Welcome to the final blog in our four-part series on maximizing the marketplace partner opportunity. If you haven't yet, check out parts one, two, and three. This blog focuses on strategic co-selling with Microsoft field sellers to accelerate enterprise-grade deals through the Microsoft marketplace.
As the worlds of Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud go-to-market (GTM), and AI converge, software companies have a unique opportunity to capture billions in projected cloud and SaaS spending through B2B marketplaces.1 The marketplace has become a clear center of gravity for how enterprises manage their cloud portfolios, with many organizations having cloud budget set aside for B2B transactions as they look to adopt new technologies while reducing sprawl and reassessing their SaaS spending.
For software companies, the Microsoft marketplace is how we democratize IT and cloud GTM. It’s also how you go to market and co-sell alongside our global sales force of 35,000 sellers, enabling you to accelerate growth by accessing our broad customer base, including over one billion global customers and 95% of the Fortune 500 that use the Microsoft Cloud.
Co-selling with Microsoft through the marketplace can remove the guesswork of identifying customers with pre-committed Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACCs), turning customers’ committed budgets into larger deals that close faster.
The power of co-selling with Microsoft through the marketplace
Co-selling is a key benefit for Microsoft partners, giving you the ability to work directly with Microsoft sales teams and other partners to sell to customers with MACCs, with 100% of eligible software purchases counting toward a customer's commitment.
As you invest in your partnership with Microsoft, we reinvest in you through co-sell benefits that help grow your business and increase your sales.
When you sell your software through the marketplace, you can:
- Reach Microsoft customers with billions of dollars2 in pre-committed cloud spend3—more than 85% of customers with cloud contracts actively buy from the marketplace.
- Sell globally with fully enabled sales that handles invoicing, taxation, and exchange rate conversion for more than 140 geos, 67 tax IDs, and 15 currencies.
- Accelerate growth through larger, longer-term deals—several partners have told us that their deals are 2x larger through the marketplace.
We are committed to your success. That’s why our global field sellers are aligned to the marketplace and incentivized to co-sell with you. This joint sales collaboration brings your solution to more Microsoft customers through “better together” selling that drives sales of your solution while helping Microsoft sellers retire quota. This alignment also allows your solutions to be discoverable to millions of customers with a Microsoft contract, helping build demand for them. Plus, when you become a Solutions Partner4 with certified software5 designations, you demonstrate solution expertise—differentiating your software and making it easier for our sellers to find your solutions.
This impact isn’t hypothetical; the proof is in the partner outcomes. Here’s how Microsoft partner Trade Ledger is seeing results through co-sell and the marketplace:
“The Microsoft marketplace has been transformational for Trade Ledger. Our first co-sell win with a major bank grew from $4M to $25M—an eight-figure leap—thanks to seamless integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem and the bank’s deep investment in their technology.
The ability to leverage MACCs was a game-changer, streamlining budget approval and procurement. Combined with Microsoft’s marketing support, case studies, and co-sell commitment, it has amplified our reach and proven the marketplace to be a powerful growth engine for enterprise SaaS, globally.”
— Alan Walsh, Vice President of Channels, Trade Ledger
Maximize your success: Co-sell best practices
You can get started with co-sell by focusing on a few strategic steps to help you close bigger deals when co-selling with Microsoft sellers. If you haven’t already, take these three steps to get Azure IP co-sell eligible:
- Become a Microsoft partner by joining the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.
- Publish a transactable offer (uses “Get it Now” call to action) to the marketplace and get Azure IP co-sell ready.
- Meet the Azure IP co-sell requirements: Be a Microsoft partner with a complete business profile and transactable Azure-based offer that’s passed technical validation and reached $100K in marketplace billed sales (MBS) or Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR). Once eligible, and with published readiness materials (an offer one-pager and pitch deck), sales of your solution can help Microsoft sellers earn quota credit and fulfill customer MACCs.
If you’re new to selling in the marketplace, start small by prioritizing three to five deals that are most likely to sell through the marketplace. This helps you land your first few sales and work toward meeting the revenue threshold for Azure IP co-sell eligibility. Ideal target customers have either previously purchased through the marketplace or are looking to increase efficiency and streamline procurement.
Once you’ve achieved Azure IP co-sell eligibility, here are best practices to help you capture co-sell opportunities:
1) Prepare to engage in co-sell
Co-sell success starts with strong preparation. First, equip your sales teams with clear customer-facing messaging on the value of purchasing through the marketplace.
Next, build a bill of materials (BOM) designed specifically for Microsoft sellers. This should include your solution’s value proposition, your “better together” story, how your solution aligns to Microsoft’s solutions, and what support you need—whether that’s a customer intro, deal collaboration, or simply pipeline insights.
2) Share referrals through Partner Center
Microsoft Partner Center is your central tool to manage your business with Microsoft. It’s where you can share leads with Microsoft sellers, which is essential to give sellers visibility into your deals, identify customers with MACCs, and receive deal support.
Pro tip: When sharing referrals, first focus on three to five deals with a strong joint value prop and a clear ask. Once a referral is shared and accepted, send the seller a quick note that includes: the value to the seller (how much quota credit they’ll receive), what makes this deal compelling (the “better together” story), and what you need to close the deal.
Co-sell referral dashboard in Partner Center
3) Activate incentives to boost your momentum
Through Marketplace Rewards, Microsoft offers proven marketing and sales benefits to help you close deals faster. One of the most impactful incentives for co-sell is Azure sponsorship, or Azure credits—40 percent of all marketplace sales are influenced by Azure sponsorship. Once you achieve $100K in marketplace billed sales, you gain access to $35K in Azure credits that you can use to help close marketplace deals or offset customer costs. Additional incentives are available through the Marketplace Transact & Grow Incentive.
Any partner can use Marketplace Rewards—at no cost—to accelerate growth. Access, activate, and manage benefits using the Marketplace Rewards Toolbox.
See it in action: How Contentsquare is winning with co-sell
As a global leader in experience intelligence, Contentsquare helps thousands of global brands understand how to optimize user interactions across digital properties through their Experience Intelligence Platform. With such a vast customer base, Contentsquare knows reaching enterprise customers at scale requires more than a great product—it takes the right strategic partner and go-to-market approach.
Since listing their solution in the Microsoft marketplace in 2022, Contentsquare has evolved its marketplace go-to-market strategy from leveraging private offers to fully embracing co-sell with Microsoft account teams. Today, they use this approach to secure more joint sales opportunities and close more deals—and it’s paying off. Contentsquare’s marketplace co-sell opportunities are, on average, 81% larger, close 11% faster, and deliver a 106% increase in annual contract value (ACV) compared to direct new business contracts.
“Microsoft has been a terrific co-sell partner on our most strategic wins. By working with Microsoft account teams, we’ve seen a steady increase in opportunities to showcase joint value to customers.
The ability to use MACCs continues to be a major driver of our marketplace adoption. Combined with sales enablement and strong ‘better together’ messaging, marketplace-first co-sell has helped us identify and close more opportunities—securing bigger deals, faster, and for longer terms.”
— Mike Marzano, Global Head of Cloud, Data & Platform Alliances, Contentsquare
The team credits its success to sales enablement, seller-to-seller case studies, and data-driven account targeting using customer propensity scoring (a benefit provided through Marketplace Rewards) to identify the best-fit account opportunities for co-sell engagement and marketplace deal development. Contentsquare also has an internal cloud GTM support team that plays a key role in supporting sellers in closing co-sell deals.
“Azure sponsorship is a major deal sweetener,” adds Mike. “In the past year, it helped us win five strategic customer deals, with $400K in Azure sponsorship driving over $6 million in new customer revenue.”
With strong marketplace momentum and a self-serve offering on the horizon, Contentsquare is positioning itself to scale even further with co-sell through the Microsoft marketplace.
Unlock growth through co-sell and the marketplace
Co-selling with Microsoft is a game-changer for driving growth and reaching enterprise customers. We’re continuing to deliver improvements to the marketplace designed to help you simplify sales and drive more growth.
New feature enhancements make it even easier for customers to buy through the marketplace. Enhancements like flexible billing schedules are now generally available. This allows your customers to align payments to their unique budget cycles, giving them more control and confidence over their cloud spend. This helps you unlock larger deals by aligning with customer billing expectations. More features are on the way to better support your marketplace success; follow our release notes to stay up to date.
Ready to drive growth through the marketplace? Start by publishing a transactable offer, activate Marketplace Rewards to drive your first marketplace sales, and prepare your solution to be co-sell ready.
Be sure to stay connected to us through the Marketplace Tech Community, and follow our Marketplace Blog and Marketplace calendar for important updates, news, and announcements.
Sources/disclaimers:
- Cloud marketplace sales to hit US$85 billion by 2028, Canalys
- Throughout this document, $ refers to US dollar (USD).
- Microsoft earnings, Q1 FY25
- “Solutions Partner” refers to a company that is a member of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and may offer software, services, and/or solutions to customers. Reference to “Solutions Partner” in any content, materials, resources, web properties, etc. and any associated designation should be not interpreted as an offer, endorsement, guarantee, proof of effectiveness or functionality, a commitment or any other type of representation or warranty on the part of Microsoft. All decisions pertaining and related to your business needs including but not limited to strategies, solutions, partner selection, implementation, etc., rests solely with your business.
- A certification is (1) specific to the solution’s interoperability with Microsoft products and (2) based on self-attestation by the solution owner. Solutions are only certified as of the date the solution is reviewed. Solution functionality and capability are controlled by the solution owner and may be subject to change. The inclusion of a solution in the marketplace and any such designations should not be interpreted as an offer, endorsement, guarantee, proof of effectiveness or functionality, a commitment or any other type of representation or warranty on the part of Microsoft. All decisions pertaining and related to your business needs including but not limited to strategies, solutions, partner selection, implementation, etc., rest solely with your business.
