Co-Selling with Microsoft

Co-selling with Microsoft is a collaboration between Microsoft’s sales teams and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to sell solutions via the Azure Marketplace. This partnership helps ISVs expand their reach, accelerate sales, and gain credibility while driving Microsoft Azure usage.

Why Co-Sell with Microsoft?

• Access Enterprise Customers: Engage businesses with existing cloud budgets.
• Boost Sales: Work directly with Microsoft sellers to close deals faster.
• Build Trust: Earn the "Microsoft preferred solutions" badge by meeting eligibility criteria.

Key Steps to Succeed:

1. Meet Requirements: Ensure your solution is Azure IP co-sell eligible and listed on the Azure Marketplace.
2. Create Sales Materials: Develop one-pagers, pitch decks, and architecture diagrams.
3. Leverage Azure Marketplace: Optimize your listing with clear descriptions, logos, and pricing tiers.
4. Collaborate with Microsoft Teams: Align with Microsoft sales reps and engage in joint customer meetings.
5. Track Performance: Use Partner Center to monitor metrics like deal velocity and revenue impact.

Quick Benefits:

• 4 million monthly Azure Marketplace users.
• $15 billion in annual partner contract value.
• Opportunity to contribute to Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC).

Co-selling is a win-win for ISVs, Microsoft, and customers, driving growth and cloud adoption. Ready to partner with Microsoft? Start by preparing your solution and building strong relationships with their sales teams.

Getting Ready for Co-Sell

Meeting Microsoft's Requirements

To join Microsoft's co-sell program, your solution needs to meet both technical and business standards. The program offers three levels of co-sell status for Azure solutions:

• In-market: Basic marketplace listing.
• Co-sell ready: Greater visibility to Microsoft's sales teams.
• Azure IP co-sell eligible: Allows referral submissions and contributes to Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC).

For co-sell readiness, you'll need to configure your solution in the Partner Center by:

• Creating a detailed marketplace listing.
• Uploading the required documentation.
• Providing your product landing page URL.
• Adding regional contact details for marketing, sales, technical support, and customer success roles [4].

These steps not only meet Microsoft's requirements but also strengthen your solution's credibility, building on the benefits of the Azure Marketplace.

Creating Your Value Story

Develop a "better together" narrative that shows how your solution complements Microsoft's services.

A strong value story should:

• Clearly link your solution to Azure consumption.
• Offer a distinct way to address customer challenges.
• Highlight advantages for Microsoft's sales teams.
• Demonstrate your understanding of Microsoft's ecosystem.

Building Sales Materials

To support your co-sell efforts, prepare these key materials:

• Solution One-Pager
  Summarize your solution's core features, target customer profile, unique strengths, and its integration with Microsoft services.
• Solution Pitch Deck
  Provide a comprehensive overview, including technical architecture, customer success stories, and a joint value proposition with Microsoft.
• Reference Architecture Diagram
  Illustrate how your solution integrates with Azure, showcasing data flow, security, scalability, and key technical dependencies.

Enhance these materials with customer case studies that highlight successful implementations and measurable outcomes. Make sure everything aligns with Microsoft's current priorities [4].

You might also consider a quarterly newsletter featuring success stories and partnership opportunities. Regular communication like this helps strengthen relationships and shows your commitment to working within Microsoft's ecosystem.

This preparation sets the stage for effective collaboration with Microsoft's sales teams in the next phase.

Setting Up Your Azure Marketplace Listing

Creating a Sales-Ready Listing

To create a listing that drives sales, focus on key elements that enhance visibility and appeal. Start with a clear, search-friendly offer title that adheres to Microsoft's naming rules. For SaaS applications, stick to lowercase letters, numbers, dashes, or underscores [6]. Your offer description should quickly explain what your product does, who it’s for, and the specific problems it solves [7].

Add a PNG logo and high-resolution screenshots (1280×720) that showcase your product’s standout features [6]. If you include a product video, keep it short - 60 to 90 seconds is ideal - and use it to highlight how your solution integrates with Azure services and benefits users [7].

Providing multiple pricing tiers helps you cater to a variety of customer needs:

• Trial
  Description: Free limited-time access
  Best For: New customers evaluating the solution
• Standard
  Description: Core features with basic support
  Best For: Small to medium businesses
• Enterprise
  Description: Full feature set with premium support
  Best For: Large organizations
• Custom
  Description: Negotiable terms through private offers
  Best For: Strategic accounts

Once your listing is ready, use targeted strategies to expand its visibility.

Improving Marketplace Visibility

"For Microsoft Partners, making the most of Azure Marketplace means ensuring your products are not only listed but optimized for discovery" [8].

To increase the chances of your listing being discovered:

• Choose precise categories and subcategories that align with your solution's features [6].
• Provide detailed resources like white papers, case studies, and implementation guides in PDF format [7].
• Offer multiple support channels and clearly outline response times [6].

Using Custom Deal Options

In addition to tiered pricing, you can create private offers tailored to specific customers. These deals can include pricing terms for up to three years and allow you to bundle up to 10 products [9]. An added advantage is that "100% of Azure benefit-eligible purchases count toward an organization's Azure cloud consumption commitment when using private offers" [9].

WeTransact’s platform makes managing private offers easier with features like automated deal workflows, custom pricing configurations, integration with Microsoft's partner tools, and ROI tracking for marketplace transactions. When crafting private offers, ensure they align with your co-sell strategy and Microsoft's sales processes. This can speed up deal closures and strengthen your collaboration with Microsoft’s sales teams [1].

Working with Microsoft Sales Teams

Connecting with Sales Reps

To get started, register for a Partner Center account to obtain your PartnerID and complete your business profile [3]. Your main point of contact with Microsoft's sales teams will be Azure Partner Development Managers (PDMs). Make sure to provide them with concise sales materials that clearly explain your value proposition.

Here’s what your sales toolkit should include:

• A one-page overview of your solution
• Battlecards that compare your solution to competitors
• Integration guides
• Customer success stories
• ROI calculators

Aligning Target Accounts

To align your target accounts with Microsoft's priorities, focus on these key elements:

• Ideal customer profiles
• Deal progress updates
• Specific support needed from Microsoft
• Expected outcomes from the collaboration

A great example of telling the "better with Microsoft" story is Datometry. They’ve made Microsoft's commercial marketplace their go-to procurement channel for every deal. By actively participating in Microsoft's co-sell ecosystem, they’ve boosted cloud consumption while delivering value to Microsoft customers. This focused approach strengthens your position within Microsoft's co-sell framework.

Running Joint Sales Meetings

Once you’ve built strong relationships and aligned your targets, it’s time to prepare for joint customer meetings. These meetings require close coordination between your team and Microsoft’s.

• Pre-Meeting
  Key Actions: Research the customer’s market position and goals
  Expected Outcomes: Shared understanding of customer needs
• Initial Contact
  Key Actions: Listen actively to uncover challenges
  Expected Outcomes: Clear problem statement and initial strategy
• Solution Presentation
  Key Actions: Highlight how your solution works with Azure
  Expected Outcomes: Customer commitment to next steps
• Follow-Up
  Key Actions: Document action items and next steps
  Expected Outcomes: Defined path to close the deal

Microsoft's Customer Engagement Methodology (MCEM) focuses on collaboration between partners and Microsoft teams to improve customer outcomes [11]. This includes developing proof of concepts that showcase how integrating with Azure can benefit the customer.

Take Weka, for example. Their co-sell efforts helped them build a strong pipeline and close deals with several Fortune 1000 companies through marketplace transactions. This targeted strategy led to a massive 20x increase in their cloud pipeline.

Tracking Co-Sell Results

Key Performance Metrics

To make the most of the $300 billion co-sell market opportunity [12], it's crucial to keep an eye on the right metrics. Here's what you should focus on:

• Pipeline Health
  Key Indicators: Deal Velocity
  What to Track: Average time from lead to close
• Pipeline Health
  Key Indicators: Conversion Rates
  What to Track: Percentage of opportunities won
• Revenue Impact
  Key Indicators: Deal Value
  What to Track: Total revenue from co-sell deals
• Revenue Impact
  Key Indicators: Regional Performance
  What to Track: Revenue breakdown by market
• Partner Activity
  Key Indicators: Referral Flow
  What to Track: Inbound vs. outbound referrals
• Partner Activity
  Key Indicators: Engagement Level
  What to Track: Joint customer meetings and planning sessions

"Activity-based measurement gives you a holistic view of activities going into your co-selling efforts. Your joint marketing activities, planning sessions, field sales engagement, and customer meetings are part of the activity-based measurement." - Nitika Rawat, Content Marketing Manager at Workspan [12]

Use data from Partner Center to turn these metrics into actionable insights that drive your co-sell strategy.

Using Partner Center + WeTransact data

Once you've defined your metrics, Partner Center and WeTransact can provide the analytics you need. Its co-sell opportunities insights dashboard offers a clear view of your program's performance [13].

Some of the dashboard's standout features include:

• Conversion Funnel Analysis: Monitor deals as they move through different stages.
• Geographic Performance: See how deals are distributed across regions.
• Solution Impact: Identify which solutions generate the most referrals.
• Deal Registration: Track Azure IP co-sell eligible solutions.
• Lost Deal Analysis: Pinpoint why certain opportunities didn't close.

You can also download monthly analytics reports to dig deeper into declined or lost deals, uncovering areas for improvement [13].

Improving Your Results

With your metrics and analytics in hand, focus on these steps to enhance your co-sell outcomes:

1. Optimize Your Partner Profile

Develop detailed solution maps that clearly show how your offerings align with Microsoft's services. This helps sales teams quickly grasp your value and improves the quality of referrals.

2. Strengthen Executive Support

Gain leadership backing to ensure resources are allocated effectively for co-selling initiatives [14].

3. Refine Your Approach

Compare your performance metrics to your initial KPIs and adjust your strategy where needed. Pay close attention to:

• Trends in pipeline velocity
• Metrics tracking deal progression
• Lead conversion rates
• The effectiveness of co-marketing efforts

"In the modern business environment, the difference between market leaders and followers will be defined by their ability to forge robust partnerships. The era of competing solely on individual merit is giving way to a new paradigm where success is a collaborative endeavor." - Curtis Brinkerhoff, CRO, Impartner [14]

Next Steps for Microsoft Co-Sell

Now that you've prepared and listed your solution, it's time to put your co-sell plan into action. Here's how to proceed.

Pick the Right Co-Sell Channel

Determine which co-sell channel aligns best with your solution's needs:

• Direct Co-sell
  Best For: Strategic partnerships
  Key Advantage: Close collaboration with Microsoft sales teams
• AppSource
  Best For: Industry-specific tools
  Key Advantage: Targeted market exposure
• Azure Marketplace
  Best For: Cloud-based solutions
  Key Advantage: Direct access to enterprise customers

Once you've chosen your channel, focus on creating a smooth co-sell experience.

Lay the Groundwork for Co-Selling

Make sure your Partner Center profile is complete and aim to achieve Co-sell Ready status. This opens doors to essential benefits like visibility with Microsoft's sales teams and participation in co-marketing efforts [15].

Strengthen Your Marketplace Presence

Build an Azure Marketplace listing that attracts and engages customers. Here's how to get started:

• Optimize Your Solution
  Ensure your product contributes to Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC). This makes it more appealing to enterprise clients [1].
• Prepare Sales Materials
  Develop joint sales pitches that highlight how your solution complements Microsoft's offerings.
• Work Closely with Microsoft
  Establish direct communication with Microsoft's sales teams. Aligning with their goals ensures your solution fits into their sales strategies, creating better opportunities for co-selling.

"Co-selling with Microsoft refers to any collaborative engagement between Microsoft and its partners to achieve shared business objectives." - TheWinningCSP.com [3]

Tap Into Useful Tools

Platforms like WeTransact can help you manage your listings, pricing plans, and connections with Microsoft resellers and enterprise customers more efficiently.