Unlock the Power of Automation and Streamline Private Offer Creation in AWS Marketplace within Salesforce
Overview
SaaS selling in AWS marketplace presents sellers with two options:- Public Offers with standard offer terms and public visibility
- Private Offers with negotiated pricing and terms, exclusively for a customer, or authorize a channel partner (Channel Partner Private Offer) to extend
Friction in the Funnel:
Challenges of Manual Private Offer Creation
While simple on the outside, this process is complex, operationally taxing and can create a poor customer experience. Listing a few anticipated challenges:- Persistent follow up needed/ siloed communication between teams leading to delays Once the sellers pass the baton to the marketplace/ operations team, a likelihood of delays due to siloed communication, multiple requests and subsequent follow ups, comes along. The sales team often reports the need to constantly follow up with the marketplace/ operations team to ensure that the private offer has been created and get the listing link to extend to the customer. This consistent follow-up can be frustrating and chokes the bandwidth of sellers from closing more deals.
However, at times, the request to create private offers is also missed due to silos in working.
In fact, research shows that 63% of employees claim to have missed a piece of information because it went into a siloed communication source, like a colleague’s inbox.
Whatever the case might be, sellers often find the follow up process cumbersome and frustrating and a roadblock in future deal closures.
- Steep learning curve for different platforms knowledge Creating private offers manually requires knowledge of Salesforce and AWS marketplace for sales and operations teams. The learning curve is often steep, considered unnecessary and, thus, a frustrating process. Sellers and the marketplace/ operations team consider it a waste of time, steering away from their core role, preventing them from excelling in their respective fields.
- Manual data entry can be time consuming and prone to errors As the traditional process of creating private offers in the AWS marketplace involves manual data entry from CRM to the cloud marketplace, chances of inaccuracies in uploading details are quite high. To substantiate, studies show that 83% of workers spend 1-3 hours a day fixing errors that relatively occur due to manual data entry. While vulnerability to errors is one side of the story, for the marketplace/ operations team, the process is also extremely time consuming. Statistically speaking, 76% of respondents in a survey claim that they dedicate 1-3 hours per day to the task of transferring data from one location to another. Invariably, the seller journey faces a severe speed slump here.
- Multiple steps can lead to missed opportunities/ revenue delays In a normal sales cycle, once the final negotiations are complete, the paperwork and revenue realization are quite quick. However, in the case of private offers for AWS marketplace, there are several steps after negotiations (as mentioned above). Creating SaaS contracts, services, etc. is often complex and time consuming. This multiplicity of steps leads to delayed revenue realization and comes with the risk of losing customers as missed opportunities. Data reveals that each sales cycle day accounts for 0.64% of annual revenues. This suggests that if enterprises can reduce even one day in their sales cycle, they have the scope of increasing their total revenue by 0.64%. Therefore, a manual private offer creation process can lead to revenue delays, directly impacting the company’s top line.Overall, these challenges contribute towards discouraging sellers from creating private offers for enterprise customers which can unlock multi-million-dollar deals for ISVs.
From Manual Mayhem to Automated Magic:
Streamline Private Offers in AWS Marketplace
Understanding the challenges faced by ISVs in creating private offers for AWS marketplace manually, automation came to the rescue. With SaaSify’s Salesforce Application, ISV sellers can easily automate the creation of private offers for AWS marketplace without leaving Salesforce or relying upon other teams, all while working in a familiar interface. Here’s how the private offer creation journey changes with automation:
If you look closely, it is evident that not only the number of steps get reduced with automation, but the overall process is also significantly faster. Sellers can achieve everything needed without leaving Salesforce’s system of record, which is a familiar interface for them. The elimination of the need to switch between different platforms, as well as the unnecessary follow ups with other teams, makes the entire process of private offer creation efficient and optimized. Not only limited to private offers for direct customers, but sellers can also leverage automation via Salesforce for resale authorizations and facilitate AWS Marketplace Channel Partner Private Offers (CPPO).Here’s a quick comparison of when you use automate via Salesforce for private offer creation vs when you don’t:
Private offer creation: Automation for direct customers and CPPO:
Business benefits for ISVs
Let’s quickly look at some of the top business benefits that come along if you automate private offer creation for direct customers and channel partners (CPPO) using the SaaSify Salesforce Application:- Resource optimization: Private offer creation automation for AWS marketplace enables ISV sellers to optimize their time and spend it on higher deal closure than toggling between different platforms or coordinating with marketplace/ operations teams.
- Accelerated revenue realization: Creating private offers from within Salesforce significantly reduces the time/ days spent between final negotiation and primary payout, leading to faster revenue realization which equates to overall more revenue.
- High customer delight: Quick turnaround due to reduced processes, stakeholder involvement and use of a single system of record (Salesforce), leads to a high level of customer satisfaction, impacting retention and potential upselling opportunities.
