Cloud marketplaces are transforming the way businesses procure, sell, and manage software solutions for cloud vendors like AWS, Microsoft, and GCP. They offer significant benefits for all parties involved, including end customers, cloud sellers, and start-ups generally referred to as Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). By streamlining the procurement process and leveraging existing relationships, these marketplaces ensure that all transactions are efficient and beneficial to all parties involved. In this blog, we’ll explore how ISVs can maximize the value of cloud marketplaces through comprehensive onboarding, continuous stimulation, and co-sell activation.
Introduction to Cloud Marketplaces
A cloud marketplace is a digital platform where software vendors can sell their products and services to cloud customers. It acts as a procurement tool that simplifies the purchasing process, making it faster and more efficient. The marketplace benefits each party in a cloud transaction, namely:
- End customers – by providing a wide range of pre-vetted solutions
- Cloud sellers (account managers employed by cloud vendors) – by expanding their market reach
- ISVs (including start-ups, scale-ups, and more mature software companies) – by offering a streamlined sales channel
One key advantage of the cloud marketplace is its ability to leverage existing cloud seller relationships with end customers to expedite and maximize the sales process. This co-selling approach ensures that both ISVs and end customers, who are already cloud customers, can expedite their transactions and integrate more seamlessly. In essence, the cloud marketplace becomes an irreplaceable part of the ISVs’ selling mechanism, benefiting all parties involved.
Maximizing the Cloud Marketplace
Many ISVs have access to the cloud marketplace but may not be leveraging it fully. Here’s what you need to do to unlock the marketplace’s full potential.
Comprehensive Marketplace Onboarding
Onboarding onto a cloud marketplace is not just a technical effort; it requires substantial cross-organizational enablement. To leverage the marketplace fully, businesses must ensure that every function within the organization understands and utilizes the platform effectively.
Here are some key aspects to consider during the onboarding process:
- Vendor Requirements: ISVs must understand and comply with the marketplace’s requirements to ensure a smooth onboarding process.
- Sales and Marketing: Marketing teams should promote the marketplace as a selling point during lead generation, while sales teams must be trained on the benefits of the marketplace and how to leverage it in sales conversations.
- Legal: The marketplace embeds legal requirements within private offers, simplifying procurement for end customers.
- Finance: The finance team must recognize how marketplace transactions impact financial operations, including invoicing, payment processes, and tax implications.
- Sales Operations: This function bridges sales and finance, ensuring that the sales process flows smoothly through the marketplace.
- Channel Partnerships: Aligning with the cloud alliance and other partners is essential. Mechanisms like the Channel Partner Private Offer (CPPO) or Microsoft Private Offer (MPO) facilitate these partnerships.
- Customer Success: The marketplace can also be a useful tool for the customer success team. For example, utilizing the marketplace can simplify budget allocations, making it easier to secure funds for additional purchases.
- Customer Expectations: It’s essential to learly communicate payment models and other expectations related to the marketplace to ensure customers are well-informed.
- R&D and Technical Integration: Technical teams need to ensure that the solutions offered on the marketplace are integrated and functioning correctly.
A comprehensive onboarding process covers both the technical and business aspects of the AWS marketplace, ensuring that the entire organization is prepared to leverage the marketplace fully.
Continuous Stimulation of the Marketplace
Once onboarded, continuous stimulation of the marketplace is crucial. This involves active engagement with all relevant functions within the organization—marketing, sales, sales operations, finance, and customer success.
Here are four critical steps to take to ensure ongoing marketplace activity:
Step 1: Engage, engage, engage: Continuously engage with all functions to ensure they are utilizing the marketplace effectively.
Step 2: Communicate success: Regularly report successes to the entire organization. Highlighting new deals, expanded deal sizes, and other positive outcomes reinforces the value of the marketplace.
Step 3: Promote utilization: Keep reminding teams about the marketplace’s benefits and encourage its use in all relevant transactions.
Step 4: Monitor and adapt: Continuously monitor marketplace activity and adapt strategies to ensure sustained engagement and success.
Without continuous stimulation, the marketplace can lose momentum. Regularly showcasing its value ensures that it remains a vital part of the organization’s sales and procurement processes.
Activate Co-Sell
While the marketplace can independently facilitate deal-making, its true value emerges when integrated with co-selling. Fully leveraging the marketplace allows businesses to activate co-sell, secure end-customer commitment funds, and incentivize partners to promote and sell their products. Essentially, using the marketplace as a foundation is crucial for bringing new business through the cloud.
Co-sell is vital because many organizations, like Microsoft, measure success through marketplace transactions and set quotas accordingly. Therefore, understanding and utilizing the marketplace is essential for effective co-sell and maximizing business opportunities.
4 Key Pillars of Cloud Partnership
To generate a robust sales channel with the cloud, ISVs must address four key pillars, aligning their main Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy with the cloud co-sell GTM approach:
- Sales: Trains teams to leverage the marketplace for quota attainment, faster deal closure, and larger deal sizes.
- Business Development: Builds strategic relationships with cloud providers to unlock co-sell opportunities.
- Partnership Enablement: Aligns with cloud alliances, streamlines partnerships using tools like CPPO or MPO, and ensures seamless operations.
- Marketing: Promotes the marketplace during lead generation to attract and retain customers, emphasizing its benefits.
The benefits of co-selling through the marketplace are substantial. According to AWS, co-sell initiatives result in a:
- 24% higher close rate
- 40% faster deal closure
- 80% larger deal sizes
By 2025, the deal transaction volume is expected to reach $45 billion, demonstrating the significant impact of effective co-sell strategies.
To achieve these results, businesses must ensure continuous marketplace engagement and internal alignment. This means consistently using the marketplace for new deals and opportunities, promoting its benefits across the organization, and keeping it central to the sales strategy. By doing so, companies can drive substantial growth, maximize their marketplace investment, and achieve impressive outcomes through co-sell initiatives.
Wrapping Up
Cloud marketplaces offer immense potential for businesses to streamline their procurement processes, expand market reach, and enhance sales efficiency. However, to fully leverage these benefits, comprehensive onboarding, continuous stimulation, and effective co-sell activation are essential. By ensuring that all organizational functions are aligned and actively engaged with the marketplace, businesses can ensure they are making the most out of the marketplace.
