Co-Selling: The Ultimate Guide To Scale Your ISV

Here is valuable advice to scale your ISV and how to grow your business

Growing reliance on co-selling strategies has led to unprecedented revenue generation. For companies co-selling with partners, current estimates are over $300 billion. Companies can bring more excellent value to their shared customers by co-innovating and co-selling their complementary solutions. Microsoft has created a robust co-sell program to help independent software vendors (ISVs) create an online presence and extend their software.

Explore this guide to discover how you can gain a competitive advantage over opponents and achieve outsized returns.

What Is Co-Selling With Microsoft?

  • A collaborative relationship between Microsoft and the partners within its partner ecosystem is referred to as co-selling. Partners with complementary offerings work collaboratively to provide a holistic solution to a shared customer need. This includes shared activities, including sales planning, sharing leads, and delivering marketplace-led commerce.

Microsoft Co-Sell Program: A Rundown

  • To complement the customer value proposition (CVP), Microsoft embarked on its co-sell program in 2017. This was done by engrossing Microsoft direct sellers to collaborate with the partner ecosystem in broader contributions. Whether it involves direct selling to the customer, through a partner, or Azure Marketplace, Microsoft’s co-sell program is feasible for any collective engagement between Microsoft and its partner ecosystem.

Microsoft’s co-sell program is accomplishing its goals by increasing partner annual contract value revenue, accelerating deal velocity up to 3.5x, etc. Partners can co-sell with Microsoft regardless of the type of channel they use for selling.

Channels To Co-Sell

  • Here’s a breakdown of the channels used to co-sell with Microsoft.

Direct Customer

  • Reach 4M monthly active users in AppSource and Azure marketplace across more than 140+ geographies.

Partner-To-Partner

  • Collaboratively sell through Microsoft’s robust partner ecosystem.

Seller Engaged

  • Microsoft’s sellers simplify engagements between partners and customers, producing new opportunities.

The tiered system of the co-sell program enables partners to join with little investment. These tiers are described as steps that operate sequentially.

Take Advantage of Microsoft’s Cloud Marketplace To Co-Sell

  • Changes are made to Microsoft’s co-sell program to facilitate ISVs to achieve the higher IP co-sell incentivized status. For instance, the first step of co-selling is to publish a listing which is commonly a marketing page.

However, Microsoft helps ISVs transform those pages into transactive listings with co-selling. At present, transactions made through Microsoft commercial marketplace are automatically registered. This substantially reduces the resources required to manage co-sell opportunities.

Tips To Drive A Successful Co-Selling Partnership

  • It is helpful to clearly describe your solution value proposition and how they make you stand out from your competitors.
  • Ensure to define your target audience when developing a business plan.
  • Collaborate with your channel manager to ensure that your goals align.
  • Build a long-term seller relationship based on trust.
  • Provide concrete examples of a successful engagement with your solution. Relevant case studies entice customers to listen acutely.
  • Employ both direct tactics as well as channel or partner tactics.
  • Plan strategically to leverage all co-selling motions with Microsoft.

MACC Program

  • A contractual commitment made by the customers with Microsoft for specific amounts of Azure spending over time is referred to as Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). MACC enables the dynamic procurement of Azure without requiring a significant upfront payment.

Transactable offers published to Azure Marketplace are regulated by the MACC program. The “MACC” program allows enterprise customers to reduce their Azure spend commitment to Microsoft. This can be done by purchasing third-party software and services through a Transact listing in Azure Marketplace.

    • scale your isvThe Partner Solution must be sold through Azure Marketplace and must have the “IP Co-sell Incentivized” designation to be enrolled in MACC. The enterprises with a MACC agreement are expected to grow in number in the coming years.

This would drive substantial transacting via SaaS listings in the Marketplace. In addition, Microsoft continues to upgrade its co-sell program with incentives that help ISVs take advantage of marketplace selling. Therefore, co-selling with Microsoft is an efficient way to grow your business.

In this ever-evolving world of technology, working with a partner ecosystem is the best strategy for offering rapid, agile solutions to your target market.

Help your business drive higher win rates and revenue growth by joining hands with Henson Group. Henson Group is the Global Azure Expert MSP that helps ISVs increase their accessibility and productivity. Get in touch with us today for free migration, training, and outright support.