Co-selling has become a cornerstone strategy for businesses aiming to scale rapidly and create symbiotic relationships with cloud providers and partners. According to the 2024 Canalys study, frequent co-selling partners experienced 51% higher average revenue growth, 65% of partners reported higher close rates, and 54% saw larger deals as a result of co-sell motions. Additionally, 80% of partners claimed that AWS Marketplace is an important part of their AWS co-sell motion.

What Is Co-Selling in the Cloud Marketplace and Why Does It Matter?

Co-selling is a collaborative program where AWS, Azure, and GCP help ISVs drive joint customer wins. This includes establishing best practices and leveraging tools to accelerate joint wins. For ISVs, co-selling with major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, or GCP is a game-changer. It opens doors to:

• Expanded market reach: Leverage the credibility and scale of cloud providers to tap into new customer bases.
• Accelerated sales cycles: Cloud marketplaces simplify procurement processes for customers. For frequent co-sellers, with experience and best-in-class processes, sales cycles decrease at a consistent rate.
• Increased revenue potential: 54% of partners made larger deals when co-selling with AWS. A diversified joint partner and AWS sales team allows access to new customer stakeholders. By leveraging this additional access, partners take the opportunity to embed themselves in the wider digital transformation process of a customer and thus expand their initial statement of work.

From Listing to Winning: Getting Started with Co-Selling

Leverage the Cloud Marketplace co-sell process to engage with AWS account teams to drive a joint sales cycle.  Learn AWS co-sell guide here.

Step 1: List Your Product on a Cloud Marketplace

Your first step is to get listed on a marketplace like AWS, Azure, or GCP. This can seem daunting, with complex policies and integration requirements. Suger simplifies this process with AI capabilities. Simply input your product’s website URL, and our AI will fetch essential information, including descriptions, key benefits, and resources.

Step 2: Build Relationships with Cloud Marketplace Teams

Developing strong relationships with partner managers at cloud providers is crucial. These teams can provide co-marketing opportunities, co-sell support, and visibility for your product. See how to build a "better together" story with AWS.

Tip: Highlight how your product aligns with the cloud provider’s goals, such as supporting AI, data analytics, or cybersecurity initiatives.

Step 3: Set Up a Co-Sell Playbook

Create a co-sell playbook to ensure your sales team knows how to collaborate with cloud provider teams effectively. Or you can join Seller Prime and get guidance and enablement materials from the AWS Marketplace growth team.

Mastering Co-Sell Excellence: Optimizing Your Process

1. Integrate your Partner Central and CRM with Suger

A seamless integration with your CRM is essential for tracking opportunities and managing co-sell activities. Suger integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, AWS ACE, Microsoft, and Google Cloud Partner Hub, ensuring that your sales teams have real-time visibility into co-sell opportunities and can act promptly.

"It's been great working with Suger to both manage our AWS listing as well as process private offers. Their portal is easy to use, provides great reporting, and integrates naturally with AWS ACE as well as our own CRM. Their support is timely and they have been a great partner helping us optimize our AWS experience co-selling in the field."

- Teleport

2. Automate Your Workflow

Manually managing co-sell activities can lead to delays and missed opportunities. With Suger, you can automate key processes, such as:

• Opportunity tracking: Align co-sell opportunities with your CRM.
• Deal registration: Submit and track deals with cloud providers effortlessly.
• Revenue recognition: Streamline billing and payment workflows for faster recognition.

Set up workflows to trigger partner-originated opportunity sharing based on specific conditions, such as changes in Salesforce fields or metered usage data. For instance, you can create a private offer with accurate pricing and terms by just one click by setting CPQ quotes as trigger objects in Salesforce.

Our customers have achieved 5x increases in lead pipelines and 6.6x growth in average deal size by automating co-sell collaboration with AWS, allowing sales teams to qualify prospects earlier and better manage procurement cycles. Learn more about what our customers say.

3. Leverage Advanced Analytics

Data-driven decisions are key to optimizing your co-sell process. As the data and workflow layer across B2B marketplaces, our platform not only simplifies your cloud marketplace operations but also empowers your sales team to focus on what truly matters—closing deals and driving revenue growth. Suger provides comprehensive analytics to:

• Identify high-performing co-sell opportunities.
• Track revenue contribution from each cloud provider.
• Gain accurate insight into revenue and sales performance.

4. Tap into Incentive Programs

Cloud providers often offer co-sell incentive programs, such as discounts or rebates for joint deals. Staying informed and capitalizing on these opportunities can give you a competitive edge. Check more resource here.

Pro Tip: Suger keeps you updated on the latest incentive programs, so you never miss a chance to maximize your ROI.

Unlocking Synergies: Maximizing Co-Sell Opportunities with Suger

Suger is designed to support every stage of your co-sell journey:

• Quick Start: Get listed on marketplaces in days, not months.
• Customization: Tailor workflows to meet your unique business needs.
• Scalability: Handle increasing deal volume and complexity with ease.
• Seamless Integration: Connect with your existing tools, like Salesforce or HubSpot, for a unified experience.

By partnering with Suger, you’ll gain the tools, insights, and support needed to transform your co-sell efforts into a strategic advantage.

Ready to simplify and scale your co-sell process? Partner with Suger to unlock new revenue streams, optimize your cloud marketplace strategy, and drive growth like never before. 👉 Schedule a Demo today!