When it comes to maintaining the health of your technology startup and/or services business, especially in times of uncertainty, there is no lifeline more powerful than qualified leads. To fill that pipeline, buyers need to feel certain that your solution, application, or product is the best, most trustworthy choice, and this is where things tend to fall apart. How can a startup establish the level of trust needed for a new audience to commit when they’re just starting?
Key Takeaway
Meylah’s “Better Together” co-sell GTM strategy provides a powerful approach for startups to establish trust and drive joint technology solutions and services to customers through collaborative partnerships with large cloud hyperscalers.
The Rise of Co-Selling in Cloud Marketplaces
With a staggering 17% of the $13 trillion B2B (business-to-business) spending dedicated to it, “co-sell” dominated cloud marketplaces in 2023. This seismic shift has opened doors to new customer segments and untapped revenue streams, setting the stage for an enticing business opportunity. Co-selling is a collaborative GTM partnership between SaaS (software as a service) companies and large cloud hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and others, involving a joint effort to build, market, and sell joint technology solutions and services to customers.
The Core of Co-Selling Strategy
In the cloud co-sell model, the transformation happens at three levels simultaneously. The growth on the first level is product-led, the joint solution is usage-based monthly recurring revenue (MRR), and the growth happens when the solution-based offer becomes available on cloud marketplaces to help customers transact and onboard to a trust-based buying engine in order to meet their cloud demand and budget constraints.
The Basis of Co-Sell GTM Strategy
The problems that most partners are currently experiencing are poor alignment, hitting annual recurring revenue (ARR) goals, driving GTM efficiency, opening new routes to market, improving sales productivity, and lack of understanding complex investment planning and return on investment (ROI), which results in poor measurements and ineffective tracking.
Guiding Principles for Co-Sell GTM Strategy
- Alignment is key: Successful partnerships require alignment not just in goals, but also in mindset and philosophies.
- Expect 5x ROI: To justify investments and partnerships, it’s crucial to set high expectations for ROI.
- Streamline your GTM plan: Funding should come from multiple sources, which means a streamlined and focused GTM plan ensures that efforts are concentrated on key objectives.
- Transactable via marketplaces: Making your joint customer offer accessible in this manner enhances convenience and scalability.
- Invest strategically: These investments not only demonstrate commitment but also showcase your company’s potential for growth and innovation.
After identifying a co-sell partner, there are four essential documents that every prospective partner must have in place when engaging with hyperscalers: the co-sell GTM assessment, the #BetterTogether company information evaluation, the co-sell solution-offer information breakdown, and the GTM plays and investment model.
