In simple terms, it’s a mutually beneficial collaboration that enables two sales teams of different companies to associate. This process includes shared activities like building demand, sales planning, sharing leads and accelerated partner-to-partner selling. Sounds fascinating, but what is the need for such a collaboration and what exactly are the benefits of this alliance? Let’s dive deeper.Co-selling is an opportunity to join forces with leading cloud providers (such as Microsoft and AWS) and their giant partner ecosystem.
Why do cloud marketplaces co-sell?
B2B SaaS Marketplaces are incentivized to set co-selling in motion if your product can increase the cloud commitment of customers or even run down their committed spending. Co-selling is also beneficial for cloud platforms as it eliminates the potential channel conflict between vendors and partners. It enriches the customer value proposition by compelling direct sellers to collaborate with the partner ecosystem on a wider set of offerings. It is also extremely useful in identifying areas of opportunity to improve technical support.Benefits of co-selling with Cloud Marketplaces
Cloud Marketplaces are not the future, they are the now. More and more enterprises are shifting to SaaS marketplaces to fulfill their software requirements. Co-selling can put your product at the front and center of a channel that is bustling with buyers.- It gives more visibility to your offer.
- It gives the power of more resources, data, and contacts. Access to the cloud resources and marketplace benefits aids in obtaining and managing customer data.
- This in turn allows deals to enlarge and escalate.
- The competition in the marketplace causes deals to be closed even sooner. With the availability of options increasing, customers are able to find and choose one which suits their needs.
- Sales targets are reached rapidly.
- It provides prospective clients with increased confidence and protection. Collaboration with a partner ecosystem brings in customers who already trust the ecosystem.
According to Gina Yong, Director of Global Co-sell program at Microsoft and Joselyne Rivera, Azure manager of Co-sell program at Microsoft,
“The co-sell program opens up partners to an ecosystem of 4M unique visitors each month in Azure Marketplace and is responsible for driving over $15B in partner annual contract value.”
Eligibility
Any offer published through the commercial marketplace is eligible for the co-sell program, provided it is a Transactable offer. List or Trial offers are not eligible for the program. Although each cloud service platform has varying requirements, the most common requirements are:- Listing a Transact offer on the cloud platform.
- A complete business profile.
- Partner sales contact information and required bill of materials.
Key Co-sell Frameworks
Source: Microsoft
To co-sell with Microsoft, there are three channels. Each channel has different levers and tactics your organization can utilize to drive positive customer outcomes.- Direct customer: The direct channel unlocks the sales and marketing benefits of Marketplace Rewards to accelerate your business. Customers can find, try, and buy your solutions via AppSource, Azure Marketplace or the Azure portal. It allows you to reach 4M monthly active users in AppSource and Azure Marketplace in more than 140 global geographies.
- Microsoft partners: This channel allows you to jointly sell and also invite partners for joint selling with a powerful partner ecosystem. This ecosystem provides opportunities for partners across markets, industries, and continents to deepen their relationships with their customers, Microsoft, and each other.
- Microsoft sellers: It is a seller-engagement focused channel where thousands of sellers actively engage with customers of all sizes. Sellers facilitate partners to partake in generating new opportunities to connect with customers.
Co-selling with SaaSify
SaaSify is a one-stop SaaS enablement platform helping 100+ ISVs leverage the power of co-selling, in the following ways:- Co-selling readiness expertise and co-selling GTM advisory to create joint-selling motions, co-selling strategy and much more.
- Co-selling private offer creation automation from within Salesforce to help ISVs directly extend CPPO (Channel Partner Private Offers) or MPO (Multiparty Private Offers) for co-selling advantage.
- Create transactable offers in Azure marketplace, a new pre-requisite for leveraging co-selling benefits and incentives.
