Bradenton, Fla., July 11, 2011 – Ninety Five 5 client BlueGranite, thanks in part to a creative Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration of the Sales Success System (S3), was named Microsoft's "Exceptional Sales Management Partner of the Year" for 2011. The prestigious award will be presented during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference July 10-14 in Los Angeles.

The Kalamazoo, Michigan-based business intelligence firm gives clients easy access to complex reporting and analysis of their business performance via an intuitive web-based dashboard.

The award recognizes Microsoft partners who demonstrate outstanding sales management practices and promote continuous sales improvement. BlueGranite, a Microsoft business intelligence partner, beat out finalists Quadrasystems.net and Quest Software for the honor.

In announcing the award, Microsoft said:

"BlueGranite has multiple Sales Specialists and competencies, and they are an active participant in (Ninety Five 5's) Sales Success System. At weekly staff meetings, the knowledge, skills, relationships, and resources garnered from these programs are shared. Individuals maintain performance data to track goals vs. results, and teams use this data to forecast results and analyze operations from various aggregate views. Continuous group and individual reviews, along with defining personal, team, and organizational targets have yielded BlueGranite impressive results."

BlueGranite has been a Ninety Five 5 client since September 2010.

"Many of the concepts within Ninety Five 5's Sales Success System, which we simply call S3, have really hit home with us," said Mike Depoian, a BlueGranite partner and vice president of sales.

"For example, as a process, what we've done is taken the components of S3's ‘Opportunity Conversation' and physically built that into our CRM – into our customer relationship management system," he said. "So we've literally got fields in our CRM that align with S3's Opportunity Conversation."

About BlueGranite
Founded in 1996, BlueGranite, Inc. is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner committed to excellence in helping clients achieve strategic, financial and operational management process performance improvements. BlueGranite designs and helps companies deploy Business Intelligence solutions using SQL Server, PerformancePoint and SharePoint Server. Clients consistently rank BlueGranite a top industry partner, citing the company's flexible approach to project management, outstanding results and its deep bench of industry-leading business-technology experts.

About Ninety Five 5
Ninety Five 5, a sales transformation and integration platform, was developed by recognized sales visionaries – Craig Christensen, Randy Illig and Mahan Khalsa – to provide a new approach to sales training development and advancement. By bringing together the best minds in the business, it created a sales system that changes the buyer and seller relationship, taking it beyond the transactional level and making it about mutual benefit.

The Ninety Five 5 Sales Success System (S3) provides a comprehensive four-step program to simplify the sales approach, further develop sales team members and drive sales success by blending live and virtual training events, coaching sessions with seasoned Sales Guides, easy-to-follow playbooks and access to 5 Online, a state-of-the-industry online sales community. The team has written books, coached thousands of the world's top sales leaders, and grown sales organizations into the billions.

For more information, please contact: megan.casey@nf5.com