Summary (approx. 300 characters): Unlock co-sell success by aligning your entire organization—from executives to sales and marketing. Learn how to prepare for Microsoft Marketplace, overcome internal challenges, and build a winning go-to-market strategy with enablement, collaboration, and clear expectations for growth. Unique in HTML:

Get Co-Sell Ready: Unlocking the Power of Microsoft Marketplace

Co-selling with Microsoft can supercharge your growth, but is your organization truly ready? Mike Marzano, a seasoned expert, shares key insights on building a successful co-sell program. It’s not just about having a great product or listing on Azure Marketplace. Instead, it requires aligning teams, processes, and strategies across your entire business.

What’s New: The Rise of Marketplace Co-Sell

Marketplace has become a crucial channel for many fast-growing companies, including industry leaders like Wiz. Microsoft’s co-sell motion taps into this ecosystem, offering a huge revenue opportunity. However, success demands more than just technology—it calls for executive alignment and cross-functional collaboration.

“Standing up a co-sell program will likely require challenging existing norms within your business.”

Mike emphasizes that finance teams, deal desks, sellers, and even customers may face unfamiliar processes. Preparing everyone is key to avoid friction and unlock value.

Major Updates: Key Areas to Assess for Co-Sell Readiness

Overall Strategy

• Are you focused on high growth or profitability?
• Is your approach sales-led or product-led growth (PLG)?
• Do you have a clear partnership strategy and reporting lines?
• How much value comes from services versus SaaS?

Product & Technology

• Is your product built on Microsoft’s tech stack?
• What’s the customer sign-up and implementation workflow?
• Does your product run on Azure, and where?
• How open is your team to sharing the product roadmap?

Legal, Finance & Operations

• Are you ready for Microsoft’s standard marketplace terms?
• What are your booking rules, margins, and compensation plans?
• How do you handle lead sharing and CRM hygiene?
• Where do Marketplace purchases fit in your sales cycle?

Sales, Marketing & Customer Success

• Who are you selling to, and how comfortable are they with Marketplace?
• Do your sellers know how to co-sell with partners?
• Is your marketing verticalized and partner-focused?
• Are you aligned with Microsoft’s priority topics?

What’s Important to Know: Collaboration is Key

Mike stresses,

“You’ll need to align and collaborate with more teams than you might think.”

Change can be uncomfortable, especially if people don’t understand their roles. A clear strategy with defined milestones—month 1, 12, and 18—helps set expectations and measure success.

Building a co-sell GTM strategy takes a village. Thinking ahead prevents unfamiliar processes from becoming obstacles. If you want to dive deeper, Mike invites you to join a session on June 18 for practical tips and pitfalls to avoid.

Ready to tap into Microsoft’s co-sell ecosystem? Start by assessing your readiness across strategy, product, legal, finance, sales, and marketing. Then, align your teams and set clear goals to unlock the full potential of Marketplace co-selling.

Assess your co-sell readiness across strategy, product, legal, finance, and operations.

Integrate Marketplace sales seamlessly into your existing sales and CRM processes.

Ensure executive alignment and cross-functional collaboration for smooth co-sell execution.

Develop partner-focused marketing materials tailored to verticals and Microsoft priorities.

Prepare your sales team with clear incentives and training for co-selling with partners.

From the New blog articles in Microsoft Community Hub

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