How to get heard by Microsoft and win more together
At Ultimate Partner LIVE Bellevue, May 11-13, some of the sharpest practitioners in the Microsoft ecosystem are coming together to share what works. These are candid, practitioner-led sessions built for senior leaders who need to walk away with something they can use, not a framework to revisit in six months. đď¸ Sessions Worth Your Time đ° Marketplace Meets AI: The New Route to Partner Revenue Cyril Belikoff, VP Microsoft Azure ¡ Jon Yoo, CEO Suger Cyril Belikoff helped architect the unified Microsoft Marketplace and launched the resale enabled offer, which lets channel partners bundle software development company solutions and transact against Azure commit. Within the 1st week of GA, partners were already processing deals at scale. Cyril joins Vince Menzione and Jon Yoo, CEO of Suger, on Day 1 to cover where the AI-driven marketplace motion is heading and what partners need to do now to capture their share of the revenue flowing through it. Cyrilâs advice for the partner still on the sideline is direct: do not try to boil the ocean. Get listed. Create offerings. Figure out 1 or 2 deals, transact them, and see the opportunity. This session gives you the map. đŻ From Attention to Trust: The New Rules of Hyperscaler Go-To-Market Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO Transcends ¡ Leigh Ann Campbell, Principal REV Alliances We are no longer in an attention economy. You are not competing to be seen. You are competing to be trusted, and the shift has a specific mechanism. AI agents are already making procurement decisions using verified signals: co-sell track records, Partner Center data, marketplace history, certifications. The partners building that record now are building an advantage that compounds quickly and is difficult to replicate later. Leigh Ann Campbell has driven over $200 million in influenced and net-new revenue through the Microsoft partner ecosystem. She knows what happens to a referral the moment it lands in Partner Center and what you need to do to make sure it does not die there. Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, brings the broader GTM lens on how the trust economy is changing what buyers respond to and where most partner marketing misses the mark. đ Partner to Pipeline: Activating your GTM Strategy Reis Barrie, CEO Carve Partners ¡ Greg Goldkamp, Sr. Director Microsoft This is the rare combination of a partner who has built real pipeline through Microsoftâs co-sell motion and a Microsoft leader who can tell you directly what gets field attention and what gets ignored. Most software companies approach co-sell as a relationship exercise. The ones generating real pipeline treat it as a system. They know which solution plays are active in the current fiscal year. They show up in seller conversations before a deal is open. They make it easy for a Microsoft seller to bring them in because the pitch is already mapped to what that seller is measured on. This session covers how to build that system, from first registration in Partner Center through closed pipeline. đ From Connector to Catalyst: Todayâs Alliance Manager Erin Figer, Founder CORE Consulting ¡ Christine Bongard, CEO The WIT Network ¡ Steven Karachinsky, CEO ZIRO Erin Figer helped build the co-sell practices at Microsoft, AWS, and Google Cloud when those programs were still being designed. She brings a reframe that changes how the best alliance teams operate: before you can market with a hyperscaler, you have to market to them. Treat Microsoft like a customer. Understand their priorities, their fiscal calendar, their field incentives. Build the internal credibility that gets you pulled into deals instead of chasing them. Joined by Christine Bongard and Steven Karachinsky, this session covers what the transition from connector to catalyst looks like in practice and what separates the alliance managers who generate revenue from those who manage relationships. đĄ Why the practitioner track matters These are not panel discussions with safe answers. This audience asks direct questions, and the speakers in these sessions are prepared to give direct answers. These sessions run across both days alongside 2 full tracks of mainstage content covering marketplace, distribution, AI strategy, and Microsoftâs channel priorities heading into FY27. đ UP LIVE Bellevue ¡ May 11â13, 2026 InterContinental Hotel, Bellevue, WA đ Exclusive discount for Microsoft partners Use code ULTIMATEVIP50 at checkout for a special discount reserved for Microsoft partners. đ Register for UP LIVE Bellevue Ultimate PartnerÂŽ is the premier independent platform for technology partnership leaders, uniting the hyperscaler ecosystem to achieve their greatest results through partnering. An official Microsoft GPS recognized community.Firm AI for professional services: governed, agentic workflows built on Microsoft Azure
In this installment of our Partner Spotlight series, weâre highlighting partners building industry-focused AI solutions and bringing them to customers through Microsoft Marketplace. I connected with Richard Baskerville from Intapp to learn how the company is delivering Firm AIâgoverned, agentic capabilities designed specifically for professional and financial services firmsâwhile aligning with Microsoft Azure for security, scale, and enterprise procurement. Intappâs approach shows what it looks like to pair deep vertical workflow expertise with a trusted cloud platform so customers can adopt AI in a way that is both practical and accountable. About Richard Baskerville Richard Baskerville is a Senior Director at Intapp, where he helps shape strategic AI alliances across the Microsoft ecosystem and beyond. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [JR] Tell us about Intapp. What inspired the founding of the company, and what problems do your solutions help customers solve? [RB] Intapp was founded on a durable observation: professional firmsâlaw firms, accounting practices, private capital firms, and investment banksâoperate differently than general enterprises. Their workflows are shaped by client relationships, professional obligations, and regulatory requirements that generic software was never designed to handle. Our founders saw that these firms were either building bespoke systems at enormous cost or forcing themselves into enterprise tools that didnât fit. Today, Intapp delivers Firm AIâgoverned AI purpose-built for professional services. Our solutions span the full firm lifecycle: business development through Intapp DealCloud, time capture and billing through Intapp Time, and risk and compliance management across Intapp Conflicts, Intake, Terms, Walls, and Employee Compliance. Underpinning it all is Intapp Celeste, our agentic AI platform, which puts AI to work on the specific workflows that drive firm performanceâwhile keeping humans accountable and in control. For firms where every engagement carries professional liability, that governance layer isnât a feature; itâs the foundation. [JR] What industries or types of organizations do you primarily serve today? [RB] Intapp serves professional and financial services firms exclusively. That focus is intentionalâand itâs what makes us different. Our customers are law firms, accounting and consulting practices, investment banks and advisory firms, private capital managers, and real assets firms. Many are among the largest in their categories globally. These firms share characteristics that set them apart from general enterprises: partnership structures, billable-hour economics, client conflict management, regulatory oversight, and relationship networks spanning decades. Generic CRM or ERP tools arenât built for these dynamics. Intapp is. That vertical depthâbuilt over more than 20 yearsâis what Firm AI means in practice: AI that understands the context of a law firm partnerâs client obligations or a dealmakerâs fund-level requirements, not just the general shape of business software. [JR] What were your initial expectations for Microsoft Marketplace when you first started your journey? [RB] Our initial expectation was straightforward: Marketplace would give us a cleaner path to transact with customers already operating inside the Microsoft ecosystem. Many of our customersâlarge law firms and financial services firmsâhad already committed significant Azure spend through enterprise agreements. Marketplace offered a way to meet them commercially where they already were. What we underestimated was how much Marketplace would shape the broader partnership. We went in expecting a distribution channel. What we found was a framework that connected co-sell, Azure consumption alignment, and joint go-to-market in ways that changed how our teams engaged. The commercial mechanicsâparticularly MACC drawdown eligibilityâbecame a real conversation-opener with procurement and finance stakeholders, not just a contract path. [JR] What applications do you have available in Microsoft Marketplace, and how do they help customers? [RB] Intapp has 12 SaaS solutions available in Microsoft Marketplace today, transacted via private offers. They span the full professional services firm lifecycleâfrom relationship intelligence and deal management with Intapp DealCloud, to time capture with Intapp Time, to risk and compliance management across Intapp Conflicts, Intake, Terms, Walls, and Employee Compliance. Because we focus exclusively on professional and financial services, customers arenât buying horizontal software adapted for their industry; theyâre buying solutions designed for their workflows, compliance obligations, and client structures. Looking ahead, Intapp Celesteâour agentic AI platformâwill be available in Marketplace via a consumption-based, metered model. That structure matches how agentic AI gets used: variably, tied to real firm activity, and governed end-to-end. [JR] What were the biggest lessons you learned early on when selling through Marketplace? [RB] Three lessons stood out early: Listing is the beginning, not the end. Initial traction required deliberate investment in co-sell enablementâensuring Microsoft field teams could position Intapp clearly, not just point to a catalog entry. Specificity wins. Our customers are sophisticated buyers. What worked was leading with vertical relevanceâspeaking directly to the compliance requirements of a law firm or the relationship-data challenges of a private capital manager. Private offers require commercial fluency. Helping customers understand how Intapp maps to Azure commitmentsâand helping Microsoft sellers tell that storyâmade a material difference in deal velocity. [JR] How has your business changed with a transactable offer on the Marketplace? [RB] Transactable offers have changed how deals close. Customers with existing Azure commitments can apply Intapp spend against their MACC, removing a procurement obstacle that previously added months to cycles. Finance and procurement can work within familiar Microsoft frameworks rather than running separate vendor onboarding. Marketplace has also expanded our reach. Microsoftâs field organization has relationships we canât replicate at scale, and co-sell has helped translate that reach into qualified pipelineâespecially in segments where we previously had limited coverage. And the signal matters: being transactable in Marketplace reinforces that Intapp is an enterprise-grade partner, not a niche point solution. [JR] How has collaborating with Microsoft sellers impacted your Marketplace growth? [RB] Microsoft sellers are the activation mechanism for our Marketplace offers. Without field alignment, a listing is a catalog entry. With it, it becomes a joint pipeline motion. Weâve invested in enablementâgiving sellers the vertical context to position Intapp credibly in front of legal and financial services CIOs, and making it easy to bring us into deals where Azure capabilities are already in the conversation. That alignment shows up in specific segments. In private capital and investment banking, Microsoft enterprise relationships often predate oursâco-sell provides warm introductions backed by a trusted infrastructure partner. In legal, where Microsoft 365 is near-universal, that adjacency and deep interoperability creates natural entry points. Co-sell turns those adjacencies into active pipeline rather than theoretical opportunity. [JR] What has made the co-sell relationship with Microsoft particularly valuable for Intapp? [RB] Co-sell works because itâs structurally aligned, not just commercially convenient. Microsoftâs investment in these verticalsâthrough industry clouds, compliance frameworks, and dedicated field teamsâmaps directly onto Intappâs customer base. Weâre selling into the same firms, with the same platform expectations underpinning both offerings. What makes it particularly valuable is the mutual trust transfer. Firms hold Microsoft to a high standard for security, data governance, and regulatory compliance. When Microsoft sellers bring Intapp into the conversation, that credibility extends to us and compresses the trust-building phase of an enterprise cycleâespecially in regulated industries. [JR] How does Microsoft Marketplace fit into Intappâs long-term growth strategy? [RB] Marketplace is central to how we scale Firm AI globally. Our ambition is to be the governed AI platform of record for professional firms across legal, private capital, accounting, and advisory. Helping customers decrement MACC through Marketplace purchases is a clear win-win because it aligns platform investment with workflow outcomes. The upcoming Marketplace availability of Intapp Celeste which will offer different commercial models for customers (e.g. consumption based) marks the next phase. As Celeste deepens integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Azure AI services, the commercial and technical stories convergeâcustomers can both buy and operate within an architecture where Firm AI and Microsoftâs platform reinforce each other. [JR] What advice would you give other SDCs who are just starting their Microsoft Marketplace journey? [RB] Three things matter most early on: Earn the co-sell relationship before you need it. Invest in enablement early so Microsoft sellers have enough vertical context to represent your value clearly. Get your commercial model right for the channel. Understand how private offers interact with Azure commitments, and plan for consumption-based pricing where it fits AI usage. Lead with a sharp point of view. The partners who gain traction fastest are the obvious choice for a specific industry workflow or problemâknow what that is and communicate it consistently. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Closing reflection Intappâs Marketplace journey shows that industry-specific, governed AI wins when itâs paired with an enterprise platform customers already trust. By making solutions transactableâespecially through private offers that align to customerâs existing Azure commitmentsâIntapp reduces procurement friction and accelerates adoption. And like many successful partners, their growth ultimately comes down to enablement: clear vertical messaging and tight co-sell alignment that turns Marketplace presence into a real, qualified pipeline.Optimizing Azure spend with Microsoft Marketplace
As someone deeply involved with Microsoft Marketplace product marketing team, I was excited to host our recent customer office hour session with Trunal Bhanse, CEO of Clazar. Our conversation focused on using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend. The session explored how organizations can leverage Marketplace as a strategic procurement engine and maximize their cloud investments. Setting the stage: Marketplace as a growth engine Every organization today is striving to become a frontier firmâenriching employee experiences, reinventing customer engagement, and reshaping business processes. With AI at the center of transformation, the question often arises: should we build or buy AI solutions? If buying, how do we procure them efficiently and securely? Thatâs where Microsoft Marketplace comes in. Itâs your trusted source for cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents, offering the largest catalog in the industry. Marketplace is fully integrated with Microsoft Cloud, providing a seamless experience from discovery to deployment. Whether you need standard contracts, private offers, or multi-year agreements, Marketplace adapts to your procurement needs and ensures your transactions are visible in the Azure cost management portal. Azure spend optimization: The power of Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) A major focus of our session was the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC). This agreement allows organizations to commit to a certain level of Azure consumption in exchange for discounted rates. The beauty of MACC is that eligible Marketplace transactions decrement your commitment dollar-for-dollar. That means when you purchase MACC-eligible solutions through Marketplace, youâre directly funding your cloud investments and maximizing your discounts. Our conversation covered how to identify MACC-eligible solutions using tools like Azure Marketplace Compass, the Azure portal, and Marketplace storefront. With over 4,000 eligible solutions available, most organizations can find the software they need and align it with their MACC commitments. This approach is especially valuable at fiscal year-end or when budgets are tight, allowing you to leverage your commitment for critical investments. Operationalizing Marketplace procurement To truly optimize spend companies should start with an inventory of all solutions currently deployed or planned for procurement across their organization. By mapping this inventory against MACC-eligible offers, they can ensure every purchase maximizes commitment and discounts. Security and governance are also paramount. Marketplace enables role-based access controls and private marketplaces, so only authorized employees can procure approved applications. This walled-garden approach gives administrators full control over whatâs available for procurement. Partner solutions and automation To bring the MACC optimization process to life, Clazar provided a live demonstration of their platform which specializes in automation of this process. Their solution enables organizations to seamlessly match their software inventory against MACC-eligible offers, giving procurement and finance teams consolidated visibility into spend and streamlining the entire procurement workflow. With robust integrations for single sign-on-systems and automated dashboards, Clazar empowers customers to instantly identify eligible applications and make faster, more informed decisions about their Azure Marketplace investments Microsoft Marketplace is more than a procurement platformâitâs a strategic lever for optimizing Azure spend, accelerating innovation, and simplifying operations. By aligning purchases with MACC commitments, organizations unlock savings, streamline processes, and gain unparalleled visibility into their cloud investments. To learn more, watch the full recording of our conversation here: Using Microsoft Marketplace to optimize Azure spend - Microsoft Marketplace Community Resources Microsoft Marketplace: Microsoft Marketplace | cloud solutions, AI apps, and agents Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) benefit: Azure Consumption Commitment Benefit - Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft Learn Cost management for Microsoft Marketplace purchases: Cost management for Microsoft Marketplace purchases - Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft LearnWhat partners need to know before Microsoftâs new fiscal year
At Ultimate Partner LIVE Bellevue, May 11â13, a lineup of senior Microsoft executives will take the mainstage to share what is shifting, what it means for your business, and how the most aligned partners are responding. Here is who to know. Stephen Boyle, CVP, Enterprise Partner Solutions Stephen leads Microsoftâs enterprise partner sales organization and brings a direct view of how the ecosystem is performing at the highest levels. In his fireside with Vince Menzione, he will share what the most successful partners are doing differently as AI moves from a conversation to a core business motion. For any partner navigating co-sell, enterprise alignment, or ecosystem positioning heading into FY27, this is the session that sets the frame. Alex Zagury, CVP, Global Channel Sales Alex brings a perspective most Microsoft leaders do not have, more than a decade at Cisco where she built a $9B+ partner-managed business and led the integration of the $28B Splunk acquisition. She joined Microsoft to apply that experience to the indirect channel. Her session covers FY27 channel priorities: where Microsoft is investing, what the most successful CSP and indirect partners are doing right now with AI and Copilot, and why the partners who have moved to an outcomes-based model are already seeing compounding growth. Jose Gomez Cueto, General Manager, Americas SMB The $777B SMB opportunity is Microsoftâs largest addressable market, and Jose leads it across the Americas. His session addresses what it means for an SMB customer to become a Frontier Firm, and why MSPs are the critical link in making that happen. He will also share how Microsoft moved faster to bring SMB-specific AI products to market than it ever has before, and what that signals for the rest of FY27. Cyril Belikoff, VP, Microsoft Azure and Industry Clouds Cyril has been at the center of some of the most significant structural changes Microsoft has made to how partners transact. He helped architect the unified Microsoft Marketplace and launched the Resale Enabled Offer, which enables channel partners to bundle ISV solutions and transact against Azure commit. His session addresses where the AI-driven marketplace motion is heading and what partners need to do now to capture their share of the revenue flowing through it. More Microsoft on the Agenda Microsoft leaders Greg Goldkamp, Monica French, Erwin Visser, Mira Ayad, and others will deliver practical, execution-focused content across co-sell, distribution, the SMB channel, and AI strategy throughout both days. This is not a product showcase or a keynote built for an audience of thousands. It is a room of 250+ senior partner executives, 2 days of mainstage and spotlight sessions, and direct access to the Microsoft leaders whose priorities will shape the next 12 months. đ UP LIVE Bellevue ¡ May 11â13, 2026 InterContinental Hotel, Bellevue, WA đ Exclusive discount for Microsoft partners Use code ULTIMATEVIP50 at checkout for a special discount reserved for Microsoft partners. đ Register for UP LIVE Bellevue Ultimate PartnerÂŽ is the premier independent platform for technology partnership leaders, uniting the hyperscaler ecosystem to achieve their greatest results through partnering. An official Microsoft GPS recognized community.From co-sell ready to co-sell active: How to drive Microsoft seller engagement
About the author: Trunal Bhanse, CEO, Clazar, brings significant experience as a leader and an innovator across Airbnb and Confluent. At the latter, Trunal led a pioneering team of engineers scaling cloud marketplaces and billing infrastructures. Having witnessed the complexity first-hand,â¨he launched Clazar to democratize cloud marketplace access for businesses. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Selling with Microsoft is one of the most effective ways for software development companies to access enterprise pipeline at scale. Co-sell deals close around 30% larger and up to 2x faster than deals without Microsoft involvement. With over 500,000 partners in the ecosystem, the opportunity is real, and so is the competition for it. The challenge is that most software companies focus on achieving co-sell status and then expect pipeline to follow. What we see at Clazar, working with hundreds of software companies across Microsoft Marketplace, is that readiness is the starting point. The software companies who actually generate co-sell pipeline invest in the habits and operational processes that turn status into active seller collaboration. This post shares five things those software companies do differently. Why reaching Azure IP co-sell eligibility unlocks enterprise opportunity The co-sell status ladder runs from in market to co-sell ready to Azure IP co-sell eligible. Most conversations focus on the first two steps, but the jump to IP co-sell eligible is where things meaningfully change. At that tier, your solution appears inside Microsoft's internal sales systems, customers can apply purchases toward their Azure consumption commitments, and Microsoft sellers can bring your solution into enterprise accounts with full program backing. These three factors together accelerate deal velocity in a way that earlier tiers simply cannot. Getting there requires either $100K USD in trailing 12-month Marketplace billed sales or Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR) or passing Microsoft technical validation. The most direct route is getting your first transactable deals through Marketplace so the Azure consumed revenue (ACR) clock starts running. What high-performing software companies do differently The software companies that build a consistent co-sell pipeline tend to share five common behaviors: 1. They build collateral for sellers, not just buyers A marketing one-pager explains what your product does. That is not the same as content that helps a Microsoft field rep decide whether to bring you into a deal. A seller asking about your solution wants to know one thing: why should I mention this at my next customer meeting? Good seller-facing collateral answers that question directly. It covers which Azure services your solution pairs with natively, which customer segments you win in, what problem you solve in plain language, whether your offer is Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)-eligible, and who at your company to contact. When a seller can see that picture quickly, they are more likely to act on it. 2. They treat their partner development manager (PDM) as a working partner Your partner development manager is your primary connection to the Microsoft field. Most software companies reach out to their partner development manager when they need something. The ones who get more out of the relationship make it a two-way channel. That means sharing pipeline updates, not just closes. It means asking for introductions to specific regional or vertical sellers rather than asking for general visibility. It means looping in the partner development manager when Microsoft is already present in an account and you are going into a pre-sales conversation. When you close a co-sell deal, send a short win summary: customer segment, use case, Azure services involved, deal size, and time to close. That gives your partner development manager a story they can use internally and reinforces that supporting your deals pays off. 3. They respond to referrals quickly and consistently Microsoft tracks how fast software companies respond to referrals, and response time is one of the clearest signals of operational readiness. The software companies who build strong co-sell relationships show up quickly on every referral, not just the ones that look promising. A reasonable target is same business day acknowledgment and full qualification within 24 hours. Getting there requires Partner Center referral intake to feed directly into your CRM with automatic routing to the right account executive. The simpler that process is, the more consistently it happens. It also helps to close the loop. When you accept a referral, let the referring seller know. When you close it, tell them that too. Sellers who feel kept in the loop refer more. 4. They submit outbound referrals, not just receive them Co-sell works best when it goes in both directions. Many software companies receive referrals but do not submit them for deals they are already working. Submitting outbound referrals in Partner Center increases your visibility to Microsoft sellers in relevant accounts, signals that you are an active partner, and sometimes surfaces information about whether target accounts have Azure consumption commitments. Consistent referral activity creates a track record that makes future collaboration easier to initiate. 5. They actively use Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments eligibility in sales conversations Enterprise customers with Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC) need to deploy their committed spend, and actively look for solutions that count toward it. If your offer is IP co-sell eligible, it qualifies, and that can be a meaningful lever late in a customer's contract period. Most software companies who are MACC-eligible mention it somewhere in their documentation but do not actually use it in sales conversations. Training your sales team to bring it up, featuring it in your Marketplace listing description, and including it in your seller one-pager are all practical ways to put it to work. The operational side Everything above depends on having the right processes in place. Seller-facing collateral needs to be created and kept current.partner development manager relationships need a regular cadence. Referral intake needs to be connected to the CRM. MACC positioning needs to reach the sales team. Co-sell programs often underperform, not because the strategy is wrong, but because these operational pieces are fragmented. Partner Center sits separate from the CRM. Referrals expire without anyone noticing. The partner development manager relationship runs through one person's inbox. The software companies who generate repeatable co-sell pipeline have sorted out these operational basics with the right process and co-sell automation workflows. Three things worth doing immediately Read your co-sell one-pager from a seller's perspective. Does it answer the question: why should I bring this up in my next meeting? If not, that is where to start. Pull your referral response times from the last 30 days. If your average is over 24 hours, fixing that process is the most immediate lever you have. Schedule a working session with your partner development manager. Come with three recent wins, a specific region or vertical where you want introductions, and your 90-day pipeline target. Data makes those conversations more productive. If you would like to learn more and get your questions answered, join the live webinar on May 7 th Turning co-sell readiness into real Microsoft Marketplace revenue - Microsoft Marketplace Community. If you are unable to attend the webinar, you can use the same link to view the recording on demand after the session. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About Clazar Clazar is a cloud marketplace automation platform that helps software companies manage their cloud marketplace operations, including co-sell referral routing, private offer workflows, MACC tracking, and revenue reporting. We work with hundreds of software companies turning marketplace readiness into repeatable revenue. If you are working through any of the challenges above and want to compare notes, reach out to our experts.
The AI-powered partner: Winning in the Microsoft ecosystem
About the author: Richard Jean-Felix, Cloud Marketplace Architect, WorkSpan has spent his career at the intersection of cloud marketplace strategy and partner operations, with hands-on experience helping organizations scale their presence on both AWS and Microsoft Marketplace. At WorkSpan, he works directly with partners navigating the operational complexity of Microsoft co-sell, from integrating leads in Partner Central to building the processes that turn marketplace listings into repeatable revenue. He's the person in the room who's actually done the work. About WorkSpan: WorkSpan provides AI agents for sellers and partner managers through the WorkSpan.AI Marketplace and Co-sell Platform For Sellers: WorkSpan's inâCRM AI drives earlier, smarter coâsell actions. For Partner Managers: WorkSpan's AIâpowered insights help launch and scale Microsoft partnerships. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How AI is rewriting the rules of co-sell, Microsoft Marketplace success, and enterprise procurement â and why the window to act is now. For years, success in Microsoft's partner ecosystem came down to relationships, hustle, and knowing the right people. Those things still matter. But the gap between partner organizations that are winning and those that are stalling has opened â and increasingly, the difference isn't effort, it's intelligence. The volume of signals a modern partner leader is expected to act on â pipeline health, seller engagement, marketplace activity, incentive windows, account targeting, co-sell alignment â has grown faster than any team can process manually. At the same time, a seismic shift in how enterprise software is bought and sold is reshaping every go-to-market strategy. Cloud marketplaces are becoming the default procurement channel. AI is becoming the operating system of high-performing partnerships and selling with Microsoft's ecosystem is rewarding the prepared, the consistent, and the fast. This guide brings together the most critical insights from across the Microsoft partner landscape â the marketplace mistakes that cost software companies millions, the signals Microsoft sellers act on, the future of enterprise procurement, and the AI capabilities becoming table stakes for partner leaders who intend to win. Part 01 / The new procurement reality Cloud marketplaces are becoming the default buying channel For decades, enterprise software procurement followed a familiar path: a vendor sold directly to the customer, procurement teams negotiated contracts, finance approved the purchase, and software was deployed within the customer's infrastructure. That model is rapidly replaced. Cloud marketplaces like Microsoft Marketplace are no longer simply listing directories. They have evolved into strategic procurement channels that align the interests of customers, cloud providers, and software vendors simultaneously. The committed spend driver Large enterprises frequently commit hundreds of millions of dollars to cloud providers through multi-year agreements. When customers purchase software through a cloud marketplace, that purchase often counts toward their cloud spend commitments, uses existing cloud budgets, and avoids adding new vendor contracts to finance's plate. Procurement simplicity changes everything Traditional enterprise procurement can take months: vendor onboarding, contract negotiation, security reviews, procurement approvals, payment processing. Cloud marketplaces streamline this entire process. Because the software vendor is already integrated with the cloud provider's billing infrastructure, procurement teams can often purchase using the same contract they already have with the cloud provider. For software vendors, this means faster sales cycles and dramatically reduced time-to-revenue. For customers, it means deploying solutions in days, not months. The ecosystem reshaping partner relationships Marketplaces introduce new collaboration opportunities: partners can bundle solutions together, participate in multiparty private offers, transact jointly, and align services with software purchases. AI automation opportunity: AI can automate the monitoring of Marketplace performance metrics â pipeline health, private offer status, renewal windows, and Azure consumption contribution â surfacing next-best actions before opportunities slip. What once required manual reporting across multiple systems becomes a continuous, intelligent feed of actionable insight. Part 02 / Common pitfalls The 7 biggest mistakes software companies make with Microsoft Marketplace Microsoft Marketplace has become one of the fastest-growing enterprise software procurement channels. Many companies struggle to gain traction â and in most cases, the problem isn't Marketplace itself. It's the strategy behind how it's used. Mistake 01 â Treating Marketplace as a "listing requirement" Publishing a listing to satisfy a partner requirement â but never actively using it. Little internal awareness, minimal seller adoption, no real revenue impact. â Fix: Treat your listing as a core sales asset integrated into every deal. Mistake 02 â Waiting until the end of the deal to introduce Marketplace Introducing Marketplace only at procurement stage creates friction and stalled deals. The deal structure is already set, and changing it feels disruptive. â Fix: Position Marketplace as a buying advantage from first contact. Mistake 03 â Not enabling Microsoft sellers Without enablement, Microsoft sellers don't know what your solution does, which customers it fits, or how it drives Azure consumption â so they won't bring it to deals. â Fix: Provide a one-page seller pitch, target profiles, and Azure architecture alignment. Mistake 04 â Making private offers operationally difficult When creating a private offer requires multiple approval steps, manual calculations, and cross-team coordination, deals stall and sales teams avoid it. â Fix: Automate private offer creation â it should be as easy as generating a quote. Mistake 05 â Ignoring internal sales enablement If your own sellers don't understand compensation for Marketplace deals or see it as friction, they'll actively avoid it regardless of customer readiness. â Fix: Ensure sales compensation neutrality and train teams on marketplace value. Mistake 06 â Not tracking Marketplace performance Without visibility into pipeline influence, co-sell rates, and revenue flow, leadership can't justify investment and the program stalls from neglect. â Fix: Track Marketplace pipeline, win rates, and Azure consumption as core revenue metrics. Mistake 07 â Failing to build a repeatable Marketplace motion Celebrating a first Marketplace deal but never scaling beyond it. The real value comes from repeatability â automated offer creation, seller training, co-sell alignment, renewals, and upsell offers built into a consistent operating model. â Fix: Think of Marketplace as an operational capability, not a transactional tool. AI automation opportunity: AI can directly address the most painful of these mistakes. Automated private offer generation reduces Mistake 04 from a multi-day process to minutes. Intelligent seller enablement surfaces the right pitch and customer profile in context â eliminating Mistakes 03 and 05 without manual coordination. Performance dashboards powered by AI turn Mistake 06 into a continuous leadership advantage rather than a quarterly scramble. Part 03 / The co-sell engine How Microsoft sellers decide which partners to co-sell with Microsoft's field organization includes thousands of account executives and cloud sellers working with enterprise customers across the globe. In theory, this presents a massive opportunity. Microsoft sellers prioritize only a small number of partners in their daily sales motions. Does the solution drive Azure consumption? The single most important factor. Every Microsoft cloud seller is measured on Azure revenue growth. Solutions driving AI/ML workloads, data and analytics, security, or industry-specific Azure infrastructure receive the most attention. Is the solution easy to sell? Microsoft sellers operate with aggressive targets and little time. Top partners provide a simple one-page field brief: value proposition, ideal customer scenario, Azure architecture, and Marketplace purchasing instructions. Is the solution available through Microsoft Marketplace? Microsoft sellers strongly prefer solutions purchasable through Marketplace. Transactions simplify procurement and help customers apply purchases toward Azure consumption commitments â a win for the customer, Microsoft, and the partner. Is the partner actively engaged in selling with Microsoft? Publishing a listing is not enough. Effective partners register opportunities in Partner Center, share deal updates with Microsoft account teams, and participate in joint customer meetings. Does the partner have strong customer proof? Solutions with strong customer validation â case studies, referenceable deployments, measurable business outcomes â are much easier for sellers to recommend with confidence. Is the partner easy to work with? Partners who respond quickly, provide clear pricing, simplify contracting through Marketplace, and support joint selling activities build trust over time. Do Microsoft sellers know you exist? Even the best solution struggles if sellers aren't aware of it. Successful partners invest in seller briefings, joint webinars, and account planning sessions to actively build visibility. AI automation opportunity: The most transformative AI application in co-sell is moving from "here's our content, go find it" to one where intelligence is delivered to the seller proactively: the right account, the right partner fit, the right "better together" message â all surfaced automatically in the flow of how sellers actually work. Partners that crack seller activation at scale build a structural advantage that's very hard for competitors to close. Part 04 / The intelligence layer The partner leader's attention problem is real and structural. A typical partner organization is simultaneously managing dozens to hundreds of active co-sell opportunities, seller relationships across Microsoft field teams, Marketplace offers with expiration dates, incentive programs with changing eligibility, and account targeting decisions that should be data-driven but rarely are. Most partner teams are operating on instinct and heroics. Things fall through the cracks not because people aren't working hard â but because the volume of decisions requiring good information exceeds what's humanly possible to track. AI addresses this at the root: not by replacing the partner leader's judgment, but by ensuring that judgment is applied to the right things, at the right time, with the right context. đ Pipeline intelligence â AI continuously monitors pipeline health, flags deals going cold before it's too late, scores accounts by fit based on historical win patterns, and surfaces at-risk opportunities automatically. âď¸ Content generation â AI generates targeted value propositions for specific verticals, drafts seller-ready one-pagers, creates account-specific "better together" narratives, and produces ROI examples grounded in real customer data. ⥠Offer automation â AI automates private offer creation workflows, proactively surfaces renewal windows, and reduces time-to-offer from days to minutes. đŻ Account targeting â AI identifies accounts that look like past wins, generates lookalike account lists, surfaces applicable incentives in context, and ensures the right partner-to-account fit reaches the right seller at the right moment. đ Unified reporting â AI connects co-sell data, Marketplace data, seller activation data, and partner relationship data into a single view of partnership health â enabling leaders to see around corners and catch at-risk relationships before QBRs. đ Repeatability â AI transforms one-time Marketplace transactions into repeatable operational playbooks, automating renewals, surfacing upsell signals, and systematizing institutional knowledge. Part 05 / The compounding return The ecosystem intelligence layer: Where it all connects Individual AI capabilities are valuable. But the real step-change comes when those capabilities are connected â when co-sell data, Marketplace data, seller activation data, and partner relationship data inform a unified view of partnership health. Most partner organizations today operate with fragmented data: CRM in one place, partner portal data in another, Marketplace reporting somewhere else, and seller feedback captured nowhere. Every leadership meeting requires someone to manually pull everything together â and even then, the picture is incomplete. Partner leaders who build a connected ecosystem intelligence layer gain the ability to see around corners â to know before a QBR that a key co-sell relationship is at risk, to catch a Marketplace renewal window before the customer's procurement cycle closes, to see that a particular vertical is outperforming and double down before the opportunity peaks. This is the compounding return on AI investment in partnerships. The longer you run on connected data, the smarter your decisions get â and the harder it becomes for competitors operating on intuition to catch up. AI turns co-sell from a relationship management problem into a performance management discipline. Partner leaders who make this shift stop asking "are we aligned with Microsoft?" and start asking, "what does our data say about where we win, where we stall, and what the next best action is?" Conclusion The window to build this advantage is now The enterprise software buying process is evolving faster than most organizations are moving. Cloud marketplaces are rapidly becoming one of the most important channels for software procurement. Microsoft's selling programs reward partners who are prepared, consistent and responsive - and AI enables partners to meet those expectations at scale. The partners building this capability today are already seeing the effects â in seller engagement, pipeline conversion, Marketplace performance, and the quality of their strategic conversations with Microsoft. The infrastructure to do this exists, and it doesn't require a multi-year transformation. Success in the Microsoft ecosystem doesn't come from simply publishing a Marketplace listing or registering as a co-sell partner. It comes from building a structured, AI-powered go-to-market operation that turns every signal â every deal, every seller interaction, every Marketplace transaction â into compounding intelligence. Those who adapt early and build strong Marketplace strategies, powered by AI, will be well positioned to capture the growing opportunity of this new procurement model. Join us on April 28th for a live webinar to learn more and ask questions. Maximize selling with Microsoft and Marketplace ROI - Microsoft Marketplace Community. If you are unable to attend, the session will be recorded and available on demand via the same link.Microsoft Marketplace 101: Insights from high performing software development company sellers
Microsoft Marketplace is probably the one topic that can give 'AI' a run for its money in terms of the number of mentions on LinkedIn, on cloud hyperscaler blogs, and in Partner Ecosystem presentations. But ask the average SaaS seller what a marketplace is, and youâll probably get a different answer every time. Thatâs because marketplaces have become more than just a listing catalog, itâs now a pervasive commerce platform across the entire B2B Software purchase process. Jay McBain @ Omdia described Cloud Marketplaces as the "epicenter of partnerships, co-selling and co-innovationâ and we see that play out at Microsoft. The combination of Microsoft's co-sell model and Microsoft Marketplace has created the platform for modern procurement and modern partnerships. Today, Microsoft Marketplace: Impacts all personas and incentives â from customers commercial incentives, to software company program sale incentives, channel partner benefits, and hyperscaler seller compensation models Enhances B2B purchase processes for customers â Streamlining supplier onboarding, to internal FinOps, to governance and guardrails on purchasing Brings agility to the sales process for software companies and channel partners â from pricing and quoting, budget allocation, billing & payments, right through to co-selling and go-to-market. With this level of impact, itâs not surprising that Microsoft Marketplace represents a significant growth opportunity for software companies. Customers are increasingly transacting through Marketplace as they align Azure commitments with third-party software purchases and adopt a more âmarketplace-firstâ procurement approach. Research shows 69% of partners report larger deals and 75% close deals faster (Omdia), reinforcing the role of Marketplace as a strategic channel for enterprise software procurement. So, if you are a seller at a Microsoft SaaS software company and you want to take advantage of this opportunity, here are my five top learnings for high performance software sellers! This article assumes you are running your SaaS software platform on Microsoft Azure and you are already transactable in Marketplace. If you aren't, there are plenty of great resources for software companies to help get you there, and I have summarized them here: New Software Company Partner Guide. LEARNING 1 - Understand the customer benefits of Microsoft Marketplace and weave it into your customer proposal: This is about understanding the bigger picture of Marketplace for Microsoft customers, as the benefits go way beyond an individual transaction. The average enterprise is managing over 600 applications (Source - Zylo) and >60% of these applications being purchased outside of IT. Marketplace is a great way for customers to scale and bring efficiency across their B2B Software estate, giving them: Rapid access (find, try, buy) to software and AI innovation they need to run their business, Governance and guardrails for each purchase â so you are never compromising control and compliance. Streamlined procurement â onboarding suppliers in minutes using their Microsoft Agreement, invoicing and payment terms, Improved cloud economics â aligning the cloud consumption with your software company spend can unlock additional P&L impacting benefits, If you need to get up to speed on these aspects, check out: Microsoft Marketplace 101 - Top Customer Questions. LEARNING 2 - Understand how Microsoft partners can help you scale and close customer opportunities: Microsoft has always been a partner led organization. Today we have 500,000 partners globally ranging from a small start-up in a garage, to the largest Global Systems Integrator. These partners play different roles in our customers helping them transform and compete in the AI era through Microsoft Cloud & AI technologies. The great news for you is that we have empowered Microsoft channel partners and sales partners to sell Marketplace solutions. So, think about how you can use channel partners to (i). expand your reach, (ii). drive new opportunities or (iii). accelerate deal closure. We have a range of different models to support your channel led motions in our customers, including: Multi-party private offers (MPO) - Partner led sales agents for individual transactions. Resale enabled offers (REO) - Nominated and enabled partner representative by geo. Cloud solution provider (CSP) resellers - to scale into SMB/Corporate Accounts via a managed service provider For each opportunity, understand who the incumbent Microsoft partner is, and how you can use these mechanisms to accelerate your deal. Or better still, if you are looking to explore a more proactive partnership, check out the 1000s of Partners that are building Marketplace practices to support customers and software companies. Examples include Bytes, Softcat, CDW, Trustmarque, Crayon, Computacenter etc. LEARNING 3 - Accelerate your deal closure by including Microsoft programs and incentives into your customer proposal: Here are the most commonly used accelerators used by software company sellers to close deals: If you are marketplace transactable: Marketplace Rewards - Azure Sponsorship Credits - A performance related benefit that provides up to $400k in Azure Sponsorship Credits. These credits can be used as a deal sweetener with your Marketplace transaction and passed on to the customer for consumption. Up to 40% of transactions involve these credits today. If you are IP co-sell ready: Azure Benefit Eligible - This enables customers to decrement their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC) with eligible Marketplace purchases. By aligning their cloud consumption with their software company spend, it can unlock additional P&L impacting benefits. More than 85% of MACC customers buy via Marketplace. Microsoft IP co-sell incentive - This enables Microsoft sellers to get paid on the license value sold via Microsoft Marketplace. It also allows eligible Marketplace transactions to contribute to retiring Microsoft seller quota, helping accelerate deal alignment between partners and Microsoft field teams. If you have a Certified Software Designation (CSD): Marketplace Rewards - Azure Sponsorship Credits - If you come CSD Certified, Microsoft extends this benefit to $1M. These credits can be used as a deal sweetener with your Marketplace transaction and passed on to the customer for consumption. Customer Migrate & Modernize Incentive - This partner incentive is used to drive migrations to Microsoft Azure. Cash incentives vary based project size, but Microsoft will pay up to $200k per opportunity for NEW customer migrations to Microsoft Azure. High-performing software companies and sellers will combine these incentives into their proposals to help drive customer acquisition success. LEARNING 4 - Know your Microsoft customer Three things I urge every software company Seller to do as part of their Marketplace and co-sell conversations: Know your customer 1 - Understand the customer's Marketplace Propensity Score to help prioritize your opportunities Marketplace Propensity Scoring (combined with your co-Sell conversations) has proven a powerful tool for prioritizing pipeline and accelerating sales cycles. Offered as a Marketplace Rewards benefit, propensity scoring provides you with a score that ranks your pipeline prospects by their likelihood (0 to 100) to transact through Marketplace. The score is based on a number of factors including their commercials, existing spend and transaction volumes, relationship metrics etc. Access the benefit at: Microsoft Marketplace Rewards Know your customer 2 - Enable more tailored offers for customers by updating your MEDDIC, MEDDPICC or BANT qualification questions with these Marketplace qualifiers: Are they a Microsoft customer? This means they have agreed Microsoft terms and conditions to enable Marketplace transactions. Are they a Managed Microsoft Customer? This opens up the possibility of selling with Microsoft. What Microsoft segment/industry are they in? This opens up sales play alignment, industry go-to-market etc. How do they buy Microsoft Azure today? This helps navigate potential commercials, incentives and programs, purchase routes and the role of channel partners. Does the customer have a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)? This could unlock the MACC benefit of Azure Benefit Eligible which allows customers to decrement marketplace purchases. What is the status of their Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC)? Are they ahead or behind of their consumption commitment? Is it coming up for renewal? This is all about getting access to planned Azure budgets at the right time. Is there an incumbent Microsoft partner in the customer and what role do they play? It is forecasted that 60% of ALL marketplace sales will involve a channel partner, so get them involved early in the process. Know Your Customer 3 - Use the Partner Center referral process to engage incentivized Microsoft sellers and gain customer intelligence: Submitting your referrals via Partner Center will enable you to engage incentivized Microsoft sellers directly. For most Microsoft sellers, Microsoft Marketplace and co-sell deals are critical for how they will make their Azure quota. Help could include: Navigate and increase your visibility with the customer's buyers Gain insights on the customer's Azure commitments, Understand the partner landscape in the customer Potentially find ways to combine sales motions to drive bigger/better outcomes for all. Build this discipline with every opportunity is a key characteristic of a high-performance software company seller. LEARNING 5 - Celebrate and amplify Microsoft co-sell/Marketplace success The best Microsoft Marketplace and co-sell partners treat Microsoft as a customer. They market to the Microsoft sales and go-to-market teams the success they are driving, which in turn is driving further engagement and activity. Work with your aligned Microsoft Partner Development Manager to create a regular drumbeat of communication or use your Marketplace Rewards GTM benefits to amplify your success with the Microsoft sales teams. Need more help? Speak to your Partner Development Manager or aligned engagement manager Check out App Advisor for a guided experience on the journey for software development companies. Let me know your feedback or if you have any additional recommendations. Thanks Lee Corbett - EMEA ISV Recruit & Grow LeadMicrosoft Marketplace Partner Digest
March marks a strong quarter of momentum across the Microsoft Marketplace ecosystem, with partners scaling their businesses while delivering high quality customer experiencesâdirectly, through the channel, and alongside Microsoft. From monetizing AI innovation to streamlining post purchase workflows and co-selling motions, partners continue to turn Marketplace readiness into real, repeatable growth. This monthâs digest highlights the insights, updates, and opportunities helping software companies meet customers where and how they choose to buy. Articles worth reading As more partners race to build AI apps and agents, the real differentiator is turning that innovation into recurring revenue through scalable sales motions. Microsoftâs Brady Bumgarner shares how App Advisor helps teams think about monetization well before they publish an offer, empowering partners to launch with confidence and scale faster. đ Learn more about AI app and agent monetization Brady also breaks down how combining Marketplace transactable offers with Azure IP co-sell readiness turns co-selling into a true growth engine. More partners are leveraging the insights and guidance available through App Advisor to build repeatable co-selling muscle memory. đď¸See how co-selling with Microsoft can accelerate your business growth As customers move to AIâfirst architectures, cloud cost optimization is becoming a core decision lensânot just an operational concern. In this post, Justin Royal explores how customers are rethinking cost, performance, and governance as continuous disciplines. For sellers, this has clear implications: customers increasingly expect flexibility in how solutions scale, perform, and are paid for, and those expectations should shape how software companies build, package, and position offers on Marketplace. đ¸ Explore how customers are optimizing cloud spend as AI adoption scales Accelerate your Marketplace growth by delivering a seamless customer experience after the click. Marketplace Fulfillment APIs automate activation, entitlement, and subscription management so you can reduce friction, speed timeâtoâvalue, and scale globally with confidence. Explore how these APIsâand new Microsoft reference codeâhelp product teams integrate faster and support every customer at every stage. đ Discover how Marketplace Fulfillment APIs streamline and automate critical post purchase workflows Marketplace updates Dragon Copilot solutions in Microsoft Marketplace On March 5, we announced preview of Dragon Copilot solutions for Microsoft Marketplace. This enables software companies to build and sell AI apps and agents that integrate with Dragon Copilot, while allowing customers to discover and purchase solutions that work with their existing Microsoft investments. Software companies can build and publish their solutions using one of three offer types: Dragon Copilot Physician Apps and Agents (in preview now) Dragon Copilot Clinical App Connectors (coming soon) Dragon Copilot Radiology Apps and Agents (coming soon) Dragon Copilot is built for care teams including physicians, nurses, and radiologists and is already operating with more than 100,000 clinicians relying on it daily to support care for millions of patients each month. Steps you can take to get started: Read through ourâŻdocumentationâŻon how extensions for Dragon Copilot work and how to build your own Check out theâŻsample repoâŻwith sample code, and more Contact dragon_extensions@microsoft.com to inquire about joining preview đ Learn how Dragon Copilot solutions are modernizing Healthcare Recent events How to build a Microsoft Marketplace channel practice In his recent webinar, Darren Sharpe highlights how partners are increasingly building their channel businesses with Microsoft Marketplace at the coreâusing it as a channel-led, Marketplace delivered growth engine. As buying shifts toward lineofbusiness leaders and decentralized procurement, Marketplace brings together discovery, governance, and enterprise purchasing in one place. Darren shares how partners that align sales, alliances, and operations around Marketplace are better positioned to drive repeatable growth, meeting customers where and how they choose to buy. đĽ Watch on demand Inside Azure IP co-sell: What high-performing software companies do differently Get an insiderâs view of what truly moves the needle for Microsoft Marketplace and Microsoft Azure IP co-sell success. Guest speaker Barbara TreviĂąo breaks down the signals Microsoft prioritizes when assessing submission strengthâhelping software development companies understand what great looks like across architecture, messaging, evidence, and sequencing. Youâll learn why high performing software development companies approach readiness differently, and how that difference translates directly into smoother approvals and stronger GTM impact. đĽ Watch on demand AI-powered automation for Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell Learn how software development companies can use AI-powered automation to simplify buying through Microsoft Marketplace, streamline Microsoft Marketplace private offers, and maximize the effectiveness of co-selling opportunities. Join Jon Yoo, Co-Founder & CEO at Suger, as he explores how reducing operational friction in Partner Center can help you accelerate deal velocity, improve collaboration with Microsoft sellers, and drive Azure adoption. đĽ Watch on demand đ Coming up Partner office hour Build, publish, and optimize Marketplace offers with App Advisor Wednesday, Mar 18, 2026, 8:30 AM PDT Tune in for live demos and proven best practices on using App Advisor, Microsoftâs guided experience for Microsoft Marketplace success! Learn what App Advisor is, how it works, and how it can help partners accelerate Marketplace offer creation. Walk through key stages of the experience from validating value to publishing and optimizing your listing. âĄď¸ Get the meeting details Customer office hours Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace Wednesday, Mar 25, 2026, 9:30 AM PDT Build, buy, or blend? Gain the insights you need as a manufacturer to scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. Weâll go beyond AI theory and focus on practical manufacturing scenariosâconnecting factory equipment, IoT, and enterprise systems into a unified foundation that enables analytics, digital twins, and AI agents. âĄď¸ Get the meeting details In-person events Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2026 Microsoft Marketplace is sponsoring Channel Partners Conference & Expo 2026 in Las Vegas, with interactive sessions, booth conversations, and private meetings focused on helping channel partners understand how Marketplace can simplify software purchasing for their customers. Partners can expect to learn how the expansive catalogue of products and services available from thousands of software companies delivered through channel-led sales capabilities are Marketplace enabled and accelerate AIâ and cloudâled sales through Marketplace. đ April 13-16, 2026 đThe Venetian Resort, Las Vegas âĄď¸ See the details and learn how to register Microsoft AI Tour Our series continues, coming to more cities around the globe. Bringing inâperson opportunities for partners to connect with Microsoft experts, explore innovation and get inspired. âĄď¸ Find your city and registerHow to streamline Microsoft Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell with AI-powered automation
Kyle Heisner is a veteran GTM and Cloud Marketplace leader at Suger with extensive experience helping software companies scale through strategic partnerships and co-sell programs. He is known for transforming complex cloud ecosystems into clear, repeatable revenue motions. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ For software development companies selling through Microsoft Marketplace, the operational path from publishing a listing to closing a Marketplace private offer often feels like managing two separate businesses. You have your internal sales motion in your CRM, then you have the structured, plan-driven world of Partner Center. Bridging the gap between these two worlds â specifically configuring plans, managing billing terms, and maintaining accurate IP co-sell referrals â can create significant operational overhead. This guide walks through the key operational challenges of Marketplace private offer and IP co-sell workflows and shows how Suger's automation and AI capabilities reduce manual effort at each step. Mastering Microsoftâs Marketplace private offers The most common friction point for sellers new to Microsoft is the concept of the plan. In the Microsoft ecosystem, you cannot simply define a loosely structured contract with arbitrary dates; you must define explicit plans, billing terms, and pricing per term within Partner Center. If your CRM quote does not align perfectly with a pre-configured Microsoft plan, the transaction fails. The key is creating a reliable translation layer between your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar) and Microsoft Partner Center â one that maps your negotiated commercial terms to Microsoftâs required structure without forcing your sales team to become experts in portal navigation. Here's what that looks like in practice: Map deals to pre-defined Microsoft plans Whether your pricing is flat rate or per user, the goal is to ensure every CRM opportunity maps correctly before an offer is generated. With a CRM-native integration (such as Suger's Salesforce connector), a seller can click "Create Private Offer" and the system automatically: Identifies the correct Microsoft Plan ID Matches the negotiated term duration Aligns the offer with Microsoft's billing engine, no manual configuration required Close the loop from quote to cash Suger connects your CRM directly to Partner Center. Here's what the flow looks like: Opportunities are converted into Marketplace private offers without switching tools Once a customer accepts, the resulting entitlement syncs back to your system automatically Subscription data maps to your revenue recognition workflows and ERP The loop between the Microsoft commercial marketplace and your finance stack is closed, no re-keying required How to automate IP co-sell referrals and reduce rejection rates Achieving IP co-sell incentivized status is one of the most effective ways of unlocking access to Microsoft sellers and Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitments (MACC). However, maintaining the operational rhythm of sharing referrals is often a manual burden involving repetitive data entry and frequent validation errors. Microsoft requires specific data hygiene â missing a solution ID or targeting an unmanaged account can cause a referral to fail or be routed to the wrong Microsoft account team. Validate before you submit When your sales team advances a deal in a CRM, the integration should validate the data against Microsoft's schema requirements before the referral is submitted to Partner Center. Suger does this automatically, checking for: Valid solution IDs Required contact details Overall field completeness This significantly reduces "Referral Declined" rates. Know whether you're working with a managed or unmanaged account One of the most common co-sell challenges is knowing who at Microsoft to work with. Managed accounts (those with a dedicated Microsoft account team) and unmanaged accounts require different approaches. A system that surfaces this distinction in your CRM â as Suger does â ensures your deal is routed to the correct seller, which accelerates deal support and improves approval rates. What's next: AI agents that operate your Microsoft GTM for you Suger is expanding these automation capabilities into fully AI-powered agents designed to handle the remaining manual steps in the Marketplace private offer and co-sell workflow, so software companies selling through Microsoft Marketplace can focus on closing deals, not configuring portals. Here's a summary of how Suger's AI agent capabilities map to the manual work they replace: Capability Manual work it replaces Impact for sellers AI-assisted listing creation Writing plan descriptions for every variation Better searchability, faster publishing Co-sell signal detection Reps manually flagging deals for co-sell Higher referral acceptance rates Automated field mapping Configuring CRM-to-Partner Center mappings Setup in minutes, not hours Partner intelligence Tracking which Microsoft relationships drive pipeline Data-driven co-sell strategy Pre-submission validation Troubleshooting failed referrals and offers Higher first-pass approval rates Together, these capabilities make Suger's AI agent an operational co-pilot for software companies on Microsoft Marketplace, reducing complexity, surfacing the right opportunities faster, and helping teams execute co-sell workflows with greater accuracy. For software companies looking to get started today, the practical steps above (plan mapping, referral validation, managed account detection) are where automation delivers the most immediate impact. To learn more and ask questions, attend the AI-powered automation for Marketplace private offers and IP co-sell session on March 11th. If you are unable to attend, the session will be recorded for on demand viewing after.Accelerate massive growth by co-selling through Microsoft Marketplace with App Advisor guidance
Co-selling with Microsoft is one of the most powerful growth levers available to software companies to sell to enterprises. But on its own, co-sell is not a strategy. The real acceleration happens when you combine them. When you publish a transactable offer in Microsoft Marketplace and make it Azure IP co-sell eligible, you unlock joint selling with Microsoftâs global field organizationâ and that changes the trajectory of your business. Hereâs how to turn Marketplace plus co-sell into a growth engine. Why Marketplace & co-sell drive larger, faster deals Data consistently shows that co-sell deals outperform non-co-sell deals: Co-sell deals are ~ 30% larger, Co-sell deals close up to 2x faster, Microsoft sellers are incentivized to prioritize Azure IP co-sell eligible solutions. When your offer is transactable in Marketplace and co-sell eligible, three important things happen: Microsoft sellers can confidently introduce your solution to their enterprise accounts, Customers can apply purchases toward their Azure consumption commitments, Your offer becomes visible inside Microsoftâs internal sales systems. This reduces friction in procurement, increases executive visibility, and accelerates deal velocity. Youâre no longer selling alone. Youâre selling with leverage. The following is high-level guidance of the steps to start co-selling Want to skip right to the curated guidance? Go to App Advisor Step 1: Publish a transactable offer in Marketplace Co-sell begins with Marketplace readiness. To unlock Azure IP co-sell benefits, you must publish a transactable offer through one of these marketplace offer types: Software as a service (SaaS), Azure Application, Azure Container, Azure VM. If you sell apps or agents built on Microsoft 365 or Copilot, link your solution to a transactable SaaS offer to qualify. To see how Abnormal Security made the most of co-selling, see the blog and corresponding Co-Sell Coaching call. Step 2: Create a co-sell ready solution in Partner Center When publishing your offer, you can create a co-sell solution to activate visibility with Microsoft sellers. Inside the Referrals workspace in Partner Center: Create a co-sell solution, Classify your solution using Microsoft taxonomy, Upload required marketing collateral: Solution one-pager, pitch deck, reference architecture diagram (required for SaaS), Enter the link to your product's website to help Microsoft sales teams and channel resellers learn more about your solution, Add geographic sales contacts. This listing tells Microsoft sellers: Who to contact, What your solution does, Which Azure services it uses, Why they should bring you into a deal. Clear positioning drives seller confidence. Seller confidence drives joint opportunity. Step 3: Achieve Azure IP co-sell eligible status To become Azure IP co-sell eligible, you must meet performance or technical validation requirements. You can qualify by: Reaching $100K USD in trailing 12-month Marketplace billed sales or Azure Consumed Revenue (this is the fastest path to meeting that requirement) or Passing Microsoft technical validation confirming your solution is primarily built on Azure This status matters because: Customers can count the purchase toward Azure consumption commitments, Microsoft sellers are financially incentivized to include your solution, Your offer is labeled Azure benefit eligible. Customers being able to decrement their Azure consumption commitments can help draw engagement and interest to your app or agent. Step 4: Use referrals to build momentum High-performing software companies donât just wait for Microsoft to bring opportunities. They submit referrals to help sell co-sell their app. Submitting referrals: Increases your visibility to Microsoft sellers, Signals strategic partnership depth, Opens doors to new seller collaboration, Provides insight into customer Azure commitments. Small actions compound. Referral discipline builds pipeline resilience. For more information about referrals, visit Generate, manage, and nurture leads step in App Advisor. Step 5: Use Marketplace Rewards to amplify co-sell Marketplace Rewards benefits strengthen your co-sell motion: Customer propensity scoring to prioritize Marketplace-ready buyers, Azure sponsorship credits to help close competitive deals, Microsoft seller webinars and solution spotlights. This is how you differentiate inside the ecosystem â not just with customers, but with Microsoft sellers. The growth shift: from independent seller to ecosystem player Software companies that treat Marketplace merely as a checkout page miss some amazing opportunities. Those that combine: Transactable offers, Azure IP co-sell eligibility, Strong co-sell collateral, Referral discipline, and Marketplace Rewards. Move from transactional selling to ecosystem selling. The result: Larger average deal sizes Shorter sales cycles Stronger executive alignment Increased visibility inside Microsoft accounts Youâre no longer trying to break into enterprise deals. Youâre already in the room. Ready to put your co-sell strategy into motion? Visit App Advisor to learn more about how to accelerate your growth with co-sell.
