Guide to Co-Selling with Cloud Providers

What is co-selling?

Co-selling is a collaborative sales motion where an ISV and a cloud provider's sales team jointly pursue and close customer deals. Unlike reselling (where a partner buys and resells your product), co-selling preserves your direct customer relationship while leveraging the cloud provider's enterprise account access, executive relationships, and committed spend budgets.

In practice, co-selling means a cloud provider's account executive introduces your product to their customer, provides executive sponsorship for your deal, helps navigate procurement, and ensures the transaction closes through the cloud marketplace — drawing down the buyer's committed cloud spend.

Co-selling has become the single most impactful growth lever for ISVs on cloud marketplaces. ISVs with active co-sell programs consistently report:

2-3x

Larger average deal sizes

30-40%

Higher win rates

25-35%

Shorter sales cycles

How co-selling works: the end-to-end motion

The co-sell lifecycle follows a seven-stage process across all three cloud providers:

Partner alignment: Enroll in the cloud provider's co-sell program and build your solution profile. This makes your product visible to the cloud provider's sales organization.
Deal identification: Identify qualified opportunities in your pipeline where the buyer has cloud spend with the relevant provider. Register these deals in the cloud provider's partner portal.
Joint account planning: Work with the assigned cloud provider resources (Partner Development Manager, Account Executive) to develop a joint approach for the account.
Joint selling: The cloud provider makes introductions, provides executive sponsorship, validates your solution technically, and helps position the deal within the buyer's cloud strategy.
Marketplace transaction: The deal closes through the cloud marketplace, drawing down the buyer's committed spend (EDP, MACC, CUDs). Both the ISV and the cloud provider receive credit.
Post-sale support: Joint customer success to drive adoption, expansion, and renewal.
Expansion and renewal: Use the co-sell relationship to identify upsell opportunities and ensure marketplace renewal.

Key insight: The most successful co-sell ISVs do not wait for cloud providers to bring deals to them. They proactively register their existing pipeline opportunities with cloud providers, asking for specific support. Proactive deal registration is the single biggest predictor of co-sell success.

Types of co-sell models

Co-selling takes several forms depending on who initiates and how the deal is structured:

ISV-initiated co-sell

The ISV identifies an opportunity and registers it with the cloud provider. This is the most common model and should represent 70-80% of your co-sell pipeline. You own the deal; the cloud provider provides support.

Provider-initiated referral

The cloud provider identifies a customer need and refers the opportunity to you. These referrals are valuable but lower volume. ISVs that respond quickly (within 24-48 hours) and close these deals earn more referrals over time.

Joint account planning

ISV and cloud provider sales teams collaboratively plan approaches for specific strategic accounts. This model requires a deeper relationship and is typically reserved for top-tier partners.

Channel partner co-sell

A three-party motion involving ISV, cloud provider, and channel partner (consulting firm or reseller). The channel partner brings the customer relationship, the ISV provides the product, and the cloud provider provides marketplace infrastructure and committed spend access. This is increasingly common with AWS CPPO, Azure MPO, and GCP reseller programs.

Benefits of co-selling for ISVs

1. Access to enterprise accounts you cannot reach alone

Cloud providers have relationships with virtually every enterprise in every industry. A co-sell introduction from an AWS, Microsoft, or Google Cloud account executive opens doors that would take your sales team months or years to unlock independently.

2. Larger deal sizes

Co-sell deals are consistently 2-3x larger than non-co-sell deals. The cloud provider's involvement brings credibility, executive sponsorship, and access to committed spend budgets that enable larger commitments from buyers.

3. Higher win rates

When a cloud provider's account executive recommends your product, it carries the weight of a trusted advisor. Buyers view co-sell recommendations as validated and de-risked, leading to 30-40% higher win rates compared to deals without cloud provider involvement.

4. Shorter sales cycles

Cloud provider involvement accelerates deals by bypassing procurement barriers. The marketplace transaction mechanism, combined with committed spend drawdown, eliminates weeks or months of procurement processing.

5. Committed spend unlock

Co-sell deals that close through the marketplace draw down the buyer's committed cloud spend (AWS EDP, Azure MACC, GCP CUDs). This means your software is funded from pre-approved budgets, not new procurement requests.

6. Competitive displacement

When a cloud provider's sales team actively recommends your product, it creates a significant competitive advantage. Competing ISVs without co-sell support face an uphill battle against a joint ISV + cloud provider sales motion.

Automate your co-sell pipeline across all three clouds

Automatum manages co-sell deal registration, pipeline tracking, and reporting across AWS, Azure, and GCP from a single dashboard.

Book a demo →

Co-selling with AWS: the ACE program

AWS co-selling operates through the APN Customer Engagements (ACE) program and the ISV Accelerate program.

ACE program mechanics

Deal registration: Register opportunities in AWS Partner Central with customer name, expected close date, deal value, and specific ask for AWS support.
AWS assignment: AWS reviews and assigns a Partner Development Manager (PDM) or routes to the relevant account team.
Joint pursuit: AWS provides introductions, executive sponsorship, technical validation, and procurement support.
Marketplace close: Deals close through AWS Marketplace, and AWS sellers receive quota credit.

ISV Accelerate co-sell benefits

ISV Accelerate members receive enhanced co-sell support:

AWS seller incentives: AWS account executives earn commission credit for selling your product.
Reduced fees: 1.5% on private offers (vs 3% standard).
Dedicated PDM: A partner development manager focused on sourcing deals and facilitating introductions.
Priority access: Higher priority for AWS sales team engagement on registered deals.

For complete details, see our AWS Marketplace Guide.

Co-selling with Microsoft

Microsoft's co-sell program is the most structured of the three providers, with clear tiers and incentive alignment.

Co-Sell Ready (entry tier)

Active Azure Marketplace listing.
Published solution profile with reference architecture.
At least one customer reference.
Benefit: Your solution becomes visible to Microsoft sellers and you can register co-sell opportunities.

IP Co-Sell Incentivized (premium tier)

$100K+ in Azure influenced revenue over trailing 12 months.
At least one MACC-eligible transactable offer.
Benefit: Microsoft sellers earn direct financial incentives for selling your product. This is the most powerful co-sell mechanism in the industry — it makes Microsoft's entire sales organization financially motivated to recommend your solution.

Practical tip: The $100K Azure influenced revenue threshold includes both marketplace transactions and Azure consumption attributed to your co-sell deals. Track and report every deal where your product drives Azure usage — even if the deal does not close through the marketplace — to count toward your IP Co-Sell threshold.

For complete details, see our Azure Marketplace Guide.

Co-selling with Google Cloud

Google Cloud's co-sell program operates through Partner Advantage. While less mature than AWS and Microsoft's programs, Google is investing aggressively in building co-sell infrastructure.

Deal registration: Register opportunities in the Partner Advantage portal.
Google Cloud engagement: Google assigns field resources based on deal size and strategic fit.
Focus areas: Google invests most co-sell resources in data analytics (BigQuery), AI/ML (Vertex AI), and Kubernetes (GKE). ISVs in these areas receive disproportionate co-sell support.
Marketplace close: Deals closing through GCP Marketplace earn partner tier advancement credits.

For complete details, see our GCP Marketplace Guide.

Building a successful co-sell program

Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-3)

Enroll in all co-sell programs across the cloud providers where you have marketplace listings.
Build your solution profiles. Each cloud provider needs a clear description of your product, target use cases, customer outcomes, and the cloud services your product complements.
Audit your pipeline. Identify every deal in your current pipeline where the buyer has significant cloud spend. These are your initial co-sell registration candidates.
Register your top 10-15 deals. Do not wait until they are late-stage. Register early when cloud provider involvement can most influence the outcome.
Assign co-sell ownership. Designate a team member (or hire for it) as your alliance/partner lead who owns the cloud provider relationships and co-sell pipeline.

Phase 2: Operationalize (Months 4-8)

Make co-sell registration a standard step in your sales process. Every qualified enterprise deal should be evaluated for co-sell registration.
Build relationships with specific cloud provider field sellers. Focus on 5-10 geographic or vertical-specific cloud provider sellers who cover your best accounts.
Track and report co-sell metrics weekly. Pipeline value, deals registered, deals with active cloud provider engagement, and co-sell influenced wins.
Respond to referrals fast. Cloud providers track referral response times. Sub-24-hour response rates earn you more referrals and higher priority.
Close deals on marketplace. Every co-sell deal that closes through the marketplace earns you and the cloud provider credit, reinforcing the co-sell relationship.

Phase 3: Scale (Months 9-18)

Drive 30%+ of pipeline through co-sell. At scale, co-sell should be a significant portion of your enterprise pipeline, not just an occasional supplement.
Achieve advanced program tiers. ISV Accelerate (AWS), IP Co-Sell Incentivized (Microsoft), advanced Partner Advantage (Google Cloud).
Automate co-sell operations. Use a platform like Automatum to manage deal registration, pipeline tracking, and reporting across all three providers from a single dashboard.
Invest in joint marketing. Co-branded webinars, case studies, and events with cloud providers amplify your co-sell positioning.

Common co-sell challenges and how to solve them

1. Cloud provider sales team does not engage

Root cause: Your deals are not big enough, not well-registered, or the cloud provider sellers do not understand your product's value.

Solution: Register larger deals ($50K+). Be specific about what you need from the cloud provider. Build a clear joint value proposition that shows how your product drives cloud consumption.

2. Low referral volume

Root cause: Cloud provider sellers do not know about your product or do not have a clear use case to recommend.

Solution: Invest in your solution profile. Create a simple one-pager for cloud provider sellers. Attend partner events and build direct relationships with field sellers.

3. Pipeline reporting is fragmented

Root cause: Each cloud provider has a different portal for deal registration and tracking. Managing three separate systems is operationally painful.

Solution: Use a unified platform like Automatum that aggregates co-sell pipelines across AWS, Azure, and GCP into a single view with CRM integration.

4. Deals stall after registration

Root cause: Registration without follow-up. Cloud provider resources are limited — they prioritize ISVs who actively update and advance their registered deals.

Solution: Update your registered opportunities weekly. Proactively communicate with assigned cloud provider resources. Share progress and ask for specific next-step support.

5. Co-sell revenue attribution is unclear

Root cause: Deals close but attribution to co-sell is not tracked or reported.

Solution: Track every deal with cloud provider involvement. Report co-sell influenced revenue separately in your pipeline and board reporting. This data justifies continued investment in co-sell resources.

Co-sell metrics that matter

Metric	What it measures	Target
Co-sell influenced pipeline	Total value of deals with active cloud provider co-sell involvement	30%+ of enterprise pipeline
Co-sell win rate	Close rate on co-sell deals vs non-co-sell deals	1.3-1.5x non-co-sell win rate
Average co-sell deal size	Average ACV of co-sell deals vs non-co-sell	2-3x non-co-sell deal size
Co-sell cycle length	Sales cycle for co-sell deals vs non-co-sell	25-35% shorter
Deals registered	Number of deals registered in cloud provider co-sell programs	All qualifying enterprise deals
Referral response time	Time to respond to cloud provider referrals	Under 24 hours
Marketplace close rate	% of co-sell deals that close through marketplace	80%+

Automating co-sell operations

As co-sell pipelines scale across multiple cloud providers, manual management becomes unsustainable. Key automation needs include:

Unified deal registration: Register co-sell opportunities across AWS ACE, Microsoft Partner Center, and Google Cloud Partner Advantage from a single interface.
CRM integration: Sync co-sell pipeline data to Salesforce or HubSpot automatically — no manual data entry across three different partner portals.
Pipeline tracking: Consolidated view of co-sell pipeline value, stage, and cloud provider engagement across all three providers.
Automated reporting: Generate co-sell performance reports for leadership and board without manually pulling data from three portals.
Referral alerting: Real-time notifications when cloud providers send referrals, enabling the sub-24-hour response that earns you more referrals.

Unify your co-sell operations across all three clouds

Automatum manages co-sell deal registration, pipeline tracking, CRM integration, and reporting across AWS, Azure, and GCP in one platform.

Book a demo →

Frequently asked questions

What is co-selling with cloud providers?

Co-selling is a collaborative sales motion where an ISV and a cloud provider's sales team jointly pursue customer deals. The cloud provider brings introductions, executive sponsorship, and account access, while the ISV provides the product expertise. Deals typically close through the cloud marketplace, drawing down the buyer's committed cloud spend.

How is co-selling different from reselling?

In co-selling, both the ISV and the cloud provider are active participants in the sale — the ISV owns the customer relationship and the product, while the cloud provider provides sales support and access. In reselling, the channel partner purchases the product and resells it, owning the customer relationship. Co-selling preserves the ISV's direct customer relationship.

What is the AWS ACE program?

ACE (APN Customer Engagements) is AWS's co-sell program. ISVs register deal opportunities in AWS Partner Central, and AWS assigns sales resources to support the deal. AWS sellers earn quota credit for deals that close through the marketplace, creating alignment between ISV and AWS sales motions.

What is Microsoft IP Co-Sell Incentivized status?

IP Co-Sell Incentivized is the premium tier of Microsoft's co-sell program. It requires at least $100K in Azure influenced revenue over 12 months. Once achieved, Microsoft sellers receive direct financial incentives for selling your product, making Microsoft's entire sales organization potential advocates for your solution.

How do I measure co-sell success?

Key metrics include: co-sell influenced pipeline value, co-sell win rate vs. non-co-sell win rate, average deal size for co-sell deals, sales cycle length comparison, number of active co-sell opportunities, and percentage of total revenue attributed to co-sell. Most ISVs see 2-3x larger deal sizes and 30-40% higher win rates on co-sell opportunities.

Can I co-sell on multiple cloud providers simultaneously?

Yes. Many ISVs co-sell across AWS, Azure, and GCP simultaneously. Each cloud provider has its own co-sell program and portal. A platform like Automatum lets you manage co-sell pipelines across all three providers from a single dashboard, avoiding the need to log into multiple partner portals.

Complete Guide to Co-Selling with Cloud Providers (2026)