Introducing Natalie McKay: Business Applications Sales Manager at Westcoast Cloud

You’ve probably heard it before:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; show him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The phrase may be a cliché and a little dated (not everyone I work with is a ‘him’, thankfully), but it nevertheless rings true.

My name is Natalie, and I’m the Business Applications Sales Manager at Westcoast Cloud. I’m a specialist in Dynamics 365 and Microsoft’s Power Platform, working with the Microsoft Business Applications team.

My team and I help our partners to make effective use of the solutions that we offer. We make sure that their understanding of the solutions is airtight, and that they’re confident positioning and selling them to their customers. In other words, my team don’t just sell and run, we enable our partners to make their own decisions – we teach them how to fish.

Having worked in Westcoast Cloud for over four years now, I know our partners’ requirements like the back of my hand. I find that they appreciate the fact that I’ve been in their shoes. When I worked in reselling, the thought of having to talk about Dynamics used to make me go white as a sheet. Now that I’ve grown to understand it, I make sure to meet partners on their level, wherever that may be. From my experience, they don’t want to be preached at – they want someone to explain things to them in layman’s terms.

This new role has been hugely exciting for me, and my prior knowledge of Microsoft Business Applications has proved invaluable. I thrive when helping others, and love opening people’s eyes to the opportunities that come with Microsoft technology. We’re all on a constant learning curve, and I think it’s important that we pass on to others what we know. After all, a partner’s success is Westcoast Cloud’s success, and is therefore my success.

It also helps that I love the tech I work with. People say licensing is a dark art, but I’m one of those strange people that really enjoys working on it! My last position as a Dynamics 365 Licensing Specialist taught me so much about providing effective licensing support to partners and their customers. The Microsoft Dynamics community are amazing at telling you everything you need to know – I really have learnt from the best.

The thing is, the Dynamics business is going to keep growing. It’s no surprise really, considering the value it offers. Microsoft are throwing a lot into it, and it shows. The embedded AI, for example, is just mind-blowing, and is completely free – normally AI is an added feature that you have to pay extra for.

Because the array of what Microsoft offers is so huge, however, resellers don’t have the time to play detective and try and find a particular resource. I always tell our partners: let us help you. Spending hours on end scratching your head is not time well spent – you need to be on the phone, speaking to customers and landing those deals.

We can handpick the right solutions for you. We can help you position them for your verticals and answer any questions you have. We can even jump onto your calls and speak to your customers ourselves. With plenty of fishing to be done, don’t let others do it for you. Let us help you become experts and catch the fish yourselves.