How AWS and BCG’s AI-Powered Sales Motion Is Driving Partner Revenue Growth

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and AWS Partner Boston Consulting Group (BCG) combined proprietary algorithms that run on AWS, sales nudges that are powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), and holistic change management to help AWS Partners identify leads and tailor outreach. In one implementation, BCG, a global management consulting firm, enlisted BCG X, its tech build-and-design unit, to use AI and machine learning (ML) to power a prediction engine for sellers. The company worked with the AWS team to create a scalable solution that unlocked a 20–30 percent sales pipeline uplift, supported at-scale seller empowerment, and drove conversions of AWS services and independent software vendors (ISVs) on AWS Marketplace, a curated digital storefront that helps companies discover, test, buy, and deploy solutions from AWS Partners.

AWS Partners face challenges in identifying high-propensity leads and tailoring their outreach with the right message at the right time. The project goal was to offer AWS Partners a better approach to targeting that uses AI, hypercare support, and scalable governance to dramatically accelerate the sales pipeline for these teams selling AWS services and ISVs on AWS Marketplace.

BCG, a strategic alliance partner of AWS, specializes in digital transformation, innovation consulting, and AI. Its tech build-and-design unit, BCG X, has a patented full-stack solution called Deep Customer Engagement AI by BCG X that uses generative AI and ML for effective, scalable go-to-market solutions that generate sales leads with a propensity to convert to sales that’s up to nine times higher than average. In addition to the models, BCG and AWS provide sales change management and collateral to support AWS Channel Partners and ISV sellers as part of the program.

“Sellers, especially those selling to small- and medium-sized businesses, need to crack two codes: which customers to prioritize and what solutions to pitch to them to have effective sales conversations,” says Vaibhav Malhotra, former managing director and partner at BCG. “How does AWS and BCG get them to stop guessing and start making data-driven decisions? That is the challenge we are trying to address. By using data science, ML, and AI, they're equipping sellers with predictive insights to prioritize their efforts. Adding a generative AI layer provides transparent and customized lead rationale at scale, transforming AI from a ‘black box’ into a powerful tool that enhances every sales conversation.”

AWS and BCG worked to jointly deploy a systematic tech-driven sales motion at the AWS Partner to drive incremental revenue. The solution rests on three pillars. First, powerful AI/ML models determine which customers are likely to need specific AWS solutions or ISVs sold on AWS Marketplace. BCG uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), which provides secure and resizable compute capacity for virtually any workload, for ML model training and inference. In addition, it can seamlessly adjust compute and resource sizing based on varying demand. For example, it can allocate more memory and compute during the collaborative development phase and scale down resources during routine batch runs.

Second, the solution provides rigorous change management from BCG and AWS, including tailored collateral for sellers, who receive AI-powered leads to support effective conversations with customers. Third, the AWS Partner receives supervised go-to-market governance with recurring feedback loops from sales teams to drive continuous improvement to the algorithm and sustainable change. To store all the relevant data and back it up regularly, BCG uses Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), an object storage service built to retrieve any amount of data from anywhere.

From February to April 2024, AWS and BCG ran a pilot in North America for a leading global software and solutions provider. For this company, BCG deployed its custom technology stack on AWS, and it helped to drive change management. Powerful AI/ML models running on Amazon EC2 stitched together the company’s first-party transaction data with numerous third-party data sources. The proprietary algorithms trained on more than 3,000 features to determine which customers were likely to purchase three AWS services and six ISV products sold on AWS Marketplace. “AWS and BCG took the results of how the model was performing, where their sellers were seeing traction and where they were not, and fed them back into the model,” says Malhotra. “That way, it got better at predicting the right leads over time based on feedback from the field.” In addition to predictive AI models, BCG X deployed generative AI models that reacted to external events, such as a cybersecurity breach, and sent leads to sellers at the optimal time.

In addition to high-propensity sales leads, the pilot group regularly received methodical live trainings from AWS sellers and sales collateral, such as lead rationale and talking points for the solutions that they were selling. From the start of the pilot, BCG also helped establish operational governance for the program that incorporated a regular feedback loop from sellers and the sharing of best practices. For example, sellers followed a regular cadence to act on new leads, followed standardized sequences for outreach to customers, and received additional support when needed, such as for account planning.

This program also helped the pilot firm identify its ideal customer profile for specific AWS services or ISV solutions. To do so, the AI/ML models identified parameters that indicate a high-propensity customer, such as preexisting AWS infrastructure or the industry in which the customer operates.

The deployment for the global software and solutions provider focused on upselling and cross-selling as use cases, identifying for the Partner existing customers who may want or need AWS services. In addition to upselling and cross-selling, the program can be deployed for greenfield customer acquisition.

For 3 months after the sales teams started receiving AI-driven leads, BCG measured the impact of its solution. “Our target was to drive a 20–30 percent uplift in the region’s sales pipeline,” says Tarandeep Singh, managing director and partner at BCG. “Toward the end of the program, 65 percent of the regional sales pipeline created year to date had come from the engine.”

In addition to significant acceleration in the sales pipeline, the solution successfully prioritized customer lists for the sellers and better equipped them with the tools they needed to interact effectively with potential customers. “By using AI/ML models to generate leads, the sales team could focus on other tasks of greater value for the company. The sales force is much more productive in where they’re spending their time,” says Japjit Ghai, managing director and partner at BCG.

The solution also benefits AWS Channel Partners and ISVs by helping them prioritize from a large pool of potential midmarket and small-and-midsize business customers.

“Running predictive and generative AI models on an AWS infrastructure, BCG built a state-of-the-art sales acceleration engine,” says Malhotra. “For AWS channel partners, deploying a solution like this can support improvements in their qualified pipeline, sales velocity, and conversions. It also aids in quickly scaling AWS practices with small and mid-sized businesses on AWS Marketplace.

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