Activating channel partners on Microsoft Marketplace: A sales and marketing playbook
You already sell through channel partners today. Now, you can bring those partnerships into Microsoft Marketplace and jumpstart new revenue streams. This playbook provides guidance and ready-to-use assets to help software companies recruit, enable, and grow channel and distribution partnerships through Microsoft Marketplace. Customize these marketing materials to enable your channel to sell your cloud and AI solutions through Microsoft Marketplace. Microsoft continues to invest in channel-led sales through Marketplace, making it easier for software companies, channel partners, and distributors to work together at scale. The value for channel partners Streamline transactions, payments, and customer procurement through a single commercial platform. Access customers looking to apply their Azure consumption commitments toward eligible third-party solutions. Expand sales opportunities across markets with built-in support for cross-currency transactions and global commerce. Get the marketing materials for channel-led sales. Implement your Marketplace channel strategy This playbook provides step-by-step guidance and customizable assets to help software companies build and scale a channel-led sales motion through Marketplace. Use the guidance, templates, and tools to recruit, enable, and grow channel partnerships that support your go-to-market strategy. Step 1: Identify your target markets Start by identifying which countries have the highest revenue potential and where your existing channel partners already have customer traction. Map your current channel footprint by auditing where your channel partners are actively selling today, and which markets are generating the most partner-sourced revenue. These are good target markets in which to start a Microsoft Marketplace channel-led sales motion. Microsoft Marketplace provides multiple sales motions for software companies to engage with channel partners and distributors. As you define your channel partner recruitment strategy, select the right model. Next, determine what solutions you want your distributors or channel partners to sell. Use multiparty private offers to go-to-market together with channel partners on specific customer opportunities. Use resale enabled offers to enable channel partners to resell your solution at scale to customers. For markets that have resale enabled offers and multiparty private offers available, engage your distributors to scale through their channel partners. See available markets here. Step 2: Build your target partner list Select a shortlist of existing partners to onboard first, based on their market coverage, current depth of partnership with your company, and readiness or openness to selling through Marketplace. Create a list of your current channel partners who sell your software in your target markets. Segment partners based on their customer base size in your target markets. Prioritize partners with proven sales capabilities and customer relationships with Microsoft customers. If you need help prioritizing partners, Microsoft publishes a list of eligible channel partners each month, which is a good starting point for identifying channel partners engaged with Marketplace. If you plan to sell with resale enabled offers, you may choose to prioritize partners with whom you have existing direct payment relationships. If you want to sell through distributors, prioritize partners based on the strength of their reseller community. Resources: Channel partner outreach email template to engage existing and prospective channel partners about reselling your solutions through Microsoft Marketplace. Target channel partner list template to prioritize and track target channel partners by country, resale motion, and relevant solutions. Step 3: Articulate the value to your channel partners Marketplace helps channel partners participate in more opportunities by streamlining procurement and payments, unlocking access to customers with Azure commitments, and making it easier to sell across borders through a global commercial platform. Use the Microsoft co-branded partner enablement pitch deck template to help your channel partners understand the opportunity. Step 4: Set up preferred deal construct(s) with your target partners Depending on your chosen sales model(s), ensure that your partners have completed your company’s requirements. You should first agree on pricing and terms and conditions for reselling your software through Marketplace. If using resale enabled offers, you will need to sign appropriate agreements outside of Marketplace. Agreements between parties must be in place before authorizing a channel partner for resale enabled offers. These agreements should specify who is responsible for the Microsoft Marketplace agency fee and payout mechanisms between you and the channel partner. If your channel partners are outside the United States, they may be able to take advantage of tax treaty benefits. For resale enabled offers, authorize your target partners and create and manage resale enabled offers in Partner Center. You will also need your channel partner’s seller ID to create resale enabled offers. For multiparty private offers, ensure that your target partners have met all prerequisites to sell multiparty private offers to customers in your target markets. Your channel partners with a tax profile in the United States need to file resale certificates with Microsoft. Guide your channel partners to contact channelready@microsoft.com for support with tax and payment profile pre-requisites. Step 5: Enable channel partner sales teams Once your partners are authorized to resell through Microsoft Marketplace, the next step is to help them sell your products to their customers through Marketplace. Enable your channel partners on why this motion matters, how to position your offer to their customers, and how to grow their revenue through Marketplace-led sales with you. Enable channel partner sellers with a simple sales enablement kit that provides clear messaging on how to pitch your product, why customers should buy through Microsoft Marketplace, how the partner can attach services, and how your incentives and programs apply. Provide them with a clear process for contacting you with questions, deal support requests, sales blockers, and run regular sales enablement sessions at the start of the motion to quickly enable your channel partners’ sales team(s) to sell your offers on Marketplace. Offer sales incentives to your channel partners’ sales teams, such as SPIFFs, bonuses, and revenue sharing opportunities, which motivate your channel partners’ sales teams to identify and close Marketplace opportunities. Share leads and map accounts together. Compare customer and prospect lists to identify account overlaps and prospects that may have pre-committed cloud budget that could be used to purchase your solution via Marketplace. If you participate in Marketplace Rewards, use the customer propensity list to prioritize customers. Use available Microsoft incentives and resources to help your channel partners sell your products to their customers. As a best practice, remove internal channel conflict by working with your finance and sales operations teams to ensure your direct sales team is not penalized when a channel partner closes a Marketplace deal. Use the Internal sales enablement template to ensure your internal sales and channel teams are enabled on the channel-led Marketplace opportunity and operational steps. Resources: Sales enablement kit for channel partners: Microsoft co-branded partner enablement pitch deck template to help your channel partners understand the Microsoft Marketplace opportunity, value proposition for working with you, and how to get started. Customer-facing brief that channel partner sellers can use to promote your solutions to their customers. Internal sales enablement template to train your internal sales and channel teams on your Microsoft Marketplace channel-led sales motion Step 6: Track pipeline, optimize, and scale Track and measure Marketplace activities with your channel partners, including pipeline and sales by country, to identify which partners are the most active, which countries are driving the most revenue, where deals are progressing and where additional channel partner enablement is needed. You can also track metrics such as average deal size and time to close for Marketplace versus non-Marketplace deals, percentage of pipeline and revenue utilizing pre-committed cloud spend, and the impact of sales incentives on driving adoption of Marketplace channel-led sales. Use Microsoft Partner Center Insights to monitor sales, customer acquisition, and channel partner performance in the Insights workspace. Use the Referrals space to see if your channel partners’ customers and prospects have pre-committed cloud budget that they could use to purchase your solution. Based on early results of your Microsoft channel-led sales motion, build your ideal target partner profile, optimize your channel sales collateral and incentives, and expand your target partner list in your target markets. Reach out to your existing channel partners at scale using the channel partner outreach email and LinkedIn ad templates to drive awareness of your Marketplace channel-led sales motion. Resources: Channel partner outreach email template to engage existing and prospective channel partners about reselling your solutions through Microsoft Marketplace. Channel partner outreach LinkedIn ad template to capture the attention of existing and prospective channel partners by highlighting the opportunity to sell your solution through Marketplace and attach services. In summary Select your markets: identify the countries where you want to activate Microsoft Marketplace channel-led sales with your existing channel partners. Build your target partner shortlist: select 3-5 channel partners to activate first, starting with those who have existing customers and pipeline in your target markets. Articulate the value to your channel partners: reach out to your target partners and share the opportunity to transact through Marketplace. Choose your deal construct(s): decide which Marketplace channel-led sales models best fit your channel strategy and your channel partners’ sales motions. Activate your Marketplace channel-led sales motion: use this channel recruitment playbook to authorize, onboard and enable your channel partners at scale. Optimize and scale: use early learnings to refine your strategy and content, activate additional existing channel partners to your Marketplace channel-led sales motion, and recruit net new channel partners to expand your ecosystem of Marketplace channel-led sales partners. Assets to help you activate your Microsoft Marketplace channel-led sales motion Multiparty private offer channel partner onboarding guide Resale enabled offer channel partner onboarding guide Repository containing: Internal sales enablement template to train your internal sales and channel teams on your Microsoft Marketplace channel-led sales motion Target channel partner list template to prioritize and track target channel partners by country, resale motion and relevant solutions Channel partner outreach email template to engage existing and prospective channel partners about reselling your solutions through Microsoft Marketplace Channel partner outreach LinkedIn ad template to capture the attention of existing and prospective channel partners by highlighting the opportunity to sell your solution through Marketplace and attach services Microsoft co-branded partner enablement pitch deck template to help your channel partners understand the Microsoft Marketplace opportunity, value proposition for working with you, and how to get started Customer-facing brief that channel partner sellers can use to promote your solutions to their customers
