Tackle's Take: How to make the most of Microsoft's new investments in the commercial marketplace and unlock Azure IP co-sell benefits

Microsoft announced new strategic investments in Microsoft commercial marketplace last week and they’ll be sharing more about these initiatives at Inspire. Relative to Cloud GTM, there are 3 announcements that we believe are the most important to ISVs and the partner ecosystem supporting them. We break these announcements down and share the work Tackle is doing to bring them to life for ISVs and the entire ecosystem.

The merging of co-sell + commercial marketplace

Starting in July, ISVs must have a transactable listing published in the commercial marketplace to unlock co-sell benefits for eligible Azure solutions and allow customers to leverage their existing cloud commitments. With this announcement, Microsoft is doubling down on co-sell and marketplace and reinforcing that the Cloud GTM movement is broader than just marketplace, requiring an all-in-one platform, like Tackle, to scale this motion and help ISVs become top-tier Microsoft partners. 

Through co-sell, an ISV can steadily build sales momentum, increase sales productivity, generate larger deal sizes, and leverage programs to fund go-to-market activities, all while building a stronger relationship with Microsoft. With Tackle’s help, Datometry experienced 25x ROI by leveraging co-sell motions with its Microsoft partners and actively contributing to Microsoft commercial marketplace’s co-sell ecosystem. 

MPO to open up the commercial marketplace

Microsoft also announced the highly-anticipated release of multiparty private offers (MPO) to accelerate the service partner-led motion with marketplace. Selling partners will not be charged a listing fee when participating in an MPO transaction with an ISV. Tackle offers full support for MPOs to help ISVs efficiently scale their reach to new customers through the partner ecosystem while simplifying the sales process. 

“Commvault has seen tremendous growth with transactable listings and co-sell through Microsoft commercial marketplace, and we’re thrilled to be able to leverage MPO and provide channel partners shared success,” said Thad Keating, VP of Cloud Security and GTM, Commvault. “The Tackle and Microsoft partnership creates a complementary motion that provides us with the technology, services, and support we need to scale and drive revenue.” 

Transact & Grow incentives continue

And to end with some great news, the Microsoft Transact & Grow Incentive Campaign will be continuing. The new criteria for the campaign is expected to be announced in early August, but previously through this program, ISV partners had the ability to earn up to $30k per transactable marketplace offer.

Ready to bring this to life for your organization? Here’s how Tackle can help:

• Cloud GTM Platform Special Offer: With Microsoft’s support, Tackle is launching a special offer for our Cloud GTM Platform for ISV partners that need to create a new commercial marketplace transactable offer, or to convert an existing “contact me” listing. Tackle’s Platform is a complete end-to-end solution that provides ISVs all the capabilities they need to effectively go-to-market with Microsoft, including cloud buyer intent data to identify the best-fit deals for marketplace, cloud co-sell automation, and simplified workflows for private offers and MPOs. Contact your sales rep or schedule a demo to learn more.
• Post-Inspire: Tackle is partnering with Ultimate Partner to bring you Winning with Ecosystems, a virtual event on Thursday, July 20th at 11am ET as a companion event to Microsoft Inspire. The event will bring together the Microsoft Partner community to hear from Microsoft leaders, top practitioners, and award-winning partners who will help you build the most effective Cloud GTM and ecosystem strategy possible. Register here.
• ISV Coaching: Tackle offers a variety of coaching workshops to help accelerate your co-sell and commercial marketplace success. Learn more here.
• Expert Guidance: We will be making our expert guidance on navigating these program changes to maximize your Microsoft partnership readily available on our website and social media. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.