Here's the scale of change alliance leaders are missing.

After pioneering the marketplace concept with AppExchange two decades ago, Salesforce is now dominating the new generation of cloud marketplaces it once inspired.

The irony? They're teaching us how cloud GTM has fundamentally changed.

The numbers paint a striking picture:

"Today, Salesforce is the fastest growing ISV on AWS Marketplace, which has driven hundreds of transactions for us since launch, including 2 of our top 5 deals this quarter," revealed Robin Washington, President and COO/CFO, in the latest earnings call two weeks ago.

Miguel Milano, CRO, stressed: "AWS Marketplace... is incredible. The partnership with AWS, we transacted $2 billion of business through them, hundreds of transactions, and it's tripling year-on-year right now."

Previously in Q3 FY25 alone, Salesforce's Amazon Web Services (AWS) transactions doubled QoQ, with 10 deals exceeding $1M.

This isn't just channel diversification—it's a major GTM transformation.

Partners now drive 7 of Salesforce's top 10 deals in the last quarter.

As Washington noted: "Our ecosystem plays a critical role in driving customer success and growth. Our partners were included in 7 of our top 10 deals of the quarter."

Three critical shifts alliance leaders should study:

Marketplace as embedded motion

Being "fastest growing ISV on AWS Marketplace" means Salesforce embedding marketplace thinking across its 13,000 AEs.

Now multiply this by 80,000+ system integrators (experts) constantly being trained on the latest updates (in Q3 alone, all were trained on AI).

Partner enablement at scale

With partners driving 7/10 top deals, the marketplace-first mindset is spreading like wildfire—we just don't see it yet.

Deep platform integration

AWS marketplace isn't just a channel; it's woven into Salesforce's GTM strategy and technology.

"By integrating data and AI capabilities across our platforms, Salesforce and AWS are building a strong foundation for the future of agentic systems," explained Brian Landsman, EVP earlier this year.

The strategic implications run deeper

When the company that invented the enterprise app store becomes the fastest growing ISV on someone else's marketplace, it signals cloud GTM is now primary revenue driver.

For alliance leaders, the lesson: marketplace excellence isn't about listing products—it's about reimagining your entire partner motion around consumption, co-innovation, and customer success.

Forget cybersecurity vendors—Salesforce is the elephant in the room.

We'll soon see more headlines about them driving billions via AWS.

Industry Leaders React: Why This Matters Beyond the Numbers

My insights above sparked immediate reactions from key players across the cloud ecosystem—and their responses reveal why Salesforce's transformation demonstrates an ongoing major shift in how enterprise software is sold.

Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Canalys, connected the dots to a larger industry pattern:

“We have talked about CrowdStrike, Splunk, Palo Alto Networks, Snowflake, Okta, Trend Micro, and Presidio hitting the billion-dollar club on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) marketplace.

Now Salesforce joins the fray as a $2 billion member of the club - and they only signed up 18 months ago!

Now that the hyperscaler marketplaces have opened the door to all of SaaS (250,000 companies generating $420 billion this year), regardless of what cloud they were built on, it opens up the door to the industry to indirect sales.

Today, Canalys (part of Omdia) recognizes only 24% of SaaS is purchased indirectly - and this is much lower if you extract "packaged" SaaS such as Microsoft 365.

For example, Salesforce grew to $40 billion almost exclusively direct. Now, the 300%+ y/y growth on marketplaces is changing the game.

As Salesforce shifts to Agentforce (for agentic AI), the pricing model of $2 per conversation will be primarily (if not exclusively) billed out of digital marketplaces - driving this indirect split much higher in the next 3-5 years.”

McBain's analysis reveals the acceleration happening beneath the surface and that the timing isn't coincidental.

From the AWS side, Devin Herd, Senior GTM Partner Development Lead, Salesforce at AWS, who directly supports the AWS-Salesforce partnership, offered an insider's perspective:

“Salesforce isn’t just transacting on AWS Marketplace. It’s embedded in how they sell, scale, and build. $2B+ through Marketplace, fastest-growing ISV, and 7 of 10 top deals are partner-led.

In my role supporting the AWS Salesforce partnership, I see it up close. Marketplace isn’t a side channel. It is GTM infrastructure, and it is changing how we drive outcomes together.”

John Jahnke, CEO of Tackle, whose company was involved in Salesforce marketplace transformation, emphasized the executive commitment required:

“Building their [Salesforce] strategy with AWS Marketplace was not a tactical decision - it was a business strategy decision with top level executive alignment and investment across people and technology to meaningfully evolve one of the best direct sales organization into a next gen Cloud GTM machine.”

Allison Bishop, Global Lead - Partner PR, AWS highlighted the procurement transformation driving this growth:

“AWS Marketplace is reimagining how organizations buy, sell, and procure IT. As Matt Yanchyshyn says, it's helping to move procurement from the office of "no" to the department of yes. This isn't just great for customers, it's also a powerful vehicle to simplify and accelerate growth for our partners.”

The Uncomfortable Truth for Alliance Leaders

These reactions from industry leaders reveal an uncomfortable truth: while some alliance teams debate marketplace strategies, companies like Salesforce are systematically rebuilding their entire GTM motion around marketplace infrastructure.

The contrast is stark. Some organizations are still struggling to make the decision to go all-in on marketplaces. Meanwhile, Salesforce—with one of the most successful direct sales machines in enterprise software history—committed to marketplace 18 months ago and is now tripling AWS revenue annually.

When even the pioneers need to become students again, what does that say about the rest of us?

Marketplace Monitor

AWS expanded marketplace accessibility by adding four new languages across the entire customer journey—from discovery to deployment.

AWS Marketplace launches localized experience in French, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese

The platform automatically translates product listings for sellers while allowing opt-out control, significantly reducing barriers for global expansion. This move underscores the strategic value of localized buying experiences for enterprise customers and signals intensifying focus among hyperscalers on winning international market share.

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