Today, she’s helped build the enablement engine behind Datadog’s $2B+ in AWS Marketplace revenue alone — and she recently shared her playbook in our Cloud GTM Leader course.

The core problem most teams miss:

Your Marketplace motion won’t scale until every seller can answer: “The customer wants to buy through Marketplace — what do I do now?” …and understand why it’s in their interest to learn this early (not at procurement).

Here are 9 takeaways that you should copy from Laura Ripans, Senior Director, Global Cloud Alliances at Datadog:

1️⃣ Enablement is the critical job of cloud alliances

“Enablement is our job… if we don’t do it, no one’s going to do it.”

Not a side project. The best alliance leaders run it as a deliberate operating cadence.

2️⃣ Start with the buyer’s money — not just your product

“Follow the money.” Train sellers to ask earlier than they’re used to: do you have cloud commits (EDP/PPA, MACC)?

If your team can’t speak that language, Marketplace shows up as a late-stage surprise.

3️⃣ Put alliances into onboarding

Laura runs this in new hire training so every seller starts with: there’s a cloud alliances team, there’s co-sell, and there’s Marketplace.

4️⃣ Create a “home” for repeatability

Slack channel + pinned assets + templates. Her phrase: make yourself “more extendable” when demand exceeds bandwidth.

5️⃣ Measure enablement by outcomes, not just attendance

One tactic: ask everyone in the room to bring one co-sellable account.

Then do the “forensics” later: “I did this Lunch & Learn in Sept… 6 months later we got 6 wins.” Tie activity to pipeline.

6️⃣ Teach sellers to prep before cloud calls

A simple one-pager before any cloud call: overview, pain hypothesis, “why now,” blockers, who you need access to, and one next step.

Not perfect — just prepared.

7️⃣ External cloud enablement is a flywheel, not a one-off

“Build mindshare, build trust, build momentum — repeat often.”

And if you’re doing it in-person: get a manager sponsor, or you risk the “nobody showed up” scenario.

8️⃣ Don’t sell your product to the cloud. Sell customer problem

“You’re not there to sell your product… talk about customer pain.”

Nobody has an “APM problem.” They have “our shopping cart stopped taking money on Cyber Monday.”

9️⃣ Design co-sell calls to be fast and focused

“A+ is: get on the call efficiently, get off the call in time (maybe even early), and you’ve got one next step.”

The result?

Datadog scaled from 1,000 to 7,000 employees with $2B in revenue on AWS marketplace alone, while growing rapidly on Microsoft and Google Cloud too.

Marketplace is now embedded in how they sell — not a special project.

Join live workshop with Laura Ripans (Jan 12, 9-10 am PT) — perfect timing to start 2026 with a clear Marketplace growth plan.