Enterprises buying software through AWS Marketplace achieve a 377% return on investment and reduce procurement cycles by 60%, according to a May 2025 Total Economic Impact™ study by Forrester Consulting. These results may seem remarkable if AWS Marketplace still feels more like a digital shelf. In reality, AWS designed Marketplace to reward partners who approach it with discipline and visibility.
Think about the first time your marketing team approached SEO. Ranking required new skills, consistent feedback loops, and regular content optimization—not just a one-time keyword list. AWS Marketplace success follows the same pattern. It requires discipline from people who understand co-selling, maintain data processes in AWS Customer Engagement (ACE), and use tools that keep listings and competencies updated. Like learning demand-generation techniques on LinkedIn or initiating your first product-led growth campaign, results accelerate once your team masters the process through repetition.
How do you build this discipline?
Start by explicitly naming Marketplace as a strategic initiative in your annual operating plan, assigning clear ownership with revenue responsibility, regularly conducting win/loss reviews, and training your sellers on incorporating private offers into their quotas. Implement simple KPIs—deal-registration accuracy, seller training sessions completed, private-offer turnaround time—to track and celebrate progress. Over several quarters, these habits become routine, and the benefits grow exponentially.
1. Executive Commitment Creates Early Momentum
Budget for joint demand-generation campaigns, participate in quarterly business reviews, and enroll real opportunities in AWS Customer Engagement (ACE). These actions signal to AWS that your leadership sees Marketplace as a core part of your go-to-market strategy, generating stronger support when it matters most.
2. Consistent Operations Build Field-Seller Confidence
Marketplace performance compounds through daily routines:
- Opportunity tracking – Register every viable opportunity in ACE and update regularly.
- Competency maintenance – Regularly refresh technical validations; AWS highlights these when sellers look for partners.
- Seller enablement – Provide updated battlecards and customer success stories aligned to AWS solution areas.
Consistency positions your offering as the easiest option when AWS account teams advise customers.
3. Data Validates Prioritization
AWS field leaders allocate resources based on measurable outcomes, including private-offer velocity, Enterprise Discount Program (EDP)/Private Pricing Agreement (PPA) utilization, and usage patterns of AWS services like EC2, S3, or Bedrock. When these metrics consistently trend upward, your Marketplace listing moves from catalog entry to strategic inclusion in account plans.
A 2024 Canalys study confirms the value: partners frequently co-selling with AWS report 65% higher close rates and 54% larger deals, with 80% identifying Marketplace as central to these outcomes.
Practical Steps to Institutionalize the Discipline
- Measure your starting point – Document current sales cycles to identify where Marketplace can reduce timelines or tap into existing cloud budgets.
- Establish clear accountability – Appoint a single leader responsible for Marketplace pipeline, competencies, and seller readiness.
- Implement metrics early – Track private-offer volume, EDP/PPA influence, and resulting AWS service usage, reviewing regularly with your AWS Partner Development Manager.
- Continuously update and train – Revise materials whenever AWS announces new incentives (for example, the expanded SaaS co-sell benefit introduced for 2025).
Marketplace success is more than a one-time launch; it’s a disciplined, repeatable approach driven by strong leadership, consistent practices, and measurable results. Organizations that adopt this discipline transform procurement from an administrative task into a reliable source of growth. Those who simply “list and leave” remain unnoticed among thousands of other solutions in the catalog.
