The Copilot Playbook

Copilot Playbook: Build the practice. Become Customer Zero. Sell the motion.

A partner-ready operating system for Microsoft Copilot: strategy, economics, delivery mechanics, Customer Zero governance, workshops, demos, and field references. Start with the playbook, prove it in your own tenant, then turn the motion into repeatable customer services.

Ken Lince - Sr. Director Cloud Engineering, TD SYNNEX

ken.lince@tdsynnex.com

Field-Tested Partner Motion

The Copilot practice conversation partners are using with real customers.

You do not build a Copilot practice by reading a white paper. You build it by having one strong customer conversation, proving the motion, and repeating it.

The Give Me an Hour framework gives partners the talk track, demo flow, and commercial path to turn a 60-minute session into managed AI revenue.

“The most beneficial and tangible session we've ever been through. It gave us a clear plan to build and execute an AI practice.”

VP of Sales, Microsoft CSP Partner

These are the four foundation assets. Use them in order when you are turning Copilot from a resale conversation into a repeatable practice motion.

The Business Case

Copilot Practice Playbook

HTML - Executive playbook

Last updated August 26, 2026

What it isThe strategic case for building a Copilot practice: market backdrop, service model, monetization mechanics, and why recurring governance matters.

When to use itRead this first with leadership. Use it to align the team on the practice thesis before you model or package anything.

The Model

Practice Builder Workbook

Excel - 9 tabs

Last updated August 26, 2026

What it isThe financial truth layer for practice economics, scenarios, RACI, sprint templates, and live worklists.

When to use itOpen after the playbook. Put your own numbers in it, then revisit it every quarter and before new offers are scoped.

Delivery Manual

CPB Engagement Ops Guide

HTML - Interactive field guide

Last updated May 17, 2026

What it isThe operating companion for live engagements: activation gates, agent builds, and the failure modes that slow delivery.

When to use itRead once before your first engagement. Return to the phase you are in when delivery gets stuck.

The Ecosystem

Frontier Partner Playbook

HTML - Program guide

Last updated August 26, 2026

What it isThe recognition and demand-generation layer for Frontier Partner positioning, buyer signals, and program direction.

When to use itUse when you are thinking about differentiation and future badging after the practice has proof behind it.

Recommended order: read the playbook, model the business, learn the operating motion, then run Customer Zero in your own tenant so the offer is grounded in work your team has actually done - and then read your customers' usage data to find out which accounts to take it to first.

This is the bridge from strategy to credibility. Use these when the leadership question becomes: what do we do now, in what order, and how do we turn our internal work into sellable offers?

Run It On Yourself First

Customer Zero Starter Kit

HTML - Two-part executive guide

Last updated August 26, 2026

What it isThe step-by-step Customer Zero motion: people, tools, licensing boundaries, governance order, assessment work, user enablement, and service packaging.

When to use itOpen immediately after the playbook. Assign an AI owner, run the work internally, capture proof, and package what you learned.

Partner Session Deck

Customer Zero. One Hour. The MRR Machine Behind It.

PowerPoint - Partner presentation

Last updated June 3, 2026

What it isThe master deck for partner Copilot practice sessions. Pull individual slides for customer conversations or use the full deck in partner rooms.

When to use itUse for QBRs, executive briefings, and partner enablement sessions when the room needs the story in slide form.

Two assets that turn data a customer already owns into a scoped engagement. One reads the Copilot usage report to find which of your accounts is quietly failing and what to sell each segment; the other reads what else is running in the tenant. Neither needs the customer to buy anything first, which makes them the two openers that still work on accounts that have stopped buying.

Find The Work

The Copilot Adoption Audit

HTML - Business case and prompt library

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isThe service line hiding inside a report every Copilot customer already owns and nobody has opened. Seven things the channel believes about adoption and seven our own tenant data contradicted - including what still holds at thirty seats, and what Microsoft switches off below fifty. Then the delivery half: export path, column traps, the ten-minute build, and fourteen copy-paste AI prompts.

When to use itBefore a renewal you cannot defend with evidence, or when you want a first meeting that opens with the customer's own numbers instead of a pitch. Sections 1-6 decide whether it becomes an offer; 7-13 are for whoever delivers it.

Governance Assessment

The Shadow AI Assessment Guide

HTML - Assessment and delivery guide

Last updated August 26, 2026

What it isDiscovering, governing, and monetizing the AI tools already running inside a customer's tenant: Microsoft's discover, block, protect, govern model, the assessment delivery model, the licensing motion, and an enterprise onboarding matrix for the AI apps your customers' staff are already using.

When to use itRun it when the Adoption Audit shows a group living almost entirely in ungrounded web chat. That is a search and permissions problem, not a policy one, and this is the security-led engagement it opens - routinely larger than the Copilot licenses that surfaced it.

Everything built around Copilot Cowork lives together here: learn it, run the customer session, demo it live, model the cost and conversation live with a customer, and set up the Azure billing it depends on.

Power User Guide

Copilot Cowork Guide

HTML - Delegation field manual

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isA field manual for when to use Cowork instead of chat, how to delegate recurring work, and how to explain the difference clearly.

When to use itUse before you demo Cowork or when your own team is ready to move repeatable work onto autopilot. Pair it with the Azure Billing Setup guide below once a deal touches Copilot Studio or AI Foundry consumption.

Facilitation Guide

The 40-Minute Cowork Session

HTML - Beat-by-beat conversation guide

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isThe full 40-minute Cowork conversation, beat by beat: talk tracks, live tools and calculators, the deep Claude Cowork comparison, licensing math, and the six-rung ARR ladder that follows.

When to use itUse it to prep and run the Cowork conversation yourself, or as the leave-behind after a Customer Zero workshop session.

Live Partner Tool

Cowork Cost & Conversation Simulator

HTML - Live calculator, browser-based, offline

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isA guided interview, not a form: one question per screen with the words to say beside every field, then the whole output at once — the number, the licensing call, the billing comparison the talk track. Priced at your rates, not MSRP.

When to use itLive in Stop 5 of the 40-Minute Cowork Session, before a call to model a named account, or monthly to re-forecast against real Cost Management numbers.

Live Demo

Executive Morning Brief Demo

HTML - Cowork blueprint

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isA scheduled Cowork Chief of Staff task that delivers an Outlook-safe, mobile-friendly weekday brief to Teams self-chat and email: decisions, priorities, schedule, inbox, Ready-to-Send drafts, travel radar, promises, people signals, and risk.

When to use itDeploy it on yourself, then demo it to customers as a practical example of recurring executive work handled by Copilot with careful permissions and consumption-aware Light/Full runs.

Partner Enablement Guide

Azure Billing Setup for CSP Partners

HTML - Complete field guide

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isThe exhaustive, screenshot-sourced walkthrough for M365-only partners setting up an Azure billing account for the first time: MCA acceptance, Azure plans, indirect reseller flows, partner-to-partner transfers, budgets, RBAC, common errors, and community tribal knowledge.

When to use itUse the first time a deal needs an Azure plan behind it — especially when Copilot Studio or Azure AI Foundry consumption is part of the pitch.

These are the assets you use once the conversation moves from practice strategy into customer-facing enablement, demos, and fast proof.

Workshop Kit

AI Productivity Workshop Kit

ZIP - Complete workshop materials

Last updated May 15, 2026

What it isPresentation materials, agent creation instructions, grounding guides, instruction blocks, demo scripts, and delivery talking points.

When to use itRun a productivity workshop for partners or customers when you need a practical, hands-on Copilot and agent session.

On-Device AI Demo

Local AI Demo Kit

ZIP - Foundry Local demo

Last updated May 15, 2026

What it isA working local AI demo kit for Copilot+ PCs: no API keys, no internet dependency, and no cloud bill.

When to use itUse when data privacy is the objection and you need to show an AI model running locally on the machine.

These answer the practical questions that show up once users and builders are hands-on.

Field Guide

Copilot Field Guide: Which Copilot, and When

HTML - User orientation guide

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isA clear answer to which Copilot you actually have, where it lives, and which one to open — including the Work IQ toggle and what Copilot can really see in a Teams meeting.

When to use itSend to customers who just licensed Copilot or to admins and champions who need a simple usage model.

Technical Reference

Copilot Agent Knowledge Reference

HTML - Agent Builder reference

Last updated August 27, 2026

What it isHow agent knowledge sources really behave — the documented limits on every source type, what you share when you share an agent, and the silent failures that make a working agent look broken.

When to use itGive it to practitioners before they build. It covers the sharing and oversharing traps that are far cheaper to avoid than to remediate.