In plain English: You (ISV) + cloud seller team up on a live deal. You bring the opportunity and problem you solve. They bring account intel, access, trust—and a fast way to buy via marketplace.

Who’s involved

• ISV AE + SE → own the problem and opportunity (customer)

• Cloud Sellers/PDM/SA/PSM → add credibility, customer insight, access

• Channel partner (SI/VAR) → optional; boosts delivery & deal size

• Customer sponsor → decision + marketplace purchase path

Core building blocks

• Marketplace listing → how the customer purchases you

• Commits (EDP/MACC) → pre-allocated cloud budget to tap into

• Private Offer → enterprise contract with custom price/terms via marketplace

• Portal registration (ACE / Partner Center) → seller credit + visibility

• Workload mapping - which cloud services your deal grows (data, AI, security, compute)

Why it wins

Speed → marketplace = vetted vendor + fewer legal steps + fast deployment

Budget → could be funded by commits, not a new line item

Incentives → cloud field gets paid when partners win via marketplace, especially if it drives their service consumption

Key steps

1. Make it visible: Register the opportunity in the cloud portal with key details, and where you need help

   Qualify commit: Does the account have commit they can use?

2. Align outcomes: “Customer outcome → Cloud outcome → Your outcome.”

   “This helps our customer consume your [AI/Data/Sec] services—and we’re qualified to burn your commits.”

3. Get the intro: Ask cloud sellers for customer and budget intelligence, buying patterns, etc.

4. Propose purchase path: Private Offer on marketplace (multi-year if possible).

   Add an SI/VAR when it increases confidence, outcomes, or services pull-through.

5. Close & claim: Reference the workload win, and share the story internally and with the cloud.

✅ Do

• Lead with the customer + cloud consumption + marketplace/commits

• Map to key services (e.g., Bedrock, Fabric, Vertex AI; or S3/EKS/BigQuery)

• Show traction: dates, ARR, contacts—make it real

❌ Don’t

• Don’t ask clouds to sell your product for you—it’s not their job

• Don’t “fish” for intros without a qualified, registered opp

• Don’t send generic decks; show account/industry-specific outcomes

KPIs to track

• $ of opportunities co-sell eligible

• Registered co-sell opps / won

• Drag: Incremental cloud usage your product drives

• Closing time & win rate: direct vs marketplace

3-Step Implementation Checklist

1. Pick 10 qualified accounts with a clear benefits (Customer → Cloud → You); register opportunities

2. Join calls with cloud sellers; include SI/VAR if helpful for closing

3. Close a lighthouse deal; promote the win internally/externally; repeat.

Co-sell is how you tap the cloud’s budget, distribution and credibility to win faster and 80% bigger deals (AWS). Do the simple things well - and it becomes your default GTM.