With cloud marketplaces set to account for $85bn of enterprise software sales transactions by 2028, the opportunity cost of not being optimised to co-sell with your cloud partner is becoming higher than ever.

Revenue Goals Are Foundational

As the old saying goes in sales: show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcome. This is equally true when it comes to building an AWS co-sell strategy. The most successful AWS co-sell partners are ones who have strong internal goals around TCV transacted through AWS Marketplace as well as the number of transactions.

This is the best way to align all internal stakeholders around the joint goal of growing with AWS. A strong co-sell partnership is not siloed within your internal partner org. It requires collaboration from the marketing team to drive joint win stories and event attendance. It requires high levels of ownership from the sales team too.

For me this is one of the most understated tasks involved in creating a strong partnership with AWS: promoting the partnership internally and ensuring that all aspects of the business are in alignment to achieve the required growth goals.

Excess Admin or Table Stakes?

To fully answer the title question, we need to take one step back. If you're completely new to the AWS world there is a series of tasks that need to be checked off before even considering sitting down with your internal head of sales to discuss a Q2 Marketplace TCV goal.

From experience, this is a hurdle that a lot of companies fall at — not because it's difficult but because you find yourself in a 'chicken and egg' scenario. To become a registered AWS partner requires you to fill out forms, complete questionnaires, sign up to a programme, loop in internal stakeholders. Nothing out of the ordinary for partnering with one of the biggest companies in the world, but the kind of tasks that if not owned and completion properly incentivised will fall to the wayside.

That's why it's important to set aside a dedicated resource and time frame to complete the following:

• Register for the AWS Partner Network (APN)
• List a product on the AWS Marketplace
• Complete the Foundation Technical Review (FTR)

It is after these are completed that you can drive momentum further by developing an internal operations process that allows for smooth interactions between your AEs and AWS sellers — a way for your deal desk to effectively transact deals through the Marketplace, so as not to become a hindrance. Then finally we can loop back to our revenue goals and alignments with other internal stakeholders.

Where to Begin?

I'm always wary when I talk about this that I am portraying just getting started with AWS co-sell as a task that is more hassle than it's worth. But what I'm trying to do is clearly lay out the steps ahead, so that you don't get lost in the milieu when the time to launch your co-sell journey comes.

The good news is, the market is adapting. The most successful partners with AWS are the ones who see Marketplace and Co-sell as productive endeavours early. Getting listed on the Marketplace fast isn't necessarily the be all and end all. What is, is developing and executing a strategy to see measurable returns on co-sell activity.

There are now great options for support: whether it's a tool like CloudAtlas that uses an AI platform to design and support execution of your co-sell strategy, or agencies like Think&Grow, Symbio & HyperConsult that provide hands on execution — even AWS are now developing their own AI tools to move people further along the process at a faster rate.

The focus for a long time in this space has been "how do we list on the AWS Marketplace?". But now that is shifting — the focus must be on "how do we get co-sell ready?". The mission statement has to be broader than just being listed on Marketplace if you want to take your piece of that $85bn worth of transactions in 2028.

---

Additional reading:

• Goal-oriented growth: Driving AWS Marketplace success with COSS
• How AWS Marketplace sellers can use the COSS framework for a successful sales strategy