Could Marketplace Become an AI Discovery Agent?
Today, customers still find apps in Marketplace by searching keywords or browsing categories. In a large catalog like the Marketplace, that often feels like guesswork. Publishers describe similar solutions differently, and customers rarely know the exact keywords to use. Many customers end up scrolling through listings, getting tired, and leaving. When that happens, we as publishers never get the chance to connect with them. What if Marketplace used AI to change that? Instead of searching, customers could simply describe what they need: “I need a time-tracking app that works natively in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, has light project management, follows our security policies, and keeps all company data inside our tenant in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” An AI agent could instantly suggest the best matching apps and guide the customer directly to Get it now. And maybe the next step is even bigger: What if Marketplace became an agent or coworker for Microsoft Copilot, helping users discover and install the right apps simply by asking? Curious what others think—could this be the future of Marketplace discovery?Close more custom deals on Marketplace with private offers and App Advisor guidance
This is part of a series where we look at improvements to negotiated deals in Microsoft Marketplace and how App Advisor helps you choose the right negotiated deal types for your business. Marketplace customers don’t just buy according to the pricing, terms, billing, and procurement structure of a standard public offer. Sometimes, they need a more customized option. A to-customer private offer gives you more flexibility to meet those requirements, negotiate directly with a specific customer, and keep the transaction in Microsoft Marketplace. Let's look at questions that businesses like you may be asking. Why would I use a to-customer private offer? Private offers give flexibility to particular customers. A private offer can be a good fit when a specific customer: Requires customer-specific terms, Wants to negotiate custom pricing, Needs a billing structure aligned with its budgeting or procurement process. They also give you, the seller, some flexibility because you can: Negotiate directly with my customer without involving a channel partner, Include supported professional services as part of the Marketplace transaction, Keep the negotiated transaction completely in Marketplace (while gaining benefits). For eligible offers, the purchase can also count toward the customer’s Azure cloud consumption commitment, while the sale can contribute toward unlocking benefits after publishing, Certified Software Designations, and Azure IP co-sell. To see more about the benefits of to-customer private offers, go to this deep dive in App Advisor Who can I sell to with a private offer? To-customer private offers support a broad range of Marketplace opportunities. Private offers are: Available globally, Available to all Microsoft partners, Available to MOSA, Enterprise Agreement (EA), and Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA) customers. How can I find more customers for private offers? Your existing sales pipeline is one place to start. But Marketplace now also helps customers signal when they’re interested in a negotiated deal. With the new Request private offer enabled on an eligible Marketplace listing, customers can initiate a conversation about customized pricing and terms directly from your product page. On your "Offer setup" page, toggle the "Would you like to enable private offer requests from customers?" ON to have a button appear on your listing that interested viewers can initiate a conversation with you. You still own the sales conversation and create the private offer. The difference is that interested customers now have another way to raise their hand. For software companies asking how to generate more app leads, this creates a clearer path: Marketplace discovery → customer interest → negotiated deal → purchase. How do I create a to-customer private offer? Once you have an interested customer, the basic process starts in Partner Center: Gather the customer’s billing information and identify who can accept and purchase the offer. Create a new private offer using your published Marketplace offer as a base. Define the customer, terms, contacts, negotiated pricing, and other deal requirements. Review and submit the private offer. Share the private-offer link so your customer can accept and purchase. Want all the details to consider (from customer permissions and prerequisites to offer setup and acceptance)? That’s where App Advisor can help. Use App Advisor to move your Marketplace deal forward App Advisor brings the detailed, curated guidance together in one place. You can use it to understand: When to use a negotiated deal, Which type of negotiated deal to choose, What you need to know about your customer to start, How to move through the process with customer checklists, walkthroughs, and supporting resources. Ready to customize and close your next deal? Use App Advisor to learn how to create a to-customer private offer and turn customer interest into a Marketplace sale. Next, we’ll look at resale enabled offers (REO) and how they can help you expand your Marketplace sales motion through channel partners.
Using OneDrive workspaces to maintain QBR history and monitor quarterly account performance changes
Hi Marketplace community, I wanted to share a practical Microsoft 365 agent pattern we have been working on for recurring account-review workflows. In merchant services, quarterly business review preparation often starts with the same basic ingredients: a CSV or TSV export, a set of merchant accounts, performance metrics, PowerPoint scorecards, and follow-up notes. The challenge is not just generating one review. It is maintaining a repeatable QBR history across many accounts and making it easier to spot what changed from one quarter to the next. With https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/WA200010195, we are exploring a Microsoft 365-native workflow where the agent helps account teams: - Generate QBR scorecards for one merchant or multiple merchant accounts from CSV/TSV data. - Create PowerPoint outputs for each account. - Save each run into an organized OneDrive workspace. - Maintain an index of accounts and per-account status for the run. - Support follow-up workflows with draft email content. - Use sample workbook content to demonstrate quarter-over-quarter change detection across volume, authorization performance, acceptance cost, disputes, and refunds. The core adoption pattern is simple: use OneDrive not just as file storage, but as the persistent workspace for recurring business reviews. Each QBR run becomes easier to revisit, share, compare, and operationalize. For teams managing many customer or merchant accounts, this turns QBR preparation from a one-off deck-building task into a more durable account-performance workflow. I would be interested to hear how other Marketplace builders are approaching similar patterns: - Are you using OneDrive or SharePoint as the durable workspace for agent-generated outputs? - How are you helping users compare business performance across reporting periods? - Are customers asking for more “history and change tracking” rather than just one-time generated artifacts? The app is listed on Microsoft Marketplace here: https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/WA200010195Learn how leading partners turn Microsoft Marketplace into a co-sell growth engine
A transactable Marketplace offer is just the beginning. In this expert blog, Reis Barrie, Founder and CEO of Carve Partners, shares four key practices top-performing partners use to help sellers drive co-sell success and accelerate growth through Microsoft Marketplace. Discover how to integrate Marketplace into your sales process, equip sellers with actionable account insights, identify stronger co-sell opportunities, and scale customer incentive programs. You'll also learn common pitfalls to avoid and practical ways to strengthen your Marketplace go-to-market motion. Read the blog to learn how leading partners transform Marketplace from a listing into a repeatable revenue growth strategy. Join us live on September 10 as Reis expands on these insights and answers your questions during an interactive Q&A session. Read the blog: Four things leading partners teach their sellers to turn a Marketplace listing into co-sell growth Add event to your calendar How leading partners drive co-sell success with MarketplaceHow channel partners participate in multiparty private offers
Multiparty private offers in Microsoft Marketplace enable software companies and channel partners to work together to create customized offers for customers with negotiated pricing, terms, and billing options. Watch this short video to learn the role of channel partners in the multiparty private offer process, including providing required Marketplace and customer information, reviewing pending partner actions in Partner Center, applying eligible pricing adjustments, adding custom terms or supporting documents, and submitting the offer for customer review. Whether you're new to multiparty private offers or looking to better support joint sales opportunities, this walkthrough provides an overview of the key steps channel partners complete before an offer can be shared with a customer.
Grow your sales on Marketplace: App Advisor helps you understand improvements to negotiated deals
Want to dive into the details of negotiated deals and how to create them? Head to App Advisor: https://aka.ms/GrowMySales Not all customers buy apps in the same way. Some need negotiated pricing. Others have specific contract or billing requirements. Some want to buy through a trusted channel partner. Microsoft Marketplace already supports these scenarios through negotiated deals. Now, several new capabilities make those motions more flexible, accessible, and scalable. How do I sell more apps and agents? The best way to sell more apps and agents is to expand your sales footprint, not build more. This means making your apps and agents available through private offers, negotiated deals, and selling through channel partners. These types of deals have always given you flexibility, but new releases have improved their functionality. No matter how you’re selling, chances are good that you could grow your sales with at least one type of private offer (each detailed in App Advisor) Sell directly without another party → to-customer private offer. Bring a channel partner into a direct customer deal → Multi-party private offers (MPO). Authorize partners to repeatedly resell your offer → Resale enabled offers (REO). Sell through a customer's Cloud Solution Provider → CSP private offer. What changed for negotiated deals Over the last two months, Microsoft has improved capabilities and availability of several types of negotiated deals: Request private offer: Customers can now initiate a conversation about customized pricing and terms directly from an eligible Marketplace listing. Partners configure this when publishing an offer and a button appears on the listing for customers to reach out, reducing the gap between discovering an offer and beginning a negotiated sale. Custom contract lengths: Software companies can create eligible private offers with nonstandard contract lengths defined in months, including terms such as 18 months, with support extending up to 10 years for eligible SaaS and Professional Services scenarios. This helps align Marketplace transactions more closely with contracts negotiated with customers. Flexible billing: Eligible private offers can use customized billing schedules rather than forcing the transaction into a standard cadence. Current Microsoft documentation supports up to 70 installments and terms up to 120 months/10 years in supported scenarios. Expanded MPO reach: After expanding into 30 European countries earlier in the year, MPO expanded to Australia, Japan, and South Africa last month, creating more opportunities for software companies and channel partners to collaborate on Marketplace transactions. Expanded REO reach: REO expanded to New Zealand, extending the channel-led resale model into another market. What comes next Interested in expanding your sales footprint with minimal overhead? Follow along in this series as we discuss each type of private offer and advantages of each. To get started today, explore your negotiated selling options with App Advisor: https://aka.ms/GrowMySalesLearn how to move co-sell opportunities from ready to closed-won with greater consistency
What separates co-sell ready opportunities from closed-won success? The answer often comes down to stakeholder alignment, commercial readiness, and a clear strategy for engaging Microsoft and partner resources at the right time. Join Kevin Flitcroft, Head of Sales for SaaSify at Spektra Systems, as he shares practical guidance for helping partners improve deal execution and revenue outcomes. Learn how to align opportunities to Microsoft priorities, determine when to engage Microsoft sellers, position Microsoft Marketplace early in the sales cycle, and support customer purchasing goals through effective commercial motions. You'll also explore the Audit/Activate/Run framework and discover how successful organizations create repeatable co-sell practices that help increase win rates, strengthen pipeline development, and drive more consistent business growth. Discover how leading partners turn co-sell opportunities into consistent business growth. Attend this live session to gain practical strategies you can apply to your next opportunity. Add to your calendar: Microsoft co-sell playbook: From co-sell ready to closed-wonHow to get your cloud and AI solutions co-sell eligible on Marketplace
A transactable Microsoft Marketplace offer can play an important role in supporting your broader go-to-market strategy with Microsoft. This video walks through the essentials of Marketplace co-sell qualification. You'll also gain insight into how approved offers may participate in Microsoft customer-focused selling motions and help customers transact using committed Microsoft cloud spend.
Microsoft Marketplace Partner Digest
What's new in Marketplace Convert more buyers into customers Microsoft recently expanded Marketplace listing capabilities with enhancements to free trials and the introduction of an option to request private offers, giving partners more ways to engage buyers at different stages of the purchasing journey. Customers can now discover and evaluate solutions through expanded trial experiences and transition more easily into paid subscription discussions by requesting custom pricing and terms directly from your Marketplace listings. ✨ Help customers evaluate your solution with free trials What's new On July 23 we announced the release of Marketplace enhanced trial capabilities. Customers can try solutions with confidence with the free trials in Microsoft Marketplace. Trials are available for multiple offer types, including SaaS, Azure virtual machines, Dynamics 365, and Power BI offers. New capabilities include: Custom meter trials: Partners can configure trials for SaaS solutions with metered pricing. Flexible trial durations: Partners can now configure SaaS trial durations from 1 to 180 days. Partner analytics: Partners can access SaaS trial analytics - including free trials initiated, active free trials, free trials converted, free trials not converted, and average trial duration - all within Partner Center Insights workspace. Customer discovery and management: Customers can better discover and manage trials. Upgrade to paid subscription during trial: Customers can upgrade to paid subscription at public pricing any time during a SaaS trial. Why it matters With enhanced trial capabilities in Microsoft Marketplace, partners can run self-service trials that make it easier for customers to try before they buy — whether for metered, per-user, or flat-rate pricing offers. Marketplace gives partners one place to manage trials end to end — from provisioning and mid-trial changes to insights — while improving offer discoverability through improved search, filters, and dedicated trial badges. Recommended action Review your Marketplace offers and trial strategy. For eligible SaaS offers, evaluate whether free trials can help you engage with more qualified buyers, faster. 📖 Learn more about free trials for SaaS ⚡ Customers can now request a private offer on Marketplace What’s new As of July 20, you can add a private offer request option directly on your Marketplace product pages. Customer requests are captured as Marketplace leads in referrals workspace and connected customer relationship management (CRM) integrations you’ve setup. This setting is disabled by default. You can easily activate it for applicable public offers. Why it matters More and more customers are seeking customized contracts and subscription pricing and terms tailored to their individual needs. This simple call to action reduces friction and helps you start the conversation with prospective buyers. Recommended action In the Marketplace offers workspace of Partner Center, update each of your offers for which you provide customers private offers. Enable the Request Private Offer setting and republish the offer. Events Recent events Multiparty private offers expand channel growth opportunities in Australia, Japan and South Africa Multiparty private offers continue to help software companies accelerate channel-led sales through Microsoft Marketplace. This past month, we hosted two region-focused Marketplace office hours sessions designed to help partners better understand local market opportunities, engage distributors and resellers, and scale Marketplace transactions through channel ecosystems in Australia and Japan. Whether you're looking to expand an existing Marketplace motion or explore new geographic opportunities, these sessions will provide practical guidance and market-specific insights to help you grow. See a list of currently supported countries/regions. Check out the recorded sessions: • Channel growth in Australia (English) • Channel growth in Japan (Japanese) Helping developers build, monetize, and scale AI solutions with Marketplace Discover how Microsoft Marketplace helps software companies access AI models and developer tools, accelerate application development, and reach customers through Microsoft's global commercial ecosystem. Learn how to monetize applications and agents without building and maintaining your own commerce and distribution infrastructure. Watch the recording Upcoming events Build AI-powered solutions, monetize through Microsoft Marketplace, and scale revenue through Microsoft expertise, skilling, and investments. Frontier Accelerate for Marketplace is an upcoming unified offering for software development companies to bring AI-powered solutions to market, drive customer acquisition and revenue growth, and scale through Microsoft Marketplace with technical guidance, skilling, and investments aligned to every stage of growth. 📆 Join us on August 26th before general availability to learn about the new offering, benefit alignment, migration guidance, and enrollment requirements. Next steps Turn insights into FY27 success — starting today. Ready to carry the momentum forward from MCAPS Start for Partners? Get everything you need to refine and execute your FY27 strategy in the Partner Activation Zone, including session recordings, ready-to-use playbooks, and tools to start building pipeline. Leverage your Marketplace Rewards benefits Discover use cases and how to leverage your Azure sponsorship. With Marketplace Rewards Azure sponsorships, eligible software development companies can increase sales through Microsoft Marketplace by using the sponsorships for customer deployments tied to Marketplace deals—and to offset infrastructure costs from eligible free trial offers. 📍Review the Marketplace Rewards Azure sponsorship policy guide for the latest
