Consulting firm delights customers and finds growth with Microsoft Teams Essentials

Sales consulting firm faces the challenges of a changing business landscape

Javier Lopez de la Fuente is the owner and president of Every Morning Consulting, a small business and sales consulting firm based in Madrid, Spain. For years, Lopez de la Fuente ran his business as many of us did during pre-pandemic times: hustling and competing in person, taking face-to-face meetings with clients, and traveling widely in search of hard-earned leads. 

Every Morning Consulting’s mission is to help small and midsize business clients learn how to achieve profitable growth, improve operational efficiency, and win in the marketplace. Building on Lopez de la Fuente’s broad experience as a sales coach and mentor, the firm provides services on sales strategy and negotiation techniques, training courses, mentoring on sales and staffing issues, and executive and talent recruitment services.

Finding salvation during difficult times

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, businesses of all types faced unprecedented challenges, necessitating quick adjustments, often with white-knuckle adoptions of new technologies to stay competitive. Presented with this new business landscape, Lopez de la Fuente turned to the free version of Microsoft Teams, and he later adopted Microsoft Teams Essentials for its expanded capabilities.

Purpose-built for small businesses like his, Teams Essentials helped Every Morning Consulting quickly pivot, and according to Lopez de la Fuente, it essentially saved the company. “We struggled during the pandemic because we used to do all of our courses and meetings face-to-face,” he says. “Suddenly, we needed to change our thinking, and we started to use videoconferencing for everything. Microsoft Teams rescued us during COVID-19 because we simply couldn’t provide our services without those tools. Microsoft Teams was our salvation.”

Transforming into a modern company with Microsoft Teams

When Every Morning Consulting started moving its business online, it initially turned to an emerging platform: Zoom. However, Lopez de la Fuente quickly recognized critical security and functionality concerns with the tool, prompting him to try the free version of Teams. “A customer told me about the security problems with Zoom, which was the first reason we looked at Teams,” he says. “Another reason was that managing Zoom wasn’t always simple. When I tried Teams, I realized that it’s easier to use.”

The strong security profile of Teams was an important asset to Lopez de la Fuente, but other advantages soon emerged, such as the professional-grade functionality and strong reputation that Teams had. “We’re a small team, and we need to offer an image to our customers where we’re seen as a very professional, serious, and modern company,” explains Lopez de la Fuente. “Using Teams helped us because most important companies in Spain and even our competitors all use Teams.” Teams not only gave the company a more modern, professional appearance that clients preferred, but quickly becoming adept with it made the firm seem technologically nimble. “Using Teams was a success not only because we got to be closer to our customers, but we also created an image of a company that’s able to adapt to new technologies quickly,” adds Lopez de la Fuente.

Expanding capabilities with Teams Essentials

Teams Essentials made sharing and presenting a wide range of documents simpler and more effective for customers. “Teams is flexible and makes sharing PowerPoint presentations easy,” says Lopez de la Fuente. As the firm’s use of Teams expanded and it realized the benefits of the integrated features, it became apparent that the company needed more capabilities than the free version of the app could provide, so Every Morning Consulting upgraded to Teams Essentials.

Especially critical was the extended meeting time options. “Because we weren’t allowed to go to companies in person during the pandemic, we began moving our sales training courses online using Teams videoconferencing,” says Lopez de la Fuente. “The free version of Teams only did one hour, but we needed four hours for our courses. Teams Essentials made that possible.”

Staying home benefits savvy small businesses

With the portability and agility that Teams Essentials provides, Every Morning Consulting is now closer to its customers and more flexible in its day-to-day day activities. And it’s helping the firm open new avenues of growth for the future.

Prior to COVID-19, travel was an essential but resource-intensive activity for Every Morning Consulting employees. But the firm’s Teams implementation now enables time previously spent traveling to be used as remote customer contact time. “With Teams, we’re now able to connect for meetings with customers anywhere in Spain, Mexico, or anywhere else in the world without leaving home,” says Lopez de la Fuente. Given that Every Morning Consulting team members routinely traveled upward of 600 kilometers for meetings, they’ve been racking up travel-related cost savings previously spent on airfare, hotels, and gas. Lopez de la Fuente estimates that the savings is as much as $1,000 per month—a significant amount for a small business. For Lopez de la Fuente and his team, Teams also creates the opportunity for more customer contacts in a shorter period, meaning faster potential growth for the company.

Every Morning Consulting counts on Teams Essentials to get closer to customers, but another important benefit has emerged: retaining and empowering happy team members, who enjoy a more flexible and effective hybrid workplace. “Teams is a good solution for employees to work wherever and whenever they want, even from home,” says Lopez de la Fuente.

From a dark period to a bright future

“We would have closed for sure if we didn’t have Teams,” says Lopez de la Fuente. “Instead, despite COVID-19, we’ve maintained our revenue and income because we’ve been learning new techniques, teaching online courses for our customers, and adapting our services for them—all with help from Microsoft Teams.”

The opportunities and expectations for videoconferencing on the part of clients have continued even as the crisis has receded, so Teams Essentials remains integral to the company’s toolkit moving forward. Every Morning Consulting is enjoying expanded access to new markets, and this boost in the prospects for the company’s ongoing growth points to a bright future. The company has even begun recommending Teams Essentials to its clients.

Lopez de la Fuente sums it up: “We’re now able to grow faster with Teams Essentials because we’ve opened more possibilities to connect easily with different customers who are far from our immediate markets.”

Find out more about Every Morning Consulting on LinkedIn.