Referrals: Referral FAQ

Q: What about partners with existing customer relationships?

A: During the referral match process, Microsoft reviews if there are any partners who have CPOR claims on a customer. If the claiming partner is endorsed, they will be matched with the existing customer. If that partner is not endorsed (even if the claim is for the same workload) the customer will be matched with a new partner who is endorsed for the requested workloads.  

Q: Our company has received a lot of referrals and we do not have capacity to deliver in a timely manner. What can we do since we must accept referrals to maintain program membership?  

A: It is understood that partners may have periods of high activity and be unable to adequately deliver on partner referrals. Delivering an exceptional customer experience is vital for success. A 30-day period to “turn off” all referrals (both Standard and Benefit) is allowed. After that time, a partner must resume receiving referrals or depart the program. The switch is available via the Community Portal membership for the Program Admin.

Q: What if I am not endorsed for all workloads on a Referral?

A: The FastTrack Partner Community Program is introducing “split assignments” this year. By ensuring customers are matched with partners who have workload expertise, we can increase customer satisfaction and successful delivery. If necessary, a referral can be split between 2 or 3 partners with the FTC as a fourth option (rare cases). Communication will include all parties and the customer to ensure a smooth experience.

Q: How do we ensure that the partners with the most endorsements are not receiving all of the referrals?  

A: The Referral Matching Engine leverages the same “round robin” logic that is been in place for several years. The tool looks for partners who have received the least number of referrals based on the criteria and assigns to that partner. This ensures equity among the partner community.  

Q: Endorsements are populated based on specializations, but those are attributed to the global Partner One entity. There will be some instances where the FRP in the specific subsidiary cannot support the workloads. Can endorsements be manually overridden/removed in this scenario? 

A: Unfortunately, we cannot manually override specializations for a location at this time. If a location is assigned that cannot support a particular workload, we will need to reassign the customer to another partner.  

Q: If my specialization expires, will I lose the FPC Workload Endorsement as well?  

A: Yes.

Q: Are partners paid incentives on customers referrals?

A: FPC customer referrals are not tied to Cloud Partner Program incentives or any other payment program. Referrals are an opportunity for partners to engage with a new customer, support them in the deployment journey and identify opportunities to sell additional services. We believe that the value of the referral or the lead is high enough that partners shouldn't need to be paid to reach out to a customer, go through the consultative selling process and if necessary, and help the customer with the enablement of the benefit to turn on their services. 

Some referrals may qualify for CPOR incentives, and it is the responsibility of the partner to find those and submit them to the CPOR system. There may be other kinds of investments or programs that provide dollars to partners for specific outcomes with customers in Modern Work or M365 workloads. We encourage partners to take advantage of these opportunities. 

Q: Is the referred customer eligible for QTM offers?  

A: We will only check for FastTrack eligibility. Partners will be responsible for checking the referred customer's eligibility for other Microsoft programs, including QTM offers.

Q: The customer thinks that everything we will deliver beyond the FastTrack benefit will be free. How do we address this?  

A: It is important to set expectations with the customer when the partner first engages. We recommend starting the conversation by outlining what the FastTrack Benefit covers. Partners don't “touch keyboards" but can help customers use the In-product Experience to get their organization onboarded. Anything beyond this work will be a "for-fee service" partners would provide under a Statement of Work (SOW).  

To support this effort, we have revised and simplified the FastTrack service description, making it very clear that the FastTrack benefit is focused on service enablement. We've removed a lot of the language around consultative elements and turned the focus on the Advanced Deployment Guides. If a customer is confused, the partner can point to the description of service enablement in the benefit description.  

It is recommended to tailor the sales process to each customer scenario. Understand what challenges and needs the customer has and then develop a customized proposal of work including free and fee services.  

Q: For Referral matching, which items take priority, for example, we would expect existing CPOR claims to be the most important criteria for assigning a referral, followed by endorsement? 

A: All referral attributes are looked at equally.

Q: Does any of this process impact the Co-sell Lead sharing currently happening between partner & MS (and vice versa) in Partner Center currently? 

A: No, currently, FastTrack Partner Community referrals are completely separate and can be found in the FCU section under the Referrals tab. In the long term we may look to integrate these processes.  

Q: Can the Partner Assignment Email be used to submit CPOR POE?  

A: The Partner Assignment email may be included but will not be accepted on its own without customer acknowledgment. Please consult the CPOR Modern Work documentation for up-to-date incentive requirements.    

Q: We are not receiving the referral emails, is there any reason?  

A: If a partner is not receiving referral emails, they need to work with their FastTrack Partner Manager to verify the referral email address in our system for their company is correct.  If a partner continues to have issues, contact https://aka.ms/PXPartnerSupport so we can look into a specific case.  

Q: As we are a Global partner, how is the acceptance rate of 80% to be accepted be measured? At Global Level, Regional level or at Country (MPNID) Level? Over what period of time?

A: We will measure this at the Country (MPNID) level receiving the referrals on a quarterly basis.  

Q: As the new CPOR High Water Mark will start at 300 licenses, how are we going to be rewarded for those were we are expected to deliver the Benefit for free, between the 150 and 300 licenses? 

A: The FastTrack Benefit is not an incentivized activity. The FastTrack Service Description covers customers from 150 licenses and up. The CPOR “floor” for incentives has been raised to 300 licenses. This means that a partner won't get paid for any activations below 300. They will be paid for all licenses (license one all the way to the top) but payment does not begin until the 300 mark is exceeded.  

FastTrack and OSU are completely unrelated when it comes to activities and actions. FastTrack is a great opportunity for partners to get customers that may be eligible for OSU incentives.