on building valuable, customer-centric products and integrating feedback from marketing and sales to continuously improve and impress customers.
• Aligning support with customer needs: At Fidesic, there’s a practice called “everybody does support,” where each team member works with the support team periodically to stay connected with customers. This approach, implemented about five years ago, helps prevent employees from becoming siloed and ensures they remain in touch with the actual needs and concerns of both customers and partners.
• Biz Apps Partner Marketing Workshop panel: Kevin will be participating in the “How to Improve Lead Gen Results with Thought Leadership” panel at the Biz Apps Partner Marketing Workshop, taking place on October 13th. He explains that the panel collaborated with Candyce Edelen, President and CEO, PropelGrowth, which helped panelists see the true value of social media despite initial skepticism. They learned that being genuine and active on LinkedIn can build trust with customers and partners, leading to higher-quality leads. This approach, coupled with thought leadership, transforms engagement, even if it doesn’t dramatically increase the number of leads.
• Relationships built on trust: “Selling the dream” with broad promises doesn’t build trust, as it’s easy to make such claims without concrete actions. Trust is built through tangible results and genuine efforts to improve specific areas like accounts payable, for example.
• Building credibility: In closing, Kevin explains that one of the best ways to show you care about a topic is by asking questions and seeking insights from others, rather than presenting yourself as the expert. This approach, especially on LinkedIn, helps build credibility and trust by demonstrating humility and a willingness to learn from others.

Stream the audio version of this episode here:

---