Mike Austin (CEO, Metrix Data 360) explains how to persuade customers to move from Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EA) to the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) model. He frames the EA as a long-established, prestigious "luxury" option (Infiniti) that many large organizations have used for 18–20 years, and CSP as the equally capable but lower-cost "Maxima." Using a car analogy (fuel, oil changes, premium parts) he maps EA contract features (qualified user rules, true-ups, annual minimums) to higher ongoing costs and shows CSP benefits (no qualified-user licensing, ability to scale down monthly) to argue for lower total cost of ownership and greater flexibility. Video closes with a CTA to a course and subscription prompts.
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Hi, I'm Mike Austin, CEO of Metrix Data 360 and welcome to the SAM channel. In this video I'm going to explain to you the psychology of helping a customer move from the EA to the csp using an example of cars purchasing a Nissan Maxima CSP versus an Infiniti. The ea, The enterprise agreement was created I think in 2001, maybe 2000. So it's basically been around for 20 years. And so if you look in the marketplace across North America, Microsoft has probably had about 80% market share or 80% of their customers are in an enterprise agreement. And my guess Is upwards of 95% are either currently in or have been in an enterprise agreement, particularly in the space that we really are targeting here, which is sort of 500 and above employee companies. So most customers are in these and they've been in them for a long time. It's not uncommon now to be working with an organization that is on their sixth or seventh EA renewal because they've been at this for 18 to 20 years. And so you're actually asking them to make a mind shift change from this EA program that Microsoft has presented to them over the years as being their most prestigious program. So I'm going to actually use an analogy of cars to sort of put this in perspective. So Microsoft considers an EA to be like buying an Infiniti versus buying a Nissan Maxima. So the Infiniti is made by Nissan, it's just their luxury brand, sort of similar to how Toyota has Lexus and Chrysler has Mercedes or whatnot. But I'm going to use the Nissan Maxima and the Infiniti, the luxury brand of the Maxima, as, as the example. So for the last 18 to 20 years, Microsoft has convinced people to drive around in their luxury brand Infiniti Enterprise Agreement. And it's your job to convince them as to why they want to take a step back in their mind or in a Microsoft rep's mind from that great luxury Infinity to just a plain old Maxima. Right. And so if I continue on that car analogy for a second, what we're really going to try and do is convince a customer of things like this. So if I bought the top end Maxima, I go and get it fully loaded with all the features, everything I can, and I buy sort of the entry level maximum or sorry, Infinity, they might both might be priced at say $50,000. So really what do I have? What have I done? I bought something that is $50,000. That's considered just a brand versus a luxury brand Infinity. So think about If I needed $50,000 of Microsoft licenses, I bought those through the CSP program or hey, the luxury EA program. Right. So what's the difference? Well, there, there are differences and our job is to convince them of the benefits of going with the non luxury brand. You know, so for instance, you might need to use an analogy that, okay, when I go out and buy a maxima, if I go to get gas, I can just buy regular gas. And so if I go to get a tank of gas, maybe it cost me $50, but in that Infiniti over there, I got to pay for premium gas. And so my tank of gas isn't $50, it's $70. And so that would be like looking at something like the fact that in the EA I have a qualified user definition making me pay a premium for all my employees, whereas in the CSP I don't have that qualified employee definition and I don't have to have all my employees inside the CSP buying licenses. So another thing that you might look at is if I was driving the Nissan, if I had to get an oil change, it might cost me $50 for an oil change. But if I'm driving the Infiniti, I got a luxury air filter. I have to use premium oil or synthetic oil or whatever. So Instead of being 50, it's a hundred dollars. Again, what we're going to try and do is compare that to something that is an objection in the CSP to ea. So why can't I? I don't want to do the CSP because I don't get to do my true UPS over here in the Infinity. I have to buy every month. Yeah, but you're paying for more than you need to because you got to get synthetic oil and premium air filters. Right? So it's the same sort of thing. Yes, CSP's monthly, but you're getting a better value. So what we really want to be doing is thinking about it from the perspective of the, you know, Nissan sales rep that's got to compete with next door with the luxury sales rep guy over at the, at the Infiniti. You know, they're going to go over, talk to Infiniti and get all the bells and whistles and why they're so great. And if the Nissan rep wants to sell that maxima, he's going to have to convince them that there's a better TCO or lower cost overall of buying through Nissan. Or in our case, they're talking to their Microsoft rep or their LSP that can sell the EA and can lock you out and they're going to talk about all the bells and whistles of the EA annual true ups and you know, different things that they're going to use and throw at you as objections and your job is to throw back at them the counterpoints within the csp. I don't have to license all my users, yes, but I don't get to true down in an EA, but I can in a CSP. So if I started at 5,000 employees and you know we went down to 4,000 due to the pandemic that's going on right now, open the ea, you're stuck, but in the CSP you can go down. So we want to find the things that we can use to show that there's a better value inside of the CSP program over buying that EA Luxury Infiniti. So what I want to accomplish in this video, and I hope I did, was to show you that what is going to happen is you're going to hear objections from people, but those objections are because they've been convinced that they're driving a luxury brand car in the EA versus just buying that Nissan Maxima. That's the same thing. I get the same thing. Four wheels made by the same company, same engineering at a much better TCO or lower total cost of ownership over my period of ownership. So hopefully that helps get you in the mindset. If you enjoyed this video, check out our course on how to help customers move from EA to CSP in the link below. Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe to our channel so that you get all our upcoming new content and we look forward to seeing you next time.
