Partnerships with hyperscaler cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have become increasingly vital for organizations seeking to innovate, scale, and remain competitive. Central to these partnerships is the concept of Private Offers, a critical aspect that enables organizations to tailor their cloud solutions and services for offerings listed on cloud marketplaces to the unique needs of their customers.
As per a survey by McKinsey & Company, 73% of B2B buyers express a preference for the convenience of purchasing through e-commerce, web-based direct sales, or marketplace platforms. 27% of buyers would spend even more than $500,000.
Their more recent B2B Pulse survey suggests that B2B companies winning the most market share are simultaneously employing five major modern sales and marketing tactics: deploying advanced sales technology, increasing hybrid sales teams and capabilities, delivering hyperpersonalization, tailoring strategies on third-party marketplaces, and achieving e-commerce excellence across the full marketing and sales funnel.
Marketplace Private Offers empower partners to extend special pricing, terms, and benefits directly to customers through the cloud marketplace, fostering deeper engagement, driving revenue growth, and solidifying relationships. This includes changes to service dates, product dimensions, the payment schedule, the renewal status, and the offer expiration dates and more.
By leveraging Private Offers, organizations can unlock new opportunities, accelerate deal closures, and differentiate themselves in the highly competitive cloud market. As such, understanding and effectively managing Private Offers are essential components of a successful partnership strategy with cloud hyperscalers.
From deal desk teams to finance departments, and from sales teams to cloud alliances, various stakeholders within an organization play a critical role in the private offer management process. However, manual processes and disparate systems can hinder efficiency and impede collaboration across teams.
WorkSpan, a leading solution for cloud marketplace management offers a suite of features designed to automate and streamline the private offer management process. By integrating with platforms like Salesforce and AWS, Azure and Google Marketplace Management portals, WorkSpan empowers organizations to create, track, and manage private offers with ease, enabling teams to focus on driving revenue and fostering strategic partnerships.
Let's explore how WorkSpan simplifies private offer management for different teams within an organization:
Sales Teams: Accelerating Deal Cycles
With WorkSpan's "Create Draft" feature, sales teams can initiate the offer creation process by drafting proposals directly within their CRM. This allows other collaborators on the deal to refine and customize their offerings before publishing, ensuring accuracy and alignment with customer needs.
Furthermore, WorkSpan provides timely notifications, via email, for critical events such as private offer creation and expiration. This keeps sales teams informed and enables them to take proactive actions to accelerate deal closures, especially during crucial periods like quarter-end. They can also send or schedule reminders for customers to take required action on the marketplace offer.
Some of the key benefits for sales teams:
- Salesforce CRM integration to enable their current sales processes overlaps the private offer management.
- Access to real-time offer status and details to support effective customer engagement.
- Ability to streamline offer acceptance and expedite deal close (e.g., quarter-end).
- Real-time reporting to enable data-driven decisions - improve sales play execution.
Deal Desk Teams: Streamlining Deal Approval Processes
WorkSpan seamlessly integrates with Salesforce CRM, enabling sales teams to execute their processes seamlessly on cloud marketplaces. From opportunity management to order fulfillment, sales teams can overlay their Salesforce processes onto the marketplace, ensuring compliance and efficiency.
Additionally, WorkSpan enables deal desk teams to perform bulk actions on offers, allowing them to manage a large portfolio of offers efficiently. Whether it's updating pricing or modifying terms, deal desk teams can execute operations on multiple offers simultaneously, saving time and resources.
Some of the key benefits for deal desk teams:
- End-to-end deal tracking in CRM from opportunity to private offer transactions.
- Self-service offer creation by sellers with final offer publishing by Deal Desk.
- Expedited buyer acceptance through self-service access to offer status/info by sellers.
- Ability to streamline and scale private offer creation and management processes.
Finance Teams: Enhancing Revenue Visibility
For finance teams, WorkSpan provides comprehensive reporting and metrics, offering insights into marketplace operations and revenue performance. With real-time visibility into revenue pipeline and deal metrics, finance teams can make informed decisions and ensure compliance with financial requirements.
Moreover, WorkSpan's "Track Status" feature enables finance teams to monitor the status of offers throughout their lifecycle, from draft to expiration. This ensures timely actions and facilitates accurate revenue forecasting, essential for financial planning and strategy.
Some of the key benefits for finance teams:
- End-to-end deal tracking in CRM from opportunity to private offer transactions.
- Consistent offer management process to ensure compliance with company policies.
- Enhanced visibility and live reporting of sales pipeline with marketplace deals.
- Streamlined and faster cash disbursement through expedited offer acceptance.
Alliances Team: Facilitating Partnership Success
For alliances teams, WorkSpan facilitates co-selling initiatives through seamless integration with the cloud hyperscaler’s referral system. This fosters collaboration and coordination between sales opportunities and private offers, enabling alliances teams to maximize revenue generation through strategic partnerships.
Moreover, WorkSpan empowers sellers by providing a convenient view of private offer details alongside their opportunities. This enhances their ability to manage and align their sales efforts with overall business objectives, driving successful co-selling initiatives.
Some of the key benefits for alliance teams:
- Increase volume of offers with self-service seller access and streamlined sales processes.
- Facilitate effective collaboration on private offers with up-to-date access to offer status and info.
- End-to-end tracking and linkage of Partner Center co-sell opportunities and associated private offers.
- Real-time reporting to support efficient and data-driven cadence calls/MBRs with Microsoft.
Cloud hyperscaler partnerships require a strategic approach and the right tools to ensure success. WorkSpan is that comprehensive solution for managing the entire journey from a partner referral to a private offer to the customer, empowering organizations to streamline operations, drive collaboration across teams, and maximize revenue potential.
By leveraging WorkSpan's advanced capabilities in private offer management, organizations can unlock new opportunities, accelerate deal closures, and elevate their partnerships with cloud hyperscalers to new heights. If you're ready to embark on this journey and experience the full power of WorkSpan firsthand, we invite you to schedule a demo today.
Discover how WorkSpan can revolutionize your approach to cloud partnership management and propel your organization towards greater success.
Happy Partnering!
Nitin Mathur is a marketing maverick with an extensive experience in the tech, telecom, and consumer electronics industry. As Director of Product Marketing at WorkSpan, Nitin is on a mission to revolutionize the way businesses manage their multi-partner ecosystems with WorkSpan's cutting-edge product capabilities. Prior to his stint at WorkSpan, Nitin worked at various marketing positions at some of the biggest names in the industry, including IBM, Motorola, and Philips. He is also a tech enthusiast passionate about harnessing technology's power to solve real-world problems.
