March 27, 2020
I spend a lot of my time talking to leaders at software companies about why and how they should initiate Cloud Marketplaces as a channel for revenue. Today I’m sharing some of the top reasons why we see software companies embracing these channels.
- Access pre-committed dollars allocated with Cloud Providers. Many of the buyers that software companies sell to have pre-committed spend with the Cloud Provider. The Cloud Marketplaces offer you an avenue as a B2B seller to tap into that pre-committed spend, either to fund the first purchase or potentially grow a renewal or expansion purchase. In times like these, when companies are reevaluating their budgets, these pre-committed dollars being available to you can serve as a new pathway to funding and are a powerful resource.
- Simplify procurement to accelerate deal velocity. Everyone is looking to decrease the time spent on finalizing contracts. If you can embrace the Marketplace as a distribution vehicle and become an extension of the contract that the Cloud Provider already has with a buyer, it can accelerate a transaction’s velocity. At Tackle, we’ve seen a far faster deal velocity on all of the deals we’ve done through the Cloud Marketplaces than any deal we’ve done direct with one of our buyers.
- Unlock co-sell opportunities with the Cloud Providers. The Cloud Providers are incenting their sellers to sell through Marketplace. If you can find a way through Marketplace to deliver value for a Cloud Provider’s buyer and your solution is complementary to driving cloud service consumption, there’s a tremendous opportunity to inspire those co-sell motions via Marketplace. This can create a significant revenue expansion if you have a solid story for both the Cloud Provider teams and your customer.
- Get paid without worry: It can be challenging to collect on net new contracts. When you do a transaction through the Marketplace, you receive a disbursement from the Cloud Provider. Everyone pays their cloud bill, so effectively, when your buyer pays their cloud bill, you get paid. It’s compelling for all companies, but especially for small companies, to have security in collecting their receivables versus not knowing if they’ll ever get paid.
If you’re thinking about Marketplace as a strategy and want to dive deeper into how you can initiate this channel for your B2B software company, reach out to us at hello@tackle.io or join our weekly Cloud Marketplace Office Hours where we’ll be answering all your questions on Marketplace.