When it comes To keep your tech startup and/or services business healthy, especially during times of uncertainty, there is no lifeline more powerful than qualified leads. To fill that pipeline, buyers need to feel confident that your solution, app or product is the best, most trusted option, and this is where things tend to fall apart. How can a startup build the level of trust needed to engage a new audience when it’s just getting started?
This is where Meylah’s “Better Together” GTM co-selling strategy comes into play.
With a staggering 17% of the $13 trillion B2B (business-to-business) spend dedicated to it, “co-selling” will dominate cloud markets in 2023. With this seismic shift, the doors have been thrown wide open for uncover new customer segments and untapped revenue streams, laying the groundwork for an enticing business opportunity. Before I get into the details of the GTM “Better Together” co-selling strategy, I want to lay the groundwork for what “co-selling” means.
Co-selling is a collaborative GTM collaboration between SaaS (software as a service) companies and large hyperscale cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and others. This collaboration involves a joint effort to manufacture, market and sell joint technology solutions and services to customers. At its core, co-selling joins forces with cloud hyperscalers to jointly develop solutions, engage customers, and leverage the partner’s sales and/or customer team to drive value for existing customers.
As of July 2023, co-selling with cloud purchases has become the new gold standard, as they are intricately interconnected and essential to creating prosperous partnerships with cloud services that ultimately enrich your business, your buyers, and your partners.
In the cloud co-selling model, the transformation happens at three levels simultaneously. Tier one development is product-based, meaning the product is built on a hyperscale’s cloud infrastructure. At the second level, the common solution is monthly usage-based recurring revenue (MRR), which is similar to billed revenue or cloud consumption revenue. Finally, at the third level, growth occurs when solution-based offering becomes available in cloud marketplaces to help customers transact and integrate into a trust-based shopping engine to meet cloud demand and constraints their budget.
The foundation of the GTM co-selling strategy is based on understanding the problem and debunking the most common myths of the partner experience.
The foundation of the GTM co-selling strategy is based on understanding the problem and debunking the most common myths of the partner experience. The problems most partners currently face are poor alignment, achieving annual recurring revenue (ARR) goals, increasing GTM effectiveness, opening new routes to market, improving sales productivity, and lack of understanding complex investment planning and return on investment (ROI). results in poor metrics and ineffective monitoring.
Meylah was instrumental in supporting the launch of Microsoft’s #buildfor2030 initiative, evolving what startups need to become “co-sell ready” with cloud markets.
When creating your GTM co-selling strategy, follow these five guiding principles:
- Alignment is key: Successful partnerships require alignment not only in goals, but also in mindset and philosophies. When both parties share a common vision and approach to business, the partnership is more likely to flourish.
- Expected 5x ROI: To justify investments and partnerships, it is vital to set high ROI expectations. A minimum 5x ROI ensures that resources are efficiently allocated and that the partnership yields tangible benefits.
- Optimize your GTM plan: Funding should come from multiple sources, which means a streamlined and focused GTM plan ensures that efforts are focused on key goals. In addition, funding from multiple sources diversifies support and minimizes reliance on a single entity.
- Possibility of transaction through shopping: In an increasingly digital world, the ability to transact through online shopping is essential. Making your shared customer offering accessible in this way enhances convenience and scalability.
- Invest strategically: This may be the catalyst to get the attention of overscalers. These investments not only demonstrate commitment, but also show your company’s potential for growth and innovation.
Once you’ve identified your co-selling partner, there are four key documents every prospective partner should have when dealing with hyperscale: the Co-Selling GTM Assessment, the #BetterTogether Company Insights Assessment, the Co-Selling Solution Offer Insights Analysis, and the Model of GTM play and investment. The following sections cover what each document is and why it is necessary.
