Help partners convert more trials into revenue with enhanced Marketplace capabilities
New enhanced trial capabilities in Microsoft Marketplace are now available, helping software development companies accelerate customer acquisition, improve trial-to-paid conversion rates, and gain deeper visibility into trial performance. With expanded support for SaaS offers, including metered, per-user, and flat-rate pricing models, partners can give customers more opportunities to evaluate solutions through a trusted, self-service Marketplace experience. The latest enhancements introduce configurable SaaS trial durations from 1–180 days, simplified trial management, improved solution discoverability through dedicated trial badges and filters, and actionable analytics within Partner Center Insights. Partners can track free trials, monitor conversion trends, and optimize their Marketplace growth strategy using data-driven insights. Learn how these new capabilities can help you reach more customers, reduce operational overhead, and turn customer interest into revenue. Learn more about the enhanced trial capabilitiesA cautionary tale if you have customers who use Coupa
We learned the very very very hard way that next-day Marketplace invoicing does NOT play nicely with Coupa. Here's what happened: Back in April, we closed a Marketplace transaction via private offer with one of our enterprise customers. Not a new customer, either - this was for a license extension with a current customer with which we'd transacted through Marketplace twice before. 30 days go by, and Partner Center still shows the invoice as 'uncollected.' 60 days go by, and Partner Center still shows the invoice as 'uncollected.' I open a ticket with Marketplace support. And kudos to them, they pick up my ticket within an hour. "Customer hasn't paid the invoice," they tell us. So now we are forced to take on the role of collections agency for a Microsoft invoice our customer hasn't paid and for which we don't know why they haven't paid. (Partner Center's Revenue reports are rather light on useful details.) Our buyer inside the customer also has no idea why the invoice wasn't paid: She sits far away from the folks who pay the Microsoft bills. Her colleague in IT who pushed the buttons to purchase the private offer likewise has no idea why the invoice wasn't paid: He too sits far away from accounts payable. We're baffled because never before have we had any delay in getting our payouts for this customer's Marketplace purchases. Our first thought is okay, maybe they now have custom net 60 payment terms with Microsoft. (A different issue we experienced on a different delayed payout back in January!) After ten days of intensive investigations involving nearly a dozen different people, we finally discover the source of the issue: The customer pays its Microsoft bills through Coupa, BUT: they did NOT know about nor integrate into Coupa workflow the (relatively new) next-day invoicing mechanism for Marketplace transactions. For their accounts payable team, if an invoice doesn't land in Coupa, it doesn't exist. The invoice for this Marketplace purchase was generated, but it got sent . . . nowhere, I guess? So in picking up my support ticket, Marketplace Support could only say "Customer hasn't paid the invoice." They probably had no way to know the correct response was "Customer hasn't received the invoice." Moral of the story: Ask your customers if they use Coupa. And if yes, prepare them for the possibility they might not receive the invoice for your software.
Feedback on Partner Benefit Renewal Experience
I wanted to share a bit of feedback on the partner benefit packages based on our experience. In the past we used the Action Pack and it worked very well for us. Renewal was simple and everything that was already configured just continued into the next period without any extra work. After it was discontinued we moved to the Partner Success Core Benefits package. Our experience has been less smooth, especially with how the Azure credits are handled. The credit must be assigned to a specific user, and if that user already has Azure credit it cannot be applied until the current one expires. When the credit expires, the subscriptions funded by it automatically switch to Pay As You Go. After that we need to contact support to convert the subscriptions back to Azure Sponsorship before the new credit can be applied, which involves several support teams and can take a few days. We also then need to ask support to cover the temporary Pay As You Go usage. As you can imagine, this turns what should be a simple renewal into a fairly time consuming process. Ideally, renewing the benefit package would just extend the existing setup, similar to how it worked with Action Pack, so everything continues without needing support involvement.
What changed for co-sell after QRP retirement — what ISVs should update now
Microsoft retired QRP last week and consolidated referrals into Partner Center. What most ISVs haven't caught yet is that the new AI-based matching reads your solution descriptions and industry tags differently than QRP did. If your listing hasn't been updated since early 2025, you may be getting matched to lower-quality leads or missed entirely. Three things worth reviewing now: your solution area tags, your customer segment fields, and your co-sell 1-pager format. Happy to share more detail on what I've seen reviewing several listings. Drop your questions below.Seamless private offers are critical to closing negotiated deals faster in Microsoft Marketplace
The Seamless Marketplace private offers: creation to customer use | Microsoft Community Hub article walks through the end‑to‑end private offer journey, from creation in Partner Center to customer purchase and solution activation. Learn how Marketplace private offers support flexible selling motions, reduce friction for buyers, and help partners deliver a more streamlined purchasing experience. If you’re looking to strengthen your Marketplace transactions and improve deal execution, this is a must‑read. To learn more and have questions answered join the live webinar on April 15, Seamless private offers: From creation to purchase and activation - Microsoft Marketplace Community, where we will share an end-to-end walkthrough of private offer execution with a live demo and Q&A.Tracking transaction to payout in Partner Center reports
We’ve captured the why and how behind the data in an on‑demand video based on the recent Partner Center reporting office hours—plus a blog that breaks down how these insights support marketplace growth and operations. Have a video topic you want next? Drop it in the comments 👇 ▶️ Watch the 7‑minute video (embedded) 📖 Read the blog: Unlocking the power of Partner Center reporting: Why these insights matter for Marketplace success | Microsoft Community Hub
How do you actually unlock growth from Microsoft Teams Marketplace?
Hey folks 👋 Looking for some real-world advice from people who’ve been through this. Context: We’ve been listed as a Microsoft Teams app for several years now. The app is stable, actively used, and well-maintained - but for a long time, Teams Marketplace wasn’t a meaningful acquisition channel for us. Things changed a bit last year. We started seeing organic growth without running any dedicated campaigns, plus more mid-market and enterprise teams installing the app, running trials, and even using it in production. That was encouraging - but it also raised a bigger question. How do you actually systematize this and get real, repeatable benefits from the Teams Marketplace? I know there are Microsoft Partner programs, co-sell motions, marketplace benefits, etc. - but honestly, it’s been very hard to figure out: - where exactly to start - what applies to ISVs building Teams apps - how to apply correctly - and what actually moves the needle vs. what’s just “nice to have” On top of that, it’s unclear how (or if) you can interact directly with the Teams/Marketplace team. From our perspective, this should be a win-win: we invest heavily into the platform, build for Teams users, and want to make that experience better. Questions to the community: If you’re a Teams app developer: what actually worked for you in terms of marketplace growth? Which Partner programs or motions are worth the effort, and which can be safely ignored early on? Is there a realistic way to engage with the Teams Marketplace team (feedback loops, programs, office hours, etc.)? How do you go from “organic installs happen” to a structured channel? Would really appreciate any practical advice, lessons learned, or even “what not to do” stories 🙏 Thanks in advance!Marketplace sales are never showing as "Won"
I was looking through the Insights page of the Partner Portal today and I came across a weird quirk of the way Marketplace sales are reported. None of our Azure Marketplace Leads (the leads & sales we get from customers buying our solutions from the Azure Marketplace) are showing up as "Won". On the https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/opportunities/referral/cohort, under "Business performance" we see that Won rate, Lost rate, and Value won all are missing the customers we've gotten through the marketplace. It only appears to be showing manually entered co-sell leads. This seems to be messing pretty heavily with our cohort generation/analysis as we're placed into the incorrect tier. (Sidenote: are cohorts only generated once a year?) Under the https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/dashboard/opportunities/referral/leads for the "Marketplace leads" tab I'm also seeing 0 "Won" and 0 "Won value" for all of our Marketplace Offers. They get stuck under "Leads" without progressing forward. Is there a way I'm missing to mark our Marketplace Leads as "Won"? We have a bunch of leads that I'd like to reflect in the tool properly.
