Increasing ISV sales with AWS ACE Program
As mentioned, the AWS ACE Program is a co-selling opportunity for ISVs to:- Grow revenue: By discovering new sales opportunities, driving more revenue, accelerating deals, and winning customers together with AWS, including opportunities to cross-sell, up-sell, and co-sell with AWS.
- Enrich customer relationships: By working together with AWS to better understand customer needs and leverage the expertise of the AWS Sales team to advance customer experience
- Earn financial incentives: By unlocking access to partner benefits and programs with ACE, including discounts for originating new customer opportunities, access to Marketing Development Funds (MDF) and Partner Opportunity Acceleration Funds.
Requirements for the AWS ACE Program
For ISVs to leverage the benefits of the AWS ACE Program, there are certain requirements that you need to comply with. While the program doesn’t require any specific registration, you must have:- Registration as an APN Partner (Standard, Advanced, or Premier-tier)
- AWS-validated opportunities dependent on your tier level (at least 10 validated opportunities for the Standard tier)
- 10 APN Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) reviews
- Active Partner Solutions Finder (PSF) directory listing
- APN Program designation (AWS Competency, AWS Service Delivery, or AWS Managed Solution Provider (MSP) Program)
- Accepted the AWS ACE Program terms and conditions
Benefits of the AWS ACE Program
Once you meet these requirements to be a part of the ACE Program by AWS, you can seamlessly leverage the many benefits that come along with it. Here is a quick snapshot of what awaits you in the AWS ACE Program. You will get:- Opportunity to leverage the ACE platform to manage your leads
- Opportunity to receive leads and referrals from AWS
- Introduction to AWS sales team for every validated opportunity to close your deals faster
- AWS compete team as well as technical support for validated opportunities to serve your customers better
- Dynamic leader sharing URL when featured in blog posts or any other public reference
AWS ACE Program process
Now that you understand how you can be a part of the AWS ACE Program and the benefits that this program entails for your growth as an ISV, let’s quickly understand the process that you will be going through. Essentially, it is a simple 5 step process which starts with identifying opportunities, collaborating with the AWS team and closing them successfully. Here is a detailed account of the same:Step 1: Identify an opportunity
The first step is to identify an opportunity that you wish to close. As you become entrenched in the AWS ACE program, the AWS team will also bring opportunities to you, however, in the beginning, these will be the opportunities you generate. The opportunity could be in the form of a lead of a customer you are engaging with already, an upselling opportunity, or an entirely new customer for the AWS marketplace.Step 2: Submit the opportunity
Once you have the opportunity, you need to submit or register the same in the ACE portal. To add a new opportunity, you have to:- Log in to APN Partner Central
- Click on “Opportunities” from the main navigation menu and select “Add New”
- Fill in the applicable fields including the end-customer information and details about the opportunity being submitted.
- Review all information before submitting the opportunity for AWS validation