Hi, it’s Roman from Partner Insight. Welcome back to my newsletter, where I deconstruct winning Cloud GTM strategies and the latest trends in tech partnerships.
Today’s special issue focuses on marketplace strategy as we gear up to kick off new cohort of the Cloud GTM Leader course next week.
In this newsletter we’ll cover 4 key strategies of successful Cloud GTM:
How Cloud GTM is transforming legacy partnerships
Mastering Cloud GTM: setting strong foundations
Aligning product and listings strategies
Standing out and building relationships in a sea of 15K+ cloud listings
Before we dive in, a quick note: this is your final opportunity to 💡 join Cohort 6 of our course starting on June 4th. Scroll below for a special offer for our valued newsletter subscribers.
Now, back to strategy.
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How Cloud GTM is Transforming Legacy Partnerships
Partnerships and channels have been the backbone of growth for software companies for decades. But the explosion of Cloud Marketplaces has changed everything.
Here is how.
Legacy partnerships, typically based on indirect sales channels, reseller and distribution agreements, often created significant returns, but they also came with major risks and limitations, such as long time to revenue and growth.
📈 Efficiency and Scale of Cloud GTM
With the rise of hyperscalers of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, software companies now have access to unprecedented scalability and reach. Their cloud marketplaces are rapidly becoming the largest ecosystems where partners can co-sell, co-market, and co-innovate.
Cloud GTM speed and efficiency is compelling. Unlike traditional partnerships that can take months to finalize and roll out across geos, getting listed on a cloud marketplace is a relatively quick process.
This allows companies to tap into a global customer base, achieve faster time-to-market, and accelerate their growth.
💰 Leveraging $348Bn in Committed Spend
A critical advantage of Cloud GTM is the access to pre-committed cloud budgets. Enterprises and increasingly SMBs are committing significant budgets to cloud services. They do that more confidently because they can buy additional products via cloud marketplaces. More on commits in my previous newsletter.
By leveraging marketplaces, ISVs can tap into these budgets, driving larger deal sizes.
For buyers, marketplaces create a simplified and consistent customer experience, whether it’s net new purchases or renewals.
🤝 Global Reach & Tapping into Thousands of Sellers
Cloud GTM also comes with enhanced discoverability both through marketplaces and access to cloud salesforce. In legacy partnerships, visibility often depended on the partner’s marketing efforts and fragmented customer base. In contrast, cloud marketplaces offer built-in visibility to millions of potential customers seeking solutions.
Additionally, hyperscalers have tens of thousands of field sellers that companies co-sell with. This inherent visibility and access could be a game-changer for software companies looking to expand.
📊 Despite these advantages, Cloud GTM does not come without challenges.
It requires a shift in mindset, willingness to adapt to new sales and marketing processes, and investment in new technologies. However, the potential rewards far outweigh the risks.
As cloud adoption continues to grow, the importance of Cloud GTM will only increase. The traditional partnerships, while still relevant, is no longer sufficient in an increasingly digital world.
Companies that embrace Cloud GTM unlock new growth and stay ahead of the competition.
Now that we’ve covered WHY, let’s focus on HOW.
The following two articles are from our series in collaboration with Darren Sharpe, Microsoft Commercial Marketplace Lead.
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Mastering Cloud GTM: Setting Strong Foundations
If you’re starting your Cloud GTM journey, you need to lay the foundation for your success. To achieve growth via this new route to market, start by setting the groundwork and align your team.
6 Key steps for software companies:
1️⃣ Leadership Buy-In
Success in the cloud marketplace starts at the top. Get your buy-in from leadership by presenting clear opportunities of cloud marketplace and how they can complement your current routes to market.
Securing leadership approvals from at least two top execs is essential to move forward.
To get a green light, top alliance leaders present a business case with key assumptions - time to marketplace ramp up, deal acceleration, cost to scale this RTM, etc.
2️⃣ ISV Success Signup
Begin your journey by officially engaging in hyperscaler programs. This shows your commitment to listing your solutions and building a GTM strategy that aligns with cloud marketplaces.
Microsoft is offering ISV Success via its AI Cloud Partner Program. It’s a 12-mo program for ISVs to build well-architected applications, publish to the Microsoft marketplace, and grow revenue. Other hyperscalers have similar programs.
3️⃣ CxO Level Owner(s)
Top down leadership for the business process change is super important or it gets stuck. Nominating a C-level owner will dramatically increase the adoption of your marketplace strategy across the company.
A sales-aligned CxO can be particularly effective.
4️⃣ Learn the Market
Learn what’s working (and not) for the top companies in cloud GTM. This will help you discover the quickest path to scale and address internal objections. You can learn from our insights/newsletter, follow Darren Sharpe, Jay McBain and others.
5️⃣ Get listings live
Your offering should be transactable on the marketplace - this will make it easy for customers to buy, and will allow hyperscalers to start co-selling. “Land and Expand'' is essential in Cloud GTM, and transactable listing is key to unlocking it.
While listing, make sure to clearly articulate how your product’s benefits are different and better.
6️⃣ Align Key Teams
Define who is responsible for what across your key company functions that will be involved.
Your teams to align should include Product, GTM/Commercial, Tech/Engineering, and your marketplace GTM leader - all working in concert.
Set a regular (weekly) standup to ensure accountability and rapid progress.
Cloud GTM isn't just about getting your products listed; it's about creating a robust system that ties to business objectives and drives growth through cloud marketplace engagement and co-sell.
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Aligning Product and Listings Strategies
Now that we’ve set the foundations, let’s set your product and listings strategy to maximize Cloud GTM momentum and revenue via this channel.
Here's a practical 5-step framework to use.
5 Marketplace Product Strategy Steps for Software Companies:
1️⃣ Segment Customer for Marketplace Success
Start by identifying potential customer segments most likely to purchase through cloud marketplaces.
For example, target enterprise clients eager to use their cloud commitments, or companies seeking standardized, secure, and consolidated software purchasing options.
2️⃣ Prioritize Your Best Products
To turn the marketplace into one of your key routes to markets, you need to build momentum. Avoid listing many unproven products that might not capture customer or cloud seller interest.
Instead, list your flagship products to attract customers and start co-sell with hyperscalers. Supporting your listings with a robust Cloud GTM strategy is crucial. More later.
📍 Pro Tip: Evaluate, If Multiple Top Products in Your Stack
Consider which products help cloud customers to simplify their journey to cloud modernization. Focus on them first and highlight this to hyperscaler sellers for better engagement.
3️⃣ Craft Enterprise-Grade Listings
Marketplaces today cater mostly to enterprises, handling large software deals, making it essential for your offerings to be enterprise-ready.
Most companies start and scale with Private Offers, if they sell on enterprises. ~85% of companies in our course use PO.
📍 Why Private Offers?
For ISVs: Easy to start, full control, and custom pricing flexibility.
For Buyers: Combines ability to negotiate and use cloud commitments with the convenience of standard marketplace contracts.
4️⃣ Enable SaaS Free Trial
Align your marketplace offerings with evolving buyer behaviors that favor self-service discovery.
Free trials also align with the typical sales process of most companies. Using them or similar experiences like proofs of concept through the marketplace can effectively capture demand.
Self-Serve "Land and Expand" Offer
Alternatively, use self-serve with an accessible price point to sell low-touch and expand later.
If your product isn’t suited for this “click to deploy” route (many aren’t), consider a “Consulting offer” to engage with prospects around their unique requirements and deployment.
5️⃣ Review & Sync Your Product Roadmaps
Align your marketplace strategies with your product and acquisition roadmaps.
Ensure clear communication across teams and use buyer personas to craft new and refine existing offers and pricing strategies effectively.
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Standing Out and Building Relationships in a Sea of 15K+ Cloud Listings
With 15,000 listings on the AWS marketplace alone, how do you stand out to get traction?
Here are insights from Aaron Verstraete who has an incredible track record leading alliances in companies like Zendesk and Forethought AI and previously leading the platform product strategy at Box.
Aaron shared his key learnings in his recent session in our Cloud GTM Leader course:
🥞 Building Relationships with Clouds Is Like Baking a Cake
Aaron highlights that getting traction with hyperscalers requires a multi-layered approach:
"Every time you're going to work with a cloud partner, no matter which one it is, it's like a layer cake. You've got to understand there's going to be a variety of layers. No single one is a silver bullet."
🛠 Strategic Building Decisions Impact Cloud Traction
He stresses how choices in product architecture can influence a company's visibility and appeal within cloud marketplaces:
"How do you build, what services are you consuming? …Can they market you as a startup that's using Bedrock? Or are you just using compute and storage?"
📈 Importance of Proactivity in Marketplaces
Aaron underscores the importance of being proactive to kickstart and maintain momentum in cloud marketplace engagements:
"To get the flywheel started, that's on you - you've got to drive it. That's one of those points that I would keep in mind during the change management. It takes time."
🤝 Co-Selling Goes Beyond Just Selling
Aaron highlights the broader value of co-selling beyond immediate sales,, such as gaining strategic insights and strengthening partnerships:
"The easiest thing to get out of a co-sell conversation is intel. Information. It can be about procurement, legal budget process. It could be decision making. It could be challenges they're facing."
💳 Leveraging Commitments in Marketplace Strategies
Aaron emphasizes the importance of focusing on committed spends and the ability to transact through cloud marketplaces to align sales efforts
"If it's a competitive deal and our competitor does not have the ability to go through the Marketplace. For the [cloud] rep to say, you've got company A and company B, A can go through Marketplace, A can consume your committed spend. " That's a winning advantage.
These insights come from Aaron’s years of experience, so consider incorporating them in your playbook.
Want to learn in-depth marketplace strategies with exceptional VP-level experts, Mentors in a cohort of alliance leaders of Cloud GTM Course?
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📈 Accelerate your Growth in Cloud Marketplaces
Transform your marketplace strategy with first-hand insights from Cloud GTM leaders in our 5-week cohort course. Learn in a community of great alliance leaders. Join 100+ alums from companies like GitLab, Darktrace, IDC and others.
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