AWS Marketplace

A Seller’s Guide: Structuring Your Organization for AWS Marketplace Success

AWS Marketplace helps customers find, buy, deploy, and manage software, data, and professional services solutions from thousands of AWS Partners. When AWS Marketplace launched in 2012, it was a place for builders to find Amazon Machine Image (AMI) based solutions quickly without engaging with sales teams. Since 2012, AWS Marketplace has grown beyond AMIs to include containers, machine learning (ML) solutions, professional services, and software as a service (SaaS) products.

According to a Canalys study, enterprise software sales through cloud provider marketplaces are projected to reach $85 billion by 2028. Organizations looking to capitalize on this shift in customer buying preferences need to adapt their operations to take advantage of cloud marketplace capabilities. Companies who are successful in AWS Marketplace coordinate multiple departments and stakeholders while integrating AWS Marketplace into existing business processes. Additionally, successful organizations overcome knowledge gaps across teams by training their teams on the technical requirements and how transaction processing flows in AWS Marketplace while making sure their AWS marketplace presence aligns with overall business strategy. They address these challenges systematically for successful participation and growth in AWS Marketplace, particularly as buyer profiles diversify from technical builders to line-of-business leaders and executives.

Planning for success

As AWS Marketplace has evolved, so too has the approach to building successful co-selling relationships. Today, AWS Marketplace is positioned as the preferred transaction vehicle for business-to-business (B2B) software for our AWS sellers. In the past, you could register as a seller and list your solution in AWS Marketplace with a few teams like alliances, product, and sales. The question becomes: How much faster could your AWS Marketplace business scale if you engaged all crucial teams from day one and secured the executive visibility needed to drive rapid adoption? Success in today’s AWS Marketplace requires a comprehensive, well-coordinated strategy that extends beyond traditional departmental boundaries.

The following graphic illustrates key teams that should be engaged from the outset of your AWS relationship and AWS Marketplace journey. These include partnerships, marketing, operations, product, enablement, sales, and finance. Although not exhaustive, this list represents critical stakeholders in your AWS Marketplace success. As your presence grows, you might identify additional teams to involve. Crucially, executive buy-in is essential for building a sustainable and successful AWS Marketplace business. This top-down support acts as the binding agent so that all teams remain aligned while your AWS Marketplace footprint expands. Without this executive sponsorship, coordinating efforts across diverse departments becomes significantly more challenging.

This is a diagram of all the teams your organization needs to involve to ensure they build a successful AWS Marketplace business. The teams consist of but not limited to, partnerships or alliances, marketing, operations, product management, enablement, sales, and finance.

Figure 1: AWS Marketplace: Key organizational departments

In the next sections, we explore how each of these teams contributes to your AWS relationship and why their early and ongoing engagement is crucial for marketplace success.

Partnerships

Alliance teams serve as the cornerstone of AWS Marketplace success, leading your organization’s engagement within AWS Partner Network (APN) and spearheading co-selling initiatives with AWS field sales teams. These teams are your frontline champions, often being the first point of contact when AWS asks about your marketplace availability during co-selling engagements. Whether you’re already listed in AWS Marketplace or considering it, sales teams play a crucial role in evangelizing and promoting marketplace opportunities throughout your organization.

Beyond internal advocacy, alliance teams drive the development of robust channel partnerships with AWS consulting partners and coordinate engagement across key internal teams. Success in AWS Marketplace requires strategic focus on building strong executive relationships, maintaining technical integration support, implementing measurable partner success metrics, and developing comprehensive partner enablement programs. These elements collectively promote sustainable growth in AWS Marketplace.

Marketing

Marketing plays a crucial role in aligning your AWS Marketplace presence with your overall strategy. Their responsibilities include managing product listing pages to reflect your brand messaging and integrating AWS Marketplace into your go-to-market (GTM) strategy. They must also raise awareness among AWS customers about your AWS Marketplace availability and treat AWS Marketplace as a new sales channel in marketing campaigns. Even for high-touch sales solutions, including AWS Marketplace in your GTM strategy is vital. It helps customers recognize AWS Marketplace as a procurement option for your products. Marketing should also be involved in lead generation through AWS Marketplace. If you offer free trials, demos, or custom pricing, make sure these tactics are implemented in your AWS Marketplace listings, with marketing overseeing the lead flow and follow-up process. By fully engaging your marketing team, you can maximize the potential of AWS Marketplace as a powerful sales and visibility tool.

Operations

Operations is an ambiguous term, but you need to think about your daily operations for anything related to your products and the sales of those products. The most common teams here are sales operations and finance operations. Your sales and finance operations teams need to be aware of AWS Marketplace and how to create transactions and understand how cash flows from AWS to your organization. We hold live events called Ops Squad and RevOps Squad that are great events for these teams to attend and learn about the operations aspects of using AWS Marketplace.

Product

The product teams are important for several reasons. Most importantly, they need to be aware that you’re listing your products in AWS Marketplace and what technical requirements they’ll be responsible for completing and maintaining. Gaining their buy-in is essential to creating the product listing that not only resonates with AWS customers but also matches the products your customers are buying from you today. For instance, if your company website offers a self-service, pay-as-you-go option, but your AWS Marketplace listing only provides long-term contracts, you’re potentially losing customers who prefer to test your product before committing to extended agreements. To maximize your sales potential, aim for consistency between your direct sales approach and your AWS Marketplace offerings.

Enablement

Enablement teams are not only a key stakeholder, but it’s a key pillar of being successful in AWS Marketplace. Your enablement teams need to know that you’re selling in AWS Marketplace so they can work to create content for your sales, finance, and executive leaders. Building educational content for your teams is key to educating your teams so you can reduce friction when it comes to using AWS Marketplace as a new sales channel. Make sure content is regularly refreshed and included in all your standard enablement sessions, including new hire onboarding. The earlier you educate and the more you refresh, the more confident your teams will be with using AWS Marketplace.

Sales

Sales teams, sales leadership, and your chief resource officer (CRO) or head of sales are key to your success. You can educate and train sales teams to the best of your ability, but if they don’t have goals and a top-down push from your sales leaders, sales team adoption can be tricky. A great event for revenue leaders is our CRO Symposium which can be found in our live events. When it comes to sales compensation, being comp neutral is a positive and can help reduce friction and gain adoption with your sales teams.

Finance

“We closed a deal, but when are we going to get paid?” I hear customers say this often, and when they do, it’s typically because finance teams aren’t educated or might not even be aware that you’re using AWS Marketplace when you close your first transaction through AWS Marketplace. As you start to plan your AWS Marketplace strategy, make sure you include finance teams and make sure they’re aware of how transactions flow so they understand when to expect payment for deals completed through AWS Marketplace. The RevOps Squad in our list of live events is great even for your finance teams.

Conclusion

Thriving in AWS Marketplace demands a well-coordinated effort across your organization, with executive sponsorship as the cornerstone of sustainable growth. Success requires securing early executive buy-in, aligning cross-functional teams around clear objectives, and investing in comprehensive enablement programs. By maintaining strong AWS relationships, implementing scalable operational processes, taking advantage of AWS Marketplace resources and partner programs, and regularly reviewing and optimizing your AWS Marketplace strategy, you’ll be positioned to capture emerging opportunities.

Your executive team is the glue that binds these elements together, providing alignment as your AWS Marketplace business expands. Whether you’re launching or scaling your existing presence, this executive commitment remains crucial.

Act today: Whether you’re already selling on AWS Marketplace or considering it for the future, review your teams to ensure they align with the key roles outlined in this post. Secure an executive sponsor for your AWS Marketplace initiatives, and don’t hesitate to reach out to your AWS account team for guidance. They can provide valuable insights tailored to your specific situation, whether you’re optimizing existing operations or preparing for your marketplace debut. Remember, your cloud success journey begins now. With the right strategy, leadership, and AWS support, you’ll be well-positioned to capitalize on the growing opportunities within AWS Marketplace.

Resources

The following are some great resources to bookmark and share with all your relevant teams, especially enablement because they work to create content to educate your teams about AWS Marketplace.

About the author

Juston Salcido

Juston Salcido is a senior technical business development manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), specializing in AWS Marketplace. With over a decade of experience in the technology industry, including 8 years at Amazon and 7 focused on AWS Marketplace, Juston brings a wealth of knowledge to his role. Juston’s primary focus is empowering sellers to transform their businesses through AWS Marketplace using the Characteristics of Successful Sellers (COSS) framework. He takes a consultative approach, engaging with sellers to understand their business models, AWS relationships, and current use of AWS Marketplace as a sales channel. Based in Bozeman, Montana, Juston balances his professional life with a range of personal interests. When not helping sellers navigate their AWS relationship, he can be found on the golf course, playing softball, or traveling to compete in amateur billiards tournaments.