How to Sell Windows 8

On October 26th, 2012, Microsoft released the latest version of it’s flagship Operating System – Windows 8.

It’s fair to say that the release of Windows 8 has been greeted by those of us within the IT Professional community with a mixture of excitement, scepticism and in many cases, uncertainty on how to sell Windows 8.

Moving to Windows 8

In its first three days, Windows 8 sold four million upgrades. Not too shabby.

Microsoft are also offering extremely aggressive upgrade schemes to help move users from earlier versions of Windows to Windows 8. I’m hearing that this has swayed lots of people to give Windows 8 a try.

Microsoft has an Operating System in Windows 8 that has a consistent interface across Desktop, Laptop, Smartphone, Tablet and Television. There’s clearly some wide ranging thinking gone on here.

Finally, the Microsoft Windows 8 Store will soon have over 400 million regular users buying apps in a way that is very, very familiar to them. If you don’t think that will be perceived as an opportunity by canny App writers, you’re missing a trick.

The Age of the Touch-Screen

For myself, I’ve been running Windows 8 for a while now and recently invested in a touch-screen laptop. I’ll post a full blog with my thoughts shortly, but it’s worth mentioning that the addition of a touch-screen totally changed my perspective on Windows 8, as I know it has for many of my peers who have upgraded from non-touch laptops.

Successfully Selling Windows 8

But there’s still uncertainty over how Microsoft Partners will sell Windows 8. What are the benefits to businesses? Why would they want to upgrade?

I’m going to try to answer those questions for Microsoft Partners by presenting the first in a series of three webinars hosted by my friends at Microsoft Authorised Distributor, Avnet. The webinar I’ll be presenting is entitled “Successfully selling Window 8 into the retail, manufacturing and distribution sectors“.

All three of the webinars, including the webinar I’ll be presenting, are free and registration is open to all.

• Register for Successfully selling Window 8 into the retail, manufacturing and distribution sectors – Thursday 22nd November, 2012 – 10:00am GMT.
• Register for Successfully selling Windows 8 into the Public Sector – Thursday 29th November, 2012 – 10:00am GMT.
• Register for Successfully Selling Window 8 into the professional and financial service sectors – Thursday 6th December, 2012 – 16:00 GMT.

Make an informed decision

Windows 8 is the biggest overhaul to the Windows software that has been seen in many years. Just as with the the advent of the Cloud, some Partners are going to eschew Windows 8 as “never working” – despite not fully understanding it.

Those Partners who are smart will take time to understand Windows 8 and make an informed decision accordingly.

I hope you’ll join in one of these three webinars which I think will help you to make that informed decision.

Update – Webinar Recordings Now Available!

My friends at Avnet have let me know that the recordings of the above webinars, and a number of other webinars that have been recorded, are now freely available on-demand on-line. No sign-up required, just head on over and watch!

• Unlocking the Mobile Office tablets and smartphones with Windows 8 Part 1
• Unlocking the Mobile Office tablets and smartphones with Windows 8 Part 2
• Advanced software for todays interconnected world
• Successfully selling Window 8 into the retail manufacturing and distribution sectors
• Successfully selling Windows 8 into the Public Sector

It’s also worth checking out the entire Avnet Microsoft Training Series for some other great free webinars.

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