Microsoft Inspire 2020: This is the Year of Co-sell!

To paraphrase Alan Watts, the only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it and embrace the dance. This year, we took the bold leap to make Microsoft Inspire a digital-only event, and I’m happy to say it was just as powerful and transformative as ever! Although change is never easy, it was incredible to see people from all around the world come together in new ways to connect, learn, grow, and innovate under a virtual roof.

It was especially exciting to share our vision with a global audience, particularly around co-sell. The results of our partnerships speak for themselves, and together we continue to drive success through:

• A powerful ecosystem – We are connecting partners with customers and each other to grow business and drive digital transformation success.
• Innovative products and services – Together, we are delivering new products and services to help meet customer demands in a rapidly shifting market.
• A shared commitment to growth and profitability – We are investing in co-sell enablement programs, training, and resources to help you generate demand and scale your solutions.

Our co-sell motion is a significant part of our commitment to growth and profitability. Of course, we’ve been driving momentum around co-sell for years, but 2020 is already breaking barriers. In fact, I’ve been quietly saying, “This is the year of co-sell” to anyone who will listen, and now is the time to shout it!

Why embark on the co-sell journey? As a partner, you gain instant access to exclusive resources, programs, tools, and connections that will help you get discovered, deliver expertise, and expand your customer footprint. There has never been a better time to partner with Microsoft and capitalize on the co-sell opportunities ahead.

Co-sell is for everyone

The challenges of this year have completely transformed the way partners go to market. The new normal of “remote everything” has not only impacted Inspire, it’s continuing to drive relationships between you and sellers, boost demand for digital solutions, and unlock new sales opportunities and revenue streams. Today’s technology consumers need to rapidly evolve with cloud-based infrastructure, business applications, and collaborative solutions like Microsoft Teams. What’s more, there is an emerging market for co-selling in SMB. We have over half a million SMB customers with a need for remote work solutions and cloud migration tools like Azure, and they will be looking to innovative partners like you to empower their digital transformation.

To help business leaders adjust to the rising demand, we are expanding co-sell to include any collaborative engagement between Microsoft and those in our partner ecosystem. This includes building demand, sales planning, sharing sales leads, accelerating partner-to-partner selling, and delivering marketplace-led commerce for customer transformation.

Now every single partner can co-sell with Microsoft, with any customer, worldwide.  

Co-sell starts with the marketplace

One of the biggest drivers of co-sell success is the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace. In fact, the marketplace sees over 4 million monthly active users! To empower your efforts, we are making it easier than ever to co-sell by consolidating multiple platforms and portals into Partner Center.

Partner Center is now the first stop for co-sell, and it’s where you will find all sales activity, communication, incentives, and tools to unlock new opportunities. In Partner Center, you will be able to:

• Showcase solutions to Microsoft customers
• Share opportunities bi-directionally with Microsoft and partner sellers
• Jointly sell solutions with Microsoft or other partners to create valuable customer relationships
• Access go-to market services and Marketplace Rewards to accelerate your time to market, generate demand, and expand your business
• Sell to SMB customers at scale through partner-ready customer trials and special offers
• Expand your business with continuous selling
• Develop enduring business through value-added services
• Reduce costs while accelerating your customers’ success
• Much more…

We are also evolving our competencies and advanced specializations so you can highlight your technical and solution area expertise, showcase the breadth and depth of your skills, and lead the market with innovative solutions. This will enable you to go to market with confidence, with the full power of the Microsoft partner ecosystem behind you.

Keep in mind that if you are an existing partner, you will need to migrate to Partner Center to get started with co-sell, while new partners will start there automatically.

Co-sell with your own partners

Partner-to-partner engagement is an essential part of co-sell, and we are continuing to make investments in our global partners by helping you build and sustain successful partnerships to accelerate your business. For example, we see significant opportunity for global partners in developing security best practices, enabling remote work, and supporting cloud migration for channel partners, especially for ISVs. All of our co-sell resources and training are designed to improve your partner-to-partner sales success. Start your partner-to-partner journey here.  

What’s next?

With another Inspire behind us and more changes ahead, I’m excited to see how you will “embrace the dance” and evolve your business over the coming months. I encourage you to catch up on any Inspire keynotes and sessions you missed, including on-demand sessions:

• Yes, You Can Co-sell in SMB
• Everything You Need to Know About Co-sell
• Ask the Experts: Everything You Need to Know About Co-sell
• Co-selling in Partner Center

Finally, don’t forget to check out Partner Center to get started, and remember, co-sell is for everyone!

Until next time,

Alyssa Fitzpatrick