A guide for ISV and SI partners to co-sell with Microsoft and create win-win scenarios for enterprise customers
Introduction
Microsoft commercial marketplace is a platform that connects enterprise customers with hundreds of thousands of independent software vendors (ISVs) and systems integrators (SIs) who offer innovative solutions and services. As a partner, you can benefit from the Microsoft commercial marketplace by reaching new customers, increasing your visibility and simplifying your sales process. But did you know that you can also leverage the commercial marketplace to co-sell with Microsoft and other partners, and create multi-party deals that benefit everyone involved?
In this blog post, we will explain how you can use the commercial marketplace to co-sell with Microsoft, and how you can take advantage of multi-party private offers to collaborate with other partners and offer tailored solutions to enterprise customers using the Microsoft cloud. We will also provide some tips and best practices for this fiscal year (FY24) to help you grow your business and achieve your goals.
What is co-selling and why should you do it?
Co-selling is a sales model where you partner with the Microsoft ecosystem to sell your solutions and services at scale to enterprise customers. Co-selling can help you accelerate your sales cycle, increase your deal size, and expand your market reach.
By leveraging Microsoft's co-selling program, you can leverage the trust and credibility that Microsoft has built with its partners and customers and access the resources and expertise that Microsoft can provide to help you close deals faster and more effectively, by speeding up procurement and using your ideal customers' consumption commitment with Microsoft.
To get started, an ISV needs to be enrolled in the AI Cloud Partner Program, list your solutions and services on the Microsoft commercial marketplace and meet the co-sell ready and co-sell eligible criteria. You can find more information on how to become co-sell ready here.
There are many cloud offer types available (such as SaaS, virtual machine, Dynamics 365, Business Applications) in the marketplace but you should ensure that your offers are transactable. Once you are IP co-sell ready, you can manage your co-sell opportunities, track your progress and collaborate with Microsoft sellers and technical specialists using the co-sell dashboard. You can also use the co-sell dashboard to request co-sell support, such as joint account planning, technical validation, customer engagement and deal orchestration. Additionally, you can gain access to incentives and benefits that help you grow your business and increase your customers' Microsoft Azure consumption.
What are multi-party private offers and how can you use them?
Multi-party private offers are a new feature of the Microsoft marketplace that allows you to create customized offers for enterprise customers that involve multiple partners.
They are currently available today for customers purchasing in the United States.
For example, if you are an ISV partner who offers a software solution, and you want to partner with an SI partner who can provide implementation and integration services, you can create a multi-party private offer that bundles your solution and the SI partner's services and offer it to a specific customer at a negotiated price. This way, you can create a win-win scenario for yourself, the SI partner, and the customer, who can benefit from a seamless and comprehensive solution, while using their consumption commitment to complete the transaction through the Microsoft commercial Marketplace.
To create a multi-party private offer, partners must have a transactable software offer published on the Microsoft marketplace, and you need to invite one or more SI partners to join your offer. We will do a separate post on how to create and manage multi-party private offers.
Once you have created a multi-party private offer, you can share it with a specific customer, who can accept it and purchase it through the marketplace. You can also track the status and performance of your multi-party private offers on the co-sell dashboard.
How to succeed with Microsoft Marketplace and multi-party deals in FY24
As we enter a new calendar year, we want to help you succeed with Microsoft marketplace and multi-party deals. Here are some tips and best practices to follow:
- Make sure your solutions and services are up to date and meet the quality standards and requirements of the marketplace. You can use Partner Center to manage and update your offers, and to access tools and resources to improve your offer quality.
- Optimize your offer listing to attract and engage customers. You should use a compelling title, description, logo, screenshots, videos, and other elements that showcase the value and benefits of your offer.
- Promote your offer through various channels, such as social media, email, webinars, events, and blogs.
- Engage with Microsoft sellers and technical specialists to co-sell your offer. You can use the co-sell dashboard to request and receive co-sell support, and to communicate and collaborate with Microsoft teams.
- Explore and identify potential SI partners who can complement your offer and add value to your customers. We can help you find SI partners by location, industry, competency, and service type.
- Create and share multi-party private offers with your customers and SI or solution partners.
- Monitor and measure your offer performance and customer feedback, in particular, your offer views, leads, conversions, ratings, reviews, and revenue.
TL;DR
Microsoft's commercial marketplace is a powerful platform that can help ISVs like you grow your cloud business and reach new customers.
By co-selling with Microsoft and creating multi-party private offers, you can leverage the AI Cloud Partner Program and Microsoft cloud marketplace to create partnerships and opportunities with other partners and offer differentiated and customized solutions to enterprise customers.
Microsoft's AI Cloud partner program is an underutilized go to market strategy for SaaS and solutions partner companies that want to accelerate revenue growth.
By transacting through the marketplace, you can access resources, customers and new go to market opportunities that would previously not have been available to you.
We hope this blog post has given you some useful information and tips on how to succeed with Microsoft marketplace and multi-party deals in FY24. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us here or at marketplace@partner1.io
