How To Co-Sell Via #APN #AWS — Know Better Sell Better
I know, it is enticing! Sell better with AWS — Yupe, you got it right AWS helps you sell better and gives you all tech or functional support you need! — no additional cost for APN partners!
I have been closely working with APN and it was surely super helpful to get help from AWS — they have a great eco-system and process when it comes to getting the prospects on their Platform :) you know what I mean.
Putting here of what I’ve learned from the experiences I had, so far. Probably, I will keep updating this blog as I upgrade myself!
PS : To understand the context of this blog, you should be an APN Partner and you should have Techno-sales understanding! — that’s it :D
Co-selling here means, APN partnered organization and AWS sell together. Where the APN partner takes help of AWS sellers to convert a prospect into their customer.
So looking at below index you will have an overall idea, how this is structured.
- Co-selling around Opportunities
* (1.1) Partner Sourced Opportunity*
*(1.2) AWS Sourced Opportunity* - Register Solutions at AWS Marketplace
- Participate in AWS re-invent
- Organize AWS immersion days
- Make use of APN Ambassador Program
1) Co-selling around Opportunities
In co-selling with AWS, you focus on two sales motions: partner sourced opportunities and AWS sourced opportunities.
· A partner sourced opportunity is when you and your company register an opportunity to collaborate with AWS.
· An AWS sourced opportunity is when AWS provides the opportunity to your company. AWS looks to connect with the right partner for the customer need.
a) Partner Sourced Opportunity
A. Best practices
Before you dive deeper into the two sales motions, review some effective best practices for working with the AWS co-selling team.
I. Be Customer Obsessed
AWS account teams are customer obsessed. As a part of this, they provide options to their customers (APN opportunity) and leave the selection decisions to them. The Partner team at Organization must work backwards from the customer and demonstrate how our solution addresses a customer use case.
II. Build A Brand
Make it easy for others on the AWS account team to understand where APN Partner company adds the value. Where your products/services complement or overlaps AWS offerings. Very important, you see.
III. Own the Opportunity.
When working with the AWS account team, the APN Partner Must always respond to opportunities that are validated, so they can connect with the AWS account team and the customer.
Provide to AWS the additional opportunity information by clearly stating the customer’s problem, your partner solution and value proposition, current deal status, customer contacts, and what you are asking AWS to do (technical guidance, deal support, or pricing assistance).
IV. Identify Your Network
APN Partner team create opportunities to further drive the flywheel by sharing your partners and solutions with AWS, which might include joint partners or consultants.
V. Prepare for Questions
Build trust quickly by sharing information and coming to the table with specific asks of the AWS account team. Be ready for questions that you might get from AWS account team members when working through the first joint opportunity call. For example:
· Who at the customer have you been working with?
· What was our last conversation with customer?
· Is it a funded project?
· What is the Budget and timelines?
· How can AWS help drive this deal for you?
VI. Share Success
Showcase where the Organization has been successful with customers. Share customer references or case studies to highlight how your solutions address customer needs. Also getting CSAT from the customer is also a goodwill at AWS. Tempts them to help you more…. !
B. AWS Co-selling Team — How it Looks
C. How ACE Pipeline Manager can work with us — to co-sell better
> In some cases — AWS assigns a dedicate full-time resources to manage the partnership — called PSAM — Partner Success Account Manger . The organization can have an AWS global alliance lead to coordinate the partnership with the PDM — which all APN partner is assigned.
> Must develop a joint go-to-market business case and marketing materials with AWS — they also assigned an AWS Marketing manager to help you/APN Partner the marketing part.
> AWS trains the Organization Retail sales account executives on AWS, including the overall value proposition of the cloud for an APN Technology Partner.
> Map existing territories and accounts and build relationships between AWS and the Organization at the field level.
>Use the ACE Pipeline Manager to share and track opportunities between AWS and Organization.
b) AWS Sourced Opportunity
Remember that receiving an opportunity from AWS is called an AWS sourced opportunity. What actions do you take if your company receives an opportunity from AWS?
- This is for Technology Partner.
2) Register at AWS Marketplace
<No Gyan on this part, it is a huge topic in itself. Leave a comment if you want me to elaborate on this>
3) Participate in AWS re-invent.
<As above>
4) Organize AWS immersion days
APN Immersion Days offer APN Advanced and Premier Consulting Partners access to workshop content and tools developed by our AWS Solutions Architects and packages it for APN Partners to use exclusively with their customers.
> Full suite of event management resources:
> Presentations
> Hands-on labs
> Assets that are custom built and address key customer questions.
This is networking exercise and will add direct leads.
5) Make use of APN Ambassador Program
The APN Ambassador Program is a community of technical experts in the AWS Partner Network (APN) Consulting Partner community.
> Share their AWS technical expertise through public presentations, open-source projects, and social media.
> Possess multiple AWS certifications as well as in-depth AWS knowledge.
> Work closely with AWS Solution Architects to migrate, design, implement, and monitor AWS workloads.
This is branding exercise and will add credentials to the APN partner and AWS partnership.
I guess by doing or giving efforts on this direction will surely help you sell better using the APN. If you have more to it then please leave a comment, would love to discuss.
Cheers!!
